J'adore Paris

So this past Thursday marked the beginning of Semana Santa, better known to college students as Spring Break. After class on Thursday, Chelsey, Brittany and I caught the train to the airport because we were going to Paris. The trip itself was uneventful; the flight was delayed a little but I guess that’s what you get for flying with EasyJet, which sucks hardcore. What a horrible airline. Whatever. We got to Paris and made our way to the “hostel” which was really more like a really crappy hotel. Not anything hostel-y about it. It didn’t matter because really, we just needed a place to sleep which it provided. That night we met up with Jaclyn, Brittany’s friend who’s studying in Madrid, and we got dinner. We were all pretty tired so we decided to just call it a night.

The hostel did give us breakfast every morning, which consisted of bread, a chocolate croissant, and café au lait. Not coffee with milk. Like real French café au lait. It was delicious.
We decided to kind of do a sightseeing tour that day, starting with the Arc de Triomph, down Champs Elysee and ending at the Eiffel Tower. It was really cold there so the walking kind of sucked but we all managed. Standing in line at the Eiffel tower was the worst though because the wind was just whipping around underneath it so it was cold AND windy the entire two hours we waited in line. We finally got up to the top and the view was absolutely amazing! Sunshine was really the only thing that could have made it any better. It was definitely worth the wait and the money.
As soon as we got down again, the sun came out and the clouds went away which made for prime picture taking opportunities. We all agreed that our pictures kind of look fake, it was that perfect.
Later that day we ended up by the Moulin Rouge which was really cool to see. Nothing special really… A show at the Moulin Rouge costs somewhere around 180 euro. That is INSANE! Granted, I can’t really speak because I’m not sure exactly what a show there is like but I can’t imagine it being worth 180 to see girls dancing topless?
That same night we went to a restaurant and Chelsey decided she was gonna order escargot. We all decided to try one so now I can say I have. Not the best thing I ever ate, not the worst either. I can’t really compare it to anything. It tasted like pesto because of all the garlic and whatever they cook it in. Eh, just a cool thing to say I’ve done (:

Saturday we went to the Louvre which was so gigantic and overwhelming that we didn’t stay very long. We saw the Mona Lisa, of course, and Aphrodite and some cool crown Jewels, including one of those little elephant things they Danish crown wears on a sash? The museum itself was really beautiful and there was a lot of really pretty things in there but like I said, overwhelming.
After the Louvre we went to the Notre Dame which was a lot cooler than I was expecting. I feel like in the time I’ve spent in Europe I’ve gone into SO many churches, cathedrals, basilicas, that I really didn’t think I could do another one. We decided to go because it was free and WOW! There is so much beautiful stained glass, the only light inside is from the candles people have lit… It was really, really pretty. I lit a candle while I was there, for Kasper.

We went to the Montmartre district, which is an old artists’ district of Paris. Dali and Picasso both lived there for a while. It’s made up of tiny streets, on hills, very reminiscent of Lisbon, actually. There are still people there that just sit in the street and paint. The Sacre Coeur is up there too, yet another church, but this one we didn’t actually go into.

Sunday, Chelsey and I got horribly lost in some area of Paris which wasn’t on the map we had gotten at the hostel. Getting lost included deciding to take a train, jumping over and squeezing through the ticket machine, having to figure out a way to get by two big cops and their bigger rottweiler… It was interesting, to say the least.
Overall, the trip was a success. I did get a little bit of estrogen overload at one point though, from hanging out with these super girly girls 24/7. That was the only bad part of the trip. I liked Paris a lot as a whole, despite it being extremely expensive. I guess everything’s kinda expensive to me though, on limited funds. It’s just that in Barcelona I know of all the spots to find cheap food and stuff, whereas I don’t know of anything like that in Paris. The trip gave my French skills a workout… I found myself remembering a lot more than I thought I did, which is really really cool! I was able to have a very butchered conversation with the guy at the reception in the hostel which I would never have thought I’d be able to do.

The rest of the week will be spent enjoying Barcelona. There is only one month until I leave this wonderful city and I want to take advantage of the time I have left. Sometime this week I would like to go to the top of Mont Tibidabo and see the amusement park that’s up there. Also, Montjuic again. I’ll be going to the beach everyday the weather allows (today was awesome, except a bit windy. Might actually have gotten some color!) and just hanging out with some of the people I have met here that are also staying for the week.
A lot of people’s parents are visiting this week which leaves me with mixed feelings… I would love to have my parents and Andri come see me and Barcelona because I have a feeling they would all really love it here and I miss them so much, but at the same time I would rather wait to see them back home and enjoy the rest of my time here with the people I have met here. It’ll make the reunion in May that much sweeter, anyway.

http://gallery.me.com/rakel88/100138