Special Price for you my friend....

Hey all,

Happy New Years. Hope your year has started out better than mine....

December 31st

We made it to the Louvre at abotu 830am and stayed there for about 7 hours. It was amazing to see all the different photos, drawings, statues, decore, throwns, beds, etc. The funny part is that after spending that much time there we still did not see all of the Museum. It shows how large and how vast the work that is covered there. I forgot to mention that Chris and I had a multimedia tour, so we could walk it at our leasure and see everything we wanted. Of course, we saw some amazing artists to name a few: Da Vinci, Piccaso, Donatello, Michalangelo etc. Incredible works! We did get to see the Mona Lisa....and I have to say that I was a little dissapointed. This illustrates my lack of culture.

After the Louvre, Chris and I visited a few other places and walked up and down the Champs de lleze (sp?) We also feel in love with crepes....amazing...so good that we had to have two.

Close to midnight we headed over to the Effiel Tower which was colored like the European Union flag. It was a great sight to see. We also met a few Americans there, they were four sophmores from Annapolis. The girls seemed really nice and there family even gave us some champagne.

By the way, can you tell I am not using a french key board? ha ha.

January 1st, 2009

After midnight we headed back the the Champs de Lleze where it was out of control. They had riot police there and everyone was just walking down the middle of the road. Chris and I had our bags checked by the police (chris 2x). We decided at that point that there was no point of hanging out there so we headed back to Gar De Nord (trainstation).

We spend 4 hours there, except there was no heat and teenagers were running wild. It was a little scary. At one point some guy who was a rasta (I only say that cause his friend who stepped in told us that) was about to try and fight me...except he was like 5 feet. After feeling like crap we wanted to hop on the 655 train to get on the Brussels and just leave. Our experience overall here has been sub par.

Before we leave we realize that we have to validate the pass so we get in a ticket line, but we find some bad news...we have to reserve a ticket for this train, and the earlist one we can get on is 1025. Bummer, and to top it off, we have to pay more....this blows.

We wait other 3+ hours and get on the train and make it to Brussels. Once we get there we decide its a good idea just to spend the night here and then set up the rest of the train rides so we don't have this problem. We square away the hotel and then head to the ticket station.

The lady at the desk helps us through the whole process and askes for our global passes. Chris reaches for his in his book bag, and I reach for my book bag when.... ITS GONE!!!!! During out time at the ticket station some guy had asked us a question and he must have gotten someone to take it out from my feet. And out from my feet literally as it was between my legs. The good news is that I have my passport/credit cards/ etc. The bad news is that I have lost my global pass. So now I have to pay for all the train rides. And yes, I did try to talk the police. I waited at their office for 20 minutes and no one was there. I am mad to say the least, but happy he did not take my passport and credit cards. I would have been in much more trouble in that case. I think I paid 160 euros for the whole thing which is cheaper than the pass, so in retrospect we should have done that. Oh well.

Sick of that train station we left, and bought train passes for the metro. The guy told us that it was a special price, and we only have to pay for one...we did some research and found out that the metro is free today! I have been ripped off twice in 1 hour. I hate France and Belgium.

Frustrated and tired Chris and I are at the Hotel now...and the best part is....today is a national holiday so everything is closed.

Don't take this as my being in a bad mood, cause in truth, I am just thankful to be alive and have my passport. Things could be so much worse.

Hopefully I will have better news tomorrow!

Matt

P.S. Chris wanted me to tell everyone that some guy in the streets was talking to us and said "You're american? Do you want some crack or weed?" Who does that?