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Hannah and I have now officially been in 4 countries in 4 weeks and next week will make it 5!I just got back this morning from a weekend trip to Paris, France!The trip was amazing but I am so glad to be laying in my own bed again!Our trip began Thursday night , and boy was it a long trip.I am part of a group on campus called the International Student Association and they have planned a few trips throughout the semester, this being one of them.I was 1 in about 100 other international students on the trip.I was aware that we were taking a ferry over to France but I was not aware that we had to drive 5 hours on a bus to get to the ferry, and then another few hours to get to Paris!On the way down to the England coast, Hannah, me, and everyone else we were with, chose to sit on top of the bus and it was so hot everyone was striping down to their tank tops!I tried to open the window on the top of the bus, but I think the only girl who was actually cold, was sitting right below the window so she didn't exactly agree with me opening it at all, and it didn't help that she was from Nigeria.So you can imagine how much sleep I got that night-none.We boarded the ferry at about 3:00AM where Hannah and I chose the floor of the boat to sleep for the next 2 hours-which didn't happen.We ended up getting to Paris at about 10:30 and we couldn't check into our rooms until later in the day so we headed out to roam the streets of Paris.There were 9 of us walking around and I'm convinced the only reason we got anywhere that first day is because 1 of the girls, Adrienne, has been to Paris and loves everything French.She ended up being our tour guide pretty much the entire trip which made things a little easier.We walked SOOOOO much on Friday and I was so incredibly tired!Hannah and I usually walk 25 ft in front of everyone else but we had no problem bringing up the caboose on Friday.We saw Le Louvre, Notre Dame, Eiffle Tower, and everything else along the Seine River.After walking around we headed back to the hostel to check into our rooms and to take showers and get ready for the night.We found out that Le Louvre was open free to anyone under the age of 25, so we took advantage of that deal.We got to see the Mona Lisa, and lots of other things.We found a restaurant to eat at after spending a couple of hours in Le Louvre.We ate authentic French food, drank French wine, and even had dessert to end the night right.Right before we got on the metro we watched the Eiffle Tower sparkle, which sparkles every hour on the hour after dark.We were all exhausted from the traveling and walking around all day so we headed back to our hostel and I was in bed by 12:30.
Saturday morning we got up and took the metro to the Sacre Couer, which is a really pretty, white church on top of a hill.It was a really big tourist area with lots of souvenier shops lining the hill up to the church.There was a beautiful view from the top of the church and we sat on the steps looking out into the city of Paris, listening to a band play.We were just about to enter the church when Adrienne spotted Allen Rickman, who plays Severius Snape in Harry Potter.He was just walking around with his girlfriend, brother, and nephews.So you can imagine that we followed him around for a while before finally leaving the poor guy alone.We also had heard that the FAFTAS ((French Academy of Film and Television Awards)) were on Saturday which was really funny because Hannah and I had joked all week about how ironic it would be if the awards really were held in France that weekend!After stalking we headed to the Moulin Rouge which was cool to see just because I am a big fan of the movie, but really there wasn't anything to do once we got there, except eat.I ate my second crepe of the weekend and it was amazingly good-nutella and bananna!Next, we went up to the top of the Eiffle Tower and after that headed back to take get ready for our night time river cruise.The river cruise gave us a tour of most of the big things in Paris, so it was good to get a little back ground information since we were not up for the free 4 hour walking tour!After the river cruise we found a little café/club to hang out in and went to another one after that.The metro closed at 2:00 so we had to try and hail a taxi which was way more difficult than it should have been.Every taxi seemed to be full and nobody wanted to take us to our destination because apparently it was in a bad part of Paris and was on the other side of town from where we were at.
Sunday morning, Hannah and I got up to go to church at the Notre Dame. The service was all in French and there were tourists all over the church walking around so it was an interesting experience.After that we walked around little shops and then headed to the L'Arc de Triumph to meet up with the rest of the group.Hannah and I were a little late and apparently the times that we thought we were meeting up with each other were not the same so we sat at the L'Arc de Triumph feeling lost in Paris.We didn't want to waste our day so we caught the metro to the other glass arc that wasn't far from the L'Arc de Triumph.There wasn't much to do there and it was almost time to go back to the hostel so we headed back, and it was probably a good thing that we headed back when we did because it took us probably 2 hours to get back, granted we were on the other side of the city, but it was also our first time finding our way around Paris on our own.Before getting back on the bus we stopped to eat at a restaurant where both Hannah and I had our best meal we had all weekend-Croque Madame which is basically toast with melted cheese and ham with an egg on top!It was delicious and cheap!The trip home wasn't much better than thetrip to Paris.We got seats downstairs because less people fit down there and we figured it would be a lot cooler since we died of heat on the top of the bus.It definitely was a lot cooler, it was freezing!So another night without sleep on an uncomfortable bus.
Paris would probably have to be near the top of my list of favorite cities I have been to.I wish that I could actually live there to learn the language because the few times I actually attempted to speak french were really fun!I had heard that the French weren't very friendly to Americans but I must have had a really good experience with the French people because for the most part they were all very friendly!
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