I predict a riot

I'm writing this from the world's slowest hotel computer in Italy, so this is going to be a somewhat truncated entry on Paris. Maybe I'll flesh it out when I get home with some photos and details and whatnot, but for now it's going to be a hot list of sorts.

Highlights of Paris:

1) Musee d'Orsay: the museum itself is really cool (it's a converted train station) and there's lots of great Impressionist art, but most importantly we got to see Hammurabi's code. Like, the actual stone stela with the whole "eye for an eye" thing carved into it. It was pretty awesome. (Yes, I am a huge nerd. Yes, I am okay with that.)

2) Eiffel Tower: never actually made it up the tower (guess I'll have to go back) but it was beautiful to look at and great to sit in front of, drinking wine and enjoying our first real night in Paris.

3) Catacombs: probably not for the faint of heart. The ossuary contains thousands of skeletons disinterred from Parisian cemeteries (including Antoine Lavoisier! the chemistry guy! yes, I'm still a nerd) with all the bones arranged decoratively along the hallways. This I will definitely post pictures of eventually. The other great thing is that, since the catacombs are 20 m underground, they were cool enough to require a sweater while the rest of Paris was a sweltering 90+ degrees.

4) Le Regent Hostel: by all accounts, this place should have been miserable. 5th floor room with no air conditioning, pretty lame breakfast, awful internet, kind of awkward rooms with badly ventilated (and badly draining) bathrooms. However, the people we met there made Paris probably the most fun city I visited. Definitely worth it for them alone.

5) World Cup Final: we went with about 10 people from our hostel to watch it on a giant screen right in front of the Eiffel Tower. There was some pushing and crowding, but on the whole it was really good until maybe five or ten minutes from the end of the game. Bottles were thrown, flares were lit, fences were knocked down, and next thing I know I was holding onto Bo and Matthew for dear life, being swept up in a crowd of people so dense my feet were barely on the ground, and covering my mouth trying not to inhale as we hurried through clouds of tear gas. Everyone assures me soccer riots are a quintessential Europe experience, but I think one was more than enough for me.

That's about it for now. I've spent one day in Italy already, but I'll post about that (and maybe add to this) when I have more time and a better internet connection. Ciao!