First arriving in Europe... My First Stop, Paris

First thing I learned was Traveling is HARD. I didn't plan my trip, my trip planned me. I took the only frequent flier flight available last minute to London, which happened to layover in Paris, France for 12 hours. I figured, great! I'll spend a day in Paris. (smart right?) I mean, that's part of why I picked this program... to travel. Anyway, once I arrived in Paris, I realized this wasn't like traveling in the US. I had zero Euro-money, could not remember any of the French I learned in my French-immersion kindergarten... (thanks mom?... sigh, blame Canada?) and I had no phone or internet! Can you imagine!

But, being a medical student, I was resourceful. I got my bearings, some euros, a train ticket, and began the hour-long metro ride to Central Paris. I soon realized that, like the US, France has a lot of excellent graffiti along its metroways! I chatted with a few locals about what to see during my afternoon in Paris, and off i went. So far so good.

I was greeted by a river (pretty much every big European city has one I realize now), and a (less common) outdoor ice skating rink. I didn't have time to go skating, but I did have time for Crepes. Coconut and nutella please. Yum. There's always time for crepes.

ventually found the royal sites, but the line for the Louvre was LONG!

AND the weather was awful. You could barely see the bottom of the Eiffel Tower... 

but still, I was able to appreciate a lot of the impressive architecture...

                  

The churches were HUGE. I also thought these Gargoyles were especially cool.

What really made my day though was the silly French people:

I still have no idea why this was the thing to do, I guess it makes for a silly picture where you appear to be holding a glass pyramid pinched between your fingers.

...coming to my lunch: S'Cargot, cheese soup, french bread, and wine.

Now... snails!!! THAT's why I'm here. It was Perfect.

 

Let me tell you... This was an amazing meal. Click for a close-up.                      

         
I think the craziest thing about Europe so far is that everything is so HUGE. All the buildings are atleast 3 stories tall. It feels like a European "Honey I shrunk the kids". I swear, my legs are not used to all this walking.
After only 4 hours of shops, crepes, churches, snails, and atleast 5 miles of walking, I headed back to the airport to check in. Next stop? LONDON, England.