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Paris was amazing! We left last Tuesday at 7 am and had to take a train to Amsterdam then we took a bus to Paris which was supposed to take 8 hours but ended up taking 10. We finally arrived at a little after 9 pm. We had a few translation problems with the bus driver but finally convinced him to take us to La Defense where Carmen’s friend was waiting for us for no extra charge! From there we went to Cite University, international student housing, where we got to stay for only 5 euros a night; a total steal! We were so tired from a day of traveling so we just ate dinner then hit the sack.
We woke up Wednesday morning and decided to go to hit the Eiffel Tower first so we looked at our metro map and headed out. The Paris metro is so simple, we didn’t get lost at all! The tower was beautiful. We took the steps up to the second landing as we wanted to get the whole experience. We were going to walk all the way up but it was really cold and windy so we took the elevator to the very top. We finished just in time as it started raining while we were in line for the elevator back down but pretty much stopped when we got to the bottom. After that we headed to the Sacrè-Coeur. We ate lunch at a cool little French restaurant then went to the cathedral. I had never been inside a catholic church before so that was quite the experience. From there we went to the Moulin Rouge area. We went into some funny little sex shops, they weren’t so different from the ones around the Red Light district in Amsterdam. Then we saw the famous theatre. We got a little lost looking for the metro station so we took some time to go shopping. We then went to see the Arc de Triomphe, very cool indeed! From there we walked down Champes-Elysèes street and I saw what I have to consider to be the coolest thing in Paris. A cafè called “Flora Danica”. Awesome huh? After some shopping and whatnot we met the girl we were staying with and a couple of her friends in the Latin quarter for the French crepes. Very yummy! Then it was back to the Eiffel tower to see it all light up at night. It was really a beautiful sight. Then we went back to Champes-Elysèes for some beers. It was a very busy and successful day I would say.
Thursday morning started with the Notre Dame. The architecture was amazing, photos just really don’t do it justice. When we went in they were having a service and people were just walking around taking pictures and talking. I found it to be quite disrespectful but everyone seemed to be pretty cool with it. After that we had another French lunch then we went to see the Hotel de Ville and the Town Hall. Then we decided to try to find the Pompidou as we had been told it was quite close. It is a modern art museum that was built inside out so the pipes and everything are on the outside. We finally found it and decided we wanted to go it if it wasn’t too expensive so we walk up and the line was really long so we asked this girl what the entrance fee was and she said free. We then decided it was totally worth the wait in line. So after 45 minutes we get through the door and realized we weren’t in a museum we were in a public library! Yeah, we felt a little dumb then we found the hallway to the museum part of the building and the real door, which had no line by the way! Oh and it ended up costing us 8 euros to get in…but worth it for sure! Then we had to wake ourselves up so we went for some coffee and dessert. I had cheese with fruit sauce…mmm talk about good! On to the famous Opèra house from there. Sadly they were doing some construction around it but it was still a beautiful building. After that we went shopping at Galeries Lafayette. At night we hung around with friends, ate dinner, played some pool then hit the sack so we would be fresh for our last day of sightseeing.
Friday morning started off with a trip to Père Lachaise to see Jim Morrison’s grave. After that we went to the Concorde to see the Obèlisque and the National Assembly. We went back to Champes-Elysèes to eat lunch and do a little aimless wandering. After that we went back to our room to rest for a little bit then we headed to the Louvre, it’s free on Friday nights if your under 26-important to know when your broke students like we are! After that we met our friend from some cheese fondue, so French! It was amazingly good.
On Saturday our bus was supposed to leave at 11 and so we were supposed to check in at 10:30 and Carmen decided that she wanted to take a shower 30 minutes before we were supposed to leave. To sum it up quickly we missed our bus! It was okay though, we just had to wait a couple hours for the next one.
All in all, Paris was an amazing city with great food, friendly people, and beautiful scenery!
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