Paris

Today Jess and I leave Paris and fly to Prague, Czech Republic. Our time in Paris has been wonderful thanks to my friend Brian who has lived in Paris for two years and is currently a student at the American University in Paris. Jess and I had a free place to stay and plenty of free meals all thanks to the meal tickets Brian gets from his internship! We brought in the New Year at the Eiffel Tower, met lots of interesting people, and became well versed in the Parisian metro system.

I figured that many of French stereotypes would be refuted once I came here but surprisingly, some of them are actually true! Most Parisians only wear black and gray, and act very "cultured." Most smoke. Its funny. Needless to say, Jess and I felt very "American" here. We were tempted to order Freedom Fries instead of French Fries just to stick it to these Frenchies, but restrained. Just kidding, our experience in Paris was great!

We visited most of the main sites, and climbed the Arc d'Triomphe - twice! It was built to celebrate Napoleon's victories and was meant to welcome home the armies. We walked up the almost 300 step spiral staircase to the museum above, then saw people standing in line for an elevator. We figured that must be taking people to the very top, where you can look out onto the Champs d'Elysees, the most popular shopping district in Paris. To our surprise, the elevator actually took people all the way back down to the bottom! So we climbed all the way up again and finally got a fantastic view of Paris. We also went to the Louvre, but only saw the impressive outside since there were too many people inside that they actually museum closed! We did however visit the Musèe d'Orsay and instantly felt loads more cultured! Unfortunately the elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower was closed as well but we were happy just to stand at the base and gawk at the impressive landmark.

Jess' trip was made one night while we were eating at a popular tourist restaurant in Paris - a place where they serve wine in baby bottles and diners eat delicious fondue. Jess spotted the actress Leighton Meester, a girl who stars in one of her favorite shows, Gossip Girl. Brian and I had absolutely no idea who this girl was, but perhaps if any of you readers know a 12 year-old girl they might give you some more information! (You can probably tell that we will never stop teasing Jess for this silly obsession!) Anyway, Jess got her picture taken with Leighton who by the way, was not very excited to meet a fan. Despite Leighton's disinterest in us, we were happy to act superior since we got a table at the restaurant and this actress was forced to wait outside! Attached is a picture of Jess with the actress.

That's about all for our time in Paris. I've been so blessed to be with a good friend from high school and one from college as it's nice to not always travel alone. Tonight we'll be in Prague for 4 days, then Munich for 2 nights, then back to Rome for 6 nights! What a whirlwind travel experience!

Au revoir!