domingo, 11 de marzo de 2012

Paris aka The City of Lights

We had about a 5 day break after our classes ended so me and some friends decided that we were going to Paris.  We didn't want to pay for a hotel and let me tell you that was an experience.  My host brother lives in Madrid  and was going back home that day so he gave my friends and I ride to the airport which was really nice and saved us money for a bus ticket.  We got to the airport at 8 at night but still had to wait for one other person before we could check in.  By the time they got there the check in was closed so we were going to have to wait until morning.  So we tried sleeping on the floor but couldn't because it was too hard and cold for us to get comfortable so we didn't get any sleep.  Plus it was too bright and noisy for us too.  We were finally able to check in at 4 am and then just relaxed until our 6 am flight.

We went through Ryanair which has really cheap flights but you pick your own seats so if you want a good seat you have to be the first in line.  We didn't know this so we were in the back of the line but we got lucky and got seated towards the front.  Since I had been going on about 23 hours without sleep I passed out as soon as I sat down on the plane and woke back up when we landed on the tarmac.  Let's just say I got a nice cat nap in.  So once we had landed we realized we were at a shady airport and was a little bigger than Grinell's.  We had to take a bus an hour into Paris and then got a taxi ride to our hostel.  Once we were at our hostel we got settled for the day and at our lunch.  After that we explored Paris for a little bit and then went to Versailles which is a famous castle where Queen Marie Antoinette used to live.  It was crazy big and we spent about 5 hours there.  Inside the castle there were lots of gold, a huge ballroom, a chapel, and many bedrooms.  We saw the king and queen's bedroom plus many other rooms.  We had pasteries in the Tea Room but I was disappointed with what I got.  I ordered a vanilla francier and thought it would be nice and fancy.  Nope it was just a dense muffin that tasted a little bit like lemon and was so small so it definitely was not worth what I paid for.  They could have just said muffin for the name instead of francier but I think they say something fancy so that you'll buy it.  After the castle we went to the courtyard which was an hour walk to get to the other side so as you can imagine it was HUGE.  We also visited the Grand Trianon which was the queen's second house which is smaller but it's where she carried on her affairs.  Since we were pretty worn out for the day we stopped at a street vender and ordered cheap food so that way we could get back home.  We were all passed out by 7:30 that night.

The next day we all woke up at 8 am so we were all caught up on our sleep after sleeping for 12 hours.  We were doing a hop on- hop off bus tour the next two days which hit all the major points of Paris and was fairly cheap.  We also ended up finding out that since we were studying in Spain we got into all the museums for free and got lots of discounts everywhere else.  The first stop of the day was the Musee de Louvre which is a huge art museum.  I got to see the Mona Lisa, crown jewels from previous kings, Ramses II statue, and Aphrodite the Goddess of Love statue.  I had a talk with Aphrodite and told her that she's not doing her job very well and that she needs to pick up the pace.  After the Louvre we saw the Catedrale de Notre Dam which was pretty cool.  They were having mass when we were there so it was neat to watch.  Next was the Opera House where the famous opera Phantom of the Opera was preformed.  It's now used for ballets and they built a bigger opera house for actual operas.  The inside was  closed due to practice so we were going to have to go back the next day.  Since we were free on time we saw the Arc de Triumphe.  Two other people and I climbed to the top and it had a great view.  It was 284 so once I got to the top I was about ready to die because I was so out of breath.  That street that the Arc de Triumphe is located on is the most popular street in Paris because they have all the high end stores there.  We saw a Louis Vuitton but you had to be in line to get in and there's no way we could be able to afford anything so we just stared in from outside.  We also saw the Gran Palais which is a museum.  After that we were hungry and stopped at an Italian restaurant and they had the best pizza that I had ever had.  I also overloaded a bit on the bread with olive oil and salt so I was stuffed for the night.  That's one thing i'll be eating a lot when I get home.  That night we took a boat ride around the city and saw some great views and architecture.   We learned that Paris used to just be on this tiny island but then they expanded because they wanted people to stay in the city and not have to leave to go shopping or do things that they needed to do.

On our last day in Paris we had quite a bit of free time since the day before we had packed a lot of things in.  We were planning on going to Musee d'Orsay which is a smaller version of the Louvre but it was closed so we went ahead to the Opera House.  We were able to get inside the Opera House this time and it was amazing inside.  They had this huge golden ballroom which would be amazing to dance in.  Then they had this library which had so many books and I decided that I want a library like that in my house someday.  We then went inside to the theater and it was all red seats with gold accents and a huge chandelier in the middle. After that we walked to Moulin Rouge which is this famous burlesque show that they even made a movie after.  We just got pictures outside because to view a show was going to cost 150 euros and we weren't going to pay that.  Since it's a burlesque show there were a lot of sex shops and erotic massage places on that street.  To say the least we speed walked our butts out of there.  We walked to the Sacre Coure which is a huge church close to Moulin Rouge.  We were all really tired of walking though so we just got pictures from the bottom of it and didn't go inside.  Since we had been walking a lot we thought we deserved some pastries so we stopped to get some.  The most popular pastry in France is the macaroon which is like a little sugar cookie.  It was pretty good and I got a minty flavor.  One of our friends that was on the trip with us is engaged so we went wedding dress shopping.  We thought it was so cool that we were wedding dress shopping in Paris of all places.  She didn't find the one but got some good ideas that she liked.  After shopping for dress we visited the Trocadero which is another museum and then the grand daddy of them all the Eiffel Tower.  It was so awesome to see the Eiffel Tower in person.  Me and a friend had been joking around that it would be dumb to have a street sign pointing to the Eiffel Tower because we were 100 feet away from it and you could clearly see it.  While what do you know we turn the corner and see a street sign.  We thought that was too funny because you had to be really oblivious not to see the Eiffel Tower.  We decided to climb up to the 1st and 2nd floors because the top was closed off.  Once I got to the first floor though I thought I was going to die.  I had done some much walking up steps that once I started to walk on a straight surface my legs were killing me.  This had nothing on the Arc de Triumphe.  Then we climbed up to the second floor and it was just as bad as the first.  It was a little scary walking up because even though you were covered by a metal screen you were still up really high.  Once we got up though the view was amazing and we even got to see the light show from inside the tower.  After that we made the hour walk home to our hostel and since no food place was open we stopped to eat in McDonalds.  Now I know you're thinking that I couldn't have gone anymore American than that but fast food restaurants are so much classier in Europe.  They have two seperate food sections, one for hot food and then one for just desserts.  The floor is tiled and it is a couple stories high.  It's also a place where you take someone on a date.  Now you would never do that at home.  That night I treated myself to a huge chocolate chip cookie after my supper for doing so much walking that day.

The next day it was time to head home so we had to get up at 5 am to catch the 6 am bus to the airport.  Once on the bus I passed out the whole time and then when we were in the plane I passed out the whole time again.  We ended up getting to Madrid around 11:30 am but had to wait for the 1 pm bus so we ate our lunch and relaxed for a while.  Then we had a 5 hour bus ride back to Granada and I ended up falling asleep at 9 that night and woke up at 9 the next morning.  I was so happy I could just relax that day and not have to worry about class.  In Paris I bought a shot glass, a coffee mug with a little spoon, and then a mini Eiffel Tower.  I had such an amazing time there but once is good enough for me especially with it being so expensive.


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