Paris has good crepes.

On Friday morning, I met up with my friend Abbi who is studying in Geneva to explore Paris for the weekend. We definitely packed a lot into a little bit of time. After arriving, we checked into our hostel, St Christopher's, the largest I have been to so far, and then headed off to the Eiffel tower to see it in all its Eiffel glory. A little known fact is that I am actually taller than the Eiffel tower, proof is in the photo below.

It really has nothing on me. Anyways, the weather being nice, we walked over to the Arc de Triomphe and found out it was in the middle of the busiest traffic circle ever (around 5 or 6 lanes wide with no lane markings). Luckily, we didn't have to cross through the traffic because there was an underground tunnel to the middle where we (naturally, being tourists) took some photos.

After visiting both these sights and walking through Paris, we retired to the hostel, which is a hangout in itself. We met a nice Canadian guy that night named Richard and hung out in the hostel bar with him. He had gone on a walking tour of the city the day before so he told us some cool facts, and told us he knew about a hidden side entrance to the Louvre which had no line. So the next morning the three of us headed off to the Louvre, and sure enough, although there was a 30 minute line at the main entrance to get in, the side entrance was completely deserted. Tourists can be so stupid sometimes.

Anyways, I enjoyed the Louvre much more than Abbi because I had taken an art history class and knew a lot about some of the paintings and artifacts there (she got bored after an hour). Some of my favorites were:

The Hammurabi Code, one of the oldest deciphered texts in the world. It contains a law like the constitution from ancient Mesopotamia.

Jacques-Louis David, the Oath of the Horatii. I wrote an essay on this one in high school lol. It was hidden on a random wall with a whole bunch of other lesser-known paintings. 

One of the heads from Easter Island. So random.

And of course, the Mona Lisa. She really does stare at you wherever you go. You can't escape. Its a schizophrenic's worst nightmare.

Apparently the Louvre would take 8 years to get through if you took 30 seconds to look at each piece of art. We rushed through it in 3 hours, quite impressive I think.

After exploring the Louvre, Abbi, Richard, and I went to see the Notre Dame cathedral and the Pantheon, where many famous people like Voltaire are buried. We had the most amazing crepes at a restaurant near the Pantheon and then went to the Luxembourg gardens to chill out, a relaxing end to a busy day.

Last night I stayed up playing card games until 6 AM and then ended up cooking pasta in a cup in the microwave for a meal. This afternoon I will hopefully be taking a train to San Sebastian, Spain. Quiero practicar espanol y visitar las playas!