Paris!

First off, my host mom gave me a new bag because she wanted to make sure i had a bag that zipped when i went to paris! i really thought she was going to give me some dinky thing to borrow that would just insure my money or something wouldn't get stolen. and then she came upstairs with THIS:

i was amazed! I love it. and it fits everything i need it to :) plus she said i could keep it!

Next. After 2 1/2 days in paris, i can definitely say i am glad i chose Lyon to study abroad in. Paris is massive and a little overwhelming. butttt onto stories of my adventures for the past couple days.

after buying last minute tickets and making last minute plans to head to paris since we had a few days off, kirstin, christina, and i began by taking the TGV (the super fast train), and arrived in paris around 1pm.

our first mission was to find some lunch and a place to eat. it was a long walk, but we decided we wanted to eat in the beautiful jardin de luxembourg. so along the way we bought a couple baguettes, some brie cheese, some tomatoes, nectarines for each of us, and some cookies. what a delicious lunch. seriously. and super cheap!

afterwards, we decided it would probably be best to figure out where our hotel was.. plus then we could ditch our stuff which was starting to get heavy. this was a bit of an adventure. our hotel was not in the main city center of paris, but rather in what i believe were the suburbs known as chelles. man was that far. we had to take a bus, and then a different train. and then another bus. which as it turns out we got on in the wrong direction, so we ended up back exactly where we started (something we didn't realize until much later because we left from one entrance, and returned to a different entrance of the same station) - man did we feel cool when we figured that one out. we then walked however far it was to the hotel, which also took some effort, and a lot of kirstin's amazing map reading skills - which were used on a picture of a map that christina had taken at the station! - we didn't have a real map of this area, unfortunately.

but eventually we made it! we checked in without a problem and were told where our room was. it was a nice enough room, meant for four, with one large bed as well as another that was a pull out couch - though the couch had to be turned at an odd angle because the bed was too long for that room. there were also interesting pictures of strange men on the door.. not so sure about that one. it also had a little kitchen, so we were able to just buy some pasta for dinner instead of paying a bunch to go out. overall it was a nice room.. other than the shower which we realized was a bit of a problem when it soaked the entire bathroom floor as well as a large amount of the bedroom floor when just one person showered. that was a little bit ridiculous. on the bright side though, this place wasn't all that expensive.

 after our pasta dinner we decided it would just be wrong if we stayed in our room even though we were tired, so we headed back to the city to see paris by night. we couldn't figure out how to pay for the train, or what the system was, so we just hopped on. when we got to paris and tried to leave the station, we realized we needed tickets - though we had no idea where we would have bought them. luckily the man was nice and just let us through and told us we would need to buy tickets next time. and so we made it into the main part of the city taking another metro just fine. when we got there we decided we wanted some ice cream. i had mentioned that my family has a tradition that it's not a trip unless you get lost and have ice cream, and we'd definitely already done the getting lost part. so we were on a mission (ironically enough we never ended up getting ice cream this trip! how sad!) we ended up walking along the seine for a while, seeing a bit of champs elysees, and hanging out near the eiffel tower - where we decided it would be a great idea to get crepes (so much for ice cream, chance number one).

next, we headed back to the hotel. we were tired and were thinking about waking up early to see the louvre (another thing that we planned multiple times but never happened because we decided we didn't feel like getting up early enough to make it worth it). getting back was even more interesting. we took the bus just fine. and then the train. except we accidentally got off a stop too early. we knew we were going to have to call a cab already though because the last bus we would have needed stopped running at 9:30. we ended up having to call twice, because after waiting for a long time we were thinking they may have forgotten about us. they did. but when they did show up, he was in a mercedes! ridiculous.

oh. side note. getting into and out of these train stations involved lots of exercise due to a million stairs. there were a few escalators (and a moving sidewalk) as well, which were amusing to us, because the stairs and the handrail definitely didn't move at the same speed. i'm not sure if i've ever really experienced that before.

anyways. the next day we headed back to the city. we started by heading up the hill to sacre coeur/ montmartre to see the church as well as the view. both of which were amazing. although a million more stairs were involved, which is always tiring. at least we didn't have our backpacks this time!

afterwards we went back down the hill to get some lunch, at which point christina turned around and happened to see the 'i love you' wall (a wall that says 'i love you' in practically every language) that we had been planning on seeing, but weren't sure where it was!

after the wall we started heading towards notre dame where we would be meeting up with a couple of kirstin's friends from home, as well as friend of christina's (and girl who was in our french class in santa cruz). we took the metro to get closer, but since they are different than the one's in lyon, we couldn't figure out how to get the door open to get off at our stop. at the last minute we figured it out and kirstin jumped off. just in time for it to slam shut again with christina and me still inside! this obviously meant some coordinating to meet up again, but it actually went pretty smoothly. along the way we looked at the little book/poster/postcard vendors that are next to the seine. eventually we made it, however, and managed to find everybody!

at this point though christina and i took off with sophie to check out the latin quarter while kirstin took off with her friends to check out some garden. after getting a snack, sophie, christina, and i headed back to notre dame to actually check out the inside this time. (dad you should be so impressed that i was happy to check out two churches in one day! big improvement from middle school right? i thought you would be proud.)

anyways. it was beautiful of course. sophie then took off to head home. and we met up with kirstin and her friends again to get some dinner. it was delicious, though i was really surprised when they came over to us at 9:30 and told us they were closing. so early for france! but we'd started early, so it's not like we were being rushed.

after dinner we said goodbye to kirstin's friends and started heading back to the train station. slowly because we were enjoying see paris by night once again. we also stopped to take a break on the bridge with lots of locks attached to it (put there to symbolize people's love). but all of us agreed that as much as we loved paris, we were ready to head home to lyon.

once again we took the long journey back to the closest train station (though this time we got off at the correct stop) and called a cab. soon one showed up! we got really excited and climbed on in. turns out, it was for someone else. so we waited for another 45 minutes before deciding to pick up the phone and figure out what was going on. turns out they forgot us again! and when our cab showed up, it was the same exact one! oh. and this one was a beamer. they have some pretty snazzy taxis in paris. no wonder they're so expensive.

oh. other side note. there were also these really creepy signs saying 'don't grow up too fast'. paris is wierd. hahaah

woo! this one was long! but at least it included more pictures :)  i guess that's what happens when you travel.