Trip to Paris (Unexpectedly Lengthened by the Volcano)

As a cool weekend trip, I got to take a trip to Paris. We took an early morning flight to Paris to far away airport called Beauvais. Even though it was far, it was nice to see the countryside on our bus trip to Paris. When we arrived, we had nothing to do, so we went to St. Michel’s – Notre Dame Cathedral. There were tourists all over the place, but good thing we went on a day with free admission. The inside was very beautiful and there were tons of candles everywhere. They were also playing organ music which really gave the place a cathedral feel. I was surprised to see many exhibits in the church, but they were all very educational. I even got a commemorative coin of the cathedral.
Jen got out of class and we met her in front of the cathedral to walk around Paris. When I saw her I asked if she had done that much touring of Paris, but I guess she hadn’t since she viewed living there like she was living in a place where she worked. We were going to get info at the Louvre, but ended up getting falafel at what was said to be the best falafel in the world. It was in the Jewish district of Paris and we also walked around to give it a look. I liked the falafel, but not as much as the falafel in New Haven at Famous Mamou’s.

Once it got later, we met with Victoria’s Italian couch surfing friend. He was very nice and took us to La Defense which is the business district with more modern buildings. Because of this, the area was less touristy. Then we went down to a walking bridge near the Louvre in order to have a picnic of food we got from Carrefour. It was cold because of wind, but very nice. The bridge had chain links that couples put locks on to symbolize their love. Then we walked around the outside of the Louvre taking pictures with the pyramids during the sunset in the background.

Then we split up with me going to Jen’s dorm and the girls going to meet up with the couch surfing guy who was going to host them. I spent the night at a club called Mix which had Erasmus people. There we danced until late in the morning and I wore an Erasmus Poland sticker the whole night. Highlights included drinking French beer and dancing on a platform in the middle of the dance floor. The club had tons of international students and sometimes Spanish Flamingo dancers would dance on a stage in front of the DJ. We took a taxi home.

The next morning I met up with my friends again at the Louvre. They were glad to see me because their couch surfing host did not work out as well as they thought it would. He was a really nice guy they said, but they felt extremely awkward sleeping in his apartment since it was so small and they didn't get enough privacy. Thus, they didn't get a very good night’s sleep since they felt so strange in the bed with him. The Louvre however was very interesting. We saw many sculptures and famous paintings. Of course we saw the Mona Lisa which had a rail around so you couldn’t get closer than 15 feet and there was a thick pane of glass covering it. There was a big contraption around it that had sliding doors which might have been for security reasons or to close it at night. I also got to see the famous Hammurabi’s Code which was a larger than expected stone pillar. Eventually, we knew we were tired so we made our way back to Jen’s dorm so the girls could sleep and find a better situation to be in.

Couch surfing worked out for them because they sent an emergency request and found a guy who ended up being really nice and had a free living room and blow up mattresses. After meeting the guy and dropping their stuff off at his apartment, we made our way to the Eifel Tower. First, we stopped at a park in Luxembourg which was beautiful with statues, groomed trees, and a big pond. I had gotten biscuits from a store that I didn’t like, so we all decided to feeds the ducks and sparrows. If any pigeons came by, we would shoo them away. Some sparrows even ate from the girls’ hands.

We made it to the Eifel Tower and were almost immediately inundated with guys trying to sell us souvenirs. If you ever meet these guys don’t make eye contact with them or else they won’t leave you alone. After taking literally thousands of pictures of the Eifel Tower, we finally bought tickets to climb the tower. We could have gone to the middle floor of the tower, but there were way too many stairs and we had been walking way too much. The lights of the Eifel Tower were very beautiful and I really enjoyed when the twinkling lights were on. We went our separate ways for the night and I ended up sleeping early.

The next day we met up with Victoria’s friend Fabrice who’s from France. I slept in and met up with them later. While I was sleeping, they went to the Arc de Triomphe. I met them at Concorde where they have a large Egyptian obelisk. Fabrice later took us to get macaroons which are cookies with a thick crème sandwiched in between them. I ordered a caramel cookie and it was really delicious. Then we made our way to Montmartre, which is a section of Paris which is on a very tall hill. From the metro, we had to climb a really tall spiral stair case up to the top, which the girls barely made it up. There we got out and saw a smaller church that had mosaics all over the front of the church and even inside. By this time we were starving since we barely ate the expensive food of Paris. We ended up getting bagel sandwiches. The highlight of Montmartre was getting to see St. Peter’s church. From the church, it is said to have the best view of Paris. We could see many of the attractions from the hill like Notre Dame Cathedral and others.

We then walked down the hill to Moulin Rouge which, I guess, is in a sex show and sex shop district of Paris. There was a sex museum that we sadly didn’t get to visit, but the outside with a spinning tongue chair showed us all we needed to see. There a lot of sex shops along this road, and Victoria made her friend a little nervous when she was taking pictures of him outside these shops. We then ended up parting ways from him because he was in Paris mostly to go see a one-man comedy with his parents. He was a great tour guide and I guess this was the first time he spent a whole day using all English.

Sunday morning, we had felt we had seen everything in Paris that we wanted to, so we took a metro to Chateau Versailles. The way there, we got a little lost because the metro split, but we eventually figured it out. The castle was very beautiful inside and there was a ton of treasures and decorations on the walls. My favorite room was the hall of mirrors and getting to see Marie Antoinette’s queen’s chamber. I especially liked getting to see the bust of Marie Antoinette. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to go to the gardens of Versailles and Marie Antoinette’s famous private estate that she used to get away from all the formalities of her life. I didn’t go because they charged more money then I felt like having to pay.
After Versailles, Me and Victoria took a break while the other girl went to get souvenirs near the Louvre. Me and Victoria, in the mean time, watched a great movie called Teeth. I won’t tell the plot, but it’s a good movie.

At night, Jen took me out to some of the bars she frequents. The first one was called the Antidote where the bar tenders were playing drinking games where they raced to take shots of flavored vodka. The first round was a race of three shots and the second was a race of two shots. I don’t know how those guys didn’t throw up after that. Next, we were on to an “American” themed bar. They even had beer pong there where we had to play with cider since they ran out f beer the night before. It was the grossest game I have ever played because it was in a bar with a grimy floor and we played from cups that had a little bit growing in them. However, I sucked it up and my team of the bartender and me sadly beat Jen and her friend. The night was getting late, so I was finally able to pry the girls away and we made our way back to Jen’s dorm.
In the morning, I woke up a half hour later than I wanted to and raced my way to the airport. I made it there on time, but unfortunately the plane was canceled due to the stupid ash from the volcano. I think the plane that was supposed take us to Krakow got stuck in Spain somewhere. It was a pain in the ass trying to get back home to Krakow that started a new adventure where we ran all over the place trying to figure out how to get back. Eventually we stayed in an airline compensated hotel for a night and then transferred our flight to Prague where we had to take a train to Krakow. The train was  not a sleeper car, but fortunately there were so few people on the train that we could all lay out. Overall, I really enjoyed visiting Paris even though it was really expensive. It was great getting to see my friend Jen while she was on study abroad, too.