So this past weekend, I had the opportunity to leave Spain for the first time. I went to Paris to see Taryn. After a week of school, I left Middlebury right after my last class with the expert advice of my Profesor Tomás Cano (A man of about 65 who has been everywhere you could imagine as the EU has progressed), and headed to the airport (Barajas) with Sean as he was headed to Switzerland to see his sister ski. The whole airport excursion took about 2 hours (40 minutes by metro, 40 minutes talking with the airline, and another 40 with security). I also accidentally went to the international terminal which is not the same in Spain, interestingly enough, because EU flights are pretty much domestic.

While I was waiting, I realized just why Ryanair is called a "discount" airline. You are only allowed one bag, no bigger than a bookbag and they pack as many people into a Boeing 737 as possible. My flight left Madrid at 4:30 and I got into Beauvais, Paris at about 7 which is actually about an hour and 15 minutes outside of Paris. From there, you have to take a bus into Paris which was 14€ each way - so the discount airline may not be such a good deal after all. What was worse was after being in recycled air (metro-airport-plane-airport) for almost 6 hours I got into a cramped bus that had the heat all the way up and had to sit beside a French woman who smelled like ass. Traffic was horrible and as you can imagine at 8:00 a bus headed down a European street did not make quick progress. However, I finally prevailed and Taryn was waiting for me with snacks, a metro pass, and some drinks.

I checked into to my discount hotel (there was not a hostel within miles so I trip-advisored the mess out of a hotel) and quickly learned that all the reviews were correct and I got a steal for the money, which immediately lifted my spirits. After a nice shower and a meal, I crashed and burned for a busy Friday.

On Friday Taryn began the tour of Paris. We started with the Hotel des Invalides which houses the tomb of Napolean, then we took a boat tour where we saw lots of things on La Seine because the weather was absolutely amazing, and finally la tour eiffel (which unfortunately was closed but really neat all the same). Afterwards Taryn had to babysit her kids so I went and grabbed a snack and rested for a while. When Taryn was done we went and got some Crepes from a streetside vendor who cooked them in front of us (I had banana and chocolate, and she had sugar) and they were out of this world. After vowing to return, we went out for a while to a microbrewery called "The Princess and the Frog" that had some great beer and then called it a day.

On Saturday the true Marathon began! We started out at Le Louvre, where we saw the winged victory, the Mona Lisa, and the large format French paintings along with some egyptian and oriental antiques (Ramses and the Code of Hammurabi). We later went to La Musee de L'Orangerie where we saw Les Nympheas or the Waterlillies by Monet, and finally finished the day with Notre Dame on Ile de la cite. Paris is absolutely monstrous and there is more to do there than I ever imagined. And on a side note, they have great benefits for students: any student living within the EU gets into almost all state owned historic sites (i.e. museums) free.

After a tiring day, we were planning on having a huge French dinner with Taryn's family (Au'pair), as they had invited us - unfortunately we got our plans mixed up and it was actually scheduled for Sunday. We decided to go to a restaraunt reccomended by a friend called L'entrecorte. It was absolutely amazing. There is only one item on the menu - Steak. They bring you a salad and then one serving of steak and french fries in a mushroom/butter sauce, and when you are finished they bring you another serving. Stuffed and satisfied we went and got some more crepes and called it a night. I was up at 5:30 the next morning and off to Beauvais to catch my plane back to Madrid for some much needed rest! Thats about it. Hasta la proxima vez!