Paris!

Paris

The city for lovers. Up to date, it was favorite city I’ve seen. You hear all the rumors about how French people hate Americans and that they are extremely unfriendly in every way- well I experienced nothing like that. Throw around Merci! Every once in a while, even when a ‘thank you’ isn’t even necessary, and you’re golden.

There is so much to see and do in Paris that it does become a bit overwhelming for a weekend trip. In fact, that point proved to be true for the rest of my travels this semester too. If I never have to pack a suitcase or spend excessive amounts of time waiting around in an airport ever again, I assure you I think I could be eternally happy.

Our flight from Rome to Paris on Vueling airlines- my favorite Airline up until then, on Friday morning at 11am. Which, on Italian timing- where nothings open late at night when you need it, including public transportation, means we had to catch the 5am bus to the train station that would get us to the airport around 8:30. So Maggie and I slept for a combined total of 3 hours (I think I got around 2 and Maggie didn’t even sleep for a whole hour)

We woke up atound 4 and had to walk the 20 minutes to the bus stop. IT was indeed tough but we prevailed. A caffe at the airport and we were ready to board.

We landed in Paris around 4 I think. I think I had a permanent smile on my face from the moment we landed. OH WAIT- the airline! VUeling was fantastic, the flight attendants were so friendly and they even gave us FREE drinks! Which if you have been on a plane in the last 3 years you know it is almost unheard of. Then right before we landed they handed out little itty bitty pieces of candy. I was blown away by even the smallest of accommodations.

So back to the Paris airport- they have these escalator type things without any steps but they incline. So it pulls you up and down these little hills and makes it so easy to get on and off with a rolling suitcase. I was impressed.

After finding our way to where we needed to be via public transportation- we came above ground to find Ibraheem and rain. We stayed with Maggie’s UT friend Ib, who is studying in Paris for the semester. We put our bags down in his dorm style apartment and headed right back out for dinner and the Lourve! Which is free on Friday nights for students.

At dinner I insisted that we try Escorgot!! Which just reminded me of Jenny because I know that she likes it- ew. Its not as chewy as I had imagined, and not fishy tasting at all- but not really all that great either. It’s also about 12euro for 6 or so snails. I didn’t mind the taste at first, but in retrospect is kind of makes me nauseous.

Ater stopping at a cute little French bar we made our way to the Lourve. It is SOOOOOO HUGE, I had no idea. I could have spent my entire weekend in this museum and still not have seen everything. In fact, I think I could go for free after 6pm every Friday for as long I am a student and still not have seen it all.

I’m not sure how proud I am of this fact, but I’m not really into old art. I mean, its cool and all but you’ve seen one picture of Jesus and Mary and you’ve seen them all. Not to say that I don’t appreciate it- I’m just not blown away by it.

The Mona Lisa was no big deal. But I still took a picture of it. I think the allure of the painting is that no one knows really who she is or where she is. But so we even know any of the information about any other painting? I guess.

So Friday night we went back to Ib’s apartment and met all of his international friends! We were in a room with about 10 kids from Sweden, Holland, Italy, England- you name it. We all spoke English though it was the mother language for Maggie, Ib, the English girl, and myself. These people were all fluent in at least 3 languages! I was amazed.

Saturday morning we woke up to a sunny beautiful day! We walked around all day, saw the Notre Dame, the Hunchbak, and Elsmeralda. Then we heads to ­­­­______ were this super cute Italian man was singing cheesey pop songs with her guitar. WE sat on the steps in the sun overlooking the entire city and listened to Yuri play ‘let it be’ while the whole crowd sang along. It was such a perfect moment.

That night, Maggie and I planned to go see DJ Shadow- even though it was sold out I had no doubts we could get in. Low and behold- scalping tickets from French people when you can’t speak French proved to be quite difficult. So instead we picked up a bottle of Champagne and headed to the Eiffel Towel. I was completely blown away at how beautiful and huge this thing was. We sat on benches in awe for a good while and agreed that we would both be proposed to here one day.

That night, we met back up with Ibraheem and his uuber cool French friends at this Canadian girls apartment. Seeing her stunning apartment confirmed the fact that I want to live in Paris. We were slightly pooped and decided to head back early- though not early enough for the trains to be running still! UGH Europe and their lack of all-night transportation really gets the best of me. So we had to take a 30 euro cab home- oh well.

Sunday was pouring rain and cold but we managed to make it to the Champs Elysees and saw the Arc de Triomphe. No big deal.

All in all- I fell in love with Paris. I can’t wait to go back