Pamplemousse

So I'm down to my last two days in Freiburg, and I figured it was time for some updates!

I was in Paris a couple of weekends ago and it was amazing. My feet were really sore, and my backpack was too heavy, but it was awesome anyway.

Things I like about Paris:

The Combo City

If you have one chance to go to any city in Europe, go to Paris. Its big enough to keep you occupied for a while, and to me it felt like all the other cities I've visited all rolled into one. It has great museums and monuments like Berlin, gorgeous Churches and architecture like Prague, crazy moped drivers like Rome, and shopping like Amsterdam - but better. The distinct neighborhoods of Paris provide every kind of environment imaginable. I don't know if it was my favorite city I've visited, but it definitely had the most to offer.

le Tour de France

Without even realizing it, we planned our trip for the same weekend as le Tour de France. It did make things a little crazier during our visit, but it was worth it! Before the race there was a parade, but not with the slow moving floats you usually expect. There were floats made of fiberglass, weaving up and down the Champs-Elyées at 40mph. There were cars carrying people who had to be strapped into harnesses to keep them from flying off the floats into the crowd.  For the last 40km or so of the race the riders make 8 loops along the Champs-Elysées, the high end shopping street of Paris. So for about an hour we watched the riders zoom past us 16 times. Even though I pay no attention to the cycling world, it was awesome. I never realized how fast  cyclists were until I got back all these blurry pictures. My shutter speed couldn't keep up.

Sadly this leads me to the things I don't like about Paris.

Quacking Pigeons.

For your sake, I am going to replace all less savory words with "quack." This is for my own sake as well; I wont have to type profanity for the next 5 minutes. So all was well and good, as we were waiting for the cyclists to ride into the city. We had been doing a lot of walking, so I decided to sit down and rest my feet. Thank goodness I did. Where I was standing, where the top of my head would have been, there was now quack splattered all over the pavement. I laughed at my good luck. Had I not decided to sit, I would have been covered in pigeon quack. Little did I know there wasn't just one pigeon.

A few minutes later, the woman to my left was quacked on. Then the man on my right. It seemed that this was about to be a Quack Attack. People were using foam fingers, sweaters, anything, to protect their heads, but none of us knew when the quacking would happen. I eventually put a hat on so that at least my hair wouldn't get quacked. It seemed like in this group of people, standing under a pigeon-filled tree, I was the only one who had avoided the quack. I was trying to make myself as small as possible, hoping that the wind, and the bad pigeon aim would save me. Sadly it did not. I would have preferred quack on my hat covered head, but instead I got it all over my bare arm. It was a very good thing a mother of four was standing next to us. She had napkins, Lysol wipes, hand sanitizer, and she was my savior. After some quick clean up, and a lot of FREAKING OUT I managed to make it through the end of the race. I had a great view of the cyclists, and an interesting story to go with it.

I wish that quacking wasn't half of my post, but it was probably the most memorable part of Paris, for me. The ridiculousness of the situation left all of us laughing for hours - no quack. 

As I said, Paris was so much fun. Unfortunately it was our last European travel adventure before heading home. I'm so sad to leave! This has been an unforgettable experience, and the best five months of my life. I've never made so many amazing friends, and even though it would mean a trip to the dreaded University of Indiana, I'm so glad I can visit at least some of them state side.

Until next post,

Kate