Primero, Paris...

Ok, so I realize it's been a little while since I've updated...I've been busy traveling! I've written recaps of my first two weekend trips so I'll post the Paris one first from 2 weekends ago and then Dublin from this last weekend.

Well my first non-program trip was a success! Five of us Sevilla kids went to Paris for the weekend and had an absolutely amazing time. We saw a ton considering we only had about 48 hrs to see the city. Here’s our group (outside Notre Dame Cathedral!): from the left it’s Jon, Andrew, me, Marissa and Emily.

It’s hard for me to describe the city and our experiences without it sounding completely cliché, but I’m going to do it anyway. To be honest, I sort of expected Paris to be somewhat cliché. It’s constantly touted as one of, if not, the most beautiful city in the world, so I went thinking it had to be at least a little overrated—I was totally wrong. I’m hesitant to even post pictures because they don’t do it justice. I’d seen so many photos and movies of Paris that it had become so two-dimensional in my mind and actually walking through the streets, I was astonished by how pretty everything was. I felt like I was in the movie—it was totally surreal!

Late Thursday night (technically Friday morning) we arrived at our hostel which was…probably pretty typical of a European hostel. Definitely not the cleanest place I’ve been but I’m sure there are worse and we had our own room and a pretty good breakfast every day. We started out Friday morning at the Basilica Sacre Cour, which was right in Montmarte, the neighborhood we were staying in. We went inside and then climbed a whole lot of stairs (the French are BIG on long spiral staircases, FYI) up to the top of the dome. The view was incredible but unfortunately it was pretty foggy so the pictures aren’t as amazing. Still pretty cool, though.

We walked around a bit before meeting up with Alysa and later Danny and Julia, who all came in from Nantes for the weekend! It was really helpful to have them around, as the five of us collectively speak about 10 words of French. We went to Notre Dame Cathedral, which was of course, stunning.

After a quick stop at a bakery for some pastries, we went to the Louvre. We didn’t even attempt to do it all—you’d need days. But we saw the highlights—the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, the old Egyptian artifacts and Hammurabi’s Code. I'm not going to bother with my pictures of the famous works of art because they're unfocused and poorly lit. But this picture of the pyramid and the fountain OUTSIDE the Louvre is probably my favorite.

After that we stopped for dinner at a very fancy and delicious restaurant, somewhat accidentally. We had unknowingly been looking at the lunch menu prices when we selected the restaurant and after we sat down and were handed the dinner menu we realized it was a slightly different range. We decided to splurge, and the food was really good so it was okay. After dinner we strolled around and made our way to the Eiffel Tower.

On Saturday, we did the Catacombs in the morning. (Check this out for back story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catacombs_of_Paris) It was probably the most morbid but one of the most interesting things I’ve ever seen.

The bones literally went on for miles and the walls were lined with plaques featuring all sorts of quotes about death that I only half understood as they were all in French, Latin or Italian. (Julia, Danny and Alysa certainly helped.) It was a strange experience walking up and down the rows and looking at a skull and realizing that these were actual human bones inches away from me. I actually tried to imagine the people they belonged to a few times and what they’d be thinking if they knew people were looking at them hundreds of years later. It was an eerie kind of interconnectedness. Overall, I’m really glad I saw them.

We had delicious crepes and cider for lunch and then spent some time in the Tuileries where I decided French kids are pretty much the cutest kids in the world. They had little sailboats that they pushed around the fountain in the garden. It looked like a painting. After that we walked around some more and then did a Seine River sightseeing cruise which was of course when my camera decided to stop working. It was absolutely stunning—some of the best views of the famous landmarks are from the river and we went at dusk so the sun was setting and everything lit up while we were on the boat.

After a delicious dinner at a Moroccan restaurant (that was impossible to order but ultimately worth the hassle) we went to go to the Musee d’Orsay. It was the “Nuit Blanche” in Paris which is like what we had in Sevilla a few weekends ago—all the museums stay open late and there are tons of performances and people out all night. However, we didn’t really investigate very well and the Orsay actually closed at midnight, not 7am like we thought. But at least this way I have a reason I absolutely have to go back! Also, France won their rugby game in the Rugby World Cup which was in Paris so people were going CRAZY all over the city. We walked up the Champs Elysses, amongst happy, drunk rugby fans and got as close as we could to the Arc d’ Triomphe before heading back to the hostel to sleep for just a few hours to give us plenty of time to get to the airport.

Overall, an INCREDIBLE weekend. I still feel like there’s a lot a didn’t see though—it’s impossible to do all of Paris in 2 days—so I will absolutely have to go back someday. Anyone interested in planning a trip?