On to Barcelona & Pics from London

Hello!

Today is our last day in Paris, and we just took it easy. Right now we're doing some laundry -- I've run out of clean clothes and need something to wear :)

These are the things we've done in Paris so far:

The day we arrived we were a little delerious from a lack of sleep. We stayed overnight at the airport in London, arriving around 1am, and waking up at 3:45am to check in for our flight. We ended up spending about $75 CAD for a flight on Easyjet from London to Paris -- I was under the impression we would be flying in a small propeller plane, but the discount airlines use standard Boeing jets. We found a hostel near the Louvre for 25 euros/night including breakfast. That day we just wandered around the city to get acquainted, and we hung out on one of the bridges over the Siene at night.

Wednesday we met up with my brother to see the Louvre during the day, and took a boat tour of the city later on in the day. After that we met up with some Polish girls and walked around the city at night. They do a great job here of making the city look good at night -- the Louvre, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, etc. are all very well lit up. After that, we wandered to the area of the city where my brother was staying, found a pool hall and played some "American pool" :)

Thursday we went up the Eiffel tower, the weather wasn't the greatest but the view was still amazing. Friday and today we've just taken some time to relax and walk around. Every summer the city sets up a beach along the river here where performers have shows and people tan and hang out. Last night we hung out with some of the performers who taught us how to spin a baton (they light the ends of it on fire). Its basically a stick that is about 4 feet long, and the movements that the performers do with it remind me of martial arts. We also spent some time watching some breakdancers near the Eiffel tower and some rollerbladers in front of Notre Dame.

I've uploaded our pictures from London to my photo site, so you can click the following link to check them out:

http://jarema.smugmug.com/gallery/185317/1/7021721

The trip so far has been a blast, and constantly a learning experience (eg. don't bring dress pants if you are backpacking... especially ones that have to be dry-cleaned :). We've met tons of people so far from all over the continent, along with some people from Canada and the US.

- Mike