PARIS

PARIS!!!!! So I have a lot to update everyone on. We had a free weekend this week so five of us decided to go over to Paris for a few days. Wednesday morning we all got up early and headed off to the train station. We took the Chunnel under the English Channel over to France. We were all so excited to be there it was a little embarrassing. It is interesting to me that I felt so safe in London and in Paris I almost immediately felt more vulnerable. Im sure it was the language barrier and the fact that none of us spoke any French but still I didn’t feel entirely safe. We got lost quite a bit too. The metro was difficult for us to understand and we were a little frustrated with it. As soon as we got there we dropped our bags off at our hotel and decided to go explore the city. Without even asking we all just started walking towards the Eiffel Tower. It was a beautiful day out and we were all just so ecstatic to be there. We stopped for lunch at a café on the way and the food was NOT good. However, they did give us free dessert which was ok…I think it is funny because I have heard so many stories about how the French are so rude to the English so when they gave us the dessert someone in our group commented saying “and I thought the French were supposed to be rude…” They were probably nice to us because we were attempting (might I add pathetically) to speak French. After lunch we kept walking towards the Eiffel Tower. I don’t think any of us realized how far it was but it took a few hours. We finally got there and we were all like little kids on Christmas. We climbed the first two parts of it and then took the elevator to the top. We got really lucky because the weather was unbelievable. We were up there as the sun was beginning to set. We got so hyper at the top and im sure everyone was more than a little annoyed with us. After we got down we all took a short nap underneath the tower. It was getting dark so we decided to walk back towards the hotel. We found some authentic crepes along the way that were AMAZING. This started my binge on desserts and fattening French food for the weekend. The first day was probably the perfect day in Paris. Well almost everything was perfect except our tiny hotel room. It was nice but about the size of my closet.
On the second day I was really excited because my parents flew to Paris to see me! I was so happy to see them. We spend the day together going to the Louvre which was amazing to me because I am kind of an art history freak. Needless to say I loved the museum but it was still a little overwhelming. It is impossible to see it all in one day so I found a few sections that I had to see and we called it a day. After we went shopping and got some gelato. After I went back to hang out with my parents and we went to dinner. Later we met up with the gang at the top of the Arc de Triumph just in time to see a dazzling sunset. There was a storm coming in so behind the Eiffel tower there were lightening strikes every so often. We were having a hay day taking pictures! Then we tried to get back to our hotel which proved to be a much more difficult task than we had imagined. We got lost in the metro (again) with no one speaking English. Everyone was a little sketchy and we almost got pick-pocketed by a few ten year old boys. After about an hour we finally made it back and passed out in our beds.
Day three: we met up with my parents again and we went to Notre Dam. What an amazing building. I was blown away. After we went to Sacre Coeur on top of a hill that looked out over all of Paris. It was a beautiful area with art venders and cafes all around. We shopped and had some (disgusting) lunch. I don’t understand how the French can stand to eat flavorless, rock-hard bread, loaded with cheese… I was NOT happy with the food there. Everything was very plain and tasteless. That night I went back to my parent’s hotel and went to dinner and to a jazz concert. It was very relaxing. But as soon as our Paris adventures started they were over. Coming home was sad but at the same time we were still going back to London….so it wasn’t that sad. Now we are home and tonight we are going to go to Harry potter. Im excited!