The Journey Begins:

Voila! Paris!
Day 1 consisted of arriving in Amsterdam at 7:40 am after a nonstop 9 hour flight from Seattle. A celebration followed by the way of my first 7 euro sandwich, which would'nt have been anything to write home about except the mustard in the tube was definitely not frenchs. A small world indeed, the 16 year old sitting next to me for the entire flight just happens to live 2 blocks from where I grew up in Kits (Vancouver) and currently goes to the same High School I attended for a bit.
Caught a train from Amsterdam to brussels, a commuter that was pretty dingy, but took the last leg to Paris on a Thalys High Speed train, 300km/hr and really plush.
After already scoping out my metro plans from Gare du Nord before leaving the train, I connected to the underground immediately and arrived much earlier than JT and Lauren expected. With them not being home I went on a 1:30 mini tour of the surrounding area meeting 2 nice British ladies and one grumpy newspaper stand dude who refused to tell me where the local payphone was. Finally found the payphone and spent 15 minutes trying to make a US call which ended with a New York Operater wanting $11 for the first minute and $3 per minute after. Giving up I headed back and found them just getting back.
<-------JT and Laurens Apartment is amazinggg, and there will be more pictures later, but after a short tour and a shower we went out for a tour of the right bank and St. Germaine, where we are staying. A walk through the Louvre and the Touleries found us at a cheesy tourist cafe where I had a decent and very hot basil penne. Delish! After a freak rain shower and me being able to see a Colette store ( it made my day) and seeing the Bell & Ross watch I would kill someone over, we retired to the apt where I took a 2 hour nap. I met JT's good friend and fellow apartment residents Justin and his wife Hallie who had been soaked out in the freak rain storm. After drying off, Dinner followed which meant opening my vaccuum-packed bags and having to do some ironing but the meal was 9 courses and was the best I've ever had, sans the l'oeuf in the cup. This crab pictured to the right was excellent!

9 hours on the air mattress is going to do me good and hopefully skip on the jetlag. I miss you Erin!