Thursday, May 28, 2009

First Stop- Paris!

After a very long day of traveling I finally arrived in Europe yesterday with the rest of my group. Everyone was shocked when we arrived at our hotel, which is right next to the beautiful Saint Martin River (which I'm looking down at right now from my window as I type this). The hotel is very nice and accommodating, the only drawback being the 5 Euro per hour charge that they put on internet access. For this reason, this will likely be my only Parisian post, but stay tuned for an update from Munich, where we will be heading off to on Sunday morning.
Anyways, I'll continue from the time we arrived at the hotel before I diverge too far. We left the hotel for a nice welcoming diner a few blocks down and then headed back to watch the remainder of the 2-0 victory of Barcelona over Man U in the UEFA Finals.
This morning, we woke up early for an incredible French breakfast (which included my favorite fromage- Brie), went to class, and then headed into the heart of Paris. My roommate Russel and I explored some of the shops scenery of Paris for a while before meeting up at the entrance of the Louvre. The Louvre was amazing! I could have walked around it all day and still had masterpieces left over to see. Some of the great works I saw included the replica of Napoleon's Palace, the Mona Lisa, and even Stanley from The Office! (he was apparently enjoying some free time in Paris as well).
After exploring the Louvre we once again utilized the city's handy metro system and made our way to the Eiffle Tower. Not wanting to wait in the long line, we elected to get some exercise and climb the long set of stairs up to the second floor, where the view was outstanding. We left the Eiffle tower and wondered around the city for a bit more and then headed back to the hotel to grab some diner- and following diner I find myself here paying by the hour for internet connection, so with that Ill say Au Revoir and I look forward to updating soon from Munich!

and one last note, I apologize for not having any images on the blog at the moment- the image embedding is acting up on me and I don't really have time to play with it. Hopefully Ill have the problem fixed soon!