Paris

02/25/11

     I woke up Friday morning around 11, giving me enough time to rest up and enough time to make sure everything was packed and set in stone before leaving for the long weekend. Me, four of my roommates, and several others in my program were traveling to Paris from Friday until Monday night. I packed up relatively quickly (1- because I’m finally becoming a better packer and 2- I was so anxious to get on our way!). Paris has always been somewhere I’ve dreamed of going and it seemed surreal to me that the day I would see it had actually come! Unfortunately, before I could get there, I had a very long day of traveling ahead of me! It was the first time I was going to fly out of Rome’s other airport (Ciampino—which of course is conveniently not located anywhere convenient, hence the reasons you can find cheap flights out of it!). First stop, taking the bus from our apartment to Termini Train Station, a nice 20 minute ride. This was followed by a 45 minute bus ride to Ciampino Airport. From there, a lovely 2 hour plane ride where we then had to take an hour and 20 minute bus to the center of Paris.        

     By the time we wound up in Paris itself, it was already about 11:30 and of course, we were lost and had no idea how to get to our hotel. The website of the hotel didn’t give its actual address, just a small clipping on a map of where it was situated. Looking back, this would have been a good hint as to one of many reasons we shouldn’t have booked the hotel in the first place. After nearly 2 hours of wandering around asking anyone from people on the street to police officers, we finally found it. Sadly, it was not the sight that we were expecting when we heard the words hotel. We had decided to stay in a hotel in Paris because they were actually less expensive than the hostels, surprisingly enough. When we walked up, the place itself seemed very shady as it looked as though a gang was hanging out outside the building. When we walked up, the glass doors were locked, but not by what you would expect, but rather a large metal rod over the door handles that supposedly kept people out. We knocked on the door and out of the creepy darkness came a balding and frightening looking man who did not look happy. He spoke to us and was angry that we came at such an odd time in the night and we quickly explained that our flight landed late and got lost, but rather than have sympathy, he just yelled “shhh, people are sleeping.” Right off the bat we were very scared. Once we were given our keys, we eerily walked up the spiral staircase to our room to see what we were in for. We walked up to find that not was there gum on the walls right next to the bed, it didn’t look like the sheets were washed, and there wasn’t even enough pillows for everyone. Not too mention, there was no wifi or hairdryer provided as promised on the website. Not really sure of what to do considering none of us felt safe and knowing that we wouldn’t sleep a minute if we had to stay there, we decided to venture out around the area to see if there were any last minute availabilities somewhere we felt safer. As we went to leave, we left our bags in the room in the case we couldn’t find anything else and the owner didn’t allow us to take our key with us and told us to leave them at the front desk. This assured us even further we needed to get out because we didn’t want to leave all of our belongings during the day just hanging out in the room with nowhere to lock them. Luckily, we walked down the street and there was a hotel called All Seasons with an availability that night for the same price. I think it’s safe to say we booked it as quickly as possible, ran back to the other place, paused to quickly tell the scary owner we would not be back and to cancel the rest of our stay, and ran back to our new hotel for the night. We quickly got into bed as it was now already 2:30 in the morning and we wanted to start the day out early and explore. None of us even wanted to think about the fact that as of then, we were homeless for the next two nights with nowhere to stay! 

Lost asking the police where to go!

02/25/11

     We woke up on the early side Saturday and enjoyed our complimentary breakfast at the hotel before meeting our friends at the Louvre Museum at 10. Looking outside, as expected from looking up the weather prior to our departure, it was rainy and cold. While it isn’t the ideal weather to tour a city in, I couldn’t have too many complaints given that rain or shine, I was in Paris. 

     After waiting in a very long line, we made it to the front and finally were on our way into the world’s largest museum! Thanks to being a “European Union citizen,” entry was free, which is pretty cool. Given how large and confusing the museum is, my friends and I decided to get the audio tour to help guide us and give us a more thorough explanation to the various pieces of artwork throughout the museum. We chose to do the “Masterpiece” tour that stopped at three focal pieces, but stopped at many others along the way. The three main spots we stopped were: Venus de Milo, the Victory of Samothrace, and the Mona Lisa. All of these were astounding in person, particularly the Mona Lisa. As many times as I’ve seen pictures, I wasn’t expecting it to be as small as it was in person. Although it wasn’t that big, it was still just as stunning as I expected and her eyes truly do follow you wherever you go! 

The Louvre

Me outside the Louvre!

Venus de Milo

Victory of the Samothrace

Total tourist picture in front of the Mona Lisa

     By the time the guided tour was over, it was nearly three hours later and we decided we should probably move to our next stop! But first, we had to stop for lunch. We were heading towards the Eiffel Tower next so we just walked in that direction until we found something. We stopped at a cute little restaurant that served gyros and French fries and decided to stop as it sounded super appealing! Considering it was already nearly 3 at this point, we were all starving. Luckily, the weather had cleared up a bit (or so we thought!) and we proceeded to the Eiffel Tower to go to the top. When we got to the Eiffel Tower, I was amazed at its beauty in person. The structure and architecture of it is so unique from anything I’d ever seen. Once in front of it, due to how tall it is, it was hard to get a picture of myself in front of it and still capturing the whole tower! 

     After snapping a couple of shots in front of it, we headed to the line to go up the tower. There are two ways to get up, one is to take the elevator directly to the top and the other is to walk the stairs up the first two levels and then take the elevator the final leg. We chose to walk the first two levels so that we could view the city from each level up. After waiting in line for approximately a half an hour, we approached the ticket booth and rain started coming down in a downpour. Not really sure what we should do, we decided as long as we had waited so long and that the weather wasn’t supposed to be that great any of the days we were there, we would just do it anyways! I’m so happy we chose to do this. For one, I don’t think I’ll ever forget climbing up the Eiffel Tower in the rain! Also, we really lucked out and after climbing to the first level, it slowed to a slight drizzle and by the time we got to the second level it came to a complete halt. Not to mention, the rain gave the sky a very interesting tint that made my pictures really different. At the second level, we again waited in another line for the elevator to the top. When we finally got in an elevator, as we went up in the glass elevator, we felt as though we were in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and that the elevator was never going to stop and we would shoot into the sky as it felt like a much longer ride than originally expected. Once we arrived at the top, we admired the view that it gave us and took a couple pictures.

View from the second level of the Eiffel Tower

     However, it was starting to get late and given that we still didn’t have somewhere to stay that night, we headed back to the area and searched around for somewhere and lucked out that there was an opening at the Best Western hotel right next door for the same price. After showering and getting ready for the night, we stopped at a crepe stand right down the street for dinner. I had a nutella and banana crepe and with my sweet tooth, it really hit the spot. We stopped back up in our room to finish getting ready and actually soaked our feet in the bathtub. Our apartments in Rome only have showers and so we wanted to take advantage of the bath. Therefore, with our cold, wet, and worn out feet from the day we filled it up and hung out around the bathtub until we headed out to a club called Rex to meet up with the rest of the people from our program and several other U of I students studying in Paris! 

02/26/11

     After a long night out, getting up and ready to go the next morning wasn’t quite as easy as the day before, but we managed to be out and going by 11. Our plan of attack for the day was to go to the Notre Dame Cathedral and see the Arc de Triumph. First stop, Notre Dame Cathedral where we tried to meet up with our friends who have been studying in Versailles all year. We were supposed to meet them at noon by the metro stop right by the Cathedral, but with our history of getting lost, we were of course late. By the time we arrived, they were nowhere to be found. We kept trying to call them using our Italian phones, but for some reason they haven’t been very reliable in foreign countries and the calls weren’t going through. Sadly, this meant we weren’t able to see them, but they’re going to be in Belgium in two weeks with us so I’ll be able to see them soon enough. Because we missed them and we hadn’t eaten yet, we grabbed lunch before going into the church. We stopped at a place right outside where I had French onion soup. 

     After finishing up, we crossed the street and headed into the church and were amazed at its grandeur. It was one of the prettiest churches I’ve been in yet (and let me say, there’s a lot of churches in Europe!). Not only was the church massive in size, but its decoration was beautiful. From the Notre Dame Cathedral, we stopped briefly at Starbucks, because yes, unlike Rome, Paris has Starbucks. Not wanting to miss this opportunity, we stopped and grabbed a real coffee and enjoyed the stop to warm up before moving on. 

     From Starbucks, we hopped on the metro towards the Arc de Triumph. After experiencing Paris’s metro system it makes me realize when I get home I really need to make better use of Chicago’s public transportation. We were able to get wherever we needed using this which came in very handy with how big of a city Paris is. The Arc de Triumph is located right along Champs Elysees Boulevard, one of Paris’s famous shopping areas. Rather than take the metro back to our apartment, we walked down this boulevard stopping in various shops to explore what the fashion capital of the world had to offer! After walking an immense amount and seeing several sights, we called it a day and went back to our hotel (we stayed at the Best Western again because there was another opening thankfully!). We went to an Irish Pub called Corcoran’s for dinner where I had a fantastic cheeseburger which I have been craving for far too long. After dinner, we were either going to go back to Corcoran’s for a relaxing night or just hanging out at the apartment. Most of the other people from our group headed back to Rome earlier in the day or else were departing at 4 in the morning so my roommates and I hung out and chatted until we fell asleep very early. 

02/27/11

     When we woke up Monday morning, we had to make the most of our time because we had to get back to the bus station to begin our journey back to Rome at least three hours before our flight meaning we had to be there no later than 5. We decided to spend our last day exploring the area of Montmarte because it seemed to be the consensus as one of everyone’s favorite area in Paris. The main attraction of the area is the Sacra Coeur located on top of a hill giving a different panoramic view of Paris. Before climbing to the top, we stopped at a cute diner at the bottom and I enjoyed a hearty omelet before walking to the top. It was again a cold and cloudy day so we were unable to see as great a view as what we would have on a sunny day, but I still loved it. Following going in the church, we headed through the area to do our souvenir shopping for the trip where I got my signature shot glass and post card to add to my collection! By this time, because Montmarte was a hike away from where we needed to be, we had to start heading back to get our things before heading on our way to the airport. We got back to our hotel around midnight that night after yet another great weekend trip. Paris is my favorite city I’ve been for a weekend trip yet despite the weather and I loved every minute of being there. The city had a feel that somewhat reminded me of that of Chicago. I hope to one day return and experience it in the summertime to gain a whole new perspective!