We arrived at Paris Beauvais in good time, but our flight from Barcelona was into the evening and there was an hour long bus trip we needed to take (after waiting for like 20 minutes to get tickets). Then we had to figure out the metro to get to our hostel and lug all our stuff there. We succeeded like champs and got to our hostel, though they screwed up our reservation so we had to split up into different rooms. Meh, not too bad. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the beds, but there were always people in the room that were awake and I didn't want to seem like a creeper. But anyway, the beds were like in little cupboards in the wall with a curtain, so it was like having your own private little room to sleep in. So cool.
Some of the Metro signs were a bit, er, Halloweentown-esque?
We had a limited amount of time in Paris. I mean, less than 24 hours (Paris is expensive so we only did one night there) so we set out right away to see something cool. We chose the Eiffel Tower, because it is outside so it can't be closed. It is lit up for a good part of the night, and it was beautiful. Another lovely surprise was that it sparkles like every half our or something. SO COOL. It was amazing to be standing there under this amazing thing that I've only seen in movies. Loved it. Except the magic was ruined by the stupid salespeople trying to sell me miniature light up towers. GO AWAY.
All lit up!
Sparkles!!!
Across from the Tower there was a crepe vendor. Being in France, we had to have one at least! So I got a nutella one. So. Delicious. I will be making these things at home. Poorly, but I will do so anyway.
Delicious!
We headed back since it was now like 1 in the morning and we needed our rest. We had a packed day ahead of us, what with having about 6 hours to see the stuff we wanted to.
We woke up bright and early and headed to our first destination, Notre Dame. We were allowed to go inside for free and take pictures, which is rare for monuments like that, at least in Britain. I felt bad though, because a mass was starting soon. I also felt weird walking by the gift shop inside the main cathedral. It was sooooo bizarre. We didn't see Quasimodo. I was a bit disappointed haha.
Next we headed attempted to head over to the Louvre, but misread the map and ended up on the wrong side of the river going in the wrong direction. I got cool souvenirs out of it, so I'm not complaining. We begrudgingly took the metro up the river and got off at what Liz thought was the station. It wasn't, but we ended up being right down the street from our other key destination and my personal pick, the Palais Garnier. I really hope you know what that is, but if you don't, it is the Paris Opera House. And by this I mean the Paris Opera House. You know, the one WHERE THE PHANTOM LIVED... Yeah. Super stoked. Unfortunately as my luck would have it, it was closed to visitors that day. Huge bummer, but it gives me incentive to come back next year and see it for real inside. I was still thrilled I just got to be there.
this is where Phantom takes place!
I bought the novel in French. It came in 2 parts! Yes. I do have a problem. Why do you ask?
Next we headed down to the Louvre just to see the pyramids and stuff outside, but we weren't in the mood to go pushing through people to see the Mona Lisa. I think next year I would like to devote time to it, but I was all museumed and tourist locationed out. We were all exhausted and running out of clean clothes and energy, so we called it a day, having seen all we intended to, and headed to the hostel to get our stuff.
I shall return, Louvre!
Baguette. So authentic.
The hostel people made a mistake. They told us getting to the airport was 'pretty quick.' Now, maybe to the French 55 minutes is pretty quick, but that didn't really fly with us. Meaning once we got to Charles de Gaulle, we were cutting it close. Which would have been fine if our terminal wasn't on the other side of the freaking airport. We raced through the airport, got to baggage check just in time and made it to our gate with a few minutes to spare. After lots of stress, we were finally on the plane and home free.
Or so we thought. Unfortunately, due to a random mistake, Casey's visa had the wrong expiration date so they weren't going to let her in the country. After a while of waiting, Sarah and I took some of the luggage home on another hour long bus ride, as the officer said it could take hours. Lo and behold, they were home like 20 minutes after us. So it was stressful but it all worked out in the end. Especially cause now Casey doesn't have to work until they get it sorted. She really isn't in a hurry haha.
Well, that's my Spring Break for ya! Hope you enjoyed the mass of updates. I will try to update when I can, but this half of the semester seems to promise a lot more of a hectic vibe than the last half. Halfway through already :(
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