ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE

FIRSTLY, I'd like to point out that whoever thought it was a good idea to exhume millions of bodies from Parisian cemeteries in the late 1700's and throw them underground in a festive manner is a total whack. Forget everything I said about climbing to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral.... climbing underground to the catacombs in Paris is by far the scariest thing I have ever done. I paid €3,50 to get into this cave of complete doom, and began to descend the 80-some steps down a limestone spiral staircase. Note to self: spiral staircases are the bane of my existence. Once I got down there, the German family who went down before me had magically vanished and the English couple who was behind me in line got stopped at the ticket counter. Of course I' suddnly all alone. The first few miutes of walking down there aren't lined with bones... its just a hallway about 6 feet high and maybe 5 feet wide. There was about a foot of space between each of my arms and the stone walls, walls of which were soon to be made of centuries old human remains. The whole time, the tweaked out trigger in my brain was screaming BAD IDEA BAD IDEA, and I could hear my dad's voice in the back of my head saying "Ooooohhhhhh this isn't right...." This was all before I got to the bones. I finally caught up with Mr. and Mrs. German just before we entered the ossuary, which is noted by a sign hanging above the doorway that says something in French, which looked like "This is the creepiest thing you will ever do. These are DEAD BODIES... go away." The catacombs were created partly because Parisian cemeteries were becoming so congested that people in neighboring buildings and homes were falling ill. So obviously it makes sense to allow the public to tour this cave of death and disease. The bones weren't as scary as I thought they were going to be... BUT, if you were to not watch where you were going or trip on a rock, you are falling face first into a pile of rotting human skulls. NO THANKS, dead Parisians. I enjoy doing things that scare me a little, but geez. I really thought I would come out of there possessed by the corpses of millions of dead Parisians. I sprinted the 83 steps to get out of there, and at the top when I was totally out of breath and shaking, there was an employee who insisted on checking my bag for any stolen bones. Right.

Before that, I slept in and woke up just in time for 11:30 mass at Notre Dame Cathedral. If you ever get to come to Paris, mass at Notre Dame is an absolute must. Last night, we did go to the Eiffel Tower to eat dinner and watch the light show. Little did we know, Paris is hosting an international dance festival this weekend, and last night was the first night. There were giant pods of speakers blaring strange techno punk music, surrounded by giant mobs of people "dancing" and throwing champagne all over each other. I came to Europe to experience culture damnit, and I will experience it; even if I have to be showered in champage under the Eiffel Tower to do so. ;)

I leave Paris tomorrow morning to catch a 6:30 a.m. train to Amsterdam and begin my week of lone traveling!! Hopefully I can find a decent internet cafe asap... wish me luck & see you in the Netherlands!!