Guys... We're in PARIS!!!!

So It took me awhile to post this blog... What with Mid terms (yuck) and Egypt I have had no time! or sleep for that matter. So this post was written on various occasions throughout the week...

I just got home from Paris like an hour ago! I am trying to write everything down that I remember as fast as I can for fear I may forget something!

PARIS IS AMAZING!!!! I love it! I think it is one of my favorite cities in the world (apart from London)

Day 1

We left Friday morning at 3:00AM.... which means I had to wake up at 2:30AM. I am exhausted even thinking about it! Originally there were only 8 of us going, but it magically turned into 16! I really don't know how word spread so fast! But, there were only 8 of us that stayed together (Well, 9 but I don't want to talk about that just yet!). With the whole gang up and ready at 3AM we headed for St. Pancras Train station to catch the 5:30AM train to Paris... Here is a picture of our Crew, Jordan, AJ, Tessa, Becca, Emily, Amy, and Abbie (AJ deemed us Gang Green) minus me because I didn't want a picture of me THIS EARLY in the Morning! The Train ride was 2 and 1/2 hours, but it felt like longer because I couldn't sleep at all and everyone was passed out. 

When we arrived, we were greeted with Freezing weather and French speaking citizens. College students trying to figure out where to go in a foreign country at 7 in the morning with little sleep was a bit of a challenge. But, eventually we found our Metro line! The Tube in London is like Beverly hills compared to the Paris metro lines. They smelt so horrid that I almost gagged when we first walked down. When we walked out of the Metro stop, we were greeted by the National Opera house. Then we headed down one of the streets to Mine, Emily, Becca, and Amy's hotel (we were separate from the other 4 because Emily's dad got us rooms at the Hyatt). The Hyatt is one of the nicest hotels I have ever stayed in (it should be for 2,000 euro a night!). Me and Becca shared a room and Emily and Amy shared one right next door. The rooms were decent sized, and the Bathroom was as big as the room itself... I am SOOOO thankful that Emily's dad was able to treat us to a hotel like that we enjoyed it so much! After we checked in, All 8 (9) of us headed out to the Louvre.

I think it must have been below freezing and we were walking through the streets of Paris. I was in charge of navigating through the city because generally I am good with maps and directions. However, may I remind you that I was running off 3 hours of sleep so we kind of got lost. But on a positive note we got to see Paris! On top of the chaos, we were terribly hungry and stopped at a traditional Parisian Cafe. Thank goodness for Becca (who speaks French) because none of us knew how to understand, read, or respond in French. She probably got annoyed with how many times we asked her to pronounce stuff or what stuff means. We eventually made it to the Louvre and were so excited to get somewhere indoors. The Louvre is massive! It has so many AMAZING pieces of Art and sculpture (the most famous being the Mona Lisa). We looked around there for a while. Naturally Becca and I got split up from the group, but we planned on a meeting time and place so we wouldn't loose each other completely.

After the Louvre, We walked to Notre Dame Cathedral. It was HUGE! We went inside and then AJ and Jordan climbed the stairs while the girls drank hot chocolate in the cafe across the street. After that we were so cold and tired that we went back to the hotel. We speculated what we were going to eat for dinner. We then came to the conclusion that we would order pizza and just stay in our rooms. However, like all plans that fell through. We couldn't really fit everyone in our room and we had some complications early on that led us not to want everyone up in our rooms. So we headed out for a traditional French cuisine, Pizza hut. Yes I was in Paris and I ate American food... I am a disappointment! However, We did get a crepe afterwards. :) After that Me, Emily, Becca, and Amy stayed at our hotel while the rest of the gang headed to theirs.

DAY 2

The second day in Paris was gorgeous! It was so sunny and the skies were Blue.

Becca, Emily, Amy, and I packed up all our things and headed out for another hotel (where the rest were staying at). We picked up breakfast at the PRETTIEST and FANCIEST Starbucks I have ever seen! complete with Leather couches and Chandeliers! We entered the Metro once again (YUCK!) but, thankfully we knew what we were doing. We met the other 4 at the hotel and dropped off our stuff. Then Headed for Versailles.

I have heard about the Palace of Versailles my whole life and was blown away when I actually saw it. It is HUGE (what do you expect from the French monarchy?). We got in (after a photo shoot out front) and walked around the actual palace for a few hours and then ventured to the gardens. As we were walking out it started SNOWING! a big flurry of snow then it stopped leaving the Versailles gardens with a fresh blanket of snow. The gardens were my favorite part of the whole thing! The palace property is so big and it took us a good 4 hours (I think?) to walk around them. Of course within that time, we HAD to stop at Marie Antoinette's estate (a château the king made for her). Around the back of the house there was the CUTEST village I have ever seen, it was as if I stepped into the Storybook ride at Disneyland. It took us like an hour to walk through even though it was rather small. We took a lot of pictures throughout the back of the house and then went to this pond area. Becca, Emily, Jordan, and I were sitting on this rock right by the pond and a few people were taking pictures of us. Upon noticing that Jordan's camera bag was in the shot, he moved it behind him. Unfortunately, that was not a smart idea because a second later he scooted backwards and the camera bad fell into the pond. A variety of things happened at once. Becca and Emily started yelling, I started asking what was going on because I couldn't see, and Jordan (who doesn't really like gross pond water) was standing there trying to figure out how to get it. Luckily, A.J. being the 6 foot 6 giant that he is, simply reached out his arm and got the bag out. EVERYTHING was soaked. Jordan's Camera, his video camera, his bag EVERYTHING! So we tried to dry it all out. Looking back on it is hilarious and his camera is AMAZINGLY OK.  After that we made our trek back to the metro station and onto the tour de Eiffel.

Like all of our trips, we tend to stumble across the big landmarks without knowing. First it was the Colloseum, now the Eiffel Tower. When I first saw it I thought it looked rather small, but upon walking closer I was wrong. It is massive! Also, I wasn't aware until this trip that there are still such things as gypsies. It was weird seeing them because I was really excited, but also kind of afraid. So we all stuck together. The lift took us up to the central area and the view was Spectacular. It was night so all the lights were on and the city looked gorgeous. We tried to get crepes up there but they ran out (THIS is France people, who runs out of Crepes? Really?). We took the stairs down, there were a LOT of stairs! After that we got crepes across the street and ate them right in front of the tower.

Next, we walked to get to the Arch de Triumph. However we took a detour because there was a two story merry-go-round that we simply couldn't resist. There we are, 8 COLLEGE students riding a merry-go-round. Yes, we are mature! Then we walked on. The arc was cool, I had seen it in a lot of movies and things, so we took pictures and headed down the champs elysees. We made our trek to the metro to go in search of the legendary Moulin Rouge.

I have been told by various people not to go there at night because it is not a safe place. But, we had AJ and Jordan so we felt like we should be fine. Surprisingly, when we stepped off the metro the area was fine. Not bad at all. I have seen worse in LA and Hollywood. We took our pictures and walked around it. Then AJ found this club attached onto the main area, so he and a few people went inside. Becca and I stayed back because we weren't all that keen to see what really goes on inside the Moulin rouge. The rest of the group came and motioned us inside so we followed. This portion was a type of music hall. there were children and on stage a band was playing. it was a fun experience to say we had been in the Moulin rouge. After that we hopped back on the metro and headed for our Hotel.

When we got on the metro we had to sit in pairs. each sitting across from another pair and in the center was a pole that people hold on to if they don't have a seat. Me and Becca shared, Jordan and AJ, and Emily and Abbie share a seat on the opposite side of Becca and I. At one point I looked over at Emily and Abbie and they were surrounded by men (like 5 of them) and one of them was literally on top of them. I motioned to AJ to go do something, but he obviously didn't understand what I was trying to say (I need to work on my sign language skills). So in the heat of the moment, I shoved my purse at Becca and told her to hold it. I then proceeded to snake in and out of these guys til I reached Abbie and Emily. Then I spread my arms around them and pushed the guy back. The guys continued to crowed around. AJ must have seen me get up and know something was wrong because before I knew it he was tapping the guys on the shoulder and they all just looked at him and his height and moved out of the way. He got a nice ego boost that night!

At the hotel, we talked over our plan for leaving tomorrow and headed to bed. Me and Becca shared the pull out couch which was like a queen sized bed. I woke up at 3 in the morning shivering because of the cold, when I couldn't take it anymore I went and put on a jacket. Next thing I know Becca goes and grabs her jacket as well. she then says to me huddle for warmth (thats how cold it was, I kid you not it was like 20 degrees or something). Then she asks what time it was and I told her 3, then I said we have 5 more hours of this, Its gonna be a long night! and we laughed for like 10 minutes. When we woke up we realized that the AIR CONDITIONING was on! not only was it already below freezing outside, we had the air conditioning on! We left the hotel and headed for the train station.

Then the train finally pulled into St. Pancras station in London, we all were in a rush to get home! It is always good coming home to the London house!