First day, what to do...

After a quick train trip into Paris I waited for Joey at the station. Trying to avoid eye contact with the literally 40 people asking tourists for donations to who-knows-what. Dodgy looking taxi drivers and countless people selling Eiffel Tower statues. I think they started at 2 euro and if you haggled abit i saw one guy offering 5 for 1 euro. Hurry up Joey...

I didn't have to wait long. On our way to apartment we had to stop for some corn from a street vendor. Apparently you can't buy corn anywhere else. I have since been looking and it turns out he was right.

The apartment is right in the middle of Paris. A short walk to a metro station, five minutes from the main station and about 4km to the river. Perfect.

What to do on my first day... What else, Eiffel Tower. We start with a quick tour of the neighborhood, followed by some drinks and dinner at a friend of joey's bar. It was about 10pm and the sun was starting to go down so we jumped on the train and headed to the Eiffel Tower. There were people everywhere. France had just played Spain in the euro cup and there was a big screen set up just across the river. More people selling souvineers including some flying thing that you shoot from a slingshot... of course Joey had to have one and after two shots of it, Greg wanted a go and crashed it into the ground. Off to buy another one. They were bartered down to two euro so it wasn't going to break the bank. However, when this one also crashed and broke after three flights we decided not to launch anymore. It was good for five minutes of fun though.

 

Back on the metro, we got off a couple of stops early to see the Moulin Rouge. The next time someone complains about the strip clubs in King Street, tell them to come here. It is quite possibly the dodgiest place I have every been in. There is no way in the world I would step inside one of these places... Not that I would ever do so in Melbourne mum... it was about 1am and every shop on the strip was open. Souvineer shops, tshirt shops, countless food shops and lots of shops selling cheap shoes.

Home at last after about 50 hours of travelling I was ready for bed...

 

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