Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Paris Adventures!!

Alright, now that I'm settled into the hotel, have the internet semi-working, and am back in the swing of school I think it's time to update everyone on part 2 of the crazy week - PARIS. Making it from my apartment to the airport was a piece of cake: 20 minute metro ride to the bus station (where the fiasco occurred the day before) then 20 minute bus ride to the airport. I had never been to the Bilbao airport before, but it's awesome! I believe the architect of the Guggenheim also designed the airport because they have the same artsy feel.

The flight was a little over an hour so we were landing before we knew it and I was beyond excited!! We flew into Charles de Gaulle so we hopped on the train into town; immediately I realized why my friends who have been before said their main complaint was how dirty Paris is and I appreciated Spain's immaculate cleanliness so much more. After about a 40 minute trip full of grumpy people (the stereotype of rude Parisians was proven true numerous times) we stepped out of the station and into Paris!! Surprisingly we found our hotel rather quickly (for those of you who don't know - before this trip I was embarrassingly horrific at directions, I've improved greatly thank goodness) and headed out to dinner. This trip was one of many firsts for me. No longer being allergic to dairy opened up a world of possibilities for me, and where better to experiment than in Paris with your mom?! The first night we had a calzone for dinner and tiramisu for dessert - both I thought were delicious. During the weekend I also tried creme brulée, a napoleon (the pastry), and a few different cheeses. My mom suggested we walk to the Eiffel Tower so I figured why not, good way to start the trip. I assumed we'd have to walk for a ways (she knew exactly where we were) so as we left the restaurant and turned the corner BAM there it was!! Even better, it was sunset so it was an absolutely magnificent sight. I was in awe. We did the tacky tourist thing at the bottom, taking tons of pictures, and then headed to the top!! What a wonderful first night :)

The next morning we planned to take a tour bus around the city. Although the weather on Thursday told us it would be in the high 60's - low 70's and sunny all weekend, Saturday turned out to be a lovely 34 degrees and we were the farthest thing from prepared. After buying scarves and mittens we found the bus stop expecting to wait 10 minutes; 30 minutes later we saw a little note on the side saying that particular route was out of order until October 31st. Frozen to the bone we went to a cafe to warm up and figure out where to go. Brrrrrr. Once we finally hopped on the bus we got to see a ton of amazing buildings; my only complaint is that it made numerous stops for 5 - 10 minutes each so instead of being able to ride all four tracks (each track covered a different part of the city, you could hop around as much as you wanted) we only completed one in 5 hours - being completely chilled probably didn't assist our outlooks either. That was a bummer, but it was still great to see all the big name places before we traveled solo on Monday. Sunday we went to Versailles and took an audio tour which was fantastic!! We got out to the gardens just as all the fountains were turning on so it was perfect to walk through. Monday we planned on renting bikes to get around Paris, but after seeing how crazy/dangerous the drivers were we felt it was best to just walk. We took a tour through Notre Dame, saw the military academy, walked above the Louvre (it was a 3 hour wait to get in - no thanks), went through some gardens by the opera house, and went partially into the Opera house then turned around because there was a very long wait/it was more expensive than we expected and by that point we were sort of worn out. That night we went up to Montmantra (spelling?) for dinner and to see Paris from above. In my opinion, the perfect way to end the trip!!

Overall my Paris experience was amazing!! We hit some speed bumps due to lack of communication from our hotel and the fact neither of us speak French but I wouldn't change a second of it :) My mom cracked me up - she knows a bit of French so she would use a few words here and there when necessary, but then she'd randomly throw in some Spanish or German on accident and it caught me off guard every time. So funny! Great first trip of the semester and so glad my mom was able to be there!! Unfortunately my camera died on the top of the Eiffel Tower and my mom left her camera cord in America (ironic since my dad/her husband is a photographer) so I have a few photos from the first night but won't have any more until she gets home and emails them to me.




waiting in line halfway up the tower, our first clue to how cold it was going to be the next day...brrrr...

2 comments:

  1. Fantastic blog! You should stay in school and get your Masters in creative writing....just kidding.But really a wonderful piece. Great photos and I should know. Love you, Dad

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  2. What an experience! Your blog is fantastic-- I agree with your dad, You should take up creative writing for sure. Loved the photos, too!
    Keep up the great work...
    Much love,
    Janey

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