Paris!

After America. Central America, the Caribbean, South America. Africa, Asia I came to Europe to see what western civilization could teach me that I didn't already know. I came because there is some strange desire and urgency to continue traveling as much as I can before my 30th birthday this May. I came most of all though just to get out of my head. Visiting friends that live on a farm in the Northeast of France was reason enough, the rest just followed.

And so here I am. Paris looks like any other neglected slum passing through the eastern suburbs from Charles de Gualle. I don't speak French so I hold the crumbled note in my hand dearly lest I get lost before I even arrive. My host's directions hold true, and before I know it I'm meeting them outside a metro line in northern Paris near the canals.

Her name is Chiara and she is my host for the next two nights in the city. By host I mean she is simply going out of her way to let me crash at her place free of charge and show me around the city as much as her time allows. Which isn't much, she is a journalist on the move...

We wasted no time. After some chatting and an espresso in her tiny shared kitchen we went out for a stroll. The weather was fine and unseasonably warm. Swarms of people are enjoying the day at the park. A few espressos later we were on the metro to central Paris. Chiara went off for a work conference while I wandered the fashionista boulevards feeling quiet lost. But was found when I chanced on an enormous park crisscrossed with neatly arranged avenues of trees framing tall building, statues, and even the enormous Arc de Triomphe far off in the distance. This is quite a place...

Later that evening we met a friend of Chiara's in south Paris for an incredible dinner of moulles frites, steamed mussels with heaping bowls of french fries and topped off with glasses of delicious Belgium beer. All around us at small tables peoples just off work of all ages were doing the same. I couldn't understand anything people were saying but we were all speaking the same language if you know what I mean. What a delicious way to arrive in Europe.