January 22nd, 2009 - Paris, France

We arrived in Paris with our Aussie friend Nikki around 3pm. Starving
and exhausted from the back and forth traveling from bus to plane to
bus to metro to other metro, we found the first restaurant we could.
Pizza Pino. We ordered pasta and salads that, as you could have
guessed, were fantastic. Pricey, but we weren't about to be picky due
to our intense hunger... After a good pasta meal, its hard enough to
breathe, let alone walk around Paris, so we walked down to our hostel
and took a late siesta before meeting a couple friends near The
Louvre. We bought a couple bottles of wine and ran around the Louvre
like little kids, taking pictures and laughing so hard that our
stomachs began to hurt. Obviously a bit drunk, we decided the best
idea would be to eat some crepes and find a bar. We walked around a
bit and ended up at the bohemian bar I had visited with a French woman
I met last weekend. We drank some more, and met a couple locals that
spoke very elegant english (which is extremely uncommon for French
people I have noticed...) We talked about many things, but it seems
the topic of conversation for most people right now is Barack Obama.
The discussion was very interesting, because they spoke about being
skeptical of an Obama presidency. They were only really playing
devils advocate, because I know that they are very intelligent people.
It is great to hear other world views. We are really fed the same
things over and over again in our little bubble. The same is true for
every country, as they all have some kind of agenda, but hearing other
views is a great thing that we don't get to experience enough in the
US. The French have a long history of having strong political and
philosophical views that challenge "the norm". After the bar closed, I
decided to walk Nikki back to her hostel, which was a long walk along
the canal by our hostel. It was a cold, lonely walk back, but
fantastic. The lights from all the lamp posts were shining so
amazingly off the canal waters, that it kept me warm. Paris is the
best city in the world. I absolutely love everything about it. We
leave for Israel tonight, getting in around 3am, which would be around
8pm EST. Even though we wish we could stay in Paris longer, we're
excited to see a couple of our Israeli friends one last time before we
head home... It'll be sad staying in Israel without the whole group.
I'm getting very excited to come home though. Not so excited for
another long flight...

See you in Tel Aviv!