Wednesday:
So our flight out went quite smoothly. No complications (even with the French protesting), so that was nice at least. We arrived in Orly, which is the airport to the south of Paris, and we immediately went to Information to get a map and figure out how to get to our hostel. We immediately realized however, that neither of us really know French. All I have retained from my semester of French like 2 yrs ago now is: please, thank you, I don’t know, I’m tired, I speak English and Spanish, and some colors and numbers… so that wasn’t going to get us far.
Information told us what metro line to take, and showed us somewhat where our hostel was in relation to it. After speaking with them, we spent the next 45 min or so wandering the airport trying to find the metro. We went back to Information. They told us where to go. Then we had to figure out how to buy a ticket to get us across 3 different lines… ended up paying 9.75 E for that, and then we got on.
The first line just took us straight out of the airport. Then we had to get on another line, and it was closing the doors as we got off, but we just got on and hoped we were going the right direction… the RER line was really dark, and it was dark outside, so we really couldn’t look at the map of the line to see or not, so we got off at the next stop to check.
It was super sketchtastic at this stop. We were on the outskirts of Paris with all our belongings. It was freezing cold. We hadn’t put on our extra layers yet. And we were lost. I came very close to crying… and we were all having minor panic attacks.
Turns out we were going in the right direction though, but we had to wait for 12 min for the next one to come along and pick us up. Luckily Eve had some chocolate for times of emergency… that is what probably kept me from crying.
We got on. It was warm, and we were relieved to not be sitting outside in the sketch outskirts of Paris anymore. We got off at the stop Information told us to, and then switched lines relatively smoothly.
Then we got off at the next stop just fine, and then the adventure began. We looked at the metro map that actually had the street that our hostel was on, and then tried figuring out what streets would lead us there.
The next couple hours of our lives were some of the most terrifying moments of my life. I did not cry though. However, (thanks to my brothers) I kept having parts of the movie “Taken” play through my head over and over again.
We couldn’t communicate with anyone, and really how were we supposed to know that the street “Temple” went off in 5 different directions from the plaza we were in?
At one point we were really frustrated though, and went into a Monoprix (grocery store) and bought food for dinner since it was almost 9. So that was probably a good decision on our part. At least we wouldn’t starve if we had to spend the night wandering the streets.
Luckily we got on a street that had a lot of metro/bus line maps and we were able to see that Temple branched off a different direction, we had been turned around, and then finally we were able to find the street we needed.
Then we had to find our hostel. That took awhile, since it was a bigger street with a closed park running through the middle, but eventually we found it.
When we got there we checked in. We lucked out, because they gave us a double room, and then told us we could take the mattress from another room. So four hours after we arrived in Paris, we had our own room… and we were safe.
We sat on the bed and attempted to not think about what just happened and calm down. We ate our dinner, put on many layers, figured out the game plan for the next day and went to bed.
Thursday:
It was a brand new day. The sun was shining. We went downstairs for breakfast. We had bread, butter (real butter! I had forgotten how wonderful it tastes… we only have olive oil or margarine here), jam, apple sauce, orange juice, and coffee. It was delightful.
Then we went back up the stairs, and put our layers on.
We metro-ed to the Eiffel Tower. It is amazing. Definitely not overrated. I took sooo many pics of it though… got a little camera happy.
Eiffel Tower!!
We walked around through the jardin. Had a guy in a Northface take our pic for us… he had some mad picture taking skills. Then we found this sweet free bathroom that automatically disinfects everything after each use. It was on a side street by the tower.
Then we went on the other side of the river, towards the Palais de Challiot- took some pics there. Then we walked to the Arc de Triumphe. We had to walk underground to get to the Arc. It was cool though.
Arc de Triumphe.
From there we walked on Avenue des Champ-Elyees, came across Northface guy again. He didn’t notice us. We figured if we came across him one more time, then we were meant to be friends... We stopped outside the Grand Palace and the Petit Palace for a bit. Then we walked past the Place de la Concorde (where Marie Antoinette was beheaded… among 1,342 others). We ventured past the Royal Palace and Madeline and then stopped to get some crepes. They didn’t make them fresh though.. that was kind of a letdown.
Outside the Grand Palace... not really sure why the baby is attacking the other one though...?
Place de la Concorde.
Crepes.
(Estefonia in Plaza de la Reina in Valencia makes a mean crepe… maybe she’s just so good the French can’t top that?Idk.)
Anyways, from there we went to the Louvre. Walking in Dan Brown’s footsteps…. Haha. We attempted to get in for free, but they wouldn’t accept our Valencia IDs. Lameness. So we paid 9 Euros or so…
The Louvre...
But we got to see the Mona Lisa. (She does have a very awkward smirk on her face… I wonder why? And no matter where you were in the place, it felt like she was staring us down…) We also saw ‘The Wedding Feast in Cana’ (such a funny painting… I love how everyone in the painting is drunk… it’s a good one to stare at) and a bunch of paintings our Women Writers prof has showed us. So that was pretty cool.
Mona Lisa.
Then we went into a different wing of the Louvre and somewhat stumbled upon ‘Venus de Milo’. The exhibition is kind of a work-in-progress, but it was really cool to see something like that in real life. It was weird because you could walk around it though… I’d never seen it from the side before.
Venus de Milo...
From there we metro-ed it to this hill ‘Monmarte’ to watch the sunset over the city. It was beautiful up there, but cold. (The whole time we were in Paris I wore 2 pairs of pants, a tank-top, a shirt, a cardigan, a sweatshirt, my chupa- leather coat, and a scarf.)
We went into a Basillica for warmth and sat down there. Then we walked around and saw the tourist shops… I bought a picture and a thing to keep it in. (We decided it’d be a good weapon on the streets if need be too…)
Once the sun set it was freezing. It was a sketchier part of the city at night (apparently we were right by the Moulin Rouge… if only we walked a little ways further down the sketchy street... Oh well!) So we found the metro line to take us towards the hostel.
When we got off the metro, we found a grocery store and bought some food for dinner. We grabbed some yogurt for lunch, but we had literally walked around for 12 hours. We sat down twice. Once at the Louvre in front of the Venus de Milo statue, and once in the Basilica… crazy.
So we were some starvin marvins. We inhaled the bread, cheese and tomatoes we bought. Then we went upstairs. Figured out the game plan for the next day. Decided we wanted to see the Opera House from Phantom of the Opera… we then had a jam session singing Phantom for the next 45 min. I’m pretty sure everyone thought we were crazy…. Then it was bedtime layers and bed.
Friday:
Friday we woke up, and lucked out with another beautiful sunny day. We had breakfast, then metro-ed to the Opera House. It was really pretty, and no wonder it inspired what’s-his-face to write Phantom of the Opera. The only letdown was that we didn’t get to see the underground river. We really wanted to see it… it does exist though! We found it in a book in the bookshop.
Then we walked to meet my dear friend Erik Halvorson who is studying in Paris for the semester. Stopped and bought some yogurt on the way. We ate one while we waited for Erik.
Then when Erik met us, we walked through the Jardin de Luxembourg. We ate the rest of our yogurt there. (Rhubarb yogurt might very well be one of the best things I’ve eaten ever. Sooo good! I don’t think Activia makes it in the US though. Sad day!)
From there we decided to see the Catacombs of Paris. Erik hadn’t seen them yet, and we were up for an adventure.
LC represent.
An adventure is what we got. We bought our tickets in this little room. Then without any warning of what you’re getting into, you start to climb down, and down and down. All the stairs in Paris are spiral stairs too… so you get really dizzy after awhile.
Then we stopped climbing down, and started to make our way through the tunnels. They were just rocks though.. nothing special. I led the way too. Joy. It was somewhat lit, but I never knew what would be around a corner. We turned a lot too.
Finally we came to an open chamber. There were no bones yet though. All of a sudden Eve and Erik freak out, they were in the back. There was a rustling noise… it was one of the workers creeping on us. = / Weirdo. Then we looked at this well that was lit green and we threw a rock in it to make sure it was real. It was really eerie. Remided me of HP6. Haha.
Then we came across another chamber. That reminded me of LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring…
We kept winding our way around and then just when we thought we were almost done/wouldn’t get to see any bones, we came across them...
At first it was cool.
Then we thought it was kind of weird that someone would arrange a ton of human bones like that.
I thought it was done when we went through the first section, because it was a lot of bones.
I was wrong.
It kept going on, and on, and on.
Then we were all kind of creeped out by the amount of bones chillin out underneath the city.
And it went on, and on.
Then there were stalactites dripping from the ceiling.
We were getting covered in bone juice. (Gross.)
I was afraid I was going to slip and fall on the wet ground… and have to grab hold of a bone wall… = /
Then Eve brings up her concern from the biological standpoint of the fact that we were breathing in bone dust. Of people that died from some intense fever of sorts.
(Paris ran out of room to put the bodies of the dead in the cemeteries. So they excavated the graves and arranged the bones in weird paths and formations underneath the city… How nice?)
So after a really long time, and getting covered in bone dust/juice, we got out of the bone tunnels.
Then we climbed some more spiral stairs forever, and without much breath left in us, came out quite a ways away from where we started on a random side street in the city.
(I wonder if the people who live across the street know that that little door with no labeling on it leads down to hundreds of thousands of bones chillin out underneath their homes? Just a thought….)
So…I still don’t know how I feel about that experience.
At first it was cool. Then I was really weirded out. Then kind of creeped out. It was interesting to say the least..
From there, we had to figure out where in the world we were, and then we decided to metro it to Notre Dame.
We went inside Notre Dame, and there were a ton of people going in. It was really beautiful though. I loved all the stained glass windows!
Then we went and grabbed a croissant, and Erik took us past the place where Napoleon is buried. Then we decided to walk towards the Eiffel Tower for kicks. The sun was setting, so the sky was all pink and purpley. Pretty. Took more pics.
Then we had to use the bathroom, so we ventured towards the free one that disinfects floors. When we were all done, it was dark already and the Tower lit up. Then the bells of the city chimed 7, and the Tower started to blink and flash lights. Super guay.
From there we took the metro to our Hostel, and then decided to walk towards the Bastille and grab some pizza.
It was good. And the restaurant gave us some strong drinks on the house. Then we ventured back to the Hostel, and said goodbye to Erik.
Then we had a ‘Mamma Mia’ jam session. We all had “Our Last Summer” stuck in our heads for some reason, and then we went to bed.
Saturday:
It was a sad day to wake up. We didn’t want to leave Paris. It was soo beautiful, and there were many things we didn’t have time to see.
We ate breakfast. Put on the layers. And then packed up everything.
We checked out, and with a sigh left our hostel with all our belongings.
We then walked to Notre Dame and waited in line. Keep in mind that we have our backpacks right now.
After half an hour we made it to the front to go in. I whipped out my Valencia ID. The girl was quite confused with it. ( Probs cause I don’t look like I should have an ID for the Universat de Valencia..) Then in English, she asked me how old I was. I responded in Spanish. She was really perplexed… then she let me in for free.
(That’s how you do it.)
Then we climbed up. Saw the Bell. Walked in Quasimodo’s footsteps...
It was really pretty up there. You could see the river, the Eiffel Tower… actually the whole city.
Coming down was a struggle though. On the way up we stopped at different levels… but it was a straight shot down. On the spiral stairs. No breaks. And we had our backpacks.
We got soo dizzy. And halfway down we all thought we were going to vom. Right then and there.
We made it though. Without vomiting. Or passing out. So that was good.
We just stood on the firm ground for a few minutes. Our legs were shaking like crazy!
Then we decided to walk around a bit.
We checked out some souvenir shops. I bought a mini Eiffel Tower.
(My room next year is going to be totally decked out European style. I’m excited!)
Then we bought some yogurt for lunch. This time a variety pack.
From there we found the metro, got kind of confused with the RER lines to the airport, but eventually figured it out.
On the metro, a man was playing an accordion. It was the perfect way to leave Paris. Sitting in silence… listening to the accordion. It was like an ode to our trip.
When we got to the airport we got off on the wrong terminal stop, so we had to get on the shuttle. We got to the right Terminal eventually, and then we ate our yogurt quick. Went through security and then waited around for our flight.
It was sad to leave Paris…. It was beautiful, and we had so much fun.
We eventually boarded the plane, and we had a pretty good flight. No problemos.
Then we took the metro back to our homes.
Paris bid farwell with an accordion.
Valencia greeted us with explosives.
Quotes from our trip:
-“Braderie: Don’t hesitate, just go inside”
-We’ll be just like Dan Brown… walkin in his footsteps…”
-“Does the window lock?”
-“Is this your first hostel experience… Haha”
-“Why would you say that right now… when we’re at the mercy of the bed bugs!?!”
-“All I could think about… was the movie ‘Taken”
-“I’m going to assume that was a happy scream”
-“I’m going to assume those were happy bells and not chains being dragged up the stairs…”
-“I think you’ve got some bone dust on your shoulder… gotta brush that off for ya”
-“Struggle. Is my middle name.”
-“I feel safer when it’s smaller” (That’s what she said.)
-“Legs of steel!”
-“You could hard-core die from that… not just a little dying… A LOT of dying.” (Referring to Meningitis.)
-“Normally you’d do it on the floor.. I think the bed’s hard enough.”
-“It’s called the Embryo dance…”
-“We’re just like little Nomads…”
-“I think I’m going to vom.”
-“I paid enough for this flight, they at least better provide me with a place to piss!” (Remarking on the fact that the airport tried to charge us to use the restrooms.)
Sunday:
It’s kind of weird to be back in Valencia. My madre was happy to have me back. Upset that we lived on bread and yogurt for five days… whatever. I’m fine with it, so she really shouldn’t care. She even made me watch a movie with her after I showered and ate. Funny lady she is.
Then I slept in today… Eve and I went to the Mascleta. That was crazy. I also watched/listened to a group of five six year olds play with explosives underneath my window for five hours this morning… and then they went back at it after lunch when I was napping…
Well… I have been putting off homework. I should get on that. Good news is that I have 3 days of class this week. Then we go to Granada. Then it’s week of Fallas, so no class. No work. Just streets barricaded off with huge wooden sculptures waiting to be lit on fire.
Sorry it’s kind of a long one… but Paris was amazing… and I couldn’t leave anything out.
No comments:
Post a Comment