Pari$

We thought things couldn’t get any pricier after Geneva…but we were wrong. Rick Steves’ came to the rescue again, and saved us a ton of money. Thanks Rick! (We’re hoping he reads this…or at least knows we’re alive.)

Armed with a small Coke bottle full of white wine (the cheapest item we purchased in Switzerland), we boarded our train to Paris. Our train was delayed by about two hours due to “an incident on the track.” Those of you who regularly use the TTC know exactly what that means. Paris was where we said goodbye to shared hostel rooms and started having our own private living space. For less than what we would have paid for a hostel, we had our own room, and our own bathroom, at the très fancy Holiday Inn Express. This gave us an opportunity to actually be able to relax, as well as do some laundry in the sink.

We pretty much did all the things you’d expect two tourists to do in Paris. Arc de Triomphe = really high, nice views. Louvre = too big. Mona Lisa = not that impressive. Eiffel Tower = lonnnng walk to the top, but worth it. You get the picture. In typical A to Z fashion, we had to see something Ukrainian, so we found the intersection where Symon Petliura was killed. There is a business right there whose logo is essentially a red and black flag. Coincidence?

Paris was the second “major” city we visited, the first being Rome. Obviously, both cities are full of tourists. Rome tries too hard to be touristy, with all the men walking around in gladiator outfits and the like. Paris, however, is not like that. Paris simply exists and does its own Parisienne thing, and tourists try to infiltrate French culture as much as they can. That’s an interesting difference between the two cities. An unfortunate similarity between the two cities is that both contain way too many Moskali. Those people are everywhere; we can’t shake ‘em!

The Eiffel Tower is interesting from all angles, and from all times of day: afternoon, evening, night; up close, far away, from observation decks, and standing right underneath. Every time you see this giant steel structure it seems like a new experience. We had a cheap picnic at the park in front of the Tower, and watching all the people in the park was just interesting as admiring the tower itself. At the top of the tower, we saw a guy propose to his girlfriend. Very cliché, but very sweet. This was only level two of three, however. Couldn’t have taken her up one more level, eh?

We were joined a few times by another friend of ours in Europe, Lesia Harhaj, who also goes by her moniker of “LL Cool H”. She lives in Toronto, but was in France for about five weeks. It was nice to have her around, because a) we enjoy her company, b) she adds a nice dose of estrogen to our testosterone-laden situation, and c) she speaks French. Our French is shaky at best, but we were able to get by with a few words from high school and hand gestures. Plus, many people there speak English to some extent.

We had a nice long dinner with Lesia one night, but our real highlight with LL Cool H came on Saturday night. Saturday night in Paris? Time to Party! We won’t get into the details, but we’re pretty sure we killed Lesia. Or, rather, Lesia killed herself and we did not intervene. We had a fun night out on the town, and have a few good stories to share (many, many years from now). Hey Lesiu, what was that phrase that you kept saying to us? We can’t quite remember. Actually, we do remember, but we can’t write it on the blog. Those of you who are curious may ask LL Cool H directly.

We has a small snafu when leaving Paris…we went to the wrong train station. Oops. Luckily, the one we needed was just one stop away, and we made it with seven minutes to spare. Plenty of time…but we now make sure to check each station from which we depart.

And that was Paris!