Paris!!

So I know this is really late, it's been two weeks since I was in Paris, but it's freezing cold and rainy out so I figure it's a good time to get caught up. I'll go back and write about each stage of my trip so far, starting, as you can see, with Paris.

My trip began with some unexpected plane mishaps in the form of my departing flight from Raleigh being delayed too long for me to make my connection in New York. This turned out to be a good thing, though, as when I was in line waiting to talk to the attendant about changing my flight I heard a girl about my age speaking French on her cell phone. After she hung up I asked her if she was headed to Paris by chance, and of course she was, so we went up to the counter together and both got moved to a flight connecting through London with seats next to eachother! This was awesome because I basically had eight hours to practice french and ask her as many stupid questions as I could think of.

Once we reached Paris I found my hostel easily enough which was in a pretty location along a river (not the Seine, but a smaller tributary) and actually pretty nice. If you're ever in need of a hostel in Paris check out St. Christopher's in the 19th. I met a girl from Poland and we decided to walk around some and explore. We ended up finding an awesome park in the middle of Paris with a great view from the top of a hill and hung out there for a while. We also met these random French boys and when I told them I was American one of them guessed I was from North Carolina! I was kind of freaked out and tried to discreetly make sure he hadn't stolen my wallet or license or something but everything was safely in my purse so I have no idea how he knew.

The next day my friend Mandy arrived in Paris so I met her for lunch (my first French restaurant experience! Although I ordered a hamburger..) and then we went shopping around the 18th arrondissement. Then we headed down to La Halle which turned out to be a huge mall and proceeded to get lost for three hours in maybe a half mile radius. After shopping for hours and finding shoes, bags, and peanut butter (!! a novelty in france!) we found a street cafe and sat down for some wine and peanuts (im not sure why peanuts were included, but they were good). Then we went next door for some pizza and then headed off to the Seine to take in the view. The Seine snakes through the middle of Paris and the bridges across it give you great views of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Louvre and all the places you've heard of in France. Then we headed home since Mandy had the 10 mile race to Versailles the next day.

The next morning I woke up and realized I could barely walk, let alone run, (I had hurt my foot the weekend before in DC somehow) so I told Mandy I'd meet her in Versailles at the finish line and went out on my own to explore more. I walked by the Louvre, through the Jardin des Tuileries (which was actually huge and I had to take a rest in the middle of), and past Les Invalides (the French army museum that is honestly one of the most impressive buildings I've ever seen from the outside) before getting on a train to head out to the Palace of Versailles which is a few miles southwest of Paris.

I found Mandy with some new Belgian (well American, but they live in Belgium) friends at the finish line and we worked our way up to the outside of the palace which was amazing and covered in gold. The line to get in was probably a mile long and snaked around the area out front. We took a bunch of pictures and vowed to come back with more time so we could actually go on a tour inside and out back to see the gardens.

We had to get going though so we could have a quick lunch (salmon for me which was actually amazing) and then head our respective ways. It was a little hard to leave the city with so much left to see and do (like actually go inside some of the museums) but I knew I would be back many times so I headed to the airport for destination 2: London!