I see London, I see France...

To get to Paris, I planned on taking the Eurostar train through the Chunnel, and since this departed from London I decided to go there from Dublin (having only spent an hour in London waaaay back on January 5th, when I arrived). My hostel was very upscale and swank, and pretty cheap too (coincidentally, my hostel comes recommended in an article in this Sunday's New York Times -- looks like I picked the right one). As an added bonus, a free tour departed every day from the lobby, so my itinerary was already set out for me.

One of the tour's first stops was Buckingham Palace. The changing of the guard was underway, so I got to see all the pomp and circumstance associated with it, from the guards that couldn't respond to you to the band playing traditional British fare (notably "Theme from 'Pirates of Caribbean' "). The flag said the Queen was in, but I didn't see her; she might have been in the midst of Michelle-hugging.

After foiling an IRA attack, I followed the tour to other parts of the city, passing St. James's Palace and then Trafalgar Square. I happened to be in London on the day of the G20 protests, which--while being on the other side of the city--I was very reminded of repeatedly in Trafalagar Square, as there was lots of protest art set up, not to mention lots of pigeons.

Our tour ended at the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. After those I took the Tube over to the Tower of London (the moat is grass!) and the London Bridge, and then spent the rest of the day in Regent's Park, a very green but very big park right next to my hostel. Other than being beautiful, Regent's Park was also the second time I ran into G20 stuff, since the police were crowding a big section as I left.

The next day: Paris! No visit to the UK would be complete without a ride through the Chunnel, so I shilled out a pounds to take it. Actually, the Chunnel is a rather underwhelming experience: since the train is on a lowered track and there are a few tunnels before the Big One, I didn't even know I'd gone under the Channel until I came out the other side.

In Paris I met up with my friend Phillip, who also goes to Beloit and is studying in France. Among the highlights:

*Getting in free to the Louvre on the first night, where I amazingly met one of my friends from Lancaster.

*Taking a free tour of Paris, once again from a hostel, and learning that Louis XIV really loved his legs, the Revolution was started by some guy reading a newspaper, Napoleon liked big things, and that Hitler ordered Paris destroyed but some Nazi general, wanting to spare it, tricked him into thinking it was burning. Our tour guide was from New Zealand, so "their heads were cut off until they were dead" sounded like "their hids were cut off until they were did'.

*The Arc de Triomphe, which is really quite massive when you're standing under it.

*Hiking up the Eiffel Tower, but only to the second-highest level; the line to the summit was crowded and the view wouldn't have been any better anyway. Surprisingly, it wasn't very windy.

*Seeing the Paris Marathon run past, in which a Brit staying in our hostel room was a participant in.

*Getting into the Louvre for free AGAIN, since it was the 1st Sunday of the month (I go to places at just the right time). We got there early, so the Mona Lisa room wasn't all that crowded; it's really not as small as people say. The Louvre, on the other hand, is as big as they say it is; Phillip and I spent a whole day there and we didn't see everything. Some paintings there are massive, especially the 19th century French ones and the ones of Louis XIV's legs.

*Walking through Notre Dame, which had this annoying hunchback swinging on a rope. This guy drew lots of strange views from the French, because this man was actually working and not on strike.

*Pigging out on baguettes and cheese. Didn't eat at a café.

Paris was beautiful, but there was much more to see in Europe. After some brief problems at Paris' crappy Beauvais Airport, it was on to Italy!