I flew out of Madrid on a Thursday afternoon to get into Paris that night. We actually cut across the Atlantic instead of going over the mountains, which really surprised me when I looked out the window and saw...the ocean?! (Haven't seen that in awhile...) But it was really cool to fly over the French Basque Country and to see the coastline.Krista met up with me at the airport and there was much hugging and excited yelling :D It was so cool to hang out with a friend from U of I, in Europe! Very surreal but very awesome. So, while we took the RER train into Paris, we decided to get dinner and then catch the Eiffel Tower as it lit up instead of checking into my hotel first...definitely a good decision! French cuisine is so delicious and healthy too, and the portions were smaller than the Spanish Menu del Dia so I was excited about being able to finish almost everything. And my main dish had FRENCH FRIES! I ordered this nice steak and was confused about why it had French fries on the side until it finally dawned on me the next day when I was eating breakfast, because holy crap that means I ate french fries, in France! (This obviously amused me much more than a normal person would be amused.)
And wow, the Eiffel Tower, where do I start!?!
First of all, it's absolutely gorgeous, even more at night when it's all lit up. It was so weird to actually see it with my own eyes because I've seen it in pictures and movies so much. And as I was sitting there, gushing at it, the clock hit 11 and...IT SPARKLED!! Every hour, on the hour, the Eiffel Tower sparkles, and it's so pretty! I could have stared at it for ages.The next day, I went around exploring Paris while Krista had class, and oh man I crammed so much sight-seeing into one day! I ate a crêpe with chocolate for breakfast (delicious,) hung out around the Eiffel Tower some more, got lost and saw some beautiful buildings, visited the Louvre, and saw Notre Dame inside and out, including its bell tower! After Krista was done with
class, we met up and walked along the Champs-Élysées, saw the Arc de Triomphe, got some Haagen Dasz, walked around to Les Invalides, and then finally watched the sun set behind the Eiffel Tower...bliss.Oh, and the Louvre! The Louvre is ginormous, and I'm not even kidding you. If you took the Museum of Science and Industry and multiplied it by like, 12, you'd get the Louvre. I explored it for two hours and saw so many different, amazing things, and in those 2 hours, I didn't even see half of it. They had Napoleon's living quarters, Les Esclaves by Michaelangelo, the Venus de Milo, and oh, guess what else I
saw...YES! I mean, how do you even react when you are staring right at the Mona Lisa?! It was the coolest thing ever! She was behind so many walls of glass and security barriers, but gosh, it was the most awesome thing. There's another thing to cross off my bucket list!
Seeing Notre Dame was surreal as well. The inside was really beautiful, except they were having mass and didn't close the church, which I found odd (in Spain, they always close the church during mass and only let people in who are really there to sit through the entire thing.) And, of course, after I saw the inside, I had to climb up to see the belltower! That was very cool. You could see all of Paris, and ahhh, it was beautiful. I even went all the way up to the very top of the rightmost belltower...what a view! I kind of couldn't stop thinking of the Hunchback of Notre Dame but hey I grew up on Disney, so I'm allowed to be a Disney nerd.
After the belltower, I met up with Krista since her classes were done, and we decided to get some ice cream and stroll along the Champs-Élysées. After we finished our delicious ice cream, we sat on the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower and watched the sun set. It was definitely a postcard moment! I swear, it's almost impossible to stop looking at it, it's so pretty.
The next day, we ate breakfast at Angelina's, which is famous for its scrumptious hot chocolate. (AND I ATE A CROISSANT!! A real one!) Tuileries garden was right across the street, so we hung around there for a bit and then checked out the Louvre really quick before we went to the train station to head to Giverny. We saw the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa again, but then this alarm started going off and they closed off all the exits in our wing of the museum so we were kind of trapped (?!) Krista asked a guard in French how we could leave, and all I understood of what he said was "Oh, you can't. haha" But then he was kidding and showed us the way out. I have to say, though, I didn't mind being trapped in the Louvre. That place is awesome.
Then we were on our way to Giverny and I was on my second train ride in Europe! Giverny is famous for being the town where Monet lived and built his gardens. It's been a dream of mine since childhood to see it. (After Mr. Corsello showed us pictures of it in 1st grade art class, I knew I just had to go!) It was so, so amazing to see THE waterlily pond and THE Japanese bridge with my own eyes. And the gardens were absolutely beautiful. Monet's house was really cute, too; it was painted in pastel colors inside, just like his paintings :)We ran around Paris so much that night! We got some delicious pizza and I finally had red wine. Krista showed me Place de la Bastille, and we saw Tour Montparnasse change colors, it was too cool! By the time we were thinking of heading back, it was already almost 1 am, which is about when the Eiffel Tower turns off, so we decided to head over so I could say au revoir and take a few more pictures. So, as expected, all of the tower lights turned off, but then the entire thing sparkled with a million lights, way more then before!!! It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.
Well, I had too many pictures to post and too many things to say in this blog (if you can't tell!) This weekend seriously took the cake. This week and next week are my engineering final exams, and today I took my circuits exam so I just have termodinamica left. After that, though, I'm traveling to Barcelona, London, Paris, Venica, Naples, and Rome. (And when I go back to Paris, I'm seeing Disneyland Paris too!!!!!!!!!! ...Don't judge me, please?)Anyway, I'm off to study for my last exam some more! I already have something like 40 hours of studying down but it never hurts to study termodinamica if your final is going to be in Spanish. I'll put up another blog later since this is my last weekend in Madrid (I can hardly believe it!)
Luegooooo!
Ariel
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