Paris....Bonjour....Au Revoir

I loved Paris. I got to see everything. :) 

The weekend started out Friday morning. I woke up Friday at 6:30am because of a nightmare. The nightmare consisted of me waking up and going to the bathroom. Our other 2 rommates were gone for the weekend. When I went to the bathroom...their bedroom light was on. I freaked out and went back into my room to wake up Bliss. Bliss and I went to the kitchen and grabbed some knives. We walked into their bedroom and a man was sitting in the corner and came running at us. I woke up right when that happened. I had a really hard time falling back to sleep after that nightmare.

The actual weekend started at 10:15am when we met Tynisha and Tim to go to the train. When we were going through security at the Rome airport, we witnessed a nun getting patted down!! :0 I was starving so I got a disgusting salami sandwhich from a little booth. I didn't even finish the thing because it was so gross. When we got on the plane, we had to check our luggage. We took a cheap airline and they could only have so much baggage as carry-on. So they wouldn't let us put our luggage in the overhead things. We ended up having to wait at the baggage claim to get our luggage.

We took the Orlybus to a metro once landing in Paris. I was the only one of the four of us who got on the bus. The bus driver decided there were enough people on the bus...so he started to shut the door. I freaked and told him I needed to get off. Which I did. Tim told me I should have stayed on. I was like...are you kidding me, I have no idea where we are going, I am not riding a bus by myself in Paris. Crazy!?!? Tim said I just had to get off on the last stop. Turns out that wasn't the case at all. If I would have stayed on this bus, which there is absolutely no way I would have, I wouldn't been lost.

After getting off the bus, we had to take the metro to another train. Then we had to walk up 192 steps (or marches as the sign said) while carrying our luggage. I was basically crawling by the end. After a little confusion, we found our hostel. We stayed at the Caulain Court hostel. Our room was a 4 person room with 1 bunk and 1 double.

We didn't get to our hostel until after 5pm. We decided we would end the night with dinner and a view of the Eiffel Tower at night time. After taking 20 different trains to get to the Eiffel Tower, we had dinner. Our dinner costed us 91 Euro for the four of us. It was the most expensive meal I have eaten since being abroad. I had a delicious burger and fries. After dinner, we walked to the Eiffel Tower. No picture will ever show a true picture of the Eiffel Tower at night. Especially when it lights up!

We walked from the Eiffel Tower to a military thing. None of us were quit sure what it was. Then we continued to walk to the St. louis Cathedral. Which was absolutely gorgeous, especially lit up at night.

On our walk back, we had the typical guys on the street selling items, most of which were Eiffel Towers. One man said to me, "Oh goodness, Sexy Girl!" While under the Eiffel Tower, Tynisha and I were harassed by three guys who kept yelling "Hello" at us. Oh, and I guy from another country came and took a picture with me and Tynisha. We weren't really sure why...but we went with it.

I had to use the bathroom really bad, so we found a public toilet. It was the most complicated thing I have ever used. I was right next to the Eiffel Tower. Only one person could use it at a time and it was huge. You had to wait outside for the green light to show. The the door would open and you would enter. After the door closes, you can push a button for instructions, which of course wasn't in English. Once you finished, the toilet wouldn't flush. But once you left, the door closed and the light turned blue. The bathroom was than completely sanitized (the floor, toilet, and sink). It was ridiculous.

We had to take 20 different trains to get back to our hostel. I about fell asleep on the train. My feet were in pain from all the walking we had done. I hadn't come across any rude people. From what I heard prior to coming to Paris, the French hate Americans. But I never had any problems. 

On Saturday, Bliss and Time went to Varailles (or however you spell it). They left at 7:30am and didn't bother being quiet while they got ready. Typical. Tynisha and I didn't wake up until 9:30am. We planned to spend the entire day in Rome. I paid to see Rome...and that is what I was going to do.

Tynisha and I started at the Eiffel Tower. We then walked all the way to The Louvre. We underestimated the distance, but we ended up finding a nice little path all the way there along the river. We had originally planned on taking a tour bus called the Batobus. However, we were unable to locate it while at the Eiffel Tower. As we walked to The Louvre, Tynisha pointed towards the river and said "there is the Batobus!" I was really confused...since I was looking for an actual bus. Turns out the Batobus was a boat on the river. Ha!

The Louvre was great. I am really not the museum type..but this was definitely worth it. The outside was gorgeous. The pyramid was amazing. The inside was huge. It was like a maze. And in the very center of the maze was the Mona Lisa. It took us quit some time to finally find the Mona Lisa, but it was definitely worth it. The artwork inside The Louvre ranges from Egyptian to Roman to whatever your else your heart desires.

After The Louvre, we took the Batobus (now that we knew what it was) to Notre Dame. Notre Dame was a jaw dropper. It was absolutely gorgeous, inside and out. I was obsessed with trying to get to the bell tower to locate Quasimoto from the Disney movie "Hunchback of Notre Dame." Unfortunately we were not allowed up. :'(

Tynisha and I had lunch at Subway. This Subway didn't have any ranch dressing...which I was thoroughly disappointed about.

After lunch we walked to the Latin Quarters on our way to Luxembourg Palace and Gardens. The Luxembourg Gardens were amazing. It was huge and green. I believe it was the most green grass/plants I have seen since arriving abroad. However, it was really open right in front of the palace. Which resulted in a lot of wind. Tynisha's umbrella ended up breaking or "dying" as I liked to call it. The wind was so strong that I thought I was gonna blow away. We kept saying one of us was going to take off into the air like Marry Poppins.

We then started to head back to the Eiffel Tower. We realized that it was a long walk and didn't want to go the whole way on foot. So we figured out the bus system. We took the bus to the abalisk. Then from there we walked to the Arc...which was a lot farther walk than we anticipated as well. That is one thing I hate about large monuments/buildings. They look like they are close, but you never seem to get any closer to it. By this time, my feet were burning.

The arc had some type of military ceremony going on right underneath it. So we weren't able to touch it or anything. But we got a couple pictures from across the street. And we used a bus to get back to the Eiffel Tower. At this point, it was a little after 7pm. We decided we needed to do some bargain shopping with the street guys. We got a couple of souvenirs at really good prices and headed back to the hostel. When we got to the hostel, Bliss was laying in bed and Tim had his comfy clothes on. We all ended up going out to eat. Then I went right back to the hostel to bed.

On Sunday, our plane left at 9:45 am. We had to leave our hostel at 7am. It was a very short weekend and I really wish we had more time. We basically had one day in Paris. It makes me really sad. Cause I feel like I was rushed through everything. Paris was the top place I wanted to visit, followed by London which is coming up in a few weeks.

Needless to say, I had an amazing time in Paris and would definitely like to go back someday. Next time I will definitely plan more time in the area so that I don't feel rushed. :)