Monday, July 26

Monday, July 26 - I moved to a way better hostel, the Plug-Inn hostel, in the Montmarte which is right next to the red light district and down the street from the famous Mouline Rouge. Com

pared to the big boulevards that are around the latin district, its much different with narrow streets and guys selling stuff on the streets. I had my first Parisian pizza today, sooo bomb! The cheese here is awesome, but the most unique thing about it was the fat egg cracked right in the middle that was running and barely cooked. I thought it would be weird, but surprisingly it was really good.

I spent the day just hanging out in the parks and gardens around central Paris, and roaming around the Northern part of the city that I hadnt seen. The first picture is back of Notre Dame Cathedral, where a German raggae band was playing. They travelled here from Germany to play raggae music in France but they were singing in English about California, it was kinda a weird coincidence but they were really good. I also spent some time just laying around in the Louvre Park and I drew this picture of my view of the Eiffel Tower and a park where a group of kids were playing. I was kind of in between these cool hedges that made neat rows along the park, and behind me was the huge Louvre structure.

I staying the night with my buddy Mark, who is living in Paris for the summer. We had a few drinks by the Canal Saint Martin, where people hang out at night on the streets. Mark introduced me to Leffe beer, a blonde Belgium beer thats delicious, try one. DO it, do it.

Just waiting for varta to get in today, and were taking a train to Rouen (pronounced like raw) to meet Gustavo, who is helping us with our tournament schedule. The place were staying has a gym and courts, so the vacation part of my trip is over and its time to get down to business.

CMG