5 posts tagged “paris”

sitting here in Pete's living room after a 24 hour travel day and 4 hours of sleep, it's hard to remember much of what happened in the week plus i spent in Paris after we got back from Amsterdam. things that bob to the top of my booze-sodden brain include:

• the Eiffel Tower at night
• the Freedom Pub, a generic American/British sort of place with no end of cute, friendly bartenders and Foster's on tap
• many, many World Cup games
  
• way too much beer
• having an amazing sandwich from the local bakery for lunch every day
• the tiny hotel room i spent a few days in to give Dennis and Aimee a break while everybody else crowded into their place - this hotel was notable for the strange but extremely cool pencil illustrations of superheroes hanging throughout the place
• the long, ridiculous weekend of drinking and chain smoking with Pete and MattHH
• so much beer

i feel very special and lucky to have been able to fly back into the States through Washington DC, which happened to be flooded at the time, causing no end of cancellations and delays and pushing back my arrival in New York by about 8 hours.

so Thursday morning we got our Jesus on by visiting Sainte-Chappelle and Notre Dame. i was struck by a couple of thoughts:

1. it must have been rad to be the King of France and have enough money to build yourself a fancy private church connected by walkway to your giant ass palace because you can't be assed to walk a block to Notre Dame and stand around with all the peasants.
2. it must really suck to pray, confess or otherwise conduct any sort of true religious activity at Notre Dame and be stared at by thousands of tourists.

that afternoon we took the train to Amsterdam. that started poorly. when i went to pick up my tickets at the train station, it turned out that the system couldn't issue them to me because the expiration date on my credit card had changed since i initially bought the tickets. i had to pay €195 for a roundtrip ticket as opposed to the €65 my original tickets cost. supposedly i'm getting a refund in a few weeks, though it wasn't clear how much it will be. anyway, to make things worse, they double-booked our tickets, and two ladies who got on in Brussels were disappointed because we were already in their seats. derrrr.

once we got to Amsterdam, though, all has been well. Laurel and Lamont met us here. we're staying at an extremely cute little hotel off of Nieuwmarkt. the food has been amazing. today we walked around a lot. Dennis and I drank beer while everybody else went to the Van Gogh. eventually we settled down at a cafe to watch the Dutch play the Ivory Coast in hot World Cup action. our side won, and the streets went nuts. orange everywhere.

i just want say that i love this town and would really enjoy living here. the architecture is just amazing. everything's brick. i can't get enough of the brick. the locals are so chill - totally different vibe from Paris. and the language is just plain cool. look at all those extraneous vowels! i am thinking it would be fun to rent a place here for a month in the spring or fall. and i'm wondering if one can take Dutch anywhere around SF.

Update: Lamont just turned and looked at me and, without any prompting, said, "There is absolutely nothing wrong with drinking all day". Amen brother.

Tuesday night i had dinner and a couple beers with SF pal and fellow traveler Allison and Paris-dwelling friend Shadok. i've known Shadok for like 7 or 8 years online, but i've never actually hung out with him before. super cool guy. thanks for dinner buddy!

on Wednesday Allison and i visited the Musée D'Orsay. i was pleased to find some of Toulouse-Lautrec's smut on display, including my new favorite, Alone. where can i get a print?!

after getting our culture on we walked along the Seine a ways. about halfway to the Eiffel Tower it started to rain, so we decided to leave that for an evening next week and walked back up to the Arc de Triomphe. we looked around for food, but apparently Parisian restaurants take a break between lunch and dinner, so it was back to Dennis and Aimee's for ham and cheese sandwiches. by the way, if you don't know this already, European mayonnaise is the best tasting food in the universe.

tthat night Aimee made tasty sausages and cabbage for dinner, and we sat around drinking wine, watching soccer, and laughing liberally. a perfect evening!

i'm happy to report that i've gotten the hang of the Metro very quickly and that my fabled direction sense has kicked in and made me the master of wandering the streets of Paris. i'm still sort of intimidated by the French attitude though. it's like i told Dennis: whenever i encounter a French person, i automatically feel like a douchebag and that i need to prove myself not. maybe i have a complex.

bonjour from Paris. boy it's hot here, but also very cute. Allison should be here soon. i haven't slept in 22 hours. i'm going to try to power through 8 or 10 more before sleeping. at least some of those will be spent leveling in the Western Plaguelands, with other, cooler ones dedicated to wandering around the neighborhood.

ps: i like GreenCine 's post titling convention, so i'm horking it.

flying to Paris today via DC. a little apprehensive about the journey from CDG to my friends' house, cos i know approximately 5 French phrases, but i'm sure it will all be fine. cross yer fingers that i get my biz class upgrade!