26.7.04

here we are in Paris. I like it here all right... the language barrier kinda frustrates me, but it's my fault for coming to Paris and not knowing much French. I've got the important phrases down now, though.... like 'bonjour', 'bonsoir', 'sie-vous plait', 'je ne sais pas', 'je ne parl pas francais', 'merci', and 'au revior'. 'Je ne parl pas francais' comes in especially handy when a random guy at the landromat starts talking to you to ask you for something involving fabric softener (as far as I could tell) or at an internet cafe asking you how to print out something from the computer. (Both of these happened to me. I can't figure it out - perhaps the French are friendlier than the Germans? Because nobody in Germany ever did this type of thing.)
Anyway, tomorrow we leave for Zurich, which is too bad, because Paris has a lot to offer. (Not bad that we're going to Switzerland - just bad that we have to leave Paris...) We saw Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower (of course), and Versailles, to name a few. It was all fun to see, noting of course that every place we go is crawling with tourists, unfortunately, and that statement includes the Metro (subway), which is overcrowded and piping hot most of the day, and then stops running at 1:00 AM. This is crap, because in Germany the subway cars are big, you can almost always find a seat, they are fast, efficient, and punctual, they run until 3 AM and all night on the weekends, and you can buy a day pass instead of individual tickets for EACH TRIP. blah. stupid French.
Anyway. Time to take off... later gators.