Day 1: We woke up super sore, and after the other people in our compartment left in Brussels, Kitty and I stretched out on the 3-seater benches, and Plato gallantly took the floor. Poor Plato, what a gentleman! I didn't get to sleep much. I was observing what Belgium and France looked like, and concentrating on eliminating my food. The night before, our train was stopped for about 2 hours at Dortmund. Why was it stopped for that long? And why in Dortmund of all places? The answer to those questions will always be a mystery to me. Anyway, I managed to scarf down (1) eggs, (2) a large chunk of my baguettes, and (3) a box of chocolate milk, in the 3-4 hours to get to Paris Gare du Nord. Kitty and Plato were fast asleep. When we pulled into Gare du Nord, we headed straight for the ATM. Guess what? It didn't work for me and Plato AT ALL, and Karen was only allowed to take out FF100 at a time. Lucky Kitty had money with her already. So we were forced to exchange our emergency German money (good thing I brought extra Deutsch marks) at a Thomas Cook. French money looks like Monopoly money, so colourful and papery. We bought our transit passes for the three days (we went back and forth for a long time, looking for other ATMs, asking about transit passes, and trying to decide whether to get money exchanged or to line up at the Tourist Info booth to book a hostel). Ticket Jeune (under 26 only) and the Mobilis pass are the best deals for travel in Paris. We headed for the hostel, and after getting lost, asking around and wandering for a bit, we found it. Guess what? It was full and all the other HI-hostels were full too, so we went back to Gare du Nord to line up at the Tourist Info booth to book accommodation. While lining up, we talked to some girls from Seattle and explained why we were in Europe for the first of very very many times (no -  Potsdam was the first time), and were approached by these kids who wanted to have some of my chips, okay, technically onion rings. (What? I was hungry!) We ran out of patience waiting in the line up and resorted to a flyer handed to us, and headed for Friends' Hostel which seemed like a good deal. We got there, it was crowded and in a low-cost part of town, and on the train ride there some old ladies told us to always keep an eye on our bags, so we were a bit spooked. We got the last 4 beds in the place and just managed to check in a few minutes before the cut off time. However, we had to sleep in the common room with 10 other strangers, there were no sheets (only suspicious looking blankets). Karen told us a bad camping story that involved nits. Yikes! Anyway, we were desperate so we booked 4 beds there and left for Versailles. I took all my stuff with me, because I was feeling very paranoid. We set off to find a bank machine (still no luck) so I had to go to a seedy looking exchange place and then finally went to Versailles. We managed to get lost (this time INSIDE the St Michel RER station, trying to find the C line) but after asking the nice RER people, they told us the cheapest way to get to Versailles on our Ticket Jeune. Do you know that RER trains all have boys' & girls' names? So we had to take Vick and then add a supplement to our ticket at Chaville-Velizy and then continue from there to Versailles. Versailles was pretty and less hectic than Paris, probably because it was just about closing time. After walking around for a bit past some old buildings, we finally found the chateau but were turned away at the door since it was only 10 min. to closing. We just looked at the buildings from outside, and walked around the huge gardens. The gardens were super pretty... we walked up and down the paths until we reached the big fountain in the middle (the garden stretched on forever!) and then turned back since it was getting cold, very windy and we were hungry. After taking a few more pictures and trying to get into the bathrooms (to see if they had diamond- encrusted gold toilets -- just kidding), we were off for dinner at Frenchy McDonalds. I tried ordering in French but I folded after a while. 'Filet-o-Fish' is still 'Filet-o-Fish' in France, and the sauce they give you for your chips (forgot what they call those -- was it frites?) is like tartar sauce. You can also use ketchup/catsup but it's less conventional. To the Eiffel Tower we go (more vomit sightings in action), just in time to see it sparkle on the hour.  When we saw it, we burst in all touristy splendour with "Wow!"s, "Awesome!"s and Plato's "Paris baby! Yeah!" and staring at the Eiffel Tower, photo-taking and video-taping.  Embarrassing embarrassing.  But hey, nobody knew us there so we were really free to act as stupid and silly as we wanted... which is the cool thing about travelling in far away places.  Walking along the banks of the Seine in the rain was nice since on one side we had the Seine cruise boats (like in James Bond's "A View To A Kill") with bright colourful lights and rich old romantic couples on board, and on the other side was the sparkly Eiffel Tower and hordes of tourists waiting to go up even in the rain.  We crossed the bridge to the Palais Chaillot so we could take pictures of the Eiffel Tower in the evening.  Crossing the street in Paris is hazardous to your health.  My shoes kept skidding as I ran across the street, and people drive like maniacs, even in the rain and with all the tourists about.  Totally worth it -- super romantic with loads of fountains and lawns and sculptures, and the view of the Eiffel Tower was magnificent.  More Kodak moments and then off to scout out prices for the Eiffel Tower.  I was obviously temporarily insane when (1) I suggested climbing to the second balcony to save $$$, and (2) didn't want to consider going all the way to the top.  Oh by the way, there are a LOT of vendors selling postcards and miniature Eiffel Towers, so if you're looking for knick-knacks like that, they're there and don't forget to bargain for a good price.  They even price them in US$!  It started to pour rain so we went back to the train station on Champ du Mars (our tickets didn't work for some reason but 2 policemen told us to climb over the turnstiles anyway...cool, police officers telling us to break the law!), did some fancy changes in the Metro and came out at one end of the Champs Elysees (Champs Elysees-Clemenceau) and walked up the avenue at night, towards the Arc de Triomphe.  It was dark, rainy and somewhat deserted so we walked quickly to a better lit place.  This will sound cliche but the Champs Elysees has its own unique charm and personality, plus lots of posh shops, like Lacoste and Celio, where we did some window shopping.  We took photos standing in the middle of traffic in the Champs Elysees with the Arc in the background, then did some touristy souvenir shopping nearby.  Returned to our lodgings for the night, and the accommodation nightmare continued (I left out the juicy details on this!), but I won't go into that horror story and ruin the rest of my adventure.

Day 2:  Woke up early and felt gross and itchy.  I'm not going to go there.  After waiting for a while (very uncomfortable), we rushed out, left our bags at the hostel and off to the Louvre we went.  Why the rush?  It's free-first-Sunday-of-the-month day, so we were expecting TONNES of people at opening time, and we were right.  The Metro was packed with people and it was hotter and stuffier than usual, and everybody got off at Louvre-Rivoli and stampeded to the entrance.  No, it wasn't really that wild, but there was a crowd, and it surged to the Louvre underground entrance/mall with lots of really nice shops.  By the time we got in, it was 10 a.m. so I had exactly 1.5 hours before I had to be at Notre Dame to catch the Grand Mass.  Grabbed a map of the Louvre and rushed to the Mona Lisa, along with many many other people.  On the way there, I looked around at the paintings in the gallery and the artifacts in the halls but didn't get to appreciate them much.  This game was all about getting to the Mona Lisa first!  We got there and it was a small painting in a much bigger frame and there was a big crowd in front.  Managing to weasel our way in, we snapped our photos, looked at it and walked around in front of it to check if her eyes really follow you (they seem to!), and then we split up.  I looked at paintings in the nearby halls (the Club-Footed Boy is creepy like Alfred E. Neuman), then tried to find the Renaissance section, the Dutch and German painters and the Napoleon III apartments but I got lost, and ended up in the bronze spoon and clay pots section instead.  I managed to find my way to the Winged Victory of Samothrace and the Venus de Milo, snapped my pics, then headed out to Notre Dame.  The line was really long by the time I exited, it almost reached the Metro station.  I made it to Notre Dame and joined the line-up to get in fro Grand Mass, but not before I got lost and almost ended up inside the Palais de Justice.  I got a bit spooked by the sign saying that pickpockets operate in that area, so I clutched my bags the entire time.  There ARE a lot of panhandlers outside though, so I bet there's truth to that warning.  I got in, squished with the rest of the crowd and almost crushed some kids and managed to get a good seat for the mass.  It was really spine-tingly and it felt special, even though I could barely understand it, as it was in French.  Good thing I had my trusty Sunday Missal from Australia so I followed along.  After that, I lit a candle (something I started lately) at the Notre Dame statue, bought a souvenir for my mom, walked around a bit inside and outside and had my lunch, which was more gross baguettes and Camembert and the rest of my eggs.  Blech.  Wandered around Notre Dame, took pix at the Palais de Justice, then decided to head back to the Louvre because maybe the line had gotten considerably shorter after an hour so maybe I could get back in and see more of it before meeting up with the rest of my group at the Tourist Info Centre at the Arc de Triomphe later.  Unfortunately, the line was EVEN LONGER, so I just walked around inside the underground mall looking for gifts (lots of Le Petit Prince stuff... horribly expensive for my budget, and really cool vintage posters but not as good a deal as Hamburg) and looking at the re-made moat outside the museum and a photo journalism exhibit, then I went outside to the Entrances Galerie du Carrousel and wandered around the Jardin des Tuileries for a while.  It was very relaxing, but also VERY hot.  I wanted to go to the Musee d'Orsay but it would have been rushed so I hung out in the gardens and later on, wandered around the Champs Elysees some more before the rest of the group met up with me.  When we all got back together, we set off for more exploring.  First stop:  the terrace at the top of the Arc de Triomphe, climbing up all 254 steps with our bare legs!  The view at the top was awesome, and there was a spiky fence to keep you from falling off (by impaling you first)  and it was windy up there.  Refreshing but not the ideal place to wear a skirt -- I see England, I see France, I see someone's underpants!  And we're off to the opera house that inspired the story of the Phantom of the Opera, after stopping by the Arc de Triomphe's mini-museum and souvenir store.  It was very decorative and it was also closed.  Stomachs were grumbling so we went for our first fancy dinner.  Totally decent priced so I went all out with an entire carafe of wine for me (hey! no one wanted to share!), salmon and escargot (we all shared the snails).  Me = tipsy, but I was still good to go for sunset at Sacre Coeur on Montmartre (the artsy area on the hill).  Huge crowd of hippie-like people on the steps, the beer was flowing (in front of the church!), specifically flowing all over my feet as someone in front of me tipped over a bottle of beer and I was the victim the monster splash.  I even got blamed for it.  Argh!  Went inside, with the mood somewhat killed, looked around for a while (lit another candle) and went back to the hostel where we were the recipients of a substantially better private room.  sweet.

Day 3:  Second nice day in a row, the perfect day to head up the Eiffel Tower, which is what we did.  Woke up early, checked out, dumped our stuff in a locker in Gare du Nord, and beelined for the humongo line-up under the Eiffel Tower, between its legs, if you will.  We finally got to the front of the line, after winding around several times and inhaling much second-hand cigarette smoke, and we were going straight for the top!!  Whoohoo!  They have fun-looking tear-away tickets for the Eiffel Tower, unlike the boring green stubs for the Arc de Triomphe.  Up we go, on a slanty elevator to the first level, where people got off (there's a restaurant, souvenir store and a post-office there), and continued on to the second level then we beelined for the line-up for the elevator to the top.  This was another long winding line-up but we took the opportunity to check out the view of Paris as we were waiting for the elevator.  We also took this opportunity to check out the prices at the restaurant on the second level, Le Jules Verne. For our budget, it was insanely expensive -- over FF2000.  After I earn my first million, I may go back and eat there, with my dream guy.  In the second elevator, going up was super scary.  It was kind of small and it went up the middle shaft of the tower.  We were standing next to this older couple from New York, and the man couldn't even let go of the sides of the elevator and was laughing nervously while he looked down.  Looking down freaked me out too, the elevator was going up pretty fast and things were getting smaller and smaller down below.  Once at the top, I stayed in the enclosed area for a while and finally screwed up enough courage to go out and take some pictures and enjoy the view.  You could see the Arc de Triomphe, Montmartre and Sacre Coeur, the Louvre and all the other famous monuments, and they had a wire fence and railings so you wouldn't fall over the edge.  The floor seemed a bit tilted to me though so I was a bit scared.  Add to that all the pushing and shoving by everybody up there, so I decided to leave after a while.  We all reconvened, and after a hilarious elevator ride with a British primary school group and their teachers (love the accent!) talking about having cheese sandwiches for lunch, Plato split off and us girls went shopping at Les Halles.  Since it was Pentecost Monday and all, everything as closed so we had lunch at a McDonalds again and asked some helpful local girls where some shops might be open.  They directed us to this place that had lots of independent clothing stores that sold moderately skanky clothing, cards and some vintage posters and cool stuff, as well as bigger brand names that the other girls seemed to know, like NafNaf and Kookai.  They went on a shopping frenzy, and I liked this pink sundress at Kookai but I didn't buy it, which I regret to this day  :(  Sigh.  The Kookai salesguy was all over Kitty though, showering her with compliments.  It was effective since she went all-out at Kookai.  Shopping went on for over three hours and then we decided to try and squeeze in more sightseeing before we caught our train back.  We went off to find the Pantheon, where Napoleon is buried, and we got somewhat lost and ended up at a pretty church which we thought was the Pantheon, then we backtracked and saw the Jardins du Luxembourg, and finally the Pantheon and some buildings of the University of Paris.  It was very picturesque, in short.  We walked around and had to abandon Karen at a bus stop since she was feeling faint and couldn't come exploring with us.  We bought some relatively cheap French wine at a small store by the Pantheon (run by a helpful American lady) called the Caves du Pantheon or something, and I went scouting for books but nothing interested me.  After that we met up with Plato again, Kitty and I went for Haagen-Dazs ice-cream on the Champs Elysees (I went all-out for quality ice-cream), sat down out by the street to eat it and bought our dinner while Karen and Plato went straight to the train station.  We were really cutting it close for time, so we ran to the Metro, rushed out and ran  back to the lockers at Gare du Nord, got our bags in a hurry (our companions were semi-cheesed, understandably), and made it to the train barely in time.  It is not easy running with bottles of wine and a couple of bags.  In the train, I was in a compartment with a young German family, the dad was somewhat good-looking (he reminded me of Cary Elwes -- Westley in "The Princess Bride") and the little girl was nice (she offered me pretzels), but the mom was a bit stand-offish.  The others got couchettes, so lucky them -- but at least I had visually pleasing, decent compartment-mates.  A long overnight train ride later, my feet were killing me and I was back in Hannover early the next day.

Here endeth the legendary, misadventure-filled, totally entertaining Paris saga!  Au revoir, mes amis!