Hiatus Over!

I am still alive! Despite the best efforts of London traffic and pedestrians and the Tube and scaffolding and everything else in London that was out to get me. It's always hard to pick up again after a few days of not writing, and I don't think I'll get around to transferring the London leg of the trip out of my notebook until I get back. It seems like every leg of the trip has had some odd sort of rationing. The first couple of days in Paris when I wasn't sure I had enough cash, the last day in Paris before London with no batteries left, London with no internet... I would've written something last night and then posted it up this morning before heading out, but I loaned my laptop to this Australian girl in my room so she wouldn't have to pay by the minute just to transfer her pictures off of her SD cards.

So. Let's see. ( Slightly abbreviated, but still a wall of text. )

Lessons learned: London, I am not finished with you, not by a mile. Paris, it is time for dinner and taking care of the rest of those post cards. (Some of you got London postcards, which I mailed out this morning. The rest of you will be getting the Paris ones I'm sending out tomorrow. Turns out I have no idea what to write on postcards, so please don't hold it against me if I resorted to complete nonsense by the time I got to yours. I love you anyway.

Battery Abuse

Two updates in a day, sorry guys. But there are more pictures now, because I have more than half my battery left and I might as well abuse it (there are actually more than that, but I'm running out of bandwidth on my Flickr for this month). There are pictures from the tail end of Paris, London, and just a few minutes ago.

My little walk up to Sacre Coeur was... not little. I'm not sure if this was overlooked in anyone else's study of Paris, but the thing is up a freaking mountain. (Chicago is flat, okay, so this thing is a mountain.) Stairs! Holy stairs, and people. So, my eternal disdain for stairs further cemented (they are now above cobblestone streets, which had surpassed them only recently when I was walking around Bankside in London and twisting my ankle every few feet), I made my way up to the top, dodging tourists, buskers, and peddlers. It was an adventure. And what a view! What a giant rabble of people. Suits and students and all other sorts. They kicked us out at 7:30, so I went in search of food. I ended up with a sandwich and a chocolate croissant, which I ate while walking to the Moulin Rouge. It's amazing the difference between this part of Paris and the part south of the river. In stark contrast to the tiny alleys, austere storefronts and quaint restaurants and cafes of the rive gauche, I just found myself on a giant mountain and then walked down onto a boulevard full of neon-signs and sex shops (mostly in tandem).

Also, the Moulin Rouge is right next to a Quick, which seems to be France's answer to McDonalds (most of them are right next to McDonalds). And across the street is a Starbucks. I... on one hand I find this very appropriate, and on the other... have they no shame?