Paris

Ah, where to begin? I guess the beginning would be a good place, but I'm not sure where that is...

Sunday morning was a blessing. The mayor (or whoever he is) declared Sunday a no driving day (supposedly it helps the environment. yeah riiiiiight) so I wasn't expecting one of the couples to come. I was told they wouldn't take the bus, but Sunday morning rolled around, and they came!

Around 3:30pm I started my journey to Paris. I had to ride a bus to the station because it was a no driving day, but that wasn't a problem. Thankfully, the buses were almost on time :) I took a train to Rome where I then took a night train to Paris. My cabin-mates were pretty good on the trip up. One of them did lose his glasses and was looking for them around 6am, but I'd be freaking out too if I were him.

The first thing I did when I got to Paris was find my hotel. Unfortunately, a bus driver told me the wrong stop to get off, so it took me awhile to find the hotel. BUT I did find H&M and Carrefour :) So that was cool. I bought a hat at H&M because it was rainy and windy, and the umbrella just wasn't doing anything. Well, it did invert itself on several occasions. I was tempted to buy another pair of shoes, but I couldn't find ones I liked that were cheap. My pumas are running shoes... and they have breathable material so that your feet don't get hot when running, which isn't so great when it's raining.

Once I found my hotel room I was happy :) It was a decent room. No 5 stars, but for the price it might as well have been.

After freshening up a bit, I set out to explore the town. I'm not sure what all I saw, but I do know that I saw the outside of the Louvre (I didn't realize it was the Louvre at first tho. I was expecting to see the Pyramides and didn't realize the mammoth building the size of a city block or two was the Louvre until I looked at my map.), the Eiffel Tower (obviously, how could you go to Paris and not see it?), the Hotel de Ville (ok my blondeness is going to show. I didn't realize it wasn't a hotel until the train ride home.), Arc de Triumphe, the outside of the Opera, Sacre Couer, the Bastille... and a lot of other things I don't know the names of. Seriously, I walked a ton and rode the bus a ton too.

I would hop on a bus and just ride it when I was cold (from the rain and wind). Usually, I didn't know exactly where I was. I knew where I wanted to go, and I was totally fine with that. So yes, I did get "lost," but you find the coolest things when you just go with the flow.

I saw this random green statue above the rooftops, so I tried to go see it. I got distracted by other shiny monuments and forgot about it. I was riding a bus in the direction of the statue, but then the bus went through a piazza with some sweet monuments... I got off and took some pictures, and by the time I was done taking pictures, I had already forgotten about the random statue.

Oh, oh, oh, I almost forgot! I was walking toward the Eiffel Tower, and some guy was speaking in French behind me. It sounded like he was trying to get my attention, but I didn't turn around until he started speaking English. I turned around, and he started jibbering away in French. I told him I speak English, so he started speaking English asking what I was doing, where I was going, how long I was going to be in Paris, etc. After asking all those questions, he was like "oh why don't we walk up to the Eiffel Tower and talk some more... get to know each other." I was like "uh, my boyfriend wouldn't like that very much." He randomly got tired and wanted to sit on a park bench. Seriously, he told me that he was tired and was going to sit on this park bench. I kept walking, and I didn't turn around. I took another metro back to my hotel than the one I had planned on, but I did find where Lady Liberty's sister is because of that.

Anyways, I found my way back to my hotel with the help of a nice Parisian gentleman. I stopped by Pizza Hut before going back to my hotel. Great way to grab food and avoid being followed. I doubt he would be the type because he was like 72 and had groceries with him, but one can never be too careful. I hadn't eaten anything but cashews all day, so I was starving.

I kinda forgot to eat lunch. I don't know how, but I guess I was just distracted or something. I don't know why ;) So I ordered a small pizza for an outrageous price. I didn't really care b/c I was starving and didn't feel like searching for something cheaper. They randomly gave me a 2nd pizza for free. They didn't speak much English, but they said because I was buying an expensive pizza I should have another one. I couldn't say no. So I got a Cheese pizza and a Hawaiian pizza. I ate almost all of the cheese pizza, and half of the Hawaiian. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. "HEIFER!" lol I really don't care! It was my birthday, and I was hungry.

I was going to start out the next day around 8am. Wake up at 7am, get my stuff together, blah blah blah. Like that would happen! Ok so maybe it would have happened if I didn't wake up with a headache. I slept in, got ready for the day, and I think I made it out of my hotel room by 9:30, but I'm not sure. I headed over to the Louvre all excited to see it. The Louvre is closed every Tuesday. Guess what day it was? You got it. Tuesday. So I took some pictures of the outside of the Louvre and the pyramides. Then I headed towards... I'm not sure what lol! I ended up going inside of the Opera house. SO gorgeous! "It's so pretty" was constantly going through my head. Actually I said it a lot too. I also found Notre Dame and went inside. I didn't go up to the bell towers b/c they charge you money. It was smaller than I expected. I'm blaming Walt Disney. I never saw the movie, but the previews for The Hunchback of Notre Dame always made the church look huge. And no, I did not see the Hunchback.

I stumbled upon Moulin Rouge and took a few pics of the outside. Once again they had an admission fee. I saw a restaurant named "Indiana." I was going to eat there, but it was so expensive! I looked around for a cheap French place, but I couldn't find anything less than 10 euro, which would be $15. Ridiculous, I know! I ended up eating at Mcdonald's. If anyone has a problem with that, they can give me money to go back and eat at a real French restaurant.

I went and found Lady Liberty's sister, which was cool. It's kind of ironic though. I've never seen the Statue of Liberty in NYC, but I've seen her sister in Paris. I'm wanting to say there was something else that I've seen abroad but not in America, but I can't remember what. If it comes to me I'll let ya know.

I wanted to take pictures of Lady Liberty's sister from a nearby bridge. (Ok, when I say nearby, it was like a mile away) I took a bus as close as possible, and then walked to the bridge. It was an absolutely gorgeous view of Paris. A older man, who was walking his dog, asked if I wanted him to take my picture. I said yes, and he had me hold his dog's leash while he took my picture. So when I get my pictures online, that's why I'm hold a leash :)

After that, I headed towards the train station. My cabin-mates were interesting. (Using the word as Mr Trainer uses it.) One guy was 26 from South Korea and very talkative. For not know how to speak English, he sure did speak a lot of English. (He claimed he couldn't speak English.) I think he just meant he couldn't speak fluently. The other man was from Bangladesh. He is working in Greece until 2020. He has a wife and a two month old kid. Yes, I do know their life stories because they told me. lol. They were nice, but I didn't want to talk that much. Sleeping sounded better! The train was two hours late, so we got to talk even more! I was so excited... ok not really. They spoke English, but I don't think they comprehended English very well.

Just to give you an idea of how they were... the guy from Bangladesh told me that after I get married I should go to Greece on my honeymoon. That's not the weird/funny part. The weird/funny part is... he told me my husband and I could stay at his house. They told me numerous times that I'm so lucky b/c I'm young. I'm almost quoting them when I say, "You get married, you make child, you travel to Europe, oh you be so happy."