Friday we headed off, straight after class, to the coach station to catch our bus to Paris. The coach station is just like an airport, but there were pigeons flying in and out because the doors were open. I thought one was going to take off my head off. When we finally got on the bus, we were welcomed by the wonderful smell of gross (a combination of BO and urine). And of course Lauren and I decided to sit across from the bathroom in the middle of the bus, but the door didn't stay closed, so everytime we took a turn, we got an even larger whiff of the gross smell. Well besides that we got to go on the chunnel. The bus drove onto the train and then we rode underwater to France.
We finally got to Paris at 9:30 (30 minutes early) and had to figure out the Metro (the Paris subway). So we go to the machine that wouldn't take any of our credit cards. Then we find the ticket window where the lady was mean and didn't speak English. We finally found someone who spoke French and English and got all of our tickets for the Metro and got on the Metro. It was the complete opposite of the nice and clean Tube in London. There was grafitti EVERYWHERE and it was actually kind of scary. But we made it to our hostel and the guy at the desk had the grossest teeth EVER. But our rooms were nice and we had our own bathrooms. Definitely not your stereotypical hostel that you always hear about. So then we went to a pastry shop for dinner and crepes (crepe #1) and then went next door to the cafe and sat on the sidewalk sipping on wine and cocktails.
The next day we got up nice and early for our full day of being tourists. We headed out to the Louvre, only to make a wrong turn and find Notre Dame (beautiful) and then made another wrong turn and end up at the Pompidou Museum of Modern Art. And Marylyn really wanted to go in. But somehow we all got separated and some of them ended up at a Starbucks, so we gave up on the museum and finally ran into them. We headed to the Louvre. It was really neat. I saw the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, some Rafael work and some Egyptian stuff. All totally worth the 9 Euros admission. Then we headed to a cafe to drink some wine and eat dinner. I got a bowl of French Onion Soup because I thought it would be the most cliche thing to do. We then headed down the Champs-Elysees where all the shops are, got some crepes and continued down to the Arc de Triomphe. Since it is located in the center of the busiest round-about in Europe we had to go underground to get there. They were doing this ceremony for a fallen soldier while we were there so we couldn't go in the very center, but it was still neat.
So then we started to head out to the Eiffel Tower which we had gotten glimpses of the entire day, but hadn't seen it upclose yet. We went too far around the round-about and ended up going the completely wrong way. But we stopped at a pastry shop and got chocolate croussants and other delicious pastries and got directions. We finally get to a building, turn the corner and there it is standing right in front of us. It was absolutely breath taking. We then waited to go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower and were serenaded by some boys from Holland and one proposed to Caroline. On our way up, it got dark so the Tower lit up and it was gorgeous. We saw the whole city from the top. When we got to the bottom, we realized we had spent a total of 3 hours waiting in line and going in the tower. We were so exhausted from the day that we just went back to the hostel and went to sleep. But before I went to sleep I made sure to get my large French baguette and ate the ENTIRE thing.
The next day, the boys left in the morning to go back to London, but the girls ventured out to the Palace of Versailles. We were first told that the Palace had free entrance, then we got there and they said it was 25 euros so we went to the gardens that were only 6 euros. There they told us five more prices for the palace, so we were confused. We walked around the ENORMOUS gardens. I swear King Louis was compensating for something. We then decided that since we came all this way, we were still going into the Palace, no matter what the cost. So we waited in line and, fortunately, the price had dropped to 10 euros (weird I know). This Palace was just as amazing as it's gardens. The only disappointing things were the construction (there was a fake picture of the palace covering up the under construction part), the annoying tourists who bumped me out of the way and wouldn't let me take pictures, and that Julia and I didn't take our romantic row boat ride. We then went to this nice little crepe cafe where we got galletes, wine/drinks, and more crepes (i think this was #4). The waiters were making fun of us being American and one had a crush on Caroline. But then we got kicked out because they closed at 6 pm and headed back to our hostel. We then went to the coach station and boarded our night bus (and we were reunited with Christy and Emily who were staying with a friend for the weekend). On this bus we had a little boy who wouldn't stop crying. But that wasn't the worst thing. We got to the chunnel and were told to get everything off the bus and they shut us in this glass room (looked like a gas chamber to me). They scanned our passports and Xrayed our bags. We got back on the bus, only to be driven 500 feet across the border to get off and get our passports stamped in England (I already have an England stamp, I wanted a France one!). We finally permanently got back on the bus only to wait 2 hours because we were early and the chunnel was late. So we ended up getting in 30 minutes late at 6:30 am. But it was totally worth it.
Other noteworthy tidbits:
1. At the ATM there was a French homeless guy who kept talking to me in French even though I told him I only speak English. I was so flustered and wanted to get away that I ended up crossing the street without looking and almost got hit by a car (Mom and Dad I know you loved reading that)
2. Speaking of ATMs, I think Kevin tried to use 30 but none accepted his card.
3. When Lauren woke us up the first night from a night terror, I couldn't find my phone and decided that someone had entered our room and stole it. But it ended up being stuck in my pillow.
4. Another Halli embarrassing moment: I wasn't paying attention and accidentally put Lauren's contacts in the first morning. And only realized it after I decided that my contacts felt weird and Lauren was missing her contacts.
5. I was mistaken as a French girl at the Arc de Triomphe and someone tried to convince Marylyn she was Brazilian at the Palace of Versailles.
Au revoir to all!
Next time I will tell you about my mishap with my internship...stay tuned...
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