So for the weekend we took the train down to Paris. The eurostar is a really fast train and of course it goes rite under the English channel in the chunnel. When we left we where facing backwards and couldn't see out the window that well, but its such a smooth ride and so much nicer than the Italian regional trains. I was pretty claustrophobic though when I found myself pinned into my seat and in the chunnel knowing that I was under a freaking SEA!!! Imagine all that water on top of you!!!
when we got to Paris we took a taxi to our hotel. It was in the "La Defense" quarter which is a very new community with all the tall high rises. We went on priceline and got a hotel there which was a four star hotel. The rooms normally cost 500 euros per night. We only paid 70 a night!!! (which is the same kind we are in rite now in London). Our room was so nice... Huge bed, Tons of room... Weight room was like a real gym, sauna, steam room, and lots of snotty people! It was a blast though. We were rite next to this huge mall with restaurants and the subway.
Saturday we decided to take the double Decker bus tour. I (Dan) sat on top and took about 70 pictures of Paris, Robyn sat underneath to stay out of the sun (a first I think for Robyn). We got of and checked out almost all the sights and then headed back to the hotel after about 6 hours so that we could take a nap.
That evening we went out after dinner and went up the Eiffel Tower.
Here is the cool story...
So we taxied to the tower at about 9pm. We wanted to go when it was dark and the sun didn't go down till about 9:30. We were wondering why there was absolutely nobody out on the streets.
We got to the tower and went up to the very top. We really loved it and its such an awesome view. I cant believe how big Paris is. Probably the biggest City I have ever been in. While we were up there we saw this girl talking on her cell phone... All of a sudden she started to scream, then someone else on his phone starts screaming, then pretty soon we can hear this low boom roaring down below us. The sound grew louder and louder until we could make out what it was, people screaming and cars honking. It didn't take long to realize what was up, France had just beat Brazil in the world cup. We knew we wouldn't be getting home to soon!!!
So we took the last elevator down at about midnight having lost track of time. This is when we realized that we wouldn't be able to find a taxi... We started to walk thinking we could make it to the train station and jump on the subway. Well with all the people and we didn't know where to go so it took us almost an hour to get there just in time to watch the last train leave. We climbed the stairs of the subway next to the huge victory arch. There was 500 000 people there. I kid you not!!! Half a million people, fireworks, cars on fire, police with crowd control weapons, and tons of confusion. These world cup fans are honestly the craziest most devoted fans in the world. They celebrate and treat soccer like a war. If you could get Iraq to play France and beat them, you would have 2 million people going over there to take some blood, I think we need to tell Bush that plan! Robyn and I were exhausted and weren't in any condition to be walking home but there was no other option. We felt like we were in a war zone and I mentioned about five times that I felt like we were in the movie 28 days later... We had to walk about 10 miles total to get back to the hotel. It took us till 3am and we were so happy to get back there. I took some video of it all. Just the coolest/craziest thing ever. I admit I was scared for our lives!! Well Sunday is pretty much a blur since we were so tired. All we did was sleep and train back to London.
Just a note... Walking that far that late at night sucks. We just wanted to taxi down there take some pics and taxi back and sleep... Its funny sometimes the trouble you can get into. We said like fifty prayers that night asking for help... Well we are fine of course and Rite now were waiting for our eggwhite omelets. See you all in Canada tomorrow and you in SD in a week.
Love everyone and miss you tons...
Robyn and Dan
Here is the Link to our Paris Photos
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/hilosurfer2003/album?.dir=/b05fre2
