So, I went to Paris last week :)
As I'm sure you've heard, there was this ridiculous Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajokull, which not only has an absurd name, but it also has terrible timing! Last week was "Feria" in Sevilla, basically a week-long party where nobody has school or work. Almost everyone at my school had trips planned, and almost everyone had to cancel due to the volcano! Such a bummer!!! We weren't sure if we would be able to make it to Paris, but we did! Take that Eyjafjallajokull!
Upon arriving on Thursday night, we headed straight for...
It was SO cool to see the Eiffel Tower in person! I took about 376 pictures of it. Shocker.
There is an awesome park/giant fountain in front of the tower...check out that rainbow!
Oh I'm sorry, is this getting repetitive?
We basically just wandered around, got some dinner, ate crepes, and wandered some more!
¡óle!
Yes, I am aware of the complete and utter awkwardness of this photo...but Tech wants "guns up" photos, and guns up photos they shall receive.
Ok, say hello to the most legit hostel EVER. They had an awesome bar/lounge area downstairs, big rooms, everything was super clean, and we met tons of cool people! I recommend St. Christopher's to anyone who is going to Paris!
Friday morning, we woke up early and took the metro (AHHHH!!!! Paris's metro system is exhausting, we spent at least 2 hours on it every day) to the Louvre. It is HUGE! It used to be a palace, so the inside is very unique and not as plain and uniform as a normal museum. I loved it.
Sup Sphinx.
Venus de Milo
The Mona Lisa!
Get ready for a little let-down...
Mona is teeny tiny! See her hiding back there behind the masses of foreign high school kids on field trips? Who knew?!
A view from a window in the museum...
Napoleon's Apartments in the Louvre:
Next we walked around a nearby park, and then headed off in search of Notre Dame.
Notre Dame. (Disney totally poisoned my mind...all of my knowledge of this place involved a hunchback and talking gargoyles)
Next it was off to the Hospital les Invalides, a former hospital/retirement home for soldiers. Part of it still functions as one, but the rest is just for tourists. This place is HUGE! Napoleon is buried in the cathedral of the hospital.
Napoleon! Why did you kill so many Spaniards and burn down all of our cool buildings? Rude.
After visiting Napoleon, we went back to the eiffel tower and took an elevator to the 2nd story...the top story was closed (que lástima!), but the view from the 2nd story was still great!
This is our hostel again...it is the building on the right! SO fun!
After a quick trip home to drop off the shopping bags, we returned to the tower to watch the light show:
What a neat experience, I kept wishing my family and Arch could see it too!
After the light show, we found the original Moulin Rouge:
There was an air vent thing nearby that tons of people were playing on...we obviously had to join in on the fun
Our lovely metro stop on the way home...we spent more time here than anywhere else in Paris.
Saturday morning, we decided to go see the Catacombs! The catacombs are, in short, an old mining tunnel about 60 feet underground. In the 1700s, poor people were buried in mass graves without coffins in Paris, and this eventually negatively effected the land and the drinking water of the city. Millions of bodies were exhumed and placed in the old mine tunnels. The bones are arranged in interesting, artistic ways. It took a little under an hour to get through all of the tunnels, and each one is covered in human bones.
Creeeeepy to the max yall.
About to enter the tunnels!
The catacombs were neat, but creepy and weird too. I'm def glad I saw them!
After a quick lunch, we stopped by the opera house!
So beautiful!
After the opera house, we met up with a tour guide for a walking tour of Monmarte, a famous artists' neighborhood in Paris.
First stop: Van Gogh's house!
Monmarte is such a sweet neighborhood! It feels like the Paris you see in movies...people running around carrying baguettes, vine-covered houses, and painters working on masterpieces in the streets. There was just a super cool atmosphere throughout the whole place.
LOVED the chimneys :)
This is where Pablo Picasso would go to eat every day . He was so poor the he would sketch the waiters in exchange for free meals.
The last vineyard in Paris:
The Sacre Coeur Church is made out of stone that leaks calcium when it gets wet. The church has such a neat look to it because only the parts that the rain touches are white.
After our wonderful tour of Monmarte, we met up with Fat Tire Bike Tours at the Eiffel Tower for a night bike tour! At first, I was excited. Then I remembered that the last time I rode a bike was when i was 11. After a shaky start, I was good to go :) We pedaled all around the city and it was so fun to see everything lit up! We even got to wear fashionable reflective vests. Ooh lala! After about 3 hours, we got on a boat and saw the light show on the Eiffel Tower again and got to bond with the other people on the tour. Out of the 25 of us, 8 of us were from Texas (heck yeah!), and 5 of us had ties to Texas Tech! I also met 4 American girls who work for the International Mission Board through their Journeyman program. They are just 2 years older than me and have committed to working as missionaries for 2 years. 2 of the girls live in Russia and the other two are in Mali, Africa. Pray for these fun girls when you can! What an encouragement it was to meet and chat with them! I loved the bike tour, it was one of my favorite parts of Paris.
After relaxing and exploring the gardens, we left Versailles and went back to the hostel to get our bags. We then spent THREE HOURS on the metro trying to get to the airport. We ended up getting there an hour before our flight was supposed to leave. Long story short, we weren't allowed on our plane, we found and bought a random flight to Madrid, took a metro and a taxi from the Madrid airport to the train station, caught the last train to Sevilla with about 6 minutes to spare, and walked 30 minutes to get home. My body and my wallet were exhausted by the time I stumbed in my door at 1:30am, but at least we made it!!
I had a blast in Paris (except for the whole getting home part) and am so glad I was able to go!
In other news, I AM PACKING, PEOPLE!!! FOR AMERICA!!!!!!!! That's right, I leave on Friday night! I am a little sad to be leaving Sevilla, mainly because I freakin love all of my sweet amigos that I've met here. But the good news is that they will all be back in Texas soon enough! I should be in Texas by Saturday night and in Lub by Sunday!
This is most likely my 2nd to last blog post ever, which makes me a little sad! I've loved documenting my adventures, and I appreciate the people who take the time to read them!
See you Sunday,
Julia
