This past weekend my roommates and I went to Paris!! Anna, Kasia, Lindsey, Meredith, and I took a flight out early Friday morning and arrived mid-afternoon. The view from airplane on the way there was unreal. We flew over the Italian Alps and it was beautiful!
Flying over the Italian Alps
We absolutely loved Paris, it was such a cool city and we wished that we had more time there. We had so much fun despite the weather, which is usually a pretty determining factor for me in terms of my level of happiness- it rained our first day there and was cloud and kind of brisk the second day. I had been to Paris a few times when we lived in Geneva but I was surprised at how much I didn't remember about the city. I guess it makes sense, though, since according to my mom, I didn't care much for Paris when I was 8 ;) Paris was so much bigger than I remember it being and there was so much to see, from the big tourist attractions to the cute little side streets. It was also cool to just be in Paris, the name alone has such a cache to it and we loved the feeling of just hopping a plane to Paris for the weekend. We won't be able to do things like that for all that much longer so we're definitely relishing in the feeling while we can :)
So we flew into Charles de Gaulle which is a beautiful airport and we had no problems finding our way around. Kasia and Anna were meeting 2 of their friends in Paris (one was on spring break from their school in the U.S. and the other studies in Lyon) and were staying with them at a different hotel so we parted ways and made our way to our hotel via googlemaps on my blackberry, which is a LIFE SAVER here in Europe. Our hotel looked sketchy at first but it turned out to be very decent and perfect for what we needed, especially our rooms. We decided to go with a hotel this time instead of a hostel because the prices were pretty comparable and when given the choice of a hostel and a hotel, we're going to choose hotel. We put our bags down and made our way to the Louvre where we met Kasia and company. At this point we were starving so we all stopped for lunch near Notre Dame. Lunch was delicious! We had croque monsieurs and french fries (served with every meal we discovered), which are basically grilled cheese sandwiches with ham inside and sometimes egg on top. It started to rain during lunch so we decided to do the inside stuff and see Notre Dame and the Louvre. Notre Dame was stunning, it definitely reminded us of the Duomo with the gothic interior but it had it's own separate feel to it. It was so humbling and cool to be in a place with such history and such magnificence.
Welcome to Paris!
Walking to the Louvre!
Mere and I in front of the Louvre BEFORE the rain
Mere and I in front of the Louvre DURING the rain with our new Parigi umbrellas :)
Notre Dame!
Mere and I, sharing an umbrella pre-Paris umbrellas
Inside Notre Dame
Afterwards we made our way to the Louvre. We saw Michaelangelo's sculptures and then went to see the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa was so much smaller than I was expecting! It was funny because we all agreed that seeing the it was so anti-climatic... it's not really that stunning of a painting on face value and it's so small especially compared to the other paintings in the room yet it's the most famous painting in the world. You probably can't remember the first time you saw it because it's so ubiquitous but when you see it in person it's really not that exciting. I'm excited to learn more about it in my art history/Leonardo da Vinci class and learn more about the story behind it. The room we went into after the Mona Lisa was probably my favorite room in the museum. It had the most beautiful paintings in it and they were sillouetted against deep red walls. We also saw Napolean's Apartments which were amazing and so ornate. On our way to the Apartments, we watched a performance that we concluded was some sort of mix of interpretive dance and break dancing? Not sure, but it was really cool!
Room where the Mona Lisa was
Hey there Mona
Huge painting the room where the Mona Lisa was
The ceiling of my favorite room
The walls-- the paintings in this room were unreal
View from inside the Louvre- so pretty!
Interpretive dancing?
Craziness
Napoleon's Apartments
I want one of these!
Napoleon's throne
We stopped a French restaurant afterwards and were very entertained by the table of obviously drunk British guys behind us- age range of probably 25 to 60 no joke. One guy was ACTUALLY passed out at the table... his forehead was on the table and he literally didn't move a muscle until about halfway through dinner despite the loud ruckus emanating from his table and the occasional pat on the head by the guy sitting next to him. On their way out of the restaurant, one of the older guys actually fell into me... it was unbelievable, I've never seen anything like that in a restaurant before! It was funny, too, because after we ate, Mere, Linds, and I felt like the guy who had passed out- we were so tired that we wanted to crash right there at the restaurant too! We didn't, though... we were able to make it back to our hotel before we passed out because of exhaustion.
We slept great that night, except for the unknown alarm/noise that sounded around 7:45am. We had no idea what it was and it was pretty obnoxious but eventually we heard people outside of our room fixing it. We got up at the early hour of 10am and made our way to the Eiffel Tower first. It was cold and windy and we were starving so as soon as we got there, we decided to break for lunch at a cute little place not far from the Eiffel Tower. We had croque monsieurs again (we couldn't get enough of these things), french fries, and 4 euro cappuccino's haha and thus began the marathon of the day. We saw sooo much and covered so much ground on Saturday, it was impressive. We took pictures at the Eiffel Tower then headed to the Arc de Triomphe, where we took our lives in our hands by crossing the busy 4 lane street that surrounds the Arc instead of taking the easier but not obvious underground passageway. We totally missed the underground passage and saw a few people crossing the street so we figured eh okay, this must be what people do here! We greeted many a driver while crossing the street and we were met with many funny looks but we made it :) While walking around the Arc, we noticed the safer way to go back and took that. We were meeting up with Claire, one of Linds' friends from home who is studying in Paris and while we were waiting for her, we watched a break-dancing group perform on the Champs-Elysees. They were so good and funny! Before their performance, one of the guys called Mere over to the bench where he was sitting. He said he would only start the show if she gave him a kiss on the cheek. She looked at me for what to do and I gave her a face like "well? Just do it" so she turns to do it and he turned at the same time and kissed her right on the lips. It was soo funny, the whole crowd loved it.
Eiffel Tower!
Linds, Mere, and I
Again :)
Me with some random horses/donkey's... I thought they were going to attack me even though they were so still that we weren't sure at first if they were real or not
Arc de Triomphe
The CRAZY street we crossed
Once Claire arrived, we walked down the Champs-Elysees and went into the Louis Vuitton FLAGSHIP store, which was incredible. Don't worry mom, I didn't buy anything but I was tempted ;) The store was beautiful and huge and so fun to walk around. Afterwards, we went to the world famous Laudree and got macarons, which are basically 2 biscuits with flavored creme in the middle.
I’ve never had anything like them before but they were delicious! It was nice having Claire with us because she was able to show us around! After Laudree, we took the metro to Montmartre, a hill where you can see all of Paris from, and Sacre Coeur, which is the Church at the top of Montmartre. The street leading up to Montmartre was packed with stores and people and the bottom of it was overflowing with people wanted to “show us something cool” but really tie a bracelet around our wrists and sell it to us. We got crepe’s on our way through this street (finally!) and they were so so good. I wish we had crepe stands here in Milan, although it’s probably a good thing we don’t because I would probably grab one every day. Anyway, the view from the top of the hill was beautiful! We were also again entertained with street dancers and their performance which was incredible… they were a little more gymnastically-inclined than the first group and put on a great show. After we had watched for a while, we went inside Sacre Coeur, which was also beautiful. They wouldn’t allow us to take any pictures but you can take my word for it J
View from Montmartre
Sacre Coeur
Linds, Mere, me, and Claire
We took the metro to Le Marais, the Jewish district of Paris. This area was so quaint and adorable and filllled with shops! We grabbed hot chocolate’s/coffe’s at a cute place along the way and took a break. At this point, I think it was around 6pm so it was getting pretty late. Our last stop of the site-seeing day would be the Tour Montparnasse, the tallest skyscraper in Paris (we could see it from Montmartre) with 59 floors and a terrace at the top where you can see all of Paris. Unfortunately, they closed the open terrace at the top, probably because of the wind, but we still got to go up to the 56th floor observation deck and see Paris! Going to the top of the Montparnasse building was one of the distinct memories I have of Paris from when I was younger. We used to eat dinner at the amazing restaurant near the top of the building and then take the elevator up to the top and see all of Paris. It was stunning and I wished we could have gone all the way to open top part of the building but we still got to see Paris and the Eiffel Tower sparkle, which it does for 6 minutes at the start of every hour.
One of the streets in La Marais
The Tour Montparnasse!
The best picture of Paris I could get from behind the window on the observation floor
Pictures of the construction of the Eiffel Tower on the walls of the observation floor
French Onion soup!
My entree, I forget the type of meat this was but it was delicious
We stepped out of their hotel to this beautiful site... the Eiffel Tower lit up AND sparkling
Linds, Kasia, and Mere ready to go outtt in Parigi
We met up with Kasia, Anna, and their two friends after for dinner at this cute restaurant they picked out. We had French Onion soup and all different kinds of meat and wine and it was all delicious. I had truly forgotten how good French food was but this weekend definitely reminded me. After dinner, we went back to their hotel room and dropped off some stuff and then Kasia, Linds, Mere, and I decided to check out the Paris night scene. Claire, Linds’ friend, had given us the names of a few good streets where a lot of people go to go out at night. We picked one and were completely overwhelmed! This street was absolutely crazy, I’ve never seen anything like it… I think this street wins for most bars per square foot because there was just bar after bar after bar on this street and people evvverywhere. It was insanity and there were so many choices, we didn’t know where to go in. We finally randomly picked a place and tried to get drinks but were really confused by the helpful two guys who told Kasia that we couldn’t order drinks at the bar. Not sure… Kasia speaks a little bit of French but either way it was confusing. We stopped in at another place and ordered vodka tonics that somehow sounded like “Jack Daniel’s on the rocks” to the bartender. That was clearly not going to fly with us but we were able to get what we originally wanted after clearing up the miscommunication. And onto the third place… we ordered drinks and met a guy who was from Milan, oddly enough. We joked that we went to France to meet French boys and instead we met Italian boys, who we have trouble meeting in Italy. The irony of it was too much! This guy in particular was funny… he spoke a little bit of English but mostly spoke in Italian to Kasia and kept telling her how he was in love with Meredith but Meredith was right there? The whole situation was hysterical, such good entertainment.
We headed back to our hotel rooms not too late and got up around 8:45 the next morning. Mere and I woke up early to go to the shops by the Louvre and do some last minute shopping and also stop at a famous place called Angelina’s and order their to-die-for hot chocolate. Ah, that stuff was awesome and I’m so glad we were able to get some of it! We grabbed croissants on our way back to the hotel and finished packing up our stuff. Linds, Mere, and I walked to the train station and met Kasia and Anna there. We were all moving relatively slowly even though we were cutting it pretty close, time-wise. We were on the train at 11:20 and our flight was at 12:45…. I think we were all just hoping that there wouldn’t be a line at security or any other hold up along the way, since our train finally pulled into the airport at 11:45, an hour before we were supposed to take off. All I know is that it was a very different experience than traveling with my family haha my dad has us piling into the car a full four hours before flight time to make sure we have a comfy hour and a half to two hours at the gate waiting to board the plane ;) No worries, going through Charles de Gaulle was a piece of cake and our flight was delayed 15 minutes. We even got to the gate in time to get more Laduree macarons, perfect!
We knew we were entering Italy again at the gate where, instead of a relatively orderly line to board the plane, the two “lines” instantly became a massive group of people herding the counter. The “express/premium/business class” line and “economy/scum/dregs of the earth” line carried no distinction and so we naturally get in the express line, only to be waiting a long time for a few families who have probably never flown in an airplane before. We weren’t moving for a solid 10 minutes but weren’t sure what exactly the problem was. All we did notice was when the family finally made it through the check-in counter, the dad, armed with baby supplies and stuffed animals galore, turned around asked the ticket agent something that we interpreted to mean, “is this the way to the airplane?” as he pointed towards the tunnel to the airplane. We almost died laughing and immediately understood why it took them so long to get through the very difficult process of scanning their tickets.
(If you have a few minutes, watch this hilarious video which touches on a few of the funny experiece you commonly experience at airports. It's a link to a sketch from my favorite comedian, Brian Regan -- he's hysterical and perfectly captures some of the struggles one experiences while going through airports. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17PEUZvoxho)
We had a great welcome back to Milano, which is always nice :) We found a train that went directly from Malpensa airport to Garibaldi, our metro station, and it was cheaper than taking the Malpensa Express- what we usually take from the airport and that goes to Cadorna station where we transfer to a metro. Then, as we walk out of Garibaldi, we are welcomed home to absolutely beautiful sunshine. This walk back to our apartment was certainly an improvement from our last walk back after a big trip- after the ski trip where we were running home in the pouring rain at 9pm at night and completely needing to use the bathroom! Haha, as we neared our apartment, we noticed two bread guys putting bread in their truck from the paneterria Cleopatra across from our apartment. They said stuff but we assumed it was the usual Italian guy “you’re pretty” etc. stuff so we kept walking. Then, we remembered that we were going to have a family dinner later that night and wondered if Cleopatra was still open so we could get bread. We didn’t think it was but decided we’d ask the guys if we could have bread. So, Kasia shouts “Pane, per favore??” (bread, please?) to them and he just took a bag of 6 loaves of bread out of the back of their truck and GAVE it to us! We asked if we had to pay and he asked us if we wanted a SECOND bag! We felt bad so we said no but it was so nice of him!! I put my stuff down inside our apartment and enjoyed some of the bread on one of the 3 balconies our apartment has ;) Unfortunately, the big balcony that connects all of our bedrooms doesn’t get the sun in the evening so I ate the bread on the balcony outside of our kitchen which was still great. It was so Italy, munching on some bread with olive oil and rosemary on our balcony with the sun shining on my face. I loved it and it was certainly a change from the rain we had all of last week :) It was a Sunday night, so we had a traditional Italian Sunday night meal: pasta with red sauce, bread, salad, wine, and dessert from Sicily courtesy of Maria, our CA. It was great and we can’t wait to do the same thing except sit outside on our big balcony and eat, it just needs to warm up a littttle bit more!
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It’s nice to not have the stress of midterms hanging over our heads but somehow this week has still been a little crazy. I didn’t think my schedule could get that hectic over here but somehow, commitments tend to find their way into my life. It’s okay though, they’re all fun and/or cultural commitments. I ran to the Parco Sempione both Monday and today which felt great, especially in this fabulous weather we’re having. I had a nice little conversation with the guys who are painting the halls of our apartment complex and they were impressed. I also went to the market today which is always an interesting experience… one of the fruit vendors took the liberty of taking my hand and leading me to the fruit and asking what I wanted; he then told the old man also browsing there that we would be great together. Haha, the old man was so sweet, he said something about me being too young and then when the vendor was weighing my fruit, he said that the guy was giving me a lot of compliments or something. I don’t completely understand what the Italians say sometimes, especially when they speak so fast so I kind of just smile, laugh, and said grazie. Next stop was the meat/cheese stand where Anna has established a good relationship with the vendor. I love love love their prosciutto, it’s so fresh and amazing! Hearing Ciao bella isn’t too bad either :) I don’t think that will ever get old….
Last night, I met with my language partner, Rossella, again and it was so fun! We walked around Cattolica a bit and she showed me a garden where only girls are allowed. I was surprised by this, I’d never seen a place at a University where only girls were allowed except the girl’s bathrooms. After, we went to her apartment and I met her roommates and she made us dinner! I spoke Italian to her roommates and one of them said that I speak Italian well which was nice to hear. Her roommates were so nice and her apartment was beautiful! I am meeting with her again on Thursday by the Duomo and we’ll probably grab something to eat near there. This language partner program that IES set up is a great idea, she helps me with my Italian and I help her with her English… I just wish they had started it earlier!
Lots of exciting things coming up… I am going to see the Last Supper tomorrow with my art history class, I am seeing a show at La Scala on Monday with my roommates, and this weekend I am going to Barcelona with Mere and we are staying with her friends from her school who are studying there. Roma is the weekend after and hopefully the Milan-Inter game the Sunday of that weekend. This is the halfway point of our program and I have a sneaking suspicion that our remaining time here will FLY by, especially with all of the travelling we are doing. It’s a crazy life but I love it. I definitely miss home and everyone there but at this halfway point, it makes you realize that time hasn’t been standing still and that you are halfway done. I have so many exciting things to look forward to but I can’t forget to enjoy every day! The weather is finally turning up here and I can’t wait to soak up every second of it. I am also the palest I have been in a very long time which needs to be fixed pronto… I belong in the sun all year around I swear!
