Mary's Hotel Paris

First of all, please forgive any errors in this entry. I'm in Paris right now and French keyboards are rather different, so I've been messing up all over the place. Haven't updated in the last few days because I've just been too busy. On Friday, I met Jon and Nick at the train station and have been spending all my time, aside from sleep, with them. I have to say, it's been the best part of my trip so far. The two of them are this incredible couple and we clicked so well. They showed me around...

Paris is still Paris. The city seems okay, but I still feel lonely here. I hung out with a random American last night, but on the way from the bar to the Metro, we got mocked by a Parisian couple who heard us speaking English. They broke out into selections from Grease for a bit. I've really been hoping the thing about the French being rude would be an exaggeration, but thus far, it's not. Today I had an awesome sandwich for breakfast (brie and celery and other stuff) and I went on one of the...

Last night I had a great time; Hung out with a Canadian named Thomas and while we wandered the streets of Paris, we ran into another couple of Canadians, Eddy and Brittany. Ended up spending most of the night with them until we missed the last Metro and had to hang out until 05.30 when it started up again. Needless to say, I've only been awake since about 15.00. It's official that I'm changing my trip around. Now I'll be leaving Brussels on Aug 9 to fly to London, then take a train to Notting...

So, I finally have my train ticket sorted out. I have to spend 6 hours in London waiting for a train, but at least I have it booked and it won't entirely break the bank. All I have left to book for the rest of my trip (well, the big things) are the train from Amsterdam to Brussels and the hostel in Rome. Last night I hung out with Thomas again and we checked out Paris Plage, where they turn the bank of the Seine into a beach for a little bit in the summer. We also had the best gelatto I've ev...

So, just as an addition, here are some things I enjoy about Paris thus far: *Music on the Metro. I've already seen 2 accordian players, a violinist, and even a woman who brought her own karaoke system onto the train car to perform.*They serve your water in a tiny decanter for you to pour into your glass *Having helped two schoolgirls on a trip sneak out in the middle of the night *The fact that gay couples are everywhere, complete with PDA, and everyone acts like it's Not a Big Deal. Yay! *Th...

So I've just checked out of my hostel and am preparing to kill time until I leave for Stockholm tonight. I have to say, my stay in Paris hasn't been the highlight of my trip. It's a nice enough place, but it makes me glad I'm visiting Nottingham now, instead of Lyon and Nice. Fun Pairs fact: if you see some liquid in the street, watch out! Half of the time it's water coming up from the sewer drains and the other half, it's urine. Paris is quite the odorous city, truth be told. Yesterday I did...

Fortunately, we were now in France long enough to experience a bit of real Paris. The area our hotel was in was called Oberkampf, in central Paris. Paul Eric slept in, whilst I got up and enjoyed the good breakfast downstairs. Initially, we wanted to see some of the famous sites like the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and the Latin quarter, but we realized that with only 6 hours before we had to leave for the airport, it would be rather stressful. We therefore decided to explore the immediate vicin...