Paris!

Bonjour my loyal readers!

Let us recap our weekend in Paris.

Day 1: Early morning start on Friday traveling to the Eurostar to take the Chunnel from London to Paris. To get on the train you have to go through airport-like security. After Erin and I got through security we were immediately stopped by some train station employee flashing her badge at us, “Excuse me, we are required to survey every 10th person that walks through security, and you are number 10!” Great. Security lady: “Since your arrival upon the UK how much money do you think you have spent (housing accommodations not included)” Erin: “Umm maybe around $3,000.” Security Lady: “Wow, $3,000 since January 13th!? Are you sure? That is quite a lot.” Erin: “Yeah…” Security Lady: “So, since the 13th of January you have spent three thousand dollars?” Erin: “Yes! I have a shopping/drinking issue!”

Fast forward to arriving in Paris. Since this was a trip sponsored through Arcadia we got on a 2 hour bus tour throughout the city which was actually pretty neat. After the bus tour we saw the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Elysées where the unknown soldier is buried. We (group of 5 IU kids) randomly ran into Joanna and Cait on the streets which was hilarious. Following the reunion, all 13 of us took a 5 Euro boat cruise for an hour up and down the Seine River. When we finally docked the Eiffel Tower was doing its every hour on the hour sparkle show which was beautiful.

That night I got hit on by a French man from 30 feet away while waiting for a Metro. Apparently it is completely normal for French dudes to blow kisses, wink, and stare at you for extended periods of time. The night consisted of the typical drink drank drunk + dancing experience. Scott: close your eyes and jump to the next paragraph. Then it was 4 am and we were ready to go home. We attempted to hail down a cab for about 15 minutes (which in drunk time was about 2 hours) After we all decided we were never going to get home some young-ish man tells us he can take us home for 10 Euro each in his car. Yes, his car, not his taxi. We think, wow, what a good deal let’s go. We (Myself, Erin, Sharday, Joe, and Evan) get into this man’s tic tac piece car and begin our journey home. Midway through we realize, hey we are getting pulled over right now. He tells us he is just going to go talk to his “friend”…right buddy. The guy has to step out of the car, do the drunk test, do the open the trunk to make sure you aren’t trafficking drugs test, and after about a 25 minute delay we were off again. We finally got home around 5 am (safe and sound!).

Day 2: I of course set my phone alarm for 9:30 am so as not to miss breakfast. (Got to be as economically efficient as possible ya know!?) Apparently, continental breakfast attire is not the same in Europe as it is in America. I walk down wearing Uggs, Adidas shorts, and a Notre Dame T-shirt. Everyone is dressed, showered, and staring. Oops! Anyways, day two we went to the catacombs, which was creepy yet intriguing. We saw Saint Chapelle and the stain glass windows literally took my breath away. And the last sight seeing destination of the day was Notre Dame which almost made me want to be Catholic. After all that sight seeing we needed to get a crepe: Nutella and Strawberries=to die for. If you haven’t experienced Nutella you need to jump on that tasty train because it is unreal!


Day 3: A little exhausted…being a tourist can really take it out of you. It was raining in the morning which did not make a very impressive beret in front of the Eiffel Tower shot, but you can’t win all the time ya know? After that we went to the Pompidou, which is a very famous modern art museum. We were there for about a half hour before everyone that I was with started the modern art complaints: I don’t get it, this sucks, I think I made this in 3rd grade etc etc. So they all left and I stayed. I bought the headphone sets you can wear around the museum and type in the number corresponding to the art work and you hear an explanation of the work…it was probably the best 4 Euro I spent (besides the crepe). We all met up at 6:30 pm in the lobby to go home. Got back around 11 pm, did some homework, and now its time for bed.

I’m Exhausted!!! Aurvoir mon ami!