A Series of Unfortunate Events

Let me start by saying I've had an absolutely amazing time, but lately we've had to face some unfortunate circumstances that might outwardly try to ruin our trip.However, we have prevailed and told those unfortunate events to suck it.

First, the weather has been awful. The first day or two we were here it was absolutely beautiful, the next day or two was scorching hot, and the past few days have been the awful ones. 60 degrees at best, rainy, cloudy. yuck. I thought I was in Ohio with all this bipolar weather. This made going up the eiffel tower not as fun simply due to the fog and the limited skyline we could see. Still a really neat experience..

We had to wait in line awhile, probably an hour or so, but these 2 indian women from south africa were behind us and they were great. They spoke english and the one had a afrikaan accent and the other had a zulu accent. I could listen to them talk all day. They told us all about south africa and how beautiful the stadiums look for the world cup and said the whole country is in a buzz. I never cared for the whole european soccer phenomenon but after being here I wish the US was more involved..its just fun:) They were also telling us about this clothing store they own and all the beautiful beaches and how vacation there is so cheap compared to here. They use rands and they said 10 rands is worth one euro. They said we just had to visit sometime, gave us their email, said their indian culture believes that you meet everyone for a specific reason and told us we need to keep in touch. they were great:)

So we take the elevator up the eiffel tower and about crapped myself. There were sooo many people crammed in there and I was pressed against the door, going a billion feet in the air. DWERFASDA TERRIFYING. Once I got off though it was breathtaking, despite the cloudy weather. The fogginess actually gave it a cool gothic vibe of the city. We took the elevator down to the halfway point where they have a restaurant and took the stairs the rest of the way. Took forever, but was better than any elevator.

The news station here keeps talking about the American oil spill, american idol, and twilight. What the hell.

A few days ago we went inside this bookstore called Shakespeare and Company, a really famous bookstore where all their books are in English. I also already knew it was famous cause it came up on one of my stumbleupon sites before:) Tons of famous writers have come here to write including ernest hemingway who wrote a book I bought there talking all about his stay in paris and a lot about this very bookstore. They stamped it with this little crest stamp saying it was purchased in Shakespeare and Co. It was so cozy and they had a piano player on the second floor and books were just shoved absolutely everywhere and it was a bookie's delight. They had a little reading nook with a bulletin board filled with notes from people who read there. They also have beds up top where english speaking tourists can stay in exchange for volunteer work in the store. It was incredible.

To continue with the crappy luck, Jose had it pretty bad the other day. At shakespeare and co he lost his sunglasses and he was bummin pretty bad. Then we had a wine and cheese and bread picnic outside the eiffel tower. We tried being cultured and buy tons of cheeses but they all tasted like butt except for the brie. The wine was awesome though, however jose got a little too excited and spilled it all over his camera. Strike two. Thennnnn, and I must admit I about peed myself when this happened, as he was cleaning off his camera a bird came and pooped on his head. Dom just matter of factly told him "hey, you just got shit on". At least he was a good sport about it. 2 bottles of wine and a life chat later, we were feeling pretty good and wanted to go explore but it started downpouring and we ran to the metro and that ended our day.

To continue with our unfortunate events, I woke up yesterday with pinkeye. Of course, why wouldn't I get pinkeye in Paris. Luckily France isn't as anal as the US and I could just walk in the pharmacy without a script and get some eye drops. It feels better but I still look horrid.

Despite the pink eye, we went to montemarte, the hill of martyrs as it translates, to see Sacre-Couer, the second famous cathedral in Paris. I personally liked it a lot better than Notre Dame. Its so beautiful and on this huge hill and even from the top of the eiffel tower it stuck out so much cause of the hill. The inside was gorgeous but we couldn't take pics. Mom I lit a candle for you inside notre dame and dad, one for you inside sacre-couer:) They were both awesome. Montemartre is also where moulin rouge and red light district are but, surprise surprise, it started pouring again so we didn't get to see it.

My videos take 8 years to upload on here so I'm just going to put them on youtube. my username is sobnosae I think you can just search for them.

Last day here, off to Musee d'Orsay and the Louvre, the two famous art museums. Can't wait!!! Maybe we can hit up the red light district tonight, make some money to compensate for all this expensive food..

hope my eye doesn't explode. off to breakfast and to start the day! cheers! bisoux!