Paris Part. 1 (of many)

So! I went to the beautiful city of Paris for my birthday and for New Years Eve with the Kunkel Family. They are extremely nice people, the father, Joachim was very funny. (He knew the Monty Python "Whats the simmilarity between American beer and sex in a canoe joke?") His girlfriend Annie, and his son Christof were also very sweet. Annie's son is in New Jersey right now with YFU (Youth for Understanding).

Dec. 30 (my BIRTHDAY!!! 17! Wooo!)
The first day was our travel day. They arrived at the Meissner's house at the crack of dawn with their packed BMW and wished me a happy birthday as they helped me carry my bags to their car. Elke had baked me a cake which we brought with us in a tupperware. I promptly conked out in the car (as I always do on those sweet sweet smooth German highways) after talking to them for a bit and introducing myself.

The drive to Paris takes about 4 and a half hours from Neustadt. I woke up as we were hitting the outer edges of the city.

We navigated the crazy roadways in Paris without much difficulty. If you have never experienced them, a small example would be how that there are sometimes just no stoplights in very busy intersections, or when there is a large curve that is coming out from under a El bridge, there are no more lane markers, and all the drivers dive for the short corner and the right turn. We got to the hotel. An Ibis, the Best Western of France. We parked the car underneath the hotel, where it was to stay for the entirety of our stay. The hotel was very French. Sparse, 2 beds, a barley functioning TV, and a bathroom. We unloaded and unpacked then hit the town.

We got 3 day passes for the Metro, which let you go anywhere in the entire city on the very good, but very packed underground system. We went around to the Eiffel Tower, saw the gardens around it, and just stared up at the grandeur of it. When it became dusk, it was lighted and the sparkeley lights were tested out, which was very cool. Ohhh Napoleon must have been so happy with it. Made him feel like a bigger man.
(In more ways than one)

Later we moved on to the Arc de Triomphe (I know I spelled it wrong, but you know what I'm talking about) and the Avenue Champs de Elysees. Packed with people, shops, stores, cars, lights, and just everything. Paris was hoppin.

We moved off onto a side street in search of some food. We found a TINY italian restaurant that was smashed between two other shops and hustled inside from a weirdly warm Parisian night. The service was quick, good, and the waiter was really funny.

What I had:

Beef Carpaccio (i think)
Raw beef shaving things, with olive oil and balsamic. served with parm and other cheeses thickly grated on top in big chunks. with good italian bread.

Pizza Diablo
which is pretty much margarita pizza with really hot hand made salami

Both were excellent.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel to get a good nights sleep for the adventure that lay before us on the next day.