Bonjour Pari!

This weekend we were able to free travel – and a group of us of course chose Paris! I had never been to Paris before and the idea of going was completely surreal to me. I had always imagined going later in life and never imagined I would go so soon. We would only be there for less than 48 hours so we had to cram a lot into such a small amount of time.

Late Thursday night we headed to Madrid. It’s difficult to get from Alcala to Madrid at late hours because the trains stop at 11:30 – kind of like the train system between New Canaan and NYC. Anyway we got to Madrid and went straight to Puerta del Sol to see who would recruit us to come to their parties. Sounds funny but people literally come up to you and give you different offers to their clubs. We ended up going to this place called “Moondance” – just as hilarious as it sounds. There was more lounging space than the other places we’ve been to… and a lot more creepers. We got there fairly early (12:45am) compared to when other people normally go out. Let’s say the early birds aren’t always the cutest. But Ashley and I had a blast – we always do, wherever we go. We left and headed to catch the bus downtown to the airport, on a strict schedule in order to prepare for any problems we may have encountered. Everything went incredibly smoothly and we got to the airport really early. I didn’t realize that some airports actually close when there aren’t red-eyes or anything coming in or leaving. There were tons of people just sprawled out on the floors sleeping. I said to Kip and Ashley that if I were a homeless person, this is where my hangout would be. We were also flying on the most budget airline out there and didn’t realize once the counter opened that seating was first-come-first-serve. Not only that, but we were shuttled on buses to the plane at 5am in the freezing cold – Ryanair proved to be what I paid for as I sat in a Mexi-packed bus waiting for the doors to open so we could all sprint to the stairs of the plane to see who would get first dibs on seats. 5am is not the time to be doing those kinds of things. Once on the plane, we all passed out on the non-reclineable seats. We flew into Paris – Beauvais which is about an hour outside of the main city. We hopped off the bus and began our adventure in Paris!

The weather was a bit overcast but warmer than I expected. It was a humid, stormy warm if that makes any sense. Our first frustration and pretty much only stressful situation was not knowing French when trying to buy our metro passes while there was a massive line behind us – we live such troubled lives. We stayed at the Peace and Love Hostel off of the Jaures metro stop. Peace and Love Hostel – there are no words to describe the love/hate relationship we all developed with this place. There was a bar at the bottom, which was its lobby and where we checked in. It was quite the task getting everyone situated so we were all together – and didn’t end up working in the end, but oh well. We dropped our things off and headed straight for the Louvre. I was awe-struck by the incredible buildings, fountains and the infamous glass pyramaids in the courtyard area. The entrance into the Louvre was amazing. We unfortunately didn’t have enough time to fully appreciate all of the artwork there, which I am mad at myself for, but granted we only had 48 hours to see as much of Paris as possible. I got to see the Mona Lisa, the Wedding Feast, Michelangelo’s The Captive and lots of other beautiful paintings. It was only about 1pm and we were already starting to feel the affects of minimal hours of sleep. As we walked through the Louvre, we ran into the other group of BYU students who were visiting Paris with us – such a strange coincidence! We made tentative plans with them since no one had cell phones. After we walked over to the Notre Dame. The walk there was enough to make me happy with the beautiful river and bridges we walked along. On our way, we ran into the other students from BYU who were staying at the hostel with us – another really weird coincidence. We stopped in a café to grab our first French meal, which was delicious.

The Notre Dame was like a scene out of a movie – which I’m sure there are a few movies. But anyway, it was massive. I didn’t understand because it seemed as though there were several services going on while tourists were walking through and taking pictures. There were beautiful paintings, sculptures, stained glass, tons of lit candles etc. You could even talk to a priest and have a confession right there. The enormity of the cathedral was just breathtaking. Once we left, we did our usual wandering and found a cute little souvenir shop where we bought our European looking hats! With them, we blended in so well. At the train station, a girl came up to me and started speaking in French asking for directions! Anyway, we were both very pleased with our purchases and we kept walking and found a beautiful courtyard with an outdoor ice-skating rink and carousal. But the best part was the crepe/waffle stand by the carousal where we got our first delicious treat. Kip, Ashley and I shared and indulged in a waffle with Nutella (delicious chocolate spread)! The scene couldn’t be any more European! We agreed to meet our other friends back at the hostel so we hopped on the metros. (In comparison to Spain, the metros were much, much older… and dirtier. But after travelling in several metro systems, I have noticed Spain has definitely kept there’s new and very clean. The one thing that I was impressed with were the public bathrooms they had on the streets! It was like a porter potty but extremely advanced – it would wash down the whole room after each person used it. Clean but inefficient, especially if you’re in dire need of the restroom and there’s a line.)

Once we got our group together, we headed to the Eiffel Tower! I had never imagined myself actually visiting the Eiffel Tower for some reason, so when I finally stood right in front of it, it felt like a dream. We arrived right when it had gotten dark and could see it lit up as we walked towards it. Every so often (hour or so), it would start glittering with all these different flashing lights – as if there were thousands of people taking pictures while on the Eiffel Tower. We decided it would be worth it to go up – the top was closed (most likely because it was too windy) so we got to go to the second level. Either way, we were incredibly high up and the view of beautiful Paris was stunning. On the first level there was an ice rink with blasting American music which was really funny. While we were walking around up on the Eiffel Tower, we met two other guys who were in Paris for the weekend. They were studying in Rome and they were from New Jersey and Boston. It’s always interesting to find other Americans while you are travelling, especially when they’re from relatively close to where you live, because you have this immediate connection being so far away from home. We talked about our amazing experiences in Paris and they told us of the popular places to go out at night. Usually I would have been thrilled to go out and meet them, however I was running on little to absolutely zero energy and all I wanted was to climb into my triple bunk bed at the hostel and go to sleep. We walked along the river right by the Eiffel Tower and stopped to get “sweet and savory” crepes. I got a ham and cheese crepe (sounds gross, but was delectable). And then to top it off, Carly and I got this dessert, which was similar to a donut, but the vendor put whatever you wanted inside and then grilled it so it was really warm. Of course I asked for Nutella inside. Indulging in Paris was probably a bad thing looking back, but it made for some great memories. Plus I figured, we walked literally everywhere and my legs were about to fall off. Anyway, we headed in the direction of the “arch de triumph” (sounds like…) which was a hike, but like Camille and Abby said, completely worth it. The street was lit up and at one end was the arch while all the way at the opposite you could see the Ferris Wheel. We soaked in the moment (and rested) on a bench. Strangely enough, the two guys who we saw at the Eiffel Tower hopped out of a cab right in front of us – another really strange coincidence. They did their best at trying to convince us to come out, but it was a lost cause. We finally headed back to the hostel – looking incredibly haggard. Ashley was limping, holding her bag of fruit and tired like all of us but we told her she looked like a homeless person. The bar at the Peace and Love attracted quite the crowd – all people I would not waste my time trying to talk to! The majority were older, strange looking men. So we headed straight to our rooms (after some confusion with rooming and after Kip being sent to a different hostel). Ashley and I spent the night with a really nice Polish girl who was in Paris for four days by herself! It seemed really lonely, but she was an art major and was planning on going to the Louvre and everything. We both fell asleep mid-conversation with her…

We woke up at 7:30 the next morning, showering and drying off using the bed sheets and headed out to the Catacombs!!!! May I add that the shower in the hostel was the funniest thing I have ever used. You could only stand up in it and bending down to try and get your shampoo was quite the task. An obese/overweight American would not have been able to fit inside of it – and I say that with absolute certainty. Anyway, I was so excited for the Catacombs! We probably spent over an hour walking through the whole thing and trying to take pictures with the skulls and bones. One man down there said that there were over 6 million people who were buried. The bones were all organized (mostly) by what type of bones and they were stacked high and wide – some piles were 28 meters back. It was just as you would imagine – dark and the paths were narrow. At one part, the ground above us was wet and dripping! But by the end I was tired breathing in dead-people fumes and was ready to see sunlight. It was so cool though! I loved every minute. I have always been interested in being able to literally see and touch history. After all, the fourth grade yearbook does have my aspired profession to be an archaeologist.

After we had only about four hours left in Paris! We headed to the impressionist museum (can’t recall the name – plus I don’t speak French) that houses Van Gogh’s work. Although I would have loved to see more paintings, Ashley, Kip and I decided we would enjoy walking around more – our usual wandering, exploring and discovering. We decided to walk over to the Ferris Wheel and we walked through this beautiful garden (on the way we were almost “conned” by these men who asked Ashley to try on this ring… interesting experience). By the Ferris Wheel, I finally saw (or felt like I saw) the heart of Paris. It was this major roundabout with a tall monument in the middle with this massive gold triangle at the top. There were so many of these big monuments that were incredible. We kept walking (in hopes to find Ashley a bathroom) and walked down the street that led to the Panteon (we presume). The negatives about traveling on your own is that you see lots of things that you have no information about unless you take the tours. So in other words, I saw many things that I don’t know the history of, but were beautiful to say the least. On this same road we walked passed Dior, Chanel etc. Ashley and I walked through Dior and I have never felt more inadequate to walk into a store. We knew we weren’t buying anything, the employees knew we weren’t buying anything and just stared at us as we tried to just touch all the overpriced, designer items. We headed back to meet the others at the museum and all went to grab our second French lunch together. I got this amazing bruschetta which was a toasted piece of bread with these small slices of potato, melted cheese and chicken – incredible. With only about 2 hours left before we had to leave we took the metro to the infamous church - I do not know the name of - that was on top of the hill and overlooked the majority of Paris. The view was stunning and we were able to sit on the steps outside and listen to this awesome street-performer play American songs on his guitar. There was this other guy too who stood on this pillar and was doing all these tricks with a soccer ball and would climb up a street lamp with the soccer ball balanced on a straw type thing on his mouth. The best street performance I’ve ever seen! We all got our last crepe and sadly walked back to the Hostel to grab our bags from the luggage room (we were shocked to see nothing had been taken). We left the hostel at 4:30, made a 5:20 bus to the airport (a miracle), found 5 seats in a row on the bus for all of us (another miracle) and made it to the airport with a comfortable amount of time to spare. We landed 30 minutes early in Madrid, had a little bit of trouble and confusion trying to catch a train back to Alcala because it was fairly late and ended up getting a 12:40am bus to Alcala. I climbed into bed an hour later incredibly content with my Paris adventure.