Paris

I was going to name this post either "I saw the seine" or "it's all the seine to me," but I couldn't remember if it was pronounced with an a or an I. So give me credit for being however clever the properly pronounced pun is.

Paris is amazing (especially the seine). Probably my favorite city yet. We have had no problems with the language barrier, except that I have said "merci" in a rather embarassingly American accent several times. I would like to apologize to my French-speaking constituency for that.

Basically, Paris just has the highest density of cool stuff of any city we've seen. I am writing this while sitting at the edge of a modern-art type fountain with moving parts. Behind it is a cathedral. It's strange, but also kind of elegant. I like it.

It's a well-designed city. Most attractions are clustered around the seine, and the area around it is outfitted with plenty of benches and other resting points. In fact, the bridges themselves draw a bit of a crowd at night - people with guitars, beverages, or sometimes both, which is always funny.

But that brings me to my one complaint: lack of street musicianry. We found a few yesterday, including a particularly talented guitarist that invited cam up to sing with him (he didn't). But we had to seek them out, and they aren't there again today. It doesn't compare to Spain.

Our hostel is perhaps a bit subpar, but the people are so friggin' cool. We had the good fortune of rooming with two English guys who are just about the funniest people I've ever met. They managed to rouse practically the whole hostel into a night-trip to the Eiffel tower. This was amazingly fun and one of the highlights of my trip. Then we returned to our hostel, where kunal and I cleaned up dinner for awhile before falling asleep very late. Hopefully, this is the end of that story.

This post doesn't entirely do justice to prisoan sightseeing, because so much of it we have just stumbled upon, explored, and left. No way I could cover it all in one post.

Also, I would like to add that kunal has been shamelessly filling his blog with lies. I did not trip. This is true because I do not trip, ever.