Sunday, July 15, 2012

Paris!!

I am writing this while on the bus to Switzerland, I'm trying to remember all the details! Day three: we woke up for a little walking tour. Its realy cool because in Paris, you can renovate the inside of w building but if its old then the fascade has to remain the same, so everything has a very old architecture look. Sooooo pretty. I went ito Notre Dame, I was soooo thrilled to go because SR. Diane had told me about the statue of Saint Denis, he is holding his head in his hands. It had reminded her of one of my metalcraft pieces! . The Gothic architecture is just so incredible, its so hard believe people actually created this before computers and modern technology. So besides the saints on the outside of Notre Dame there are the Grotesques mad for decoration and to add extra weight, and also gargoyles used for drainage of water away from the building to avoid erosion of the building. Its pretty funny because sculptors would sculpt faces of people they did not like on the grotesque. That's where the basis of Quasimodo came from!! The inside of Notre Dame is GORGEOUS! It is SO big, and everything is just so well thought out. Even the ceilings are pretty. I lit a candle while I walked through.. the photos will do more justice.</p>
<p>After Notre Dame we went to find crepes! The guy that made them for us had a fancy for me, we called him my boyfriend after a while lol. I was a pig an ordered two crepes - one filled with Tuna, Cheese, and Egg. The second with Nutella and Banana. (Side note - I was soooo bummed to not find yogurt in any of my crepes. That's how my High school French teacher taught us to make them, so I ascern that I make the best crepes.) He kept calling me Bebe and holding my hand while I tried to pay him haha. French men. Iy! So after I bought a sweet ass headphones t shirt -the cord spells Paris!! Then we walked to the Arabic Culture Institute, went up to the top floor and had the most amazing view of Paris. Speedy says its even better than the Eiffel tower because we are just a bit above everything so its not all just flat topped!!!! Breathtaking.</p>
<p>then we made our way home to get all fancy for our 4 course meal at a 900 year old restaurant!!!!!!!!!!!!! (With unlimited wine!)<br>
So i chose: Patte, Veal, cheese course (Swiss and Goat cheese), then chocolate mousse. We had a glass of Champagne and our table went thru atleast 4 bottles of wine. There was two guys playing an acordian and the other a guitar, we started requesting Parisian songs and singing along. Iy!! Glad we were seperated from the general public!!&amp;amp;nbsp; The dinner was SOOO much fun, we all looked so nice and it was just a great night out!! Speedy was hilarious and talking about previous tour groups he's had. Usually there are 45-50 people! We have 29!! I ended up telling him how much I love his fancy clothes lol. I guess someone from Florida called him a metrosexual, but they don't really say that in Europe like we do.. so he's like Good heavens, you think I screw trains!! So anyway, we went to a local pub after the dinner, French people aren't too fomd of Americans at their not touristy areas I must say... in the end we had a drink, navigated home on the metro. Speedy told us he would show us a hypnoism trick with a wine bottle, it was hilarious tho..he basically tricked Parker and put ash on his face. It looked like he went to four different Churches on Ash Wednesday! </p>
<p>The next day (yesterday) was our free day.. a group of us woke up bright and early and made it to the Louvre,because it was Bastille Day it was free entrance into the museum!! I can't say I understand all the hype about the Mona Lisa... but we saw her. And then visited the gothic,&nbsp; French art, and African Art. After we sat outside for a good while just soaking up the sun. I don't think you understand this is the first time it has been sunny for more than 2 hours at a time on this trip. We have had the craziest weather in the history of Paris and London for this month!! Anyway,they were preparing for the bug parade so there were french soldiers with huge ass machine guns walking around and then probably 9-10 rows of 5 planes flew overhead for the parade. THEN people started parachuting down!!!!!! It was crazy!! We ended up taking a nap before we went back out that night. </p>
<p>Tasha, the Croats and I packed a pic nic and went to find Ginette, Anel, Tim, and Jarrod who had saved a nice grassy area by the Eiffel for the fireworks show that night. It was a MADHOUSE. omg!!!!!! We had to go thru security checks and we were almost positive they would make us throw out our wine we bought at the Supermarche (. 50 cents and another for 1.50, cheap dates aye!?) We had planned to meet up at 7pm and probably didn't find each other until 830 or 9! Its a real tricky time when no one has cell phones. (I want walkietalkies so bad!!) We finallllllllly found them and had ourselves a cute little pic nic. We brought two baguettes, Gouda cheese, Orangina (Like orange juice with sprite in it), Tim had a bottle of Champagne and OJ, pesto, wine glasses from the hotel, our towels from the hotel (hahahahah), cherries, a bottle of eau (water) and people bought crepes and sandwhiches!! It was so freaking cute. I have to say. Haha Tasha and I wanted to be like Mary Kate and Ashley's Passport to Paris movie so we bought berets and sword fighted (with baguettes) by the Eiffel tower =) haha!!!! The firework show was famtsstic and they lit up the tower so it looked like sparkles!!! There was a disco ball connected to it too! So funny, they were having a rave in the second tier of the Tower! There was SOOOO many people. I've never seen anything like it. The metro stations close at 12:30 but it doesn't get dark in Europe till 11 pm. Needless to say, we BOOKED it to the nearest station. We were trying to put out tickets in the slot when all of them just opened up the gates and then french guards started SCREAMING in French!!!! People started RUNNING and yelling! I had NO idea what was going on, I thought it was a bomb or something. They shoved us onto the nearest train! It was beyond packed. I mean mosh pit times 10! That was the last train leaving for the night, that's why they were screaming. We went the wrong direction and had to get off at the next stop. There were people screaming in all sorts of languages on the train and some dude speaking French in my ear , I was clueless. I knew we'd end up at our hotel one way or another. I mean we did walk 3 miles in London so I wasn't too concerned about the outcome, I just needed to stick with the group because I had no idea which platform to get off at. I wont lie. I said "this is probably what the Jews felt like in those cattle trains." It was so cramped. In the end we made it home, other people that went out didnt make it to the train station in time and didn't get home til after 1am. Our hotel was pretty far out and they didn't want to drive all that way!</p>
<p>I packed my bags (our room was comparable to the inside of my car. A freaking wreck.) And took a longggggg shower. The only tv show in English was Dr. Who. (Wtf, that show is sooooooooo weird. Its like a soap opera for nerds. And yet I watched two episodes. Haha no wonder French people think we are crazy, they watch that rubbish and assume we all like it!!</p>
<p>Paris turned out to be beautiful, the streets and away from the heart of the city is pretty dirty tho.. I was surprised by how much it reminds me of Cleveland (the outskirts) I had a wonderful time though!!</p>
<p>(Random side note - people aren't as horribly rude as we make them out to be., you do need to try and speak the language.. just say hello! They grasp I'm American just by my hello and I've always been greeted by a smile and they usually laugh at my horrible accent.. its just like how we bitch when people from other countries need to justttt learn English bla bla bla.. its just a courtesy to show that we are trying) </p>
<p>So that leads us to right now.. we boarded the bus at 9 am. We will get to Switzerland around 6 or 7 pm when hopefully I will be able to post this!<br>
</p>

No comments:

Post a Comment