Travel Update! - October 11th
It's been a while, hasn't it. I wonder if you missed me. I missed me too. I write to you from a pub in a hostel in a little alleyway in Rome. I made it all the way to Italy! Aren't you so proud.. I am. I'm incredibly proud actually.I sit in this bar, slightly starving, incredibly exhausted, and seemingly well-dressed given the circumstances. My flight from Paris to Rome began at 6:20am, so I was in the airportfor 4am, so I was bussing at 2 am, so I was getting drunk as a skunk under the Eiffel Tower at 12am, so basically I'm tired and have been awake for a long time. But before I pass out, let me recap Paris for you real quick. I love hostels, I ended up in a toga and dancing a lot, I ate too many crepes, I got a little crush, I watched 7 different proposals (and a brass band), I made new friends, I kissed 3 people while I was drunk, I walked a lot, I ate a baguette for breakfast every morning (they're so cheap!), and I liked it a lot more than I was expecting. 
Now let me recap Paris with a bit more explanation. I spent the first night in a hostel in Paris' chinatown. Super sketch - would not recommend, but I met a few really unique people, including a guy named Glory?? who is a professional french boxer. I was thoroughly impressed until he asked me to get a drink with him and I started thinking how hard it would be to fight off a boxer if I had to. And so I left that hostel. Don't get me wrong, I didn't leave because of him! I left because I had already booked a different party hostel for a couple days and I had to leave anyway.The party hostel is part of the St. Christopher's chain, and it is built for people who want to make out with foreigners in the darkness of night. Just kiddinggg. It's not like that. (I see you mom, you got all scared for a second there.) They did, however, have beer pong, toga parties, mojito mondays, 2 for 1 cocktails, and euro shots. So, basically, I had a great time.
I met Leo in my room the first day, and we went down to the bar to get a run of the place. Leo is a 26 year old british pharmacology student. He loves to take off into the mountains, rock climb, and sell books to children in Australia out of the back of his van.This is Leo.
He's pretty cool. We spent a while together, following strangers to art shows, trying to spot tourist characteristics, taking too many peach schnapps shots, and trying to name how many cities have arcs de triomphe (the answer is a lot).While toga partying with Leo, I met Rhys and Daniel, 25 year old Australians in their 6th week of European travel. They truly made the trip for me. (I'll explain why later). Daniel sold his pet store business and took off with the money and Rhys is on leave from his police officer job so they figured fuck it, why not.
Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures of them. This is from their instagram, while we were on the Arc de Triomphe. Lovely, hilarious people. And always down for a party. I ended up at the Catacombs with these people. And also Nicolas. Daniel and Rhys met Nick in Budapest two weeks ago and they decided to meet up again to check out some dead people, so I followed them around from one cemetery to the Pantheon (bigger, fancier cemetery), to the catacombs. Nicolas is multilingual Canadian going to school in Switzerland. He happens to be the biggest encyclopedia of random knowledge and can easily make me second guess everything. Which is great, cause not many people can do that.I spent the next day with Leo, walking from one side of Paris to the other and back again. We actually ran into Daniel and Rhys at the Lourve while out on the town, so we joined forces and sat down for a bite to eat. Soon after, Nicolas showed up, complaining about how difficult it is for him to get a visa for China in time to get an all expense paid trip to China. Poor guy.At this point, the aussies left us for the Moulin Rouge and Leo, Nick and I started meandering for food. After almost collapsing from hunger (not really), we made it to this amazing Indian restaurant. Best spice of my life. I was so happy. Thoroughly and unequivocally happy. I love indian food. 
The next day was my rest day. I had to book tickets, book hostel rooms, do some homework, get stuff done. I also checked out of the hostel that day (yesterday), so I went to do laundry, and get some much needed winding down. Nicolas showed up at the hostel bar and sat with me all day while I pushed through some fairly unimpressive college discussion. I'm sure he was just waiting for the Aussies to come back, but I was flattered regardless.We all went to the Eiffel Tower, picked up some extra travelers ( 2 girls from Florida, a girl from New Zealand, a Vancouver, 2 girls from Toronto, and a very posh, very french, friend of Nicolas'), and got white girl wasted. We were the utmost cliche. 9 bottles of wine, 3 baguettes, 2 rolls of cheese, 5 sheets of ham, and nutella, just to top it off. It was amazing. Truly. Amazing. We lay in a cuddle puddle below the tower, drinking and laughing, taking in all the lights. It was something out of a fairytale. That is, until I had to pack up, take 3 busses, and get on a goddamn flight to Rome. (No hate tho, Rome is great so far!) But that's a story for another day.Till next time guys. Love you much. bye b-bye, bye bye b-b-bye bye bye.