Bonjour team!

Well, to start, this is a little bit pooey. I tried to send a group email from shaw webmail, but cookies have been blocked. And I don't know how to unblock cookies in Finnish. Or even what the word for "cookies" is in Finnish. *shakes fist in general direction of Finland* However, on the computer bright side, I'm using a QWERTY keyboard, as opposed to the AZTERY (more like J@#IUENKRHSDF*SA(%RW$R from the way I was typing) I was using a couple of days ago. I was definitely not the happiest camper given the sudden loss of touch typing ability. God dammit, everything should be as I deem normal! :D

So, I'm in Paris. I flew in on Tuesday morning, then trained it on into the city. I had planned my route with all stops and such to the T except for the part where I got off at my last spot to get to the hotel. Apparently I thought the hotel should be kind enough to situate itself usefully right next to the metro station. Alas, I was mistaken. The French did not seem to care for making my trip easier. There was much losing of Jane in that time, but SUCCESS I found it. Yay me! And then I crashed on the bed and started to nap. And OH what a fantastic nap that was. Then my sister and her fiancee Damien boogied on in, and we set off in search for some dinner.

SIDEBAR: HOLY CRAP I AM IN LOVE WITH THE FOOD! If there are two things Parisians can do it's make excellent food, and smoke like chimneys. The bakerys are fantastic, and I've already turned into Captain Rolly Polly Pudge. And you can find smoked samon EVERYWHERE! For cheap-ish!! HEAVEN!!!

The next day was termed "find your surroundings day" and we wandered until our little stubbly legs could wander no more. Saw all the big things... blah blah, I'm positive you've all heard about them. I have to admit Notre Dame left something to be desired. The history is captivating, but the structure itself is not as impressive as I was led to believe. HOWEVER, across the Seine was the Latin Quater with TOURIST SHOPS! My favorite thing to visit in any exciting city, save the beach if it has one, are the tourist shops. They make my heart go pitter-patter. The novelty of such cute little souveniers goes straight to my head! And then it was on to dinner, which was, agian, fantastic.... obviously.

Thursday was termed "the day of all things scary", we went to the Catacombs, and walked down long windy scary walkways, and climbed and descended long windy scary stair cases. I had gone off to read a plaque and when I came back, I couldn't find Sarah or Damien. And then those bastards leaped out behind pillars and scared me. Which wasn't even the worst part, because after the scare attack we walked about three steps and came head on with millions and millions and MILLIONS of skulls and bones. I hadn't had time to recover from the first attack of fear, and then WHAM my nightmares came true! For those who don't know, I get scared at the most minute thing. Example: I saw The Ring with Kyla (which she actually tricked me into going to see) and had nightmares for about three weeks. I think I even went to go sleep in my parents bed one night. AND I WAS 16! Jane = fraidy cat. So the whole skull/dead people thing wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but it was still awesome to see. There were even skulls arranged in a heart, which I thought was a little pervy.

After the scariness, and discovering I had dead people dust all over me, we headed back to the Eiffel Tower to go on a bike tour! Now, the next scary part might even be worse than the Catacombs..... WE WERE ENTIRELY SURROUNDED BY YANKS! *SHOCK AND HORROR* And Yanks that weren't very competent with the whole getting the bike to move thing. So we rode around Paris for about eleventy billion hours, and then went on the most wonderful river boat ride. The Eiffel Tower with all the pretty sparkliness is astounding! Paris definitely knows how to utilise their twinkle lights. And there was also free wine! Which should get at least, if not more praise than the river boat tour.

We then took the bikes back to the headquaters where we started to talk to the people who owned the business, and Damien proceeded to buy me drinks. Eventually we left, and on the walk back to the Metro I decided to amuse onlookers with a special performance of "Jane's Pissed Ballet". I must admit, they were rather enthralled. I believe I was the hit of the town that night!

On Friday we went to Versaille. HUGE and BEAUTIFUL do not even begin to describe this place. But, due to a lack of judgement the evening prior, I found myself mightily hungover, and the actual walk through the Versaille museum proved taxing. There were FAR too many little children screaming. I hate children. *grrr* After the touring around (which, by the by, I got into for FREE because I'm under 18 - I discovered I get into most places FREE because I am under 18... YAY FOR SAVING MULA!) we headed off for ice cream which turned out to be the magic cure for the headache. So we Metro-ed onto Montmarte to see Sacre Coeur which was beautiful. More impressive than Notre Dame, I'd say. And the view of the city was amazing! Paris is so crazily packed with buildings! We sat and watched a street performer for a while, and he tried to marry me. Alas, I felt the language barrier would be too difficult to overcome, so we went our seperate ways amicably. Then we headed down the hill to see Moulin Rouge - both the real and the current ones. Meh, not much to be said, although Sarah and I did do the Cancan in front of it to prove to ourselves that we are culturally well versed.

And now to today! I slept in and then back up all my crap (and trust me, there is a lot of it) and moved from the hotel to a hostel for the next three nights. Sarah and Damien headed back to London for work, so now I'm on my own. It's a nice place, very relaxed, and hopefully I'll meet some cool people to hang around with, or otherwise I'll be all on my lonesome whilst touring around!

I'm thinking of doing some postcard action sometime soon, so email me your address if you want one!

Many hugs,

Jane