The City of Love...or something like it...

When I first got to Paris I had to take care of some travel business so I headed to get train reservations for other trips I'm going to take. When I got to the counter there was a very cute :) French guy who kept acting like he didn't understand my American accent attempt at pronouncing the French towns. He would ask me to repeat it and then kind of chuckle :-. When he noticed that I was making most of the reservations for one he asked "where is your boyfriend?" Ha! Then he asked for my facebook and just like that I made my first pal on my travels!

After that I checked into my hostel and went out to explore...and of course, I got lost. I found myself by this cool building (that I later found out was the modern art museum) that had these wooden hive-looking structures on the sides...one of the many interesting things I saw on that walk. Since I was feeling particularly French that evening, I decided to have a crepe with 'jambon' for dinner. It was my first time having a crepe without something sweet in it and I have to say it was really good!

The next day I decided to take a walking tour so that I could see some of the sites I planned on at one time. On the tour, not only did I learn ALOT of French/Parisian history, but I really got to see why they call it 'The City of Love'. Everywhere I turned there were couples old and young holding hands and showing PDAs. Aaaaaaaaand on one of the bridges there were hundreds of small locks with initials or names on them. The tour guide explained that lovers will come with a lock and lock it on the bridge and throw the key into the Seine river symbolizing that their love is locked in forever.

After the tour I had my only unhappy experience in this city. I went to the train station because I realized that some of my reservations were wrong. After I waited about 20 minutes in line I walked up to the counter (one of about 7) and asked if I was in the right place to change reservations. He immediately spoke French and I told him I didnt understand. I pointed to the other people behind the counters gesturing and asking if anyone else spoke English and he continued to speak French only, not even gesturing to give me a hint as to what he was saying. So, I took out my translator and began trying to tell him the problem one word at a time but he would keep speaking full sentences while I was looking for the next word. He gave me this kind of blank look and at that point I didnt know what else to do so I just said thank you and walked away. As I was exiting, I noticed that one of the other people had a British flag symbol on her screen (meaning she spoke English) and I asked another lady if there was another place to make reservations and she answered me in English too. I was so frustrated with that guy that I literally almost cried. I mean I understand that this is France but it was inside of an international train stations at a desk specifically for international travelers and I made an honest attempt at using broken French and sign-language to communicate. The least he could have done was to point me to one of his coworkers who spoke English (as there were at least 2 of the 7).

Oh well, now that I've vented, back to lovely Paris. After walking around all day I went back to the hostel and met a guy from Carlsbad! He said I was the first person he's met who actually knows where that is. We went down to the courtyard and joined a group of other people in the hostel. AAAaaaaaaaaaaaaand just like that I made my next 10 or so international pals. After a few hours of chatting we all decided to go to the Eiffel Tower (which was about a 15 minute walk yaaaay). We smuggled a blanket out of the hostel and had an amazing after hours picnic thingy. We got to see the lights show of the tower a few times. We just laughed and talked and took picutures with random homeless guys who were asking for 'fire' (light for a cigarette). It even started to rain so we all huddled under the blanket like it was a huge umbrella until it stopped. I guess the sight of the tower at night or perhaps the general feeling of the city rubbed off on two of the people in our group because by the end of the night they were really close, holding hands ect. (I'll leave the ect part up to your interpretation).

All in all my first two days here have been awesome and I can't wait to see what's next!