Paris

So this weekend being Valentine's Day, we decided what better place to celebrate the day of love than Paris? So, on Friday the 13th (another special occasion?! perfect!) we were on our way. The train to Paris, for one reason or another, is one of the few trains where you have to book a reservation. With our Eurorail passes, we can usually just hop on and hop off whenever we please, but for Paris we had to book reservations several days before. We probably should have even booked them sooner, because we were forced to split up onto two different trains.

There were about 8 of us girls on the first train to Brussels,  and then Jazzy and I had to rush to catch our train to Paris. Brussels is a French speaking city in Belgium, and a lot of the people, even if they know how to speak English and Dutch will refuse to do so. So we spent a good 20 minutes trying to figure out why we weren't being allowed on the train, and we never really figured out why, but our train ended up leaving about 45 minutes late. 

Once on the train, we read and slept, pretty typical. It's funny how at the beginning of the trip I was so alert and looking out the windows trying to see everything and now even if I try to stay awake, I am slowly rocked to sleep. There were some cute/slightly annoying kids sitting next to us who kept creeping up to us and trying to scare us by whispering next to us while we were sleeping. If they had been American, I would have thought they were brats. But theres something about kids speaking in another language that makes them cute. 

Once we arrived in Paris, we got directions to our hostel from a lady. We rode the metro one stop and then switched lines to our stop, which was Les Gobelins. I'm guessing it might translate to The Goblins or something which is kinda creepy...maybe not. Our hostel was a lot easier to find than the one in Amsterdam, which was nice. Plus, we got their in the daylight this time. We checked in and then went next door to a Turkish restaurant for lunch. No one spoke English so we pointed to what the guys next to us had ordered and it ended up being very good. It was like some sort of sandwich with beef in it...kind of like a philly cheesesteak but not exactly. By the time, we were done eating, Christina and Brisa (our hostelmates) had arrived. Their train had been on time...So we went to our hostel and checked out the room. 

Our room number (and also my area code)...A good sign? I think so. 

Our little tiny bathroom. Yes, that shower is really that small.

So after we had gotten freshened up, we decided to go exploring. Jazzy and I needed to buy a multiple day metro pass, because we didn't want to keep paying 1.60 Euros every time we rode the thing. So we searched for the station who sold them, which we finally found. But not before seeing a crazy French lady getting pulled over in a roundabout and throwing a huge fit. She was slamming her head on the steering wheel and then got out of the car and ran into the nearby park with the policeman following her. Lesson learned. Road rage is universal. 

The next little hitch occurred once we had gotten on the metro. We got onto one of the subway cars and were greeted by the absolute worst smell I have ever smelled. I told Christina after that I wanted to blog about it, but honestly didn't know what words could accurately portray how awful it was. Brisa, Christina, Jazzy and I are all trying to be calm and not obvious in the fact that we are literally trying not to breathe. I honestly though for a minute that this was a normal thing for the subway car to smell this bad. And I had already spend 20 Euros on the dumb pass, dang it! Slowly, we start to notice that everyone in the car is covering their faces and then we discover the source of the stench. In the back of the subway car, there was a homeless man laying on the floorboards, with feces all over his pants, and body odor that makes a certain family member (you know who, mom and dad)  smell as good as homemade cookies. 

At the next stop, we ran, not walked, out of the subway car onto the car in front of us and for the next ten or twelve stops watched as people boarded the car and then followed our exact steps from trying to ignore it to the sprint off at the next stop. 

It was about 4:30 or 5 o'clock by this time, and Brisa and Christina were hungry so they got a sandwich and Jazzy and I got Gelato. We walked around a little bit, and went into a perfume shop, which reminded me that I want to invest in some good perfume when I get home to the States. By then it was a little after 6, so we headed over to the Louvre museum. On Friday nights, the Louvre is free to people under 25.  First, we took the infamous photos outside and it was absolutely gorgeous. See!

So then we ventured inside. The museum is huge! Apparently if you spent 30 seconds at every piece of artwork inside, you would be in the place for nearly 4 months. 

And of course, you can't go to the Louvre, without seeing the Mona Lisa. Honestly, kind of a letdown. Its like the size of notebook paper an you can't get within 20 feet of it. But hey, I can cross that one off my bucket list.

The Crown Jewels

And then we were bid farewell by some interpretive dancers wearing skirts. 

Overall, we spent 3 hours in there and probably didn't even put a dent in it. It was really neat though, a very beautiful museum. My favorite so far this trip.

So by this time, it was about 10 o'clock at night and we headed back to our hostel, but we were all starving so we asked our hostel front desk person where the supposedly hoppin' Latin Quarter district was so we could get dinner and drinks. He pointed us in the right direction, but after a little ways of walking, we decided we were too tired to walk that far and had an inkling that were were lost so we headed back to the pizza place near our hostel. It's a good thing we did. 

Pizza Navona was the name of the restaurant and it was amazing! We all ordered the house wine, which was the best wine I've had here and the best part, it wasn't expensive! Then I got the Quatre Fromage pizza which translates to four cheese, for you people who aren't up to date on your French. It was by far, the best pizza I've ever eaten, hands down. After another couple glasses of wine, we were thinking that our hostel beds were sounding pretty awesome, so we called it a night. 

Goodnight Brisa and Christina. Goodnight Paris.

The next morning we woke up bright and early and ate our hostel provided croissant breakfast and made our way to the St. Michel fountain to meet for our free tour. Gotta love us college travelers, getting everything for free eh? The above picture is in front of the fountain waiting for the tour to start. 
This is our tour guide James. He was on the TV reality show Big Brother a few seasons ago. I never watched that show, but hey here's to the first (pseudo) celebrity sighting in Europe. He's a freak though. If you can't tell from his pink mohawk (not just in honor of Valentine's), they called him "Crazy James" on the show for a reason. Don't google image the guy, I made that mistake yesterday, R-rated. 

The tour was good though. We saw the Louvre again during the day time. 

We saw the Roche Cathedral (sp?)

We saw the most expensive street in all of Europe, where this chocolate shop sells chocolate for $250 Euros

We saw the U.S. Embassy, ironically the most guarded building in all of Paris. We saw some pretty gardens and lots of other stuff too. The tour got done around 2, so a group of about 8 of us girls then headed to, you guessed it, the Eiffel tower!

On the way, we saw this couple taking wedding photos. A depressing reminder that we were spending Valentine's day single in Paris. Okay, maybe don't feel TOO sorry for me. 

Finally, we have arrived!

It was a lot bigger than I though it would be! Some of the girls decided to wait in line and go to the top. I opted out since the line was 2 HOURS long! I mean who would have known that Valentine's day at the Eiffel tower would be so busy? 

On the way back to the metro we grabbed some sucre citron (sugar and lemon) crepes and then I snapped this photo.

After the Eiffel tower, we headed back to the hostel and of course, went back to our favorite pizza place. The owner, an Italian man in in 50's, gave us free Valentine's Day cocktails, but then made us kiss him on the cheek to thank him.. Not exactly the Valentine's kiss in Paris I was dreaming of but I guess we got to get used to these flirty Italian men sometime right? 

Then we ordered Chocolate Mousse and Tiramisu. Good decision. After dessert, we went down the block and saw "He's Just Not That Into You" in English, with French subtitles. It was the perfect chick flick to end our fabulous Valentine's Day in Paris.

The next morning (Sunday) , a girl Katie and I met up to head to the train station for our journey home. Several of the other girls were staying until Monday because they don't have classes on Monday, so they were going to stay and see Versailles and such. I wish I could have seen Versailles because I hear it's truly amazing. Maybe next time. It was nice to get back and have some time to get things done and relax before classes started on Monday. 

Paris, you truly surpassed all my expectations. I guess, after a somewhat stressful weekend in Amsterdam, and all the negative comments I've heard about French people being mean to us Americans, I wasn't expecting much from you. But you proved me wrong. You are beautiful and I promise I will be back someday.

This upcoming week is Carnaval, it's like the biggest thing to hit Maastricht since the invention of cheese (oh yes, these Maastrichtonians love their cheese). But really, its like Halloween and Mardi Gras combined, but bigger, and crazier. Thousands of people travel here for the festivities and the entire town shuts down for a 5 day long party. The pre-festivities started this weekend, and on next Wednesday, they actually have a "The party is over until next year" party. 

My friend Julia and a couple of her friends are coming into town on Thursday for Carnaval and we don't have school next week at all so on Monday I'm traveling to Gryon, Switzerland (a cute  little mountain town) for 6 days to go skiing, hit up some thermal pools, partake in some wine and chocolate tasting, and who knows what else? This study abroad thing really isn't so bad.

Anyways, don't be too jealous. Go eat some good Mexican food and sleep on an extra fluffy pillow tonight, and rub it in my face via blog comment.  It will make you feel better, I promise.

With Love (and a Valentine's Day that will be hard to beat),

Tay