Paris!

Good wine in Paris is cheap, right? Right! Remember that time we met friends in Paris, drank too much wine, missed the last metro back across the city, and slept on a floor? Well you shouldn't, because I haven't told you about it yet. Here's the scoop:

We departed Amsterdam in the morning by train. We had a connection in Brussels, where we got a quick (about an hour) taste of Belgium. Then we boarded a highspeed train to book it into Paris at 186 mph. Wish we had rail like that in the US! Anyway, we arrived in Paris in the rain, to be promptly accosted by gypsies in the train station. Oy. From there, we hiked (still in the rain) through the crowded, wet streets of northern Paris to our hostel, past dingy fabric stores, clothing stores, and novelty shops selling everything from souvenirs to knockoff D&G belt buckles and Rolax watches. Not a good start. We arrived in the hostel, where we learned they didn't have three beds in the same room for us for at least one night. Marc volunteered to split apart from the group. We paid and waited for the room to be ready for half an hour our so. When it was, we headed up to the room and Michael and I met an English girl, a Quebecois girl, and a Swiss woman in our room, and had a good time talking until we went out.

We decided to stay nearby, mostly because of the subpar weather, so we headed to the Sacre Coeur basilica just up the street (and up a big hill) from the hostel. At the base of the hill we were accosted by a group of scam artists trying to tie things to our fingers (while they doubtlessly picked our pockets). We got away from them and headed up to the basilica. It's a very pretty building, very impressive, especially in the dreary weather. The view of the city is also fantastic, and sure to improve when (if) the weather clears up. We toured the basilica and its surroundings, a quaint little neighborhood with narrow cobblestone streets that I could absolutely imagine enraged Parisians barricading and lighting on fire in a revolutionary uproar. Following some confusion about where to meet Marc's friend Ben, a Yale student who's studying abroad in the Universite de Paris, we finally caught up with him. After wandering around through the area for a while, we wound up, soaking wet, in the neighborhood of Ben's friend Francois, whom Ben called on a whim to introduce to us.

Francois led us to a bar near his house, where I sampled Pastis, a fennel-flavored drink vaguely related to absinthe. Following that, Francois bought a round of kiwi vodka shots for us, and we spent a good amount of time talking to a slightly drunk French girl named Clare, who loved chatting us in English, convinced that the language became easier for her to manage as she got drunker. It was a great time, and totally broke all our preconceptions of the typical "snooty, arrogant Parisian" about which we'd been hearing so much from travelers we met earlier in our journey.

Francois had to return to his family, so Ben took us back to his dorm in the Universite de Paris across town, thus introducing us to the loud, somewhat antiquated Paris Metro system. On the way we picked up pizza and three bottles of wine (a white Bordeaux, a red Bordeaux, and a rose) for 5 Euro each. We devoured this in his room and started on the wine once we acquired a corkscrew. Ben invited his friends Nina, Esther, and Kiet to join us, and we all wound up significantly tipsy by the end of the night- about 2am- significantly after the last metro across town had departed. Oops! We split up, and each of us wound up sleeping on the floor of our acquaintances' rooms. I spent the night nestled in a little blanket cocoon with my long-sleeved thermal shirt for a pillow. It could've been worse; I slept quite well (I'm sure the wine helped).

The next morning we awoke and gathered again for lunch in the Universite cafeteria, where we chatted and dined on formless cafeteria food (filling, and only 2.85 Euro). Once lunch was over we parted ways and headed back to the hostel, where we peeled off our fetid clothes, cleaned up, and caught up on our planning, blogging, phone calls, and so forth.

An excellent first night in Paris, and an excellent adventure overall!