"Bling, bling. Excuse me!" --Paris!

The time has come for me to finally post about PARIS! Get ready, this is a super long one.

So 3 of my roommates and I went on a three day trip to Paris with a travel group that was recommended to us from Capa, our school. Being Capa students we got a discount as well, and the whole thing was pretty cheap! It included getting there and back, a hotel to stay in, a boat cruise, and a tour guide. This all seemed perfect since it was our first trip out of the England, and most things were planned for us. When going to Paris from London, most people take the Eurostar, which takes only 2 hours or so, but it costs about as much as our whole weekend did. So instead, this program took us on a ferry. The only thing that wasn't made clear was that we would be traveling for 10 hours before making it to Paris. Oops.

We left our flat at 5 AM and made our way to the coach, which took us to the ferry. The ferry took us to Calais, and then we continued on the coach. The ferry was much nicer than I expected, including several levels, a bar, casino, restaurants, cafes, etc. When we finally arrived in Paris, it was just getting dark. Our first sight was the Eiffel Tower all lit up. It was a kind of weird feeling, looking up at such a famous landmark for the first time. It didn't quite feel real.

We headed right to a boat cruise on the Seine river. The boat went very quickly, and we tried to snap lots of pictures of the city lit up at night.

Finally, we headed towards the hotel and had a chance to eat dinner. For a Friday night, the area was very quiet. We managed to find a reasonably priced pizza place, with a very friendly waiter who spoke excellent English. After dinner we headed to a bar to have a drink or two. The bartender's English was not even close to that of the waiter, and ordering was a bit of an adventure. But in the end we had a fun but relaxing evening.

Saturday morning we were up at the crack of dawn to go on tours! Our first stop was Sacre Coeur, a beautiful cathedral. There were 180 steps leading up to the cathedral, and as we climbed, the view became increasingly expansive. By the top you could see a huge panoramic view of the city. The inside of the cathedral itself was equally as beautiful. There were some interesting additions due to tourism. On the walk up, there were men who tried to grab your wrist and put a bracelet on you, and then would charge you for it. One of them practically lunged for one of my friends, it was odd. But luckily we had been warned. Also, inside the cathedral, there were penny machines to create souvenirs. You put in one pence, and it pressed into it an image of Sacre Coeur. I thought  that it was kind of bizarre that something like this and several gift shops would be included inside a cathedral, which holds religious value for many people.

Our next stop was Moulin Rouge, which I learned means red windmill. We only saw the outside though.  We didn't spend much time here, but made our way to my favorite sight in all of Paris, Notre Dame. No pictures I could have taken were able to capture how beautiful the interior of this place is (and trust me I tried). I was obsessed with the chandeliers, high ceilings, and stained glass. The stained glass was so abundant, colorful, and truly impressive. Sometimes when I see famous sights, I don't really appreciate what I am looking at until later. But in this case, I was so moved by Notre Dame the moment I was in it. I was really surprised to have this reaction.

After this it was time for a lunch break- crepes! I got a chicken, potato, and mushroom crepe, not a sweet one. It was DELICIOUS. I could have eaten about four. Ordering off of the menu was a bit difficult, but luckily a friend with me knew some key words like chicken and potato. Disaster averted.

The real journey began after lunch. We parted from our tour group and wandered by ourselves. We walked along the Seine River, roughly following the map, with a few sights targeted. We made it to the Arc de Triomphe, of course, which we had seen from the bus the night before. I was surprised by how big it was, and how chaotic! Everyone says that driving in London is bad, but it cannot possibly compare to the driving in Paris. There are lots of traffic circles, including a large one around the Arc de Triomphe, and there is no rhyme or reason involved. No lanes, lots of awkward yielding, and no clear right of way, Our tour guide told us that at the particular circle around the Arc de Triomphe, there is no insurance coverage. Any accidents at the circle are automatically treated on a 50/50 basis. And we definitely witnessed about 20 near accidents while we were there. Sounds like a risky place to be driving!

Next we went to see the Eiffel Tower in the daylight. The Eiffel Tower has got to be one of the most recognized structures in the world, right? Even people who may not have traveled or know a lot about other countries will likely be able to recognize the Eiffel Tower as being in Paris. Well, I learned that the Eiffel Tower wasn't even supposed to be in Paris, it was originally planned to be in Italy! But Italy didn't want it, so it came to Paris, with the intent that it would only be up for 20 years! Its interesting that something that is now so famously Parisian, was meant for a different location and to be temporary! The line to go up the Eiffel Tower was a good 2 hours long, so we didn't try to go. All around the structure there were men selling little models of the Eiffel Tower on key chains. They would come up to us incessantly, offering different prices. They said some really comical things to get our attention too. The first one we heard was, "Bling bling. Excuse me?" Another time a man just said, "Lady Gaga," and held up the key chains. We don't know if it was because we are American (people always seem to know instantly), or because they did it to everyone, but each time we just laughed, shook our heads, and kept walking.

And then we walked FOREVER. We walked for about 8 hours straight, and I wish that I was exaggerating. We walked along the Seine and saw about 100 little street vendors selling art and souvenirs. Here we noticed something really odd that young men in Paris did. Very frequently, as we walked towards them, they would start to make a noise at us, and continue as we passed them. The noise sounded almost like a fake whisper, and was definitely intentional. We could not figure out this out, and found it pretty bizarre. At this point in the trip we made a purchase which may have changed my life. We each bought a huge donut filled with melty, hot, drippy, chocolate. At first we attempted to keep walking and eat at the same time, but that quickly proved to be messy and inefficient. Once you bit into the (wonderful) donut, the chocolate would start to drip and you would keep taking bites simply to keep it together. Unfortunately, this meant we ended up eating them quickly, desperately trying not to cause a chocolate mess. This was all rather futile though, since we ended up with sticky hands, mouths, chins, and sometimes noses. Regardless of the un-elegant way we ate it, we were all satisfied, and continued to rave about the donut for the rest of the day. Even 7 hours later someone would say, "The donut was soooooo gooooooood." Well done, Paris.

One of my favorite parts of Paris was the bridges over the Seine. There were so many and most of them look very different. On some of them, there were hundreds of padlocks linked to the fence. Couples would come to the bridge, write their names on a lock, and put it on the bridge to "lock their love." We walked on one bridge for a very long time, simply looking at all of the diverse locks. We even saw one couple doing it, and said our appropriate "awwwwwww." Our tour guide told us that the police hate this trend, and from time to time they go on to the bridges and remove all of the locks, but within a day or so, the bridges are again filled with locks!

Our last destination was Galleries de Lafayette, where we hoped to do some shopping. However, by the time we FINALLY made it there, we were exhausted, hungry, and needed to sit down. We managed to do a lap through the massive mall, and then went to examining our maps to make it back to our hotel. But, we went in about 6 circles before we could quite figure out which street we were on at which time, and which street we wanted to be on in the first place. It was made worse by the fact that the streets were packed, and we were too insecure about our little knowledge of French (or in my case, complete lack of French) to ask anyone for help. Finally, we trudged back in the right direction, and found a lovely little restaurant on the way. After awkwardly ordering in French, our waitress began to speak a little bit of English to us. Better late than never, I guess?

After collapsing onto the hotel beds and massaging our feet, we decided to check out some of the night life. We were advised to visit Rue de Lappe, a street with lots of bars and clubs. To get there we rode the metro, which was much easier than I expected. Of course it cannot compare to the organization of London tube, but it was very manageable, not packed, and well kept. Better than a lot of US metros, at least!

Sunday morning we got up early and headed to the Louvre, which is free on the first Sunday of every month. This was great for us, but also great for every other person in Europe, so we were instructed by our tour guide how to get in through a back entrance. Later, I looked through the window and saw the massive line to get in. Yikes!

I enjoyed the Louvre much more than I thought I was going to. From the outside, the Louvre looks absolutely huge! But the inside interior of the museum is the most impressive. Some rooms are constructed of huge arches with sunlight coming in from ceiling windows. Others have unbelievably huge ceiling paintings. Some have intricate golden decorating, and other have beautiful red and white marble walls and doorways. The building was originally used as a hotel, and costumers paid for their rooms by submitting art. It was clearly a very fancy hotel though!

 Besides the art of the museum itself, my favorite section was the Italian paintings. I really liked the bright colors, and how they all looked sort of similar. Some of them were absolutely huge, maybe even 15 feet tall! In this section we saw the Mona Lisa, which was perhaps the smallest painting in its section. It was set apart on a wall by itself, and surrounded by a glass case. It was hard to get a good picture of it, since there was a dense mob surrounding it the whole time. I was exciting to see such a famous work, but honestly, I enjoyed the other Italian paintings much more.

I also really liked the rooms filled with white statues. I saw lots of famous ones, such as the Winged Victory of Samothrace and the Venus de Milo, and St. Mary Magdalene. There is a whole floor or so for Mesopotamian remains, which I was not expecting! Another surprise was that none of the descriptions or names were in English! My best hope for learning about the works was to looks for the year they were made. Of course they offered audio guides which were in English, but I was very surprised that the plaques on the actual artwork was only in French at such a tourist attraction. I must be so spoiled by living in London!

While eating after the museum, we happened to start chatting with some Americans! The couple are living in Germany for a few years with their children, as the Dad is working at a military base. They were just visiting Paris for the weekend, as we were. They talked to us for a while about differences in culture, how they are liking living in Germany, and suggested countries to visit. After a weekend of feeling like such a foreigner and unable to speak to anyone besides my friends, I was really relieved to have a familiar experience! While meeting foreign people and experiencing other cultures is exciting and definitely worth while, I didn't realize how much I identified myself as an American until just then.

After our lunch at the Louvre, we began our long journey back to London. The weekend felt a little bit too short, and I was disappointed to be leaving Paris.

I have two regrets about my trip to Paris. First of all, I didn't eat enough food! Yes, that is rarely something that I can say. When telling people that I went to Paris, I have been asked every time about the food. I wish I had eaten more from the street vendors and cafes to better experience French food! Next time I go I will be sure to eat my way through the streets.(But I will be sure to skip the horse meat). Also, I would like to learn some key phrases in French. It was really humbling to go to a place were I couldn't ask where the bathroom was or discriminate options on a menu. Luckily a few of my friends had taken French in high school, and we were able to struggle through, but I wish that I could have done things a bit more competently on my own. Next time, I'm bringing a little traveler's guide. And yes, there will definitely be a next time!