we spent the last 5 days of our trip in the 'city of lights' and it couldnt have been a better way to end our time in europe. for the entire trip, when asked what our favorite city was, we would naturally respond: 'berlin.' however, paris changed all that after the first 5 minutes. first of all, the people are extremely pleasant and we certainly didnt witness any anti-american sentiment of any kind. paris was beautiful in every respect...the culture, the language, the architecture, the art, the pastries. the city is absolutely huge but you can see the eiffel tour from anywhere you're at and any picture we had ever seen of the eiffel tour did no justice when we stood in front of it....whether we were having picnic lunches underneath it during the day or a bottle of rose' while it was glowing at night. every hour after 9pm, the tour sparkles with thousands of white lights that flash for ten incredible minutes. during the days, there was never a shortage of famous sights to see and even after 5 days we felt we had just started to scratch the surface. we had cappucino's at the wonderful cafe where amelie was filmed and walked over to moulin rouge. shopped on champ de elysees, the legendary street that ends with the arc de triomphe. spent way too many hours at the centre pompidou and palais de tokyo museums. walked through the charming gardens of the palais de luxembourg and the louvre. became obsessed with european football....go france in the 2008 euros!!! canceled our last night in a hostel to save money we didnt have and spent the night outside the train station, freezing and grumpy, only to look up at 3am to a crowd of teenage girls, who looked more like vultures with cameras. miah realized that they were hovering over pete doherty (i.e. baby shambles/ex singer of the libertines/ex boyfriend of kate moss during last summer's cocaine phase)...and then he took out our camera and joined them.
there really isnt a proper way to summarize our time in europe, because we have seen and learned so much, it would truly be impossible. but one of the things we noticed and appreciated was how most europeans aren't constrained by rigid standards that we sometimes see here in america. everyone takes siestas. grocery clerks have stools to sit on at the check out counter. young people who graduate from university travel the world for a year or two before even thinking about jumping into the work force. waiters take their smoke breaks in the front of the restaurant and not behind it. grown men sing with wild abandon for their favorite teams on the subways. old people are out at the cafe's till 1 in the morning. people just aren't afraid to be themselves no matter whose watching and thats something both of us want to take home with us.
