March 7th, 2014 (Friday)
Angelina, Marisa, Megan, Kate, Jordan, and I began our weekend by taking a two hour train ride with some other friends from MUDEC into Paris, where the first thing we did (after stopping by the hostel) was to buy Nutella crepes. We were staying in an artsy neighborhood called Montremarte, right near the Sacre Coer, a huge cathedral over 100 meters above the city. After checking out some of the locals' artwork in the town square and touring the church (which was absolutely breathtaking), we headed out to find the "I love you" wall, which has the phrase written in every single language, including sign language, which we thought was super cool. We got there just in time to take a couple pictures before the park closed, so after that we did a little bit of shopping. We then split up for dinner, as some people were missing Chipotle and some (including myself) didn't want American food. We ended up in this restaurant called L'Aristide, where I ordered French onion soup with lasagna and salad. Our Parisian adventures began while we were eating and experienced a naked man being arrested right outside our restaurant, which was interesting to say the least. After finishing our dinner, we met up with other MUDEC students and headed toward the Champs Elysees, where we did some walking before heading over to the Eiffel Tower to catch the 11:00pm light show. I would have loved to have gone up in the tower at night, but there just wasn't enough time. The tower is so much more beautiful at night during the day, however, when it's all lit up. We ran into another group of friends at the tower, so we hung out for a bit before going our separate ways, exhausted.
Angelina, Marisa, Megan, Kate, Jordan, and I began our weekend by taking a two hour train ride with some other friends from MUDEC into Paris, where the first thing we did (after stopping by the hostel) was to buy Nutella crepes. We were staying in an artsy neighborhood called Montremarte, right near the Sacre Coer, a huge cathedral over 100 meters above the city. After checking out some of the locals' artwork in the town square and touring the church (which was absolutely breathtaking), we headed out to find the "I love you" wall, which has the phrase written in every single language, including sign language, which we thought was super cool. We got there just in time to take a couple pictures before the park closed, so after that we did a little bit of shopping. We then split up for dinner, as some people were missing Chipotle and some (including myself) didn't want American food. We ended up in this restaurant called L'Aristide, where I ordered French onion soup with lasagna and salad. Our Parisian adventures began while we were eating and experienced a naked man being arrested right outside our restaurant, which was interesting to say the least. After finishing our dinner, we met up with other MUDEC students and headed toward the Champs Elysees, where we did some walking before heading over to the Eiffel Tower to catch the 11:00pm light show. I would have loved to have gone up in the tower at night, but there just wasn't enough time. The tower is so much more beautiful at night during the day, however, when it's all lit up. We ran into another group of friends at the tower, so we hung out for a bit before going our separate ways, exhausted.
March 8th, 2014 (Saturday)
As per usual, Saturday was our busy day. We got up early and had breakfast at our hotel before heading back to Eiffel Tower to go up to the top. Part of our group (me included) wanted to walk up part of the way to the second floor (about 600 stairs), so we did that and then took the elevator the rest of the way up. Over 1,000 feet in the air, you could see absolutely everything, and the weather certainly helped: perfectly clear skies, sunny, and warm. Afterward, we rewarded ourselves with some more crepes before heading out to The Louvre, the massive art museum that has the Mona Lisa. We were there almost three hours and barely scratched the surface; it would take a week to see everything. They had some stuff, including an Egyptian sphinx, from 1750 BC, the oldest thing I have ever seen in my whole life. We got our selfies with Mona Lisa and saw some more Greek, Spanish, and Italian paintings. Then, we went to the Lock Bridge, which is a bridge where couples write their name on a lock, lock it to the bridge, and throw the key into the water. I couldn't decide if it was a dumb kind of cheesy or a cute kind of cheesy, but it was really cool just to see how many hundreds of thousands of locks were on this bridge. There was a couple next to us that had put a lock on the bridge, and I saw one of the women throw their key into the water, and it was a sweet moment. Notre Dame is nearby, so we headed off there next. We were only inside a few minutes when mass started, and strangely they allow tourists to continue going through the museum during service. We didn't stay very long because we didn't feel super comfortable taking pictures and sightseeing while people were trying to attend church, but it was really cool to experience. After the Notre Dame, we had a healthy Parisian dinner that consisted of eclairs, macaroons, and baguettes. Then, we went back to the hostel to drop some things off and get ready for a night out on the town with our other friends who were in a different hostel. We went to a bar in the college town part of Paris, where we ran into a cancer research specialist from Minnesota who bought our entire group (about 8 of us since some other people didn't want to go out) drinks for the entire night. I was a little concerned at first, because this random man was offering to buy a bunch of girls drinks for the whole night, but then he started talking about his girlfriend back home and buying our guy friends drinks, so we felt a lot better. He said that he doesn't like the way the world treats students and thinks young people are treated unfairly, so he wanted to help us out by helping us save a little money. It was really fun talking to him and learning about his company, which he started himself. We stayed out until about 2, and then we caught the metro and crashed for the night.
As per usual, Saturday was our busy day. We got up early and had breakfast at our hotel before heading back to Eiffel Tower to go up to the top. Part of our group (me included) wanted to walk up part of the way to the second floor (about 600 stairs), so we did that and then took the elevator the rest of the way up. Over 1,000 feet in the air, you could see absolutely everything, and the weather certainly helped: perfectly clear skies, sunny, and warm. Afterward, we rewarded ourselves with some more crepes before heading out to The Louvre, the massive art museum that has the Mona Lisa. We were there almost three hours and barely scratched the surface; it would take a week to see everything. They had some stuff, including an Egyptian sphinx, from 1750 BC, the oldest thing I have ever seen in my whole life. We got our selfies with Mona Lisa and saw some more Greek, Spanish, and Italian paintings. Then, we went to the Lock Bridge, which is a bridge where couples write their name on a lock, lock it to the bridge, and throw the key into the water. I couldn't decide if it was a dumb kind of cheesy or a cute kind of cheesy, but it was really cool just to see how many hundreds of thousands of locks were on this bridge. There was a couple next to us that had put a lock on the bridge, and I saw one of the women throw their key into the water, and it was a sweet moment. Notre Dame is nearby, so we headed off there next. We were only inside a few minutes when mass started, and strangely they allow tourists to continue going through the museum during service. We didn't stay very long because we didn't feel super comfortable taking pictures and sightseeing while people were trying to attend church, but it was really cool to experience. After the Notre Dame, we had a healthy Parisian dinner that consisted of eclairs, macaroons, and baguettes. Then, we went back to the hostel to drop some things off and get ready for a night out on the town with our other friends who were in a different hostel. We went to a bar in the college town part of Paris, where we ran into a cancer research specialist from Minnesota who bought our entire group (about 8 of us since some other people didn't want to go out) drinks for the entire night. I was a little concerned at first, because this random man was offering to buy a bunch of girls drinks for the whole night, but then he started talking about his girlfriend back home and buying our guy friends drinks, so we felt a lot better. He said that he doesn't like the way the world treats students and thinks young people are treated unfairly, so he wanted to help us out by helping us save a little money. It was really fun talking to him and learning about his company, which he started himself. We stayed out until about 2, and then we caught the metro and crashed for the night.
March 9th, 2014 (Sunday)
Since Paris isn't far from Luxembourg, we were able to get up early and go see some more of France. It was tough running on only a few hours of sleep, but so worth it. We went to the Palace of Versailles and toured both the palace and its gardens. It was the perfect day to be walking around outside by the fountains. I would have loved to have had a picnic in the grassy areas, but we were running short on time and had a train to catch a little before 4. We were still able to see all the rooms in the palace, as well as see Marie Antoinette's quarters, which was really cool. It would have been amazing to be there in the spring time when all the flowers and trees were in bloom and all the fountains had water in them, but it was still gorgeous. I had underestimated how huge it really was, we must have walked several miles through the gardens and not even covered a quarter of it. We had some traditional hot chocolate and macaroons at a place called "Angelina's" inside the palace, but we were still hungry so we went to a creperie by the train station afterwards for one last crepe. The crepes weren't filling, so we went into McDonald's (breaking my "I'm not going to eat at any American food chains while I'm here" vow, but we were running out of time! I did get a curry sauce to dip my fries in, which we don't have in the States, so I'm counting that as a European dining experience) before heading back to Gare d'Est, where we caught our train. It was a wonderful weekend and I'm so happy we were able to do so much in our short amount of time!
Since Paris isn't far from Luxembourg, we were able to get up early and go see some more of France. It was tough running on only a few hours of sleep, but so worth it. We went to the Palace of Versailles and toured both the palace and its gardens. It was the perfect day to be walking around outside by the fountains. I would have loved to have had a picnic in the grassy areas, but we were running short on time and had a train to catch a little before 4. We were still able to see all the rooms in the palace, as well as see Marie Antoinette's quarters, which was really cool. It would have been amazing to be there in the spring time when all the flowers and trees were in bloom and all the fountains had water in them, but it was still gorgeous. I had underestimated how huge it really was, we must have walked several miles through the gardens and not even covered a quarter of it. We had some traditional hot chocolate and macaroons at a place called "Angelina's" inside the palace, but we were still hungry so we went to a creperie by the train station afterwards for one last crepe. The crepes weren't filling, so we went into McDonald's (breaking my "I'm not going to eat at any American food chains while I'm here" vow, but we were running out of time! I did get a curry sauce to dip my fries in, which we don't have in the States, so I'm counting that as a European dining experience) before heading back to Gare d'Est, where we caught our train. It was a wonderful weekend and I'm so happy we were able to do so much in our short amount of time!