Goodbye Reykjavik, Hello Paris

4AM is a really horrifically early time to get up, particularly when you are on vacation. Necessary, though, to get picked at your Reykjavik hotel, dropped off at the bus station, and bussed to the airport in plenty of time to make your 7:30 flight.

Bad news: I should know better by now than to buy the $25 el cheapo suitcase, but I did, and leaving the hotel it fell and threw me off balance which caused me to trip over who-knows-what, and I totally wound up going ass over teakettle onto the cobblestones. Luckily part of what threw me off balance was my backpack swinging around (note to self: use BOTH shoulder straps!) and so I mostly just landed on that. Result: scraped the back of my left hand pretty good, scraped up both ankles, good bruise potential on my shins, and a wicked beating to the pride. At least I stood up laughing!

Got to the airport in plenty of time to check in and hit up the Icelandair lounge for breakfast. Seriously, the Economy Comfort tickets were the best splurge EVER, and will definitely be a consideration when traveling back to Europe! It was actually Second Breakfast for us, as the hotel put out a spread for the early birds that was almost as full (and just as yummy!) as their normal breakfast. I would also like to point out that we did NOT avail ourselves of the free alcohol at the airport lounge. We waited until we were on board and ordered sparkling wine and OJ for mimosas.

And suddenly we were in Paris! The less said about arriving at Charles de Gaul and taking the Métro to the apartment, the better. I got to attempt to dredge up the remains of 4 years of high school French to explain to the non-English-speaking temporary Gardienne of the building that she needed to give me the key and it would be great if she could show me where the apartment was too. And then....we were in! Great apartment. Huge sliding glass doors for windows in the living room and bedroom. It's on the 10th floor, overlooking the courtyard and facing towards the Père Lachaise cemetery. Nice and quiet, very safe building (we need 3 keycodes to get in, plus have a crazy-ass key/deadbolt setup!), and a great residential, non-touristy neighborhood. The only "problem" is that there are too many corner cafés, so I will probably not manage to settle on a local in only 2 weeks' time!

At this point I was incredibly grateful that I had decided to suck it up and go with the building with an elevator, because there was no way in hell I wanted to haul my stuff up any more stairs than I had to. Merrow and I explored the apartment (separate toilet room! teeny dishwasher! 2-in-1 washer/dryer! open up the windows and get a fantastic breeze!) and unpacked ourselves a little. Around 5 we headed out to see what we could do about food and wine before heading to the Seine cruise and Illuminations bus tour I had booked for us.

We found wine at one of the many corner cafés on the way to the Métro. Along the way, we passed so many little local places that just make European city living so different from my normal suburban US-ian life. We had our wine and opted not to order dinner as we were running tight on time. Instead, we went to the local supermarket and bought a container of tabbouleh and some emergency forks (which will live in my purse for the rest of the trip!). Bench picnic for 2 coming right up!

We headed off to our tour, which started with a sunset cruise on the Seine, and then finished with a bus tour around Paris to look at some of the major sites and memorials all lit up at night. Figured it would be kind of cheesy and kind of overrun with middle-aged tourists (right on both counts!) but we also figured it would be a nice way to chill out while still seeing some stuff on our first evening in Paris.

We climbed on a bus for the short drive to the boats. I saw the Eiffel in person for the first time:

First view of the Iron Lady, through the bus window. Merrow says "you'll get much better pics of it later!"

We got to the boat, which was a much more "serious tourist" deal than either Merrow or I were up for. They were taking photos of each group as they boarded the boat, which you could buy after. We knew there was no way in hell we were spending money on that, so we did devil horns and KISS faces. Really, we should probably not be allowed out in public. As we were sitting on board, waiting for liftoff (wait, wrong mode of transport...) we checked out the houseboats moored to the banks of the Seine. I can think of worse places to live!

Me and my houseboat and the Parisian sunset

We cruised up and down the Seine for about an hour. And our expectations were met - relaxing and got to see some cool sights!

Pont de la Concorde

One wing of the Louvre with the Pont Royal

There were lots of Parisians lining the quays of the river, picnicking, drinking wine, and just generally hanging out. Merrow and I took one look at that awesomeness and decided we'd cram that into the schedule too.

Picnicking at the tip of Ile de la Cité

Notre-Dame, in case you couldn't tell by the flying buttresses

We wound up the tour just as it was starting to get dark and so just as the Eiffel Tower lit up the night sky.

Obligatory tilted-to-fit-in-the-frame Eiffel pic

After the cruise was the bus tour. Honestly - not nearly as impressive. But a good chance for us to completely chill out while seeing some sights. The best part though, was the Germans in the back of the bus. The audio guide to the tour had French music playing in between the descriptions of the sights. The Germans decided to accompany said songs. At which point Merrow and I lost it. Our conversation went something like this:

"The Germans are drunk."
"The Germans are singing!"
"The Germans are singing Frère Jacques."
"Badly."
"And in French."

It may have been less amusing if we hadn't been awake for 18 hours at that point.