France Day 4

I let myself sleep in yesterday and got up around 10. Everybody was out and about already except Grant, whom I ran across in the lobby. We decided to go look at Notre Dame as we had only seen it from the outside at night. It is really quite an impressive structure. It has been around for a very long time, but still looks incredible. I have no idea how they managed to put such things together a thousand years ago. Inside it may be even more impressive. The design draws your eyes upward to the expansive ceiling and stained glass windows. As we were walking through the cathedral Grant saw a hundred Euro bill on the ground. That’s roughly $130. He made an exclamation of joy and reached down to grab it. As he picked it up a group of French teens cackled with glee and snapped his picture. It was an obvious fake, and I laughed at him for having fallen for it.

We walked back to the hotel to see if anyone else had woken later than us. Alas, Brad and Daniel were chilling in the lobby. The joined us as we went to get lunch in the main square close to the hotel. As Brad and Grant chatted about how much they appreciated the fact that half the girls in Paris don’t wear bras, I looked at my menu and tried to find something worth paying twenty bucks for. I finally decided on the “Burger done Our way.” I was really excited when I got it, as it looked pretty awesome. It had some really good looking sauce and sautéed mushrooms and onions. I took a big bite and marveled at the wondrous flavor. When I looked down at the place the bite had come from, however, I realized that the burger was not cooked, just lightly browned on the outside. I was eating raw beef. Oh well, I polished it off (I wasn’t about to waste a $15 burger) and worked on containing my nausea as we headed back towards the hotel to meet up with everyone before departure. On the way to the hotel I grabbed a Coke Blak. I’ve heard they’re not so good in the States but much better in Europe. It must be true, because it was amazing. What better combination than Coke and espresso?

The trip back was neat but long. I am pretty amazed, really, that we managed to keep 50 people together the whole way through subway, train, and bus. It is quite an operation to keep that many people together. We made it back last night at around 9, at which time I got something to eat and unpacked, then started chronicling the events of the weekend.