Thoughts and Impressions Day 2 by G

Day 1 and day 2 all seem to run together. When we left Dayton it was Tuesday and when we arrived in France it was Wednesday. So actually the trip to the hotel that I talked about in yesterdays post was the beginning if day 2. It is cold and wet here, not raining but with all the snow melting and dripping from the buildings it feels like it is raining. We went to the Eiffel Tower to find that because of the ice and snow it was closed! Kelly’s shoes were soaked through so we go back to the hotel. We decide to go to Notre Dame, this means taking the Metro or a bus. We choose a bus as Kelly is not impressed with the Metro. Determining which bus we need is a chore. We had to walk several blocks from our hotel but we think we know how to get back to the hotel from the bus stop! City blocks here are not like the ones in the U.S. they aren’t square so you can’t just count the blocks and know when you turned left or right they are all different shapes so it is very confusing. We do have the correct bus and we make it to the stop nearest Notre Dame and walk to it. It is a beautiful cathedral and worth a visit if you ever get to Paris. Going back starts out good we find our bus easily or so we think! We got on at the wrong stop we were 1 block away from the correct stop, oops! This bus is the correct route but when we get to one of the stops the driver turns to us and says this is the end. We have gone way out of our way to find that the bus stops and takes a break before going again. We take another bus from this stop and the driver asks us for a ticket but we didn’t have one. He decides to let us ride anyway and 45 minutes later we get to the stop we think we need only to find out we don’t know where we are. I think I know where we need to go so we start walking and soon we see a familiar area. Now we are hungry so we stop at a restaurant close to our hotel and have dinner. Kelly goes to the restroom so I order for us. Here is what I thought I was ordering - French Onion soup, some sort of pork soup, short steak and fries. Here is what I actually ordered - French onion soup, liver pate, short steak and fries (the steak was so rare it was floating in blood). We ate everything except a few fries that ended up being soaked in blood. It was all actually quite good. After dinner we headed back to our room for some much needed sleep.

- G