We made it

We have arrived in Europe and have had no major glitches. Our flight from Montreal to Paris was delayed by 2 hours due to lightning, but otherwise, no issues. We arrive in Paris around 9am and took their metro train into the city. Since we did not get much sleep on the plane, we had very little energy to explore much. So, we looked at Notre Dame from the outside, sat on a park bench and slowly made our way to the train station. Note to self...find a place for the backpack before trying to do much of anything. It was so hot and muggy yesteray and packs feel like they weight a thousan pounds. It took two tries to find the right train station, some weird language barriers, a man in the women`s restroom, a near brawl between two women in the restroom as well...and we were ready to put our feet up and sleep. We found a spot in a park nearby and almost instantly fell asleep in the grass. We woke up to three little French girls playing a game with a ball next to us. It was cute to hear them giggling and yelling. I`ve been a little nervous about the language difference. It`s challening trying to communicate and I feel like they get a little frustrated with me as well. That`s all a little stressful. So, it`s been a bit of a roller coaster, but we seem to be managing okay. It was just been a big first day.

We got on our train later that night. Unfortunately, due to space limits, Phill and I not only had seperate sleeping quarters, but seperate cars altogether. It was a little strange, but I really lucked out with my cabin mates. One was a very nice older Italian woman that spoke relatively good English and the other was a Brit. It really makes you feel like a loser when they all speak 3 or 4 languages and you speak one. I feel like that obnoxious American that expects everyone else to cater to me. They were both great though and very helpful which really put my mind very much at ease. I slept great and the rocking of the train was actually very pleasant to sleep to. And Phill and I even found each other this morning in his car. His cabin mate got off at an early station, so we were able to share his room for the final couple of hours of our trip.

So, now we`re in Venice for today and we`ll spend the night here and part of the day tomorrow. I`m not entirely sure what our plans are, but we intend to get a pass for this water ferry thing to get us around town. Our first goal was to find internet and our second will be to ditch our bags! And then we`ll be free to explore. So far it seems very charming and the heat is not too bad...yet.

More later!