Oct. 22
After the essential last-minute scramble before a trip, I left Galway via bus at....1:30 a.m. I kid you not. Surprisingly, there were quite a few people on this bus. I get to Dublin at 4:30 a.m....oy that's early. Fly from Dublin to Paris-Beauvais--I had a sneaking suspicion that this airport wasn't really in Paris. Confirmation: this dodgy little airstrip was just like Memmigen in Germany...about one hour bus ride from the city centre. Oh well, that's what I get for flying RyanAir.
Once the shuttle bus dropped us off in Paris (the real Paris), traveler's confusion hit me like a speeding bus. I had a little difficulty finding the nearest metro station, but I managed to navigate myself through yet another foreign metro system and arrived at my first ever hostel, Vintage Hostel. Located near the Sacre Couer, I was pretty impressed with this hostel: I had imagined cramped quarters and dirty rooms. Not so, though the carpet had seen better days. I dropped my stuff off and headed out to explore.
I figured that I wanted some "me" time, and what better place to have that time than at the Louvre? Yep. I casually went to the Louvre by myself and spent the next four hours "ooohing" and "aaahing" at these priceless masterpieces. I wandered around like an idiot, carefully studying the confusing map in the hopes of finding all of the great works of art. I think I succeeded, huzzah. I liked Delacroix the best, I think; "Liberty Leading the People" is one of my favorite pieces. And yes, I'm sure all of y'all are wondering if I saw "The Mona Lisa". Nope. Just breezed right by it. PSYCHE! Surprisingly, there was not a long line to see this little portrait. I probably took far too many pictures of it...it's like when a bug is attracted to light, you can't help but stare and snap a zillion pics. Crowded around this piece of art were a lot of people, going camera crazy. But something about this group of people struck me...they were all speaking a foreign language, and it wasn't French. These camera-crazy, surgical mask-wearing tourists were none other than that of the Asian tourist variety. They were out in full force at the Louvre (and every other tourist hot-spot). I wonder if people think that way about all tourists, or just Asian tourists? I digress.
After the Louvre, I headed back to the hostel with a quick stop to the grocery store to scrounge up something for dinner, since I hadn't been able to get in contact with my friend Sloane, who is studying abroad in Paris this semester. Surprise, surprise: my phone is having issues yet again.
I was happy to see that my column about Oktoberfest made it into the Collegian! Check it out at thecollegianur.com and search for "Oktoberfest".
Oct. 23
First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY! The big 55! So old...just kidding!
So Sloane and I had planned to meet at the Arc d'Triomphe around 10 a.m. since she didn't have class. I got there, no problem. Took some pictures, saw some more Asian tourists, yet no Sloane. My phone being on the fritz, I decided to take matters into my own hands and I did probably the most touristy thing I've ever done: I hopped on one of those double-decker open-roofed buses that takes you to all of the big sight-seeing spots, complete with headphones and audio tours. I saw just about EVERYTHING: the Louvre from the outside, Musee d'Orsays, Palais des Invalides, the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Couer, the Obelisk and the Place de Concorde, the Opera House, Champs Elysees, the list goes on. Unfortunately though, we couldn't go up in the Eiffel Tower because it was closed for a bit of construction.
Then I finally met up with Sloane at the Arc d'Triomphe. The reunion was like out of a movie: I come up from the underground tunnel to get over to underneath the arch, and then Sloane comes out of nowhere and gives me the biggest hug! It was so comforting to finally see someone that I knew in such a large city. I'm all for being an independent traveler and such, but after the chaos of trying to meet up, I was so happy. We decided to head over to the Luxembourg Gardens and Sorbonne since I hadn't been over there yet. It was very beautiful, and Sloane said that it was her favorite typical Parisian park. We then went over by the Opera House again and the Place Vendôme, a very posh area where all of the jewelers (like Cartier) have shops. It is also home to the Ritz Carlton where Princess Diana stayed before she died. Then we went to the Galeries Lafayette, which seemed to me like Saks Fifth Avenue on CRACK! I then went home to change for dinner and before meeting a large group of Richmond girls for fondue. The fondue place where we went was like a little hole in the wall--long and narrow benches and tables filled the place. They served their wine out of baby bottles (yes, like the bottles that babies drink from). I think it was a good gimmick since it is so crowded, I'm sure in the past people knocked into others and wine spilled everywhere. Very practical. After the delicious dinner, we went to a Parisian bar called "The Frog and the Princess", but we didn't stay there long since the Metro closes at 2 a.m. We soon parted ways at the Metro station, and I headed back to the hostel to rest up before my next Parisian venture.
Oct. 24
Woke up and checked out of "Vintage Hostel" and trekked over to the interesting new hostel, "Peace & Love" (yes, that's the real name of it. It also happens to be in the Red Light District, apparently near the Moulin Rouge? NBD). It was such a LOOOOOONG haul over to "Peace & Love" since the Metro worker didn't tell me there was a quicker/more accessible metro stop near my hostel. I ended up getting to the new hostel a half-hour later than we had originally planned on, so I was nervous that I had kept Martha and Rachel waiting. But when I arrived, they were no where to be found...I was anxiously waiting and then there was a phone call to the reception for me! Such relief, but Martha said that they were delayed because their train from Rennes didn't stop at their stop and they went all the way to the Charles de Gaulle airport and then had to take the metro to our hostel.
Not a problem, though we had tickets for a showing of "Cinderella: the Musical" (in French) at 11 a.m. Then Martha calls again saying that I need to meet them at the theatre since the metro stop on the line they were on was closed! So here I am, RUNNING to the closest metro station to get to the theatre. I come up the escalator from the metro and I hear Martha and Rachel SCREAM my name and we're RUNNING into the theatre, right before curtain call. Then there was a ticket fiasco...apparently we needed to have printed our tickets out prior to that moment. Oops. We resolved it and then we got to our seats right as the curtain was rising. It was funny seeing "Cinderella" in French: I didn't quite understand everything that was going on since it was in French, but it was still enjoyable. All of the little kids were waving light-up wands throughout the performance, even when the actors were performing...you would think that they would have had to turn them off at that point, but oh no.
After the show, we went back to "Peace & Love" to drop off Rachel and Martha's bags and then Martha's friend Laura, who is studying in Paris for the semester, took us to one of her favorite cafes for lunch. We all ordered essentially the same thing, a "French" hamburger, that was served open-faced with great cheese, sauce, veggies, and a fried egg on top, served with "frites" and "salade". It was soooo GOOD! Then we went to a University of Richmond professor's apartment for hot chocolate. Professor Lidia Raddi is on sabbatical this semester, and she is Martha and Rachel's favorite French professor. She was so friendly and welcoming (especially since I had only taken two semester of French, though we didn't speak French the whole time). There were other Richmond kids there as well who happened to be in Paris for the weekend. It was fun to talk about school with other Richmond people.
Then we went back to "Peace & Love" to nap and get ready to go out in Paris. Since we had eaten such a late lunch and even more at the hot chocolate gathering, we didn't even bother with dinner. We started off with Happy Hour at "Peace & Love". We knew we definitely wanted to see the light show at the Eiffel Tower since it is the Eiffel Tower's 120th anniversary. Well, we didn't anticipate how long it would take us to get there, so we were literally RUNNING to see the light show. It was quite the typical, touristy sight to any locals, I'm sure. It was so cool to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up and changing colors. We had a little photo shoot about it, clearly touristy. We then met up with Martha's friend Laura at an Australian-themed bar, "Oz", where dancing on tables is totally normal. It was fun, though very expensive--guess that's just Paris for you.
Oct. 25
Woke up, packed up and headed to the Musee d'Orsays. It was a long line but we ran into some of our Richmond friends heading out as we were going in. We had a limited amount of time due to our train schedule, so we did all of the major highlights in one hour...BALLER. I liked d'Orsays better than the Louvre because it was less hectic and seemed more sophisticate in the sense that you needed to know a bit more about art to appreciate it. I also liked it since it was a bit more modern with the late 19th and early 20th century pieces.
We got some postcards and went back to "Peace & Love" one last time to collect our luggage and headed off to the train station. We tried to print out our tickets from the kiosk but that was a FAIL since Martha didn't have an international banking card with the chip. Luckily, the young man working at the ticket counter was very helpful and printed all of our train tickets out for us. Then we were on our way to Tours, where we were met by Martha's brother's former host mom who was currently hosting a very cute boy from Davidson. We had a delicious dinner of salad, bread, lasagna and apple tart. It was nice to have a home-cooked meal for once. After dinner, we went to "Uncle" Francois' apartment. Francois is Martha's host mom's younger brother (he's really only 22). He and his fiancee were late to come home and we were so tired from our travels that we passed out around 11 p.m.
So ends the Parisian adventures. Up next, touring in Tours.
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