Paris: City of Cigarettes and Rain (the long awaited blog)

The 25th of March at 3 pm, I started my journey to Paris. Met with my friend Kirsten at the usual meeting place at the Bancaja on the corner of San Vicente and Ramón Cajal. Then from there we walked to the Estación de Tren (Train Station) to meet with Laura and Jacqueline.
Hopped on the metro. and there it was, we were on our way to the airport.
We flew Ryanair. Flight at 6:15, and we all boarded late.
Of course. But we made it to Beauvais (I have no idea how to pronounce that) and made it in time to catch the shuttle bus to the city.
To Paris.
We were there. We saw the Eiffel Tower all lit up on the way! oh how exciting!
Then we got off the bus, figured out after lots of deliberation... where we were, and then started walking down rue pierre. It was about a 45 minute walk to the hotel, and it was 10:30ish pm.
We made it.
Then we paid for our rooms and got a night of sleep. Without dinner.
Good thing the Spanish lunch is big.

Day one in the city: We woke up early and made our way downstairs to breakfast. We were so excited that breakfast was included. I had coffee and toast w/ jam. I was expecting a lot more than that... like eggs and bacon, right? but... this is not what they eat in Europe for breakfast. The man spoke english. That was nice.
After breakfast we set off on our walk to the Louvre. Again, a 45 minute walk.
We got there, taking pictures along the way, and standed in line, and made our way in!
Wow, in line for the Louvre!
The Louvre! Never had I thought it possible.
But
there
I
was
in line.



It cost 9 euros. I used my debit. Made our way to the help desk and got a map. I got one in English and Spanish (of course).
The group split up, Laura and I, and Kirsten and Jacqueline. We had different paces, so this worked the best :)
I saw many beautiful works, my favorite and most exciting thing to see was the Greek god Aphrodite (of Melos).
Drop dead gorgeous!


Even if she was missing her arms ;)

I only got to spend three hours in the Louvre. Rather upsetting if you ask me, so perhaps I'll have to visit again... :(
Also, I do not know that there was Monet, I did not have too much luck finding him... but that is okay because I have seen a lot of his work in Chicago.

Seeing Mona Lisa, at long last, was rather disappointing.
Very.
I knew she was small, that was not surprising to me at all. What I did not enjoy was the fact that to see her, it was like fighting with the paparazzi. I got a picture of her. and that was that. turned around and left. I wish I could have appreciated her more. or even take a picture with her. I really wanted to walk across and see if what they say is true, that her eyes will follow you.
Oh well.

After the Louvre we walked to another museum, the Picasso Museum. In Paris, yes. He lived there for a good bit of his life, a surprise to me. I enjoyed the museum, I love his work. He truly experimented with everything. There were pictures of him with what looked to be a sparkler (from the 4th of July) and he had drawn pictures in the air with them. One to actually draw something that full and complete is awesome, and two to catch it on film for people to see, even more so.
We were tired.

Left the museum and had some lunch! Good food! We had bocadillos. It is difficult mind you dear reader, I do not speak french so I said, "parlay voo angle" a lot (that is the phonetics, I cannot spell in french)!

Lunch was good :)
Afterwhich, we went to a famous ice-cream shop! The best ice-cream I have ever had. AMAZING.



With that ice-cream we began our way to Notre Dame!!! Stood in a line. . . For about 45 minutes.
In the rain. But we got in, paid and got a student discount! and then got to see the amazing view of 400 steps up in Paris!
Beautiful, truly breath-taking sight. I got my picture with a gargoyle :), I believe his name is Victor ;).
Not really sure though.



All of those stairs were quite the work out. We were beat. Kirsten had a hard time cominng down them because she was afraid of falling, and for good reason eh. The stairs were very steep, narrow, and winding. Just a pick spiral staircase straight up to the bells. We did climb a different set of stairs to see a bell. That was nice.
On the way down some nice english folk assured Kirsten that they were not in a hurry, they were really nice. And I like English accents.



That was all day one. After climbing the stairs of Notre Dame we then went inside in which we let our legs rest. Mine were shaking, uncontrollably. So the rest was good. Especially since it was an hour until we would get back to the hotel (by foot). We stopped for food on the way home. That was good :)

Day two: Let's see...
Day two was not as tiring as day one. We began our day, early again, walking to museo Rodin. Cost 4 euros. Not bad. I loved this museum! I got to see the famous 'thinker,' but sadly I did not get to see him too close.
There was a brief moment when I could have but then they closed it off again due to construction... who has construction around the one statue I wanted to see the most in Paris, eh?
That's okay though. I got to see many wonderful works of art.
One I was excited about was 'the three virtues' which I remember reading a tid bit on Humanities with Ms. Adams, I think in the play Oedipus? I am probably mistaken though.
At any rate I was excited to see something I learned about. I saw a lot of art I learned about in Humanities with the wonderful Mr. McCreedy. I wish he was there with me in the museums to be a guide. That would have been awesome, I am sure he would have loved the art.
I did get to see a painting by Monet! Finally! in Paris! in the Museum Rodin, but the painting was rather worn to me. It is old, no doubt. I was more fascinated with one of Van Gogh because I tend to paint like him and I can relate to his brush strokes. I have a picture of it and when I get home I want to try and create something with the same conventions that he used in the painting.

After that museum we walked to the Eiffel Tower, and got some fun pictures in front of it. I jumped over and over and over, trying to have Kirsten catch a picture of me clicking my heels in air. It was difficult.


Very.

After seeing it from a distance our group of four split off again, good thing, emotions were high...



Kirsten and I walked under the Eiffel Tower and then were on our way to take a boat ride (Laura and Jacqueline did not want to join us, it cost 8 euros). It was a nice relaxing ride to Avenue des Champs Élysées. Famous road of shops.
I was bad and bought three shirts. Yep.



Confession out. They were not over 15 euro though, they were all below, and two were 7 euro. So it was not that awful, right?
Plus, I did not really pack a lot of close to live for four months here in Spain, I have felt very... boring wearing the same thing week after week. And now I can spice it up a little, with three shirts ;). Actually, one I'll wear for my presentation next week. So that was a good buy.

At the end of the street we walked to see Arc de Triump. Very cool. We snapped some pictures and that was that!
We then began our walk home. Stopping at a bakery on the way home to buy something for dinner.

I stayed up late that night because I got rather involved in my book Niebla. Very good. I like that Unamuno! I stayed up to midnight. To wake up the next morning at 6:30 am... :)

Day three:
The last day. We got up earlier than usual so we could see a few things before check out time at 11 am.
This day we went to see The Sacre le Cure, a rather old church, a famous plaza (place du Tertre) in which artist set up art and barter, and Moulin Rouge!



Time well used. We made it back.
Checked out.
Went to a Locutorio for our friend Laura because she had to register for classes at 11:30 am here, because in DC they registered at 7am. All went well, I checked my emails. and relaxed.
Then... we had five hours until we needed to catch the shuttle bus back to the airport...
five
hours.

That was the hardest time to spend, we had done so much sight seeing, we had seen just about everything... and we were tired. I had my rolly luggage and all the other girls had back packs.
So I was not as able as them to go in and out of places.
With it being cold Jacqueline (Jewish) wanted to go and see churches... to... you know...
warm up.
Ha... and so I felt really ridiculous with my luggage. I did not roll it around when I went in. and I am sure God has forgiven me ;)

There was some time that we spent in a café. I asked, "eel a teel day twalet" (phonetics) and was told no. . . and then later on to my surprise, once the mans friends left the shop he came up to me and spoke at me in French, and I interpreted it responding, "oui!"
And so I followed him down the stairs and into the basement to a bathroom!!! That little bit of French got me a free bathroom, I was so excited!



Then afterwards we spent about an hour trying to find a bathroom for Laura, because she did not want to use the bathroom there for some reason. With the language barrier and what not... I felt bad. But she really could have waited for the man to reappear before we left and asked if she could too use the twalet.

We were homeless on the streets as Kirsten put it, in Paris. For five hours. A good portion of it we spent on a bench with our umbrellas up because, of course, it had began to rain.
We revisited Avenue des Champs Élysées, in which I said I was not going into any stores because of my bag. The girls looked, but did not buy anything... So I am not really sure why Laura wanted to go, but that is okay because on the way back I had a crêpe with nutella, and it was delicious!

That was my adventure in Paris.
We walked to the bus stop, took about 45 minutes, in the pouring rain, my pants wet up past my ankles, and... got on the shuttle, took the plane, and hopped on the metro back to my home here in Valencia.

Where they speak a language I know and understand! YAY!

Hope you all enjoyed the write... ;)
Love & Blessings,
-AMM-

ps, I will see about uploading pictures... I'll keep you all updated!