Go big.... Go home
Trip Start
Jun 14, 2007
1
12
13
Trip End
Jun 27, 2007
Paris, France
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
I wake up to the wake up call. I get ready and go downstairs for breakfast. Finally, a breakfast I'm familiar with. Eggs bacon, and sausage!! Mmm... good! I get ready for the Eiffel Tower tour.
We gather up in the hotel lobby and prepare to leave. I chat with my TM about the 2 weeks and the night prior. We huddle up on the bus. Off to the Eiffel Tower. Our TM tells us to huddle in one location while she gets us our tickets. Once we get the tickets she's leaves in line. It was very cold that morning with overcast skies. This is a drastic change from the previous day. Our group finds it much colder than any other place we've been on this trip. A group hug is ordered because our goal of getting under the heat lamps is far from sight. Some of us get hot coco from the kiosk outside. April finds a way to stay warm by literally sharing Dave's jacket, it's like they went skydiving together with Dave on her back. Our wait is long and as we wait the souvenier shop makes money off my friends. They buy shawls, hats, and whatever else could keep them warm. Finally, we are allowed in.
The Eiffel Tower is a pretty cool structure. Can't say much else but that the wind blew on one side and that was the side I took pictures on the fastest. We were all up there freezing and snapping away. Not like it was at night and the lights showed how beautiful the city is, but we snapped away anyway. Highlight of the pictures: the big heart in the middle of the grass. Whooopeee!!! I guess it's for all those that get a marriage proposal up there. Other than that there wasn't really anything else. Oh there was the flags of the different countries and the distance each city was from the Eiffel Tower. Sorry no San Francisco, which makes no sense to me as LA is in CA but geez we're San Francisco.... hello... home of the Golden Gate bridge, Alcatraz, and Clam Chowder!! Damn them French. Haters!
My group disperses at the top. I'm not as inclined to follow everyone else. I do a little of my own vernturing off. I map out my route to the Arc D'Triiumph. I think I just want to go there cuz it sounds so cool to say. You can say it with me... Arcc Deee Treeumph! This was one long walk. So and it started to drizzle with me and no UMBRELLA... ELLA.. ELLLA. EH. EH.. EH.. Yeah, that song was definately in my head when I was walking in the rain. I also got very hungry so I stopped at this cafe/restaurant at the corner of Avenue Marceau. I looked at the menu... kinda pricey. Oh well, I was hungry. I order French Tartar, grilled not raw. It was pretty good and it came with a salad. I'm off and running. Hit the Arc .. not bad. I head down the Champs Elysees. Sweet. I stop into LaCoste and pick up my dad a shirt. By now I am tired so I hail a cab.
Excuse moi, misoure... parle vous ingles? Reply: No! I proceed to point to my hotel location. Okay, I think this guy is taking me for a ride, according to my map we should have gone down the street for starters. He takes a U-turn, mind you he has not inputted the address into his GPS. We are on the freeway. I was beat, but I can't go to sleep. No way. He could pull a HOSTEL on me. At that moment I imagined leather bondage and a red rubber ball in my mouth and no I don't do that for recreation! Anyways, we get to my hotel. I go upstairs and begin to pack, because I know I'd have no time for it later and so I could take a nap. I think my suitcase is way too heavy for the plane. I must get a bag somewhere. I walk around the corner per the guest services recommendation.
WTF.... Contiki put us in the GHETTO of Paris!!! Etchey Sketchy! I proceed to walk eyes straight, making no eye contact. My hands are clenched. At any moment I'm ready to go psycho baboon style on these French crazies! I get down about 6-7 blocks before I find a store. She sells me this backpack. It's cool, but 40 euros? Oh well. Then I spot another store on the way back, I don't know how I missed it?! Must have been because I was trying not to make eye contact. I go back and return the backpack. I get to the store and pick up this cheap roller bag thing for a whooping 5 euros. Sweet deal, I just hope it doesn't break mid-flight. I get back to the hotel and pack, nap, and wake to get ready for the night.
I paid for the Caberat event that night. Not many of us did, less than half I think. I expect to see a lot of topless women here. That was definately not the case. This was a full on production. Complete with jugglers, acrobats, and mimes. Awesome! Yes there were topless girls too. Although she had not shown her breasts yet... I do have a favorite. Green dress, beautiful eyes, and a great smile. Wow! Hottness!! Fantasies of her choosing me as a volunteer dance in my head, of course it never comes to fruitrion but that's not the point of a fantasy. The girls next to me, who are my new friends from the tour, are progressively getting drunk. They are even laughing in silence. In fact, everyone is having a little too much to drink. Laughter progresses as one of our mates is on stage. Cory, one of the two honeymooners, is being such a great sport. We love it. The show ends and we are drunk.
We walk across the street to meet the rest of the tour folks at the same bar we were at the night before. The drinking continues. It's Brit's birthday, we did celebrate it the night before as well but this time we have everyone there for the grand event. We are all over the place, or rather I was all over the place. I randomly dance it up in other groups circles, the circles with girls all around. Nice!!! I party with my group. Talking and laughing and making a fool of myself. In the states, this is done with some regularity! Anyways, just as we start getting the party started I hear this very loud... THUMP! Brit has done a body surf dive into the crowd only.... there's no one to catch her! Brit's okay, in fact she is still smiling and laughing about it! I party with the group and our TM and TD have joined us for all the fun! Man these guys are great! I can't really decribe how the rest of the night went. All I can say is that it was fun. We did crazy things that will probably be revealed on our facebook group account. I know I have some good ones that I've posted! At the end of the night I give my peeps a hug! Time to get some sleep before heading back home.
