Darice & Erin do Europe....first stop Paris

Ok, well maybe Europe is an exageration, but we did hit up 3 countries. So I met Darcie at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. I arrived a little before her flight and had to take the Navette (little bus) to her terminal. After wandering around I finally found her we went to the train station and hoped on the train to Paris. We got to the hostel and lucky for us there was still room!!!! We werent able to check in yet because it was lockout (which I absolutely HATE). We dropped off our bags headed out for some food and ate it at the hostel while catching up. We ended up taking a 2 hour nap because we were both exhausted and then heading out to dinner and the grocery store were we got some wine and hung out in the hostel. We met a few people there, a Mexican, Diego and an Argentinan, Joaquin(spelling), who are both studying in Grenoble drank some wine and played some game with them. It was called Pin & Pun(pronounced by them "peen" & "poon"). Darcie and I had a great laugh over that one. We didnt stay up too late because we were both tired. Friday we headed out to Notre Dame and when coming out of it it was snowing. It was shit weather. We headed towards the Louvre and grabbed some food along the way. We saw every kind of percipitation possible. Rain, snow, hai...no fun. When we were in the Louvre we saw a sign saying it was free for those under 26 after 1800. So we headed out of there to the Concorde and Champs Elysées. Because the weather was shit, the ground was just sluch. Our pants were soaked almost to our knees and our feet were wet. We stopped finally at a cafe and got hot chocolate. The waiters were all dressed in sailers outfits so we couldnt pass up the urge, Darcie used her french skills and asked them for a photo. It was great! We each got our picture taken with some of them. Hilarious! We went home to dry off before heading to the Louvre again. It was sooo uncomfortable with wet feet. I blow dryed my shoes, haha. After the Louvre we got dinner and met these 2 Texans, CJ & Wesley and invited them to stop by our hostel. We went back to our hostel to eat and ended up meeting a whole bunch of people drinking wine playing cards and chatting. We went to go out for a bit with a couple mexicans but for some reason never made it to a club and ended up back at the hostel. We hung out there for awhile and I met someone that is from my region which was awesome. Late night, but oh well.
New Years Eve day! We headed to the Eiffel tower after a late start and had to wait in a line for 1.5 hours jsut to walk the stairs. That is right folks....the STAIRS. The line for the elevator was about 3 hours and 3 times the price. Once we made it to the first floor we went skating. There is temporarily an ice rink on the first floor of the tower. I was pumped to go skating though we didnt stay on for long. I though I was going to do the "bambi" and have my legs slide out from underneath me. The skates were crap and had no edges, but oh well, what can you expect when it is free, donation if you want. We tried to go to musée d'Orsay but it was closed early. We stopped at the grocery store got the cheapest vodka possible, and some food for dinner then back to the hostel to rest and get ready to go out for the big New Years Eve in Paris!
We were going to head to the Eiffel tower with our water bottle and juice jug mixed with our vodka, to meet up with some people but in the metro we ran into some people we knew from the hostel and the Texans and they told us we had to go to Montmartre. So we made it there with a couple minutes to spare after running up the stairs to Sacré Coeur. Up at the top we were protected from these guys harrassing us (more Darcie than I, I just yelled at them in French or moreso franglais) by our new friends. Aussie, Jonathon and American, Brandon. Good old France and NOTHING organised people were lighting off fireworks everywhich way and they were even shooting into the crowd. It was craziness and one even almost hit one of the girls with us. After there we headed to the Champs Elysées. We were wandering around there and next thing you know the cops or french swat is making one of those lines with their little shields and all. So we started walking away from this area. Next thing you know a shit load of hoodlums were running towards us. We saw a metro stop but it was jam packed down there so we just got to the wall out of the way. Everyone was a little nervous, I think especially after what happened in Oct/Nov here. So we headed for the next metro stop and off we went. We ended up getting split into 2 groups and meeting back up at the hostel. It was definitely a great night. We chilled in the lobby for awhile before going to bed. It was a blast! Late night and didnt get up with the alarm the next morning. Off to a late start and running to catch the train. Thankfully for Brandon he was on the same train going to Brussels rather than Amsterdam and he helped us make it on time! Good times in good old Pareeee!