Now I understand why the whole world is obsessed with Paris. Is is so pretty! I still cannot really grasp that I was there. I first time I saw the Eiffel Tower it was so different than I expected it to be, I didn't think I was actually seeing it; it was so real. When I first got to Moulin Rouge all I could think was, "Damn. Ewan McGreggor.." At Notre Dam I shed a tear for Quasimodo. And the day pretty much when like this.
So come 11:15 Friday night, 45 minutes after our 'punctual' departure time from Giessen, we finally got unterwegs to Paris. I know approximately 20 exchange students from the Giessen area (Fulda, Marburg, and Kassel); there were 50 exchange students and friends going to Paris on our bus, so needless to say there were some people to meet. That took up a good hour or so of the 8 hour bus ride. Then another hour or so of causal conversation passed quickly. Then the Latinos happened...
If I have learned anything from this year it is that Spanish speakers love talking, also that a large number of Germans speak Spanish, and finally that every Spanish speaker that goes on Exchange goes to Germany.
So, needless to say half the bus spent the remaining many hours hootin' and hollerin' in Spanish.
The rest of the bus ride and one combined hour of sleep later we finally got to Paris.
*We stopped at a rest stop 1 hour away from Paris for necessary personal needs and freshening up because the next stop would be Paris. Somewhere between brushing my teeth and finishing one of my two French Braided pigtails I realized I was doing a French Braid... IN FRANCE! May or may not have been the highlight of the trip.*
I don't know Paris geography that well, so I'm going to keep on assuming that our bus driver was amazingly nice and took the the scenic route to the Eiffel Tower (our meeting point); we passed everything: The Louvre, Arc De Triomphe, Notre Dame, Conciergerie, D'orsay Museum, Champs Elysees, alles!
*One thing I love about Paris is how huge everything is. In Germany everything is small and close together, but in Paris they didn't care about fitting things into close quarters. Everything is so expansive (and expensive).*
We got to the Eiffel tower around 8 and were told, "Have fun, don't die, be here at 10:30 tonight or you're taking the train home." And then we were off! My group, 12 people or so, decided to do the Eiffel Tower first. There were ten people in line and it was only an hour till it opened. That's a pretty darn good wait time if you ask me. It was pretty pricey to go all the way up, 13 euros, but it's my first time in Paris and who knows when I'll be going back. Boy was it worth the money; maybe because I felt super bad ass for not getting pick-pocketed, but probably because the view was astounding.
After the Eiffel tower we made our way by foot to the Arc De Triomphe. There we were meeting up Jean's Mom and two Sisters. Jean is an exchange student that lives in Fulda; he is from France and one of his sisters lives in Paris. So his mom and other sister came to Paris for the day and the three of them spent the entire day showing us around. Can you say nice in French or what!? MERCI!! It was great because we got to see Paris how the French would; taking our time, stopping for a nice 2 hour lunch, nice break later in a cafe, taking the Metro. The best was probably having four people that spoke the language. Though everyone speaks English, I discovered English is now my second language. I had such a hard time not speaking German, I guess that's a good thing.
So come 11:15 Friday night, 45 minutes after our 'punctual' departure time from Giessen, we finally got unterwegs to Paris. I know approximately 20 exchange students from the Giessen area (Fulda, Marburg, and Kassel); there were 50 exchange students and friends going to Paris on our bus, so needless to say there were some people to meet. That took up a good hour or so of the 8 hour bus ride. Then another hour or so of causal conversation passed quickly. Then the Latinos happened...
If I have learned anything from this year it is that Spanish speakers love talking, also that a large number of Germans speak Spanish, and finally that every Spanish speaker that goes on Exchange goes to Germany.
So, needless to say half the bus spent the remaining many hours hootin' and hollerin' in Spanish.
The rest of the bus ride and one combined hour of sleep later we finally got to Paris.
*We stopped at a rest stop 1 hour away from Paris for necessary personal needs and freshening up because the next stop would be Paris. Somewhere between brushing my teeth and finishing one of my two French Braided pigtails I realized I was doing a French Braid... IN FRANCE! May or may not have been the highlight of the trip.*
I don't know Paris geography that well, so I'm going to keep on assuming that our bus driver was amazingly nice and took the the scenic route to the Eiffel Tower (our meeting point); we passed everything: The Louvre, Arc De Triomphe, Notre Dame, Conciergerie, D'orsay Museum, Champs Elysees, alles!
*One thing I love about Paris is how huge everything is. In Germany everything is small and close together, but in Paris they didn't care about fitting things into close quarters. Everything is so expansive (and expensive).*
The first sighting
Good thing about having my zoom lens: I can take pictures like this from a moving bus. Bad thing about having my zoom lens: You have to bee 500 feet away from someone to take a picture of then AND a monument.
We got to the Eiffel tower around 8 and were told, "Have fun, don't die, be here at 10:30 tonight or you're taking the train home." And then we were off! My group, 12 people or so, decided to do the Eiffel Tower first. There were ten people in line and it was only an hour till it opened. That's a pretty darn good wait time if you ask me. It was pretty pricey to go all the way up, 13 euros, but it's my first time in Paris and who knows when I'll be going back. Boy was it worth the money; maybe because I felt super bad ass for not getting pick-pocketed, but probably because the view was astounding.
This was up at the top. (Notice you can't distinguish a background because of the whole zoom lens deal.)
Tehehe the English..
After the Eiffel tower we made our way by foot to the Arc De Triomphe. There we were meeting up Jean's Mom and two Sisters. Jean is an exchange student that lives in Fulda; he is from France and one of his sisters lives in Paris. So his mom and other sister came to Paris for the day and the three of them spent the entire day showing us around. Can you say nice in French or what!? MERCI!! It was great because we got to see Paris how the French would; taking our time, stopping for a nice 2 hour lunch, nice break later in a cafe, taking the Metro. The best was probably having four people that spoke the language. Though everyone speaks English, I discovered English is now my second language. I had such a hard time not speaking German, I guess that's a good thing.
Wedding photos in front of the Eiffel Tower like it's no biggy.
We hopped on the Metro (3,65 euros for a day card, sehr billig) and made our way to Notre Dame. I'm amazed the French don't have the punctual reputation. They have super cool automated trains i.e. no driver. There for they have to come and go on time. Our group got split in half on our way to Notre Dame because of these things. When the doors are closing, they close; there is not slipping in at the last minute. It is the 850th Anniversary of Notre Dame this year so there was lots of fanfair and cool things.
A video of the super fast, super cool driver less trains.
Cool Epytianesque statue outside the Metro
I can't remember what this is..
Some cool clock on some cool thing on our way to the cool Notre Dame
The issue with being a 'photographer', we'll say photography enthusiast, is that there are seldom pictures of you, and when there are you are out of focus and only the ugly house next to the Notre Dame is in focus.
Then came lunch. We went down a really cute really small street near Notre Dame that was filled with restaurants and crappy souvenir shops. We decided to go to a French restaurant of course. In this restaurant I coined the term 'Escaryolo', and whimsical play on the popular phrase YOLO (You Only Live Once) and my vegetarianism being thrown out the window for 10 minutes so I could try the ever so French Escargo.
Escaryolo
It tasted like chewy Pesto
Salmon
It's not France without Creme Brule
With bellies full of yummy French foot and bags full of stolen baguettes from our table, we made our way to Le Sacre-Coeur. There it started to rain, but we didn't mind. What a pretty place and a pretty view. We were all kinda confused and a smidge more disapointed when our skylie didn't include the Eiffel tower. Inside the church was a nice break from the rain and some cool murals.
The Metro signs made me feel like I was in some Halloween town.
SPRING!
Stealing flowers
Our wonderful French family
Within walking distance was the every so famous with the right combination of fancy and raunchy Moulin Rouge. Alas I didn't take and photo because it was raining. In front is a cool wind tunnel on end thing, where you can pretend you are Marilyn Monroe and have your skirt blown up. I went inside and stole a brochure For the low low cost of 210 euros you can see a show. As we went to go leave we were stopped by a small protest parade protesting something over prostitutes and their rights. I'm not total sure, it was all in French.
Due to the rain, and French nature, we stopped in a cafe to grab some coffee and take a nice little break. The French are not stingy when I comes to how much chocolate goes into the hot chocolates. Lecker! Our waiter spoke German and we convinced him to give us some baguette, our old supply had run dry. After the cafe we went to go the The Louvre. At the Metro station we parted ways with Jeans mother and sisters. What a sad goodbye, not only for Jean but for us too.
Of course we did not go into the Louvre, it was late in the day, we'd spent all our money on food, and a person really needs two weeks to see the Louvre. But gosh darn, the outside is so pretty, and big. Again with the whole French people not worrying about space constraints when building things. It was beautiful.
I imagine him thinking, "Wow is me...." in an ironic way
International cooperation and coordination at it's worst.
Then came the bridge of love and locks. There were black plastic hearts with QR-Codes locked all over the bridge for domestic violence awareness. There were men going alone the entire bridge one lock at a time trying to pick the lock and steal them. There were lovers kissing and holding hands, even a few adding their own locks.
I found this lock particularly sweet, for selfish reasons. Without the -ly it represents my life pretty well.
At this point in the day we only had 2 hours left. Some wanted to go on a boat tour ending at the Eiffel Tour, a splendid but expensive idea. So we instead took the Metro to the really famous shopping street and split into smaller groups, determined by how much Lust the people had for shooping. Jean, Urgu, Leo and I went to McDonalds to get something warm to drink. I also bought Macrons for my host family because they didn't know what they were. There is a repeating theme in my life of "Young American girl teaching old foreigners new things about not America." The four of us meet up with two other guys and made our way to the Metro and then the Eiffel tower. In the Metro station there was an amazing Cello player, so I got to continue another theme in my life of "Dancing ridiculously in public." Then again in the train was an Accordion player; he played the most amazing typical French music.
Back to the Eiffel Tower, then bus then, then en-route to Giessen. My intelligence to sleep in the isle, coupled with even the Latinos being to tired to talk mean I slept the entire way home, and then once again at home.
*I apologize for the non-photoshopped pictures; but hey they're not too bad, and this is getting posted the day after, not weeks like usual.
No comments:
Post a Comment