Er zijn half naakte vrouwen in de vensters naast mijn hostel (ze zijn echt!).

A camel-like horse...inspired by the Louvre

I’m on my 5^th train today & headed to Amsterdam! Yesterday I forced myself to sit down & actually make some kind of itinerary for my trip so here it is, give or take a few cities: Amsterdam-Netherlands, Stockholm-Sweden (probably can’t do this one since it’s so far away), Berlin-Germany, Munich-Germany, Prague-Czech Republic, Vienna-Austria, Athens-Greece, Rome-Italy, Florence-Italy, Venice-Italy, Milan-Italy, Geneva-Switzerland, Marseille-France, Barcelona-Spain, & Dublin-Ireland to head back home. I left bright & early this morning hoping to make it there by 4 pm, buuuttt there were a few complications that included writing down the wrong times, looking at the wrong names resulting in me getting off at the wrong stop, & things like that. Mistakes were made. But! I’m almost there…hopefully.

Arc de Triomphe

Yesterday was a busy day full of walking around trying to find a bathroom for an hour, seeing the Arc de Triomphe, climbing the Eiffel Tower, & watching the light show at sunset (which was 10 pm!). I made it to the top of the tower alive! You can only walk up to the 2^nd deck by stairs & then have to take the lift, but it only took me 19 minutes to climb it. The view at the tip top is incredible, but when you look down, you’ve got a long drop. Afterwards I found some hungry ducks & fish that were more than happy to eat half of my dinner (bread). My night ended with the beautiful light show at the Eiffel Tower that consists of more than 22,000 light bulbs having seizures for 5 minutes.

Super high!

Loooong way down

In conclusion, Paris is a beautiful place with pretty friendly people despite what everyone warned me about. This is what I learned about the French: they love their baguettes, wine, & coffee & cigarettes, almost everyone speaks some English, the older women are beautiful & usually dress nice, they maintain their weight quite well, & everyone drives standards (this is all of Europe I was told). I noticed as soon as I got into the cab from the Dublin airport that driving standard is the norm here. It makes me miss Francesca, my beautiful 2 door wannabe sports car. Un memento, time to get off.

My new friends, Aflac 1 & 2

Soooo I really am staying in the red light district in Amsterdam per Googlemaps…& the view on the street. As soon as I walked down the street my hostel is on, my jaw stayed dropped. I won’t go into too much detail, but I’m not going out after dark! I walked around the city as soon as I got off of the train. I LOVE THIS PLACE. The streets are spilling with people everywhere...there are vendors, street performers, cyclists, trams...I love it. My hostel that I’m staying in is Hollywood themed, so I arrived at my door with a massive picture of Lord of the Rings (Fight Club is next door to me) and entered to 4 guys and a chick from Russia hanging out. She & I (now that I think of it, I don’t know her name) went out for drinks & walked around for a bit. Ready to see the city tomorrow!

Yes, the smell of marijuana is prevalent.