After a few hour drive through England we hopped on the Ferry over the English Channel. I have never felt so sea sick in my life. Of course, it was the first time I ever got sea sick. The ferry was rocking and rolling like crazy. To make it worse, it was the only opportunity we would have to grab some food until late that night. I ate the worst breakfast of burnt ham, gross eggs and baked beans with bread. And it only cost me 15 dollars to do so. Whoooo.
When we got to Paris, we checked into our rooms and I found out that my roommate wanted to sleep on the floor of her friends room so I got the room to myself. Sweet! We then went on a bus tour of Paris and saw a bunch of building and learned a lot of history. I loved it. After the tour a few of us hopped off and set out on foot to explore. We took a ton of ridiculous pictures in front of the Pyramids at the Louvre Museum and then headed to the Latin Quarter to find some cheap food. Unfortunately we picked this greek restaurant that was pretty disgusting. It was ok though, we had fun making fun of how bad it was and I’m getting used to gross food. We watched a few street entertainers and headed to the Metro to get back to our hotel. I can not believe how quickly I got used to underground transportation. One tip, if you’re in London, watch your manners and let people get off first. In Paris, push and shove your way on or you will never board a train. At one point, I was scanning my ticket to get through the turnstile and this lady said something in French. She spoke quietly so I thought she was talking to herself but when I pushed my through she wrapped her arms around me and came with me. Once I was through I said something in English and she realized that I had not understood what she had said earlier so she explained that she had asked if she could share with me. We also saw a ton of people climbing over them.
Super early the next morning we woke up to go on a river tour. Back on the Metro and on to the bottom of the Eiffel tower. I took so many pictures that my camera’s battery’s died only a few hours after I took it off the charger. So I switched to my waterproof camera for the river tour. Which is a shame because I saw some breathtaking buildings. After the tour our group all went our separate ways. A lady, who’s traveling friend wanted to go back to the hotel, and I explored together. She was nervous about getting lost but I decided that there are worst places to be lost in than Paris so I grabbed a map and figured out the route to the Arc De Tromphe Etoile. I didn’t make a wrong turn once.
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Arc De Tromphe Etoile |
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The Eternal Flame |
The Eternal Flame has been continuously lit in memory of the unnamed solder except for when a drunk Mexican celebrating a soccer game pissed on it and put it out. Oops.
After we took a few more million pictures, my friend called her friend who is living in Paris and he came to pick us up. We then went to the Louvre Museum and paid ten euros to see the Mona Lisa! My waterproof camera would not focus on the pictures at all so I have about fifty blurry pictures of her with two faces. It was awesome to see her though. From there we went back out to the Courtyard and tried to talk some souvenir sellers into selling us ten keychains of the Eiffel Tower for one euro. They were asking for one keychain for one euro but we got them down to four for one. Not bad. :) From there we walked to Notre Dame and took even more pictures. The cathedral is amazing. It is just so big and detailed. The U.S. is seriously slacking in this department. Eventually we ended up back at the Latin Quarter for dinner where we had amazing Turkish food. It was incredible. And they paid for mine! Even when I pulled out my card and everything. Seriously, I have been getting so much free food and snacks. It’s bizarre. I got the beer, sandwiches, and stir fry at the hostel in london, a nutella crepe in France, cheese and crackers, and a bunch of other stuff too. I don’t know what it is but people keep buying me food! Cookies, grapes, even an Indian lady on the bus told me to try some sort of Indian bread she had brought with her.
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The Louvre |
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A really crappy picture of the Mona Lisa |
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Proof |
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Notre Dame!! |
After dinner we went to the Sacred Heart Basilica of Montmartre. We had to climb a million steps but from there we could see over most of Paris. I don’t have the pictures yet because eventually my backup camera died too so I’m waiting for my friend to email them to me. On our way up I saw a bunch of men walking around carrying strings. Luckily I had heard of this scam before, they tie a string around your wrist and then tell you that you owe 15 Euro for the “friendship bracelet”. So when they walked up I hid my hands in my shirt and said NO! over and over again. He followed me for a minute or so saying “Lovely, for me. Do it for me lovely. Lovely, do it for Africa.” It was funny but it kind of pissed me off too. My tour guide told me that some women will walk around with a bundle to their chest that looks like a baby. Suddenly they throw it, either at you or on the ground, and when you are distracted by it, someone come behinds you and cuts the straps to your bag. Luckily I missed seeing that one.
Later, I went to a cabaret show with my group. It was pretty much a mix of a Vegas Showgirls Show, Thunder Down Under and Ballet. Topless women, men in thongs, and ballet. Crazy but fun. I loved it!
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Cabaret Backdrop |
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Where am I again? I'm confused. |
After four hours of sleep we were off to Switzerland!
On our way out of Paris we saw the Statue of Liberty. We were all extremely tired so we almost thought we'd warped to New York but it turns out that the US gave a mini Statue of Liberty back to France. They're a little peeved that they gave us an icon and we gave them . . . a toy statue. hahahaha
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