Back in Paris

Finally back in Paris after a very exciting yet long 2 weeks of traveling. In retrospect, we could have done a little bit more planning/research before we left, but I guess that’s the “fun” of backpacking. I think that I used every mode of transportation during my journey: plane, train, bus, metro, boat, taxi, 4-wheeler…what else is there? I’ve never spent so much money in my entire life, but I think it was worth it. It’s definitely great to be back in Paris though, everything seems to have bloomed while I was away, and the city looks completely different. It’s amazing to be able to speak French again, I never thought I’d be so happy to do that.

I wish I could outline my entire trip, but that would take forever and probably bore you. Some highlights, however were: Discovering a beautiful beach among the cliffs in Italy, the group of Russians that Dane and I met and traveled with, eating the best pasta ever, realizing that we were staying in trailers for 3 nights then getting over it, discovering the Acropolis in Athens, squeezing 9 people into a tiny apartment for 2 nights, the boat rides between Athens and Mykonos, renting 4-wheelers and using them as our primary mode of transportation for the island, the beautiful beaches of Mykonos, getting free drinks from Greek men, making crepes in the hotel, Anna and my “honeymoon suite,” and eating great Greek food all week (moussaka, souvlaki, Greek salad, Greek yogurt with honey, and gyros of course, among other things).

Josh is coming to Paris tomorrow and I am obviously beside myself about it, I think I can figure out where to meet him in the airport by now. I plan on hitting the city full force, seeing all that can be seen and hoping that the weather will stay as lovely as it is now. I realized that I haven’t even seen all of Paris, so it will be nice to discover new parts of Paris with Josh, maybe going to a class or 2 in between.

Yesterday was the preliminary voting for the French presidential election. They do it in 2 turns, the first eliminates all but 2 candidates, and the final vote is in early May. The 2 candidates who are on top are Sarkozy and Royal, neither of which I particularly care for. Sarkozy is basically a communist and Royal is a priss, but either way I think all hell is going to break loose in Paris at the end of the elections, as the followers of Sarkozy are militants, aaaand Sarkozy is friends with Bush, which can never be a good thing. Anyway, Louise was so glued to the television last night that we had to eat dinner in front of it which was weird.

This morning I decided to get up early to go to the bank to cancel my French bank account that I've never used. I go all the way there to find out that you need an appointment to do so. Really all I want to do is hand them the letter I've written requesting cancellation and pay them the 35 euros or whatever and be done with it, but I now have an appointment for tomorrow afternoon. It should be interesting to see if I can succeed doing this all in French. I'm posting pics from spring break but I probably won't have time to do them all at once, so keep an eye out for more if you're interested.