I don't even think I can begin to describe everything that went on this weekend but I will try to sum it all up
Arrived in Paris thursday night on the Eurostar train (a cool experience in itself) and took about a ten minute walk to the hostel. We stayed at a place called Peace and Love...it was so funny. The lobby was a bar, purple neon lights and all. The room was not bad, much better than i expected...3 beds and our own bathroom. We went out to a little piano bar that night getting pumped for the upcoming festivities of the weekend and...
I GOT A POINT ON THE STREETS OF PARIS!!!!!
the ultimate win...ran into a guy on the streets that I graduated high school with. How crazy!?!? We chatted a little bit and talked about how small the world really is.
Friday morning we found an amazing pastry breakfast place...quiche, crossaint, tarts, everythinggg galore. loved it. We then figured out the metro system...which people in France just hop over with no problem. They dont pay and just jump over the ticket turning thing nbd. Anyways off to the eiffel tower which you simply can not explain or understand at all until you have seen it for yourself. It is huge! We walked around the area for two hours or so. There are a million black guys that are illegally selling little tower keychains and what not...we saw the cops come and all at once the men started to run away..it was so funny. After the tower we went to Moulin Rouge and Sacre Coeur. Moulin Rouge is the red light district of Paris and extremely weird and sexy.....so weird...idk how i really felt about that. But the Sacre Coeur is the Sacred Heart church with an amazing view and was really pretty on the inside...you have to climb up so many steps to get there though...gotta work off the crepe i got before we went : ) nutella and banana yumm. The street leading up to the church was pure cheesy tourist shops. After that we went to Notre Dame which is also the center of Paris.
Then I met the bday boy for dinner!!!!!!!!! We met across from the Galerias lafayette and hung out in the hotel for a bit... my feet were killing me from all the walking! The hotel was really nice...and the bathrooms had awesome wall paper haha...then we went to an italian restaurant across the street....salad, pasta, pizza, and of course tiramisu! It was delish and who can say they spent their dads 53rd bday in Paris!? He then waited for a cab with me...cabs are impossible to get in Paris...especially in the rain. Back to the hostel and out for the night with the crew...3 girls 4 boys...we went to the Avenue des Champs-Élysées area and saw the arc de triumph lit up at night.
Saturday morning we went back to our bfast place but of course had to try different things. Then we went to Jim Morrisons grave... i'm not that into music and dont know that much about him...but this graveyard was one of the most amazing things ever. It was huge (took us a half hour to even find morrisons grave) and each grave was detailed and looked like a piece of art. Morrisons grave was simple...had a lot of flowers..and a really cool tree next to it that people come and sign and write lyrics on...other famous people are buried there too...oscar wilde and some others. Then off to the lourve!!! We got in free with our student ids and didnt have to wait long at all. The museum is massive... I never thought there could be a museum that large...jeez. We hit the famous areas and others along the way...Nike, Venus de Milo, code of hammurabi, and of course good old mona. Mona really wasnt that great...and she wouldn't stop staring at me haha ( I know I am sooo funny). But all in all I really enjoyed the lourve and seeing so many different things in it. My friends and I were trying to apply our new knowledge from art class and identify things...we were occasionally successful. I wish all the captions weren't in stupid french.
Speaking of stupid french...they really don't like us and are really rude when we speak english to them. We got on the metro after the museum and had our first gypsy experience..AHHH. It was so gross and scary but actually really cool to witness. A nice french lady (knowing we were stupid americans) pointed them out to us when they got on the metro. They came in a pact and had the worst body odor i have ever smelt in my life. They stood there and did whatever...got off and got on the carraige behind us...then next stop got back on ours...then got off....they wre laughing and cackling ahhh it was so insane to watch it all happen...people are so messed up.
We got some lunch....they have sandwiches callled croque masseur...its like a grilled ham and cheese sandwich which is amazing in itslef but it most of the time is topped off with a fried egg on top...yumm..(almost as bad a fish and chips for the tummy). We then went to the top of the Galerias Lafayette for an amazinggggdont worry ). We spent an hour or so up there just staring off kind of not believing where we are. Then we went to Napoleons tomb but it was closed for the day...so we went back to the hostel rested our feet for a bit...got some onion soup for din (its just onion soup there not french onion soup, fyi) and then went out for the night. Went out near the eiffel tower so we got to see it lit up at night which was beyond believable.
Sunday...packed up and put our luggage in a room downstairs (kinda sketch but owell) It was gorgeous out!!! (dad might have brought the bad weather?) Went to our bfast place...then to the Musee D'Orsay. Since it was the first sunday of the month all museums in the city were free! The line wasn't too bad but the museum was under some renovations which was kinda stinky. But we got to see a Van Gogh temporary exhibit which was really neat...there were a lot of beautiful impressionists paintings. There was also a really cool model of the city that was under glass in the floor of the museum. We then had time to go back to the Arc De Triumph during the day and really see it and explore that area...we had extra time till our train so we walked around for a bit then sat along the river and chatted..it was so nice and relaxing...
our train was delayed a half hour but wasn't a big deal (we also walked to the wrong train station first) ... and once we got back to london we were told there were terrorist threats here in europe..awesome. At least I am home safe..exhausted but safe. (did i just call edgware rd. london home?)
Overall Paris was amazing...I never want to see ham cheese and bread again...and I am starting to feel very cultured.
Congrats if you just read this entire thing. Pictures will be posted tomorrow.
Au Revoir
WOW! You really had a multi-faceted Parisian experience. I wonder if the gypises you came across were of the same group that got my passport when your Mom and I were in Paris! We weren't as smart as you and had no idea what the heck they were doing to us, until they pick-pocketed my wallet. The food, culture and sights all sound wonderful! Glad you had a magical experience. Love, Susan
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