J'adore Paris!

My first visit to Paris was the summer of 2005. I was 17 and went with my mom and brother. This past weekend I also got a chance to go, this time spending the majority of my time with Emily.

We woke up at 4:30am on Friday to catch the tram, then the metro, and finally the train to Paris. The train ride was only about an hour and a half and it went by rather quickly. When we arrived, we split off into different directions. Celeste was staying with a friend, Judith her boyfriend, which left Emily and I to go check in at our hostel. After spending 20 minutes trying to find it wishing we had a map, I realized that my guidebook had one. This would become a future occurence. With a good map, we found the hostel no problem. We left our bags there and started our adventures in Paris.

We started at the Arc de Triumph and walked around the whole thing while waiting for Judith and then we decided it would be the cheapest view of the weekend so we walked up the 200 steps to the top! It was a great panaromic view of the city!

After we walked down the Champs de Lysees, and grabbed lunch at a cafe and continued our walk. We ran into a few gardens and streered right to the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais. From there we walked across the bridge which gave us a beautiful view of the Seine River and the Eiffel Tower. While Judith and Emily talked, I walked around the bridge and took pictures. I took over 500 pictures of Paris this weekend. It is just such a beautiful city!

We continued on our journey and arrived at the Place de le Concorde where the American embassy is (no pictures), the most exclusive hotel in Paris, and some fountains. We also went down the street to Le Madelaine, which is a very pretty church which looks like a Greek temple, but is not one.

We also went to an underground bathroom expecting it to be disgusting and smell bad, but instead it was like enetering a magical world. Each stall was decorated and had its own sink. They had a sign that says no pictures so I couldnt take photos, but it was kinda like your grandma's bathroom. We also didnt have to pay which was amazing!!

The afternoon we spent in the Parc de Tuluries in front of the Louvre where we pretended we were Harry Potter. We also watched some people show off their fancy footwork while rollerblading around cones and jumping over obstacles. We also went around the royal gardens and dropped Judith off at the metro.

Emily and I took off to find crepes and ended up in McDonalds. lol. It is actually pretty hard to find creperies that don't want all your money. We also stopped briefly at the opera for some photos and then dashed off to the Louvre.

The Louvre is free for youth under 26 on Friday evenings so we skipped the line and headed straight for the Mona Lisa. Some people say the Mona Lisa is dissapointing, but I dont agree. Yes, she is behind a glass barrier, yes she is far away, and yes there are hordes of tourists snapping pictures, but you can always admire her from afar. Im not sure what has made her such a stark icon, but she is interesting to look at.

We spent about 2 hours total in the Louvre taking many breaks because we had been up since 4:30am. I was exhausted as was Emily. We walked through a few rooms and were delighted when we came across Reubens artwork (Antwerp represent) because we actually recognized an artist probably most others wouldn`t.

When we finally got back to our hostel, there was a mix up with the beds. We were a little scared that the Argentinian man who lived there before us would come attack us in the middle of the night, but we lived to see another day.

DAY II

This morning we spent a good 2 hours at the Eiffel Tower taking pictures of the Iron Lady in as many positions as possible. I had fun...and Im sure emily did too. :)

Because it is difficult writing so much and you probably don't want to read about every little detail i will just let you know some highlights.

-Musee d'Orsay: beatiful artwork, very managaable, cool clock and building. Hightslights included Degas pantings of ballerinas.

-Garden of Luxembourg: Loved lounging around near the pond where little kids were playing with wooden sailboats. Old man came up and welcomed Emily to Paris.

-Being cheap at a Parisian cafe and having the waiters play around with us.

-Nutella Crepe

-Having drinks with Judiths' boyfriend and friends.

-a romantic stroll along the Seine river at night




Day III

-being freaked out by the Erotic Museum

-Seeing the Monmarte artists gathered trying to sell their paintings to make some money.

-cute parisian dogs and their owners who do not clean up after their dogs

-Getting a sun tan

-watching the street performers and their lovers

-watching the performances in front of the Museum of Modern Art

-Going to the graveyard and lowlight: not seeing Oscar Wilde's grave

-delicious Indian food

-watching the sun set on Paris and watching the Eiffel Tower glitter at night

-meeting up with Judith and Celeste to share our experiences. :)

Balloon Parade

A couple years ago my family and I went to NYC for Thanksgiving. I was really excited about the Thanksgiving day parade. Because Im an idiot I didnt listen to my mom when she said we had to get downtown by 6 am to get a spot to see the parade. At 8 or 10, whenever the parade started we took the subway down to see the parade and she was right...we were 30 feet away from the parade and could barely see anything. This was my chance to make up for the parade, Belgian style.

Like I said in my post about Binche Carnivale, Belgians dont have any rules to parades. We got there early and scoped out a place to stand...the Belgians just stood wherever and walk around and dodged giant balloons. Eventually we did the same because Belgian parades aren't efficient either. BUT in their defense, this was the FIRST annual balloon parade and they had to call in the experts from America to teach them how to do it. Where we were was right under the cables, so the balooners (is that what they're called) had to pull down the balloon far enough so they could go under the cables. This made it hard to see the balloons so we decided to move to get a better look.

Also in Belgian fashion, the Mannekin Pis has to be somewhere!! He was the second balloon! The Atonium was the second! Of course they had to represent Brussels! They also had balloons to represent Clifford the big red dog, Dr. Seuss, the Smurfs, a giant dinosaur, and other interesting balloons. I will post pictures when my computer gets fixed. :(

After the balloon parade, Olivia took us to get some super good hot chocolate! It was delicious and very strong!

After that we are went are separate ways and since it was actually a nice day out, I decided to explore Brussels a little more. I went to the Grand Place once again and walked by the Mannekin Pis, in costume, saw a few of the cartoon murals, and bought some souvenirs. It was nice just to walk around the city and not get lost! Brussels is finally beginning to feel a bit more like home. I can't wait for my friend Jasmine to come visit March 20th!!