Long weekend in Paris!!

Just spent my 4 day weekend in Paris! Thursday night at midnight we took a 6 hour overnight bus ride to Madrid. It was pretty horrible, didn't sleep for one second. Flight was at 9:30, got to sleep for a couple hours on the plane, and finally arrived at Charles de Gualle airport at 11:30 ish. Took a train to a metro to our hostel, which was near the Latin Quarter in Paris. This was our hostel. We got a private four person room with our own bathroom. We weren't ready for our first hostel to be gross, so we got a little bit of a nicer one. And I think I'm going to stick with that, there were definitely some weirdos there. But it was clean and we only slept there. I don't know what I would have done without my own bathroom though.

Above is my friend Alicia, those were our 4 bunks. I slept bottom right because I get scared on top.

We finally got settled by 2:00 ish, and went to find lunch. We ate at a little bistro near by. Got my first croque monsieur. I had really missed those. And then we went to Avenue de Champs Elysees so we could relax and wander around.

The next day we got up early, at 7:30, had breakfast at our hostel, which actually wasn't that bad, croissants, cereal and coffee, and started the day. Went to the Louvre first because it was raining pretty hard outside. Of course the Louvre was amazing, and I even recognized a couple new paintings from an art history class I took at U of O my freshman year so that was exciting.

                                                         Winged Victory

                                                               Mona Lisa

                                                                     Venus de Milo

                                               Me, Cate, Alicia, and Paige on our bus tour

After the Louvre we were starving, I got my first crepe for the trip, ham cheese and egg, and we went to the eiffel tower. My camera died right before we went up so I only have pictures on my blackberry, hopefully my friends will send me some. Eiffel tower was amazing obviously, the views were so cool. It was cold, but we missed the rainstorm that started right when we got back down so that was perfect. The hop on hop off bus tour we did was actually really great. Sitting up top you get a whole different view of the city then just taking the metro the whole time. And there was audio so every monument or cool spot we passed we learned a lot. We passed the tunnel that Princess Diana died in, each bridge we crosse we learned something about it. All the palaces and buildings etc had something important about them.

After the Eiffel tower we HAD to go find the LongChamp store. Longchamp sells the cutest bags and because it's a brand from Paris they are about 50 dollars cheaper here than in the United States. I had to get one. After that we went home to recuperate and get ready for dinner. My friend Cate's dad is big on French food and wine, and before we left he told her that he wanted to treat us to dinner one night. We went to this really cool restaurant on the left bank, in the 6th district. It was so good, we tried escargot, which didn't taste anything like you think snails would. Got a yummy bottle of wine for the table. And I got a beef filet which was in some amazing sauce. And we got creme brulee for desert and chocolate fondant. Wow was it amazing. There was a bar and dancing upstairs that we hung out at for a little, and made it home by 2 in the morning after meeting some cool locals and chatting with them for a while. Literally almost everyone knows perfect English, it's pretty amazing. The next day we started out at the Musee d' Orsay. This was my favorite part of the whole trip. I like the impressionist paintings much better, and I recognized SO much. It sucked because pictures weren't allowed inside. But I got to see Monet's water lilies painting, another one with the bridge, and a few others of his that I recognized. The Van Gogh part was my absolute favorite. Seeing his famous self portrait painting was amazing. This is outside the museum but this is the painting:

Also, a ton of Manet and Degas work was there. It was my favorite part of the whole trip. Maybe because we didn't get to go when I went to Paris with the fam so it was all new to me, but I loved it. After the museum we went to the Opera House, which was also new for me. It was SO beautiful, I couldn't even imagine actually going to an opera there. It was really one of the coolest places I've ever been. 

After the opera house we got some lunch by the Notre Dame, I got a hot dog with cheese on it!! Oh my god it was so good, and fries and then we got 2 crepes to split for desert. We were having a leasurly lunch, so then when we got out we were trying to get in line for the Notre Dame but they said it was full for the day. Turns out they were only talking about the line to go up to the top of it. We didn't realize that until the following day though. So instead we decided to go to Sacre Coeur. Decided to climb all the steps up to it instead of taking the little tram thing. Pretty much thought we were going to die we were so out of breath. But of course the cathedral was beautiful and worth the climb. After that we met our friend Brett outside of Moulin Rouge because we all wanted to see the outside of that. Apparently the shows suck there now though, which is kind of sad because it used to be so cool. The Montmarte district these 2 places are in is SO cool. I wish we could have spent more time there. So many cool shops and fun streets.

Finally we got home after a veryyyy long day. Our hostel recommended a local french restaurant for dinner for us that was amazing. I had a salad with egg, ham, potatoes, and cheese, 2 people got duck, and Paige and Brett got veal. (ew). I tried the duck, which was really really good. But I wouldn't touch the veal obviously. Gross. It was a great last dinner in Paris. The next day we got all packed up and left our luggage downstairs and left to tour the Notre Dame. It was awesome and I love the stained glass windows inside. We were able to walk around the St. Michael area for a while and made our way back to the hostel and found a place for lunch. It was a nice relaxing last day. We found the cutest used/new bookstore along the Seine River called Shakespeare and Company. I know there are a million of those all around Paris and I wish I had gotten to see more of them. This whole trip was really really great. There is something new to see every time. I got one last crepe before I left, my friends thought I was crazy for eating so many of them but I had to! They are so so good there. We took the metro to the airport and made our way back to Sevilla. Took the overnight bus at 1 in the morning and got home this morning at 7. Didn't sleep again so just went straight to sleep when I walked in and I just woke up about an hour ago here, (2 p.m.) It was so great to get back to Sevilla. I missed speaking Spanish, and my señora's food. It was nice to feel like I was coming home. This post is really long, sorry! There was a lot to say about Paris. It's also nice to not be in freezing weather anymore! I was pretty devastated I had to miss the Oscars so I'm watching them now on my computer.