Week eight-Going to Paris!

Last week, after Carnaval, was pretty uneventful. I had 3 midterms to study for and take (none of which were too challenging) and a trip to Paris to plan, which Megan and I waited to do till Friday evening, the night before our plane left. On Thursday (I think) Megan and I were convinced by Xavi and Eloi to come to a meeting where some students were working on details for the Granada trip. It was interesting, and our input was asked on dates and flight times, but other than that we understood nothing because they spoke in Catalan the whole time! Catalonians have SO much pride, it is unbelievable. We got in on a little bit, however, because after the meeting Xavi started teaching us some Catalan words that we might need. We had fun in our little learning session. On the way back to our hall, we then taught Xavi the 'that's what she said' joke and showed him clips from The Office to give him examples. I think he found it funny...I hope so, atleast!

On Saturday morning Megan and I left for the airport at 3:45 in the morning...We had to take a taxi since nothing else was open, but got there with plenty of time and were in the CDG airport outside of Paris by 8am. (Side note: Vueling flights are some of the best I've been on as far as landing and taking off-I could hardly tell we had left the ground or were back on it because they were so smooth!)
We took a bus into the Paris city center, with a bus driver who barely watched the road and swerved all over the place. We were dropped off by the Opera house where Phantom of the Opera takes place, and immediately found a cafe to grab a quick breakfast. The breakfast turned out to be not so quick, since in Europe they do not believe in ever bringing you a check, but delicious. I had cafe au lait and a chocolate croissant (expensive: 5euro for the coffee and 2.5euro for the croissant...didn't know that beforehand) and we spread our maps out and planned our day with a few tips from our waiter. He was hilarious, spoke 5 languages, and cussed in english like a sailor. An example: "Versailles...Where is %$#*ing Versailles? I think..no, here, you must go here. S**t! &*#@ing map! This map is crap...Oh the catacombs? Well, I know where the illegal catacombs are, but the legal..? Let me ask her...Here you can access the legal catacombs. The illegal entrances are here and here, but there you will find water up to here and rats." Etc. Haha! We left after finally paying and found our hostel across town to drop our bags off. We then started walking. And oh, did we walk! We walked to the Arc de Triomf (beautiful), then down the Champs Elysses (not that impressive, all big brand stores) to some really cool buildings and took a side trip to the Pont Alexander III bridge with awesome monuments on it, then back down the road till we found the Concorde (an Obelisk) and on to the Tuileries Gardens. The gardens were not that impressive, but then again, nothing was in bloom yet in Paris. We sat in some reclining chairs to take a break in front of a pond, then walked on to the Louvre, where we took photos outside but didn't go inside.
After, we walked toward the Jardin du Luxembourg and found big, cheap sandwiches for lunch on the way there (mine was delicious) because we were starving! The Jardin du Luxembourg was beautiful! Tons of people were there, but it was big enough so that we did not feel crowded at all, and voices were just a pleasant hum in the background. We sat on a stone fence that ran around a raised area and looked out over the central area and sunbathed and people-watched for a while. We then explored the rest of the garden and looked at all the statues of historical queens and other amazing women in France's past. We went and sat down by some cute guys to see if they would start a conversation with us next. They didn't. Losers.
At 2:30ish we left the Jardin du Luxembourg and headed to Notre Dame. It was beautiful inside, and an actual Mass was going on while people were filing around the outer parts to see the windows and alcoves. I felt bad, but we were really quiet, as were all the other visitors. We went the long way around the church trying to find the entrance to see the bell tower (my fault) but on the way we got to see the entire outside architecture of the church and some sweet gymnasts doing flips in the grass. We got in line for the bell tower, got spanish guide pamphlets cause the english ones were out, and watched an entertainer jump out at people across the street and yell "MAMA!" and then to the crowd "That's me mother!". He was hilarious and kept us occupied till it was our turn to ascend the MILLION stairs on the spiral staircase. The tour took forever because they squeezed a bunch of people on the narrow balconies, but the view was amazing. We could see all across Paris! We then went up MORE stairs to go above the bell tower to the highest part of the church. Then we went ALL the way down (as fast as we could go cause we were first in line) and out the doors. We walked to find a snack at a French passaterie afterward and found a metro that took us to Sacre Coeur. We met up with Bailey and his friend Aric at Sacre Coeur and went inside the Basilique to look around. A choir was singing and it was beautiful, light, French hymns. I loved it! The interior of the Sacre Coeur was beautiful as well. Afterward we got a good view of the Eiffel tower at sunset and then went to find dinner and I caught up with Bailey. We ate kebabs for dinner, which are pitas, basically and the same thing as the weird pita pits here in Barcelona. These kebabs were better tasting and came with french fries! Afterward we walked along the Seine and chatted, then decided to go to the Eiffel tower and go up it. The Eiffel tower was beautiful at night, and sparkled every so often. When we got there, the top level was closed so we just went to the second level (wasn't that cool) and then raced down the stairs cause the elevators were taking a long time. We went to the hostel to check in, changed to go out, and then walked back towards the center of town. Some of Bailey's and Aric's friends were in a club along the Champs-Elysses called Queen. We went there, found out the overhead was 20euro and decided it wasn't worth it, so we walked back toward our hostel, found a lame bar, and then decided to just call it a night.