Taking Paris by Storm (and/or in one!)

            I have actually been back from Paris for a week, but been hibernating in my room inundated with work. Seriously: 8+13+5+4 = 30 pages of writing? (I haven’t dealt with numbers in awhile so someone check that for me.) Finishing a 38 chapter book? Memorizing 80 years of Spanish history? (Ask me anything that happened here from 1788-1868.) I have nothing to complain about though because I am DONE. This is probably the first (and last) time in my life that I have been this on top of my work. Why now, you ask? Several reasons: 1. I want to enjoy my last few days in Spain, 2. Erin is generally much more efficient and productive than I am and inspired me,  and 3. We discovered the Reina Sofia library which was so quiet and library-like (like a baby Perkins!) that I couldn’t help but do work. That being said though, I’m not totally done – everyone (aka my mom) has been dying to hear about Paris! Of course, as always, it was filled with many an adventure.

            Erin and I were set to head out to Paris in the early evening. This made us feel very travel-savvy because we went to class in the morning, came home, packed (obviously), and then headed out to the airport in the afternoon. So casual. Anyway, somehow Erin and I ended up on a different flight than all of our friends. As past experience tells us, this is a recipe for trouble. We took the new and exciting way to the airport, giving us a ton of extra time. I had received a text from Sydney, who got in earlier in the morning, telling me that there were all sorts of weather delays, but according to the oh-so-helpful EasyJet website our flight had no problems. We knew that a bunch of our friends trying to get into London had their flights canceled so we were a bit on edge. We nervously waited by the designated gate until that time when the line goes from 10 people to 400 instantaneously. We jumped in as best as we could, but in true EasyJet style, didn’t see any employees. Having flashbacks of Morocco, I immediately went to investigate. As I went to check the big board of flights, I saw that our flight had been delayed – approximately 2 hours. I came back to tell Erin the bad news, but she already knew. We begrudgingly went back to our seats. About 20 minutes later, we looked up to find that everyone around us was gone. Confused, we went back to the board of broken dreams, which told us that our gate had been changed. Thanks, EasyJet, for the helpful announcement. We made our way over to the new gate where we found a line was already forming. A bit aggressive, no? We jumped in and Erin checked out the situation – not our flight. Confusing. We went back to the board which told us our gate had been moved again. (Why are you toying with us like this?!) Finally we found our gate, and got on our flight a mere hour after we were supposed to. (Basically on time for EasyJet.)

            We arrived at good ol’ CDG at approximately 9:55, and were a bit worried that the last train going into the city left at 10:10. As we were walk/jogging through the huge (youuuuge) airport, we became more concerned as a family clearly off to EuroDisney ran by, scooped up their lagging daughter (short legs make it harder to keep up; I feel her pain) and put her on the luggage cart to get them moving faster. We made it to the ticket machines where we could only pay with coins, and jumped on what we assumed was the last train. (Who knows if it actually was, but isn’t the story so much more dramatic now?) It was pretty sketchy but we handled it pretty well. Unfortunately, we were getting off at different stops. I was heading over to Gare du Nord to my hotel, while Erin was taking the train nearly to the end of the line to meet up with Chaele. We got to a stop called Paris du Nord and I had to make an executive decision. Was this my stop? Should I get off? What if I get off and it’s wrong? What if I don’t get off and it’s right? STRESS. At the last minute I decided to get off. Luckily, it was the right stop.

I started meandering around the station trying to find my way to the metro, wary of the fact that everyone in there wanted nothing more than to rob me (you’ve got to be vigilant in these situations. I’m a bit over the top sometimes.) To prevent myself from being an easy target, I pretended I was a native. This meant I basically adopted an overconfident demeanor (which was hard to do while clutching my backpack for dear life) and tried my best to not to take out my list of directions. This worked wonders until about 5 steps later when a group of homeless men started talking in rapid French. I decided they were planning on how best to rob me, so I picked up my pace. I had to take out my notebook to double check which line I needed to get on, and hurried to the 5. Before purchasing a metro ticket, I decided on a whim to just try to the ticket I had purchased to get to the airport. It worked! I got on the metro and backed myself into a corner. Try to rob me now, gypsies! (I really am unclear as to why I was so irrationally worried about being robbed in France. I guess it’s because when I went in high school they warned us every 5 seconds to be vigilant and because one time my mom got robbed in France. Not me, France. Not this time.) ANYWAY, I continued pretending to be a native (perhaps I just had a large backpack because I was on my way home from some late classes. Ever think of that, France?) Again, this worked wonderfully (in my head) until I had to get off the metro and it took me more than a reasonable amount of time to open up the doors.

Once I got up to street level, I had to decide which way to go. According to googlemaps, the walk should only take 1 minute (and google overestimates) to get from the metro to my hotel. I guessed correctly and made it inside. I sent Erin a text confirming that I had made it (barely!) and went to try to check in. Unfortunately Aubrey and Jessica (Margo’s roommate studying in Venice!) had taken the keys for both of the rooms, so I was stuck in the lobby until one of them got back. Luckily, Star Wars was on in French, and so I stretched out to enjoy it. The management, after about a half hour of my hanging out alone in their lobby, seemed to want to get me out of there (why? I was proof that their hotel had patrons!) and offered to open up my room for me. I got upstairs and hung out for a bit until Aubrey and Jessica got back. I heard about their Parisian adventures until Margo, Anne, Perry, and Mike got in a little before midnight!

Friday morning, we got up and had breakfast at the hotel. We ate croissants, bread, and hot chocolate – I could tell already that it was going to be a delicious trip. After convincing Mike that it was not cold enough to be wearing two pairs of jeans, off we went to adventure through Paris! We started our day by heading to the Eiffel Tower! We got off the metro by a bunch of exciting sites (palaces, bridges, museums, etc.) and walked along to Seine to watch the tower grow into the sky as we got closer and closer. It was beautiful, but frigid. We had some Kodak moments and eventually made it to our destination. 

Knowing that it wouldn’t be a trip without an excessive amount of stairs, we decided it would be best to climb the tower. This was wonderful because: 1. it would warm us up, 2. there would be no line, and 3. it was cheaper. On our way, we got heckled by literally dozens of people trying to sell us mini Eiffel towers. They tried several different, but sadly ineffective tactics. There was the flattery effect: “Hey! Lady Gaga!” There was the getting in touch with the romantic feel of the place effect: “5 for 1 euro…I love you.” There was the sexual innuendo effect: “You, I bet you want the big one don’t you. You like the big ones?” NO, MERCI.

We eventually made it to the top and enjoyed some amazing views of the city, even though it was a little bit hazy. It was freezing so we didn’t stay too long. Perry and Two-jeans had promised us they would propose to random girls under the Eiffel tower (although wouldn’t it be so much more romantic at the top?) but unfortunately they let us down. I think they definitely could have had more success than the hecklers. We went to a little café around the corner to warm up with some lunch. I got some French Onion soup and wasn’t nice enough to give it up when they said they couldn’t accommodate the 5/7 of us who wanted it. Luckily, my friends are nicer than I am so it all worked out. It was delicious and warmed me right up. 

Madrileños

Oh, hey Paris!

We bundled back up and began our walk to the Louvre! Aubrey was our fearless leader and knew exactly how to get there. We stopped on the way for some crepes. Everyone got Nutella and Banana except for me – I really like bananas but I really like Nutella, and just didn’t want to adulterate a classic Nutella crepe like that. The last and only other time I’d had a crepe was in Paris, and it was just too good to change. After walking through the city we made it to the Louvre!

We tried our best to look international (by loudly speaking in English with a clear American accent…?), because students from the EU get in for free. (As we all know, I love free.) There were two women working at the ticket counter. Aubrey and I luckily ended up at the one on the right. I gave her my student ID card and she complained that it didn’t have my birthday on it. Thinking I was defeated, I handed her my American license and went to get out my money. Much to my surprise and delight, she started printing out a ticket. I don’t know about Aubrey, but I felt like a winner and was only slightly worried that the rest of my friends would hate my forever for my stroke of good luck.

They got over it (or at least pretended to), we met Monica who was also visiting Paris, and we headed off to see some paintings and what not. This museum is nothing if not immense. The last time I was here I spent between a half hour to an hour being lost in it because I persuaded my friends that taking a different route back to our meeting point would be more exciting and give us the opportunity to see more art. This time, I was with people smarter than me, who know more about art than me, so I let them take charge. I was once again disappointed by the Mona Lisa (it’s so small and you have to stand so far away) but saw some amazing pieces. I saw Hammurabi’s code which was very cool. We could only make it so far without taking a break, but Monica had more endurance and kept on going. We never saw her again… (Literally, I didn’t see her until this past Thursday night at the goodbye dinner.) We eventually walked all around the museum in search of one painting which turned out to be tiny. Sad. Overall, though, pretty immense and interesting.

An eye for an eye, anyone?

We rolled out and went home for a bit to relax before dinner. Jessica surprised Margo with a romantic(?) dinner in the Eiffel Tower (note to roommates past and future: I would like this for Christmas). We went to a little café right around the corner from our hotel which Aubrey had been to the night before. It was seemingly pretty French as no one spoke much English. Luckily, Aubrey speaks a little French so we weren’t totally lost. Perry and I split the biggest chicken Caesar salad I’ve ever seen in my life (when I see salad I can’t help myself) and some other chicken dish that came with a side of amazing potatoes. Anne got a pasta with pesto which was also really, really delicious. We got red wine which they made fun of us for because none of us got meals which were “heavy enough” for red wine. WHATEVER; we’re not that classy. We got some crème brûlée and cake thing for dessert. The waiter must have liked us after all (even with the embarrassing wine debacle) because he gave us a free dessert-type shot to wash down dinner. Love the French.

We went back to our hotel to try the famous wine Anne had told us about that comes out only once a year and only lasts for 3 months? Some such nonsense. I want to say it’s called Bordeaux? It was surprisingly good since we obviously bought the cheapest one we could find. We were considering going out, but everyone except for Aubrey (too cool for us) decided we were content just browsing the interwebs on Perry’s iPad instead. Although we got to bed at a reasonable hour, after pillow talk (who doesn’t love a good pillow talk?) Anne and I couldn’t quite fall asleep because we heard some…interesting noises. Here’s to 2 star hotels, right?

We got up early(ish) to carry out our ambitious plan of following Rick Steves’ walking tour. Margo was ready to lead us through Paris and teach us all about it, but unfortunately as soon as we got outside it started snowing pretty heavily. Luckily, we had convinced Aubrey to put a jacket over her sweater (people on this trip just really did not understand how to dress properly ;) ) so she was nearly able to bear the brunt of the cold. We still thought we’d be able to carry on with the walking tour so we headed off towards Notre Dame. En route, however, we quickly realized that the snow was picking up and many a head was cold. To rectify this issue, Anne, Margo, Jessica, and Aubrey all purchased what we affectionately dubbed Ewok hats. (Stars Wars came up a lot in my life while in Paris.)

Anne, Jessica, Aubrey, and Margo making ewok
hats look surprisingly fashionable. Work it, ladies!

We made it to Notre Dame and it was beautiful in the snow and with the Christmas tree in front! We got in line right before it got gigantic and made our way inside. It was as beautiful as I remembered. I was looking forward to climbing it, but unfortunately, due to the weather, it was closed. Sad news. It’s one of those places that is truly overwhelming in a wonderful way, however, so it wasn’t too big of a deal. 

Check out this winter wonderland!

We decided that we needed to warm up a bit before continuing our walk. Stopping in a café, people got crepes, or soup, or egg sandwiches, or expensive cokes. All things which were delicious. Margo got a cinnamon sugar crepe which was really good, although I definitely prefer Nutella. I’m impressed that she’s able to try something different…I just am confident that there’s nothing better.

We made our way to the famous Arc de Triomphe. I feel like every European city has its own version of this, but Paris definitely holds the prize for most impressive. Unfortunately, it was also closed for climbing – good thing we got our stairs in the day before with the Eiffel Tower!

Just hanging out in front of some national monuments

The Arc is right at the start of the Champ d’Elysee so, after saying hello to Santa who was randomly dancing in the street (Jessica was excited to see him), we went to explore. It was filled with exciting stores – we went to the Louis Vuitton store (tres chic!), to the Disney store (which had a surprising number of rules for a place that sells happiness – no pictures, no standing on the stairs, a line to get into the store. Seriously, Disney? I didn’t want that Hannah Montana hat anyway.), and my personal favorite, to La Durée. La Durée is a place recommended by Jessica, which is famous for its macaroons. I had never before had macaroons because they are probably the most unnaturally colored food item I’ve ever seen in my life. I don’t turn down a good food recommendation though, so we all got macaroons. They were sooooo good. Margo and I definitely made the best choice by getting vanilla. Aubrey got pistachio, and Mike, Perry, Anne, and Jessica went for chocolate. These were both also good, but subpar.

At the end of Champ d’Elysee, we needed to be inside. Obviously, our best choice was to get more food…because food in France is SO GOOD. This is definitely another country where I would end up obese if I studied there. (Good thing French is so hard and sort of useless in the grand scheme of the world…)  We stopped into a fun little café where Anne and I split a quiche. It was deeeeeeelicious. Duh.

After taking advantage of the restaurant’s warmth for as long as was polite (and possibly a bit longer), we headed out to the Christmas market!!! I love Christmas and markets and was so excited! We saw all sorts of exciting things – Santa was there, too! (Maybe he danced his way all the way down Champ d’Elysee?) Aubrey got her brother ‘the hardest puzzle’ this one guy offered. He told her to take it out of the wrapping so he couldn’t see the solution. The end result should be a 4x4 cube. I was excited to give it a test run. We also obviously got some more food products. (Chocolate covered fruit, something covered potatoes. So many yummy things!) We had originally aspired to hit the Museé d’Orsay before dinner, but we were cold and tired…and the metro was close by. Home, we went! 

Aubrey and Anne went to rest and I took Aubrey’s puzzle to Mike and Perry’s room to try to figure it out. THAT THING HAS NO SOLUTION. (Probably untrue.) Seriously, though. I worked on it for longer than I should have and got nowhere. Later that night, we tried to do it with the solutions and even those didn’t help. Hopefully Aubrey’s brother is smarter than me. While waiting for Anne and Aubrey, we played an intense game of Scattergories. Perry beat us all by a lot. Losing at two things within an hour of each other? Luckily we were in Paris and it was pretty and wonderful, because if not, I would have definitely been displeased. ;) (Losing is one of my least favorite things to do.) Anne and Aubrey came to join us, and we made some executive decisions. We were supposed to have a fancy dinner, but Erin had told us about a bar that would probably be showing the Duke game (against Butler!!) We obviously had to prioritize, and ditched dinner for Duke.

We went instead to a different little café nearby. Aubrey and I both got salmon in a lemon and garlic sauce, but our portions were rather small. We decided to also split pasta with pesto which was delicious and filling. Anne got a savory crepe filled with cheese – I obviously stole a bite and it was so good! France knows its cheese. Perry learned a little French: “un oeuf is un oeuf.” (It was all in the accent.) Jessica knows a bit of French, too, so she was helping him out. The most surprising thing of the night however, was that Mike was worried he wouldn’t be able to finish his meal. I know; it was crazy. Being the good friend I am, I helped him out by stealing a few of his French fries. You’re welcome. Actually, the most surprising also could have been how often Jessica’s French skills came in handy on this trip. Although dinner wasn’t the first time she needed them, the following situation happened a lot during the trip:

GROUP: We need/want to know about [insert object]. Jessica, you speak French. Could you ask for us?

JESSICA: Of course! –calls over waiter-

WAITER: Oui?

JESSICA: Can you help us with this? (…in English.)

Thanks, Jess! You were an indispensible resource.

After dinner we headed out to the bar! (The Moose Bar!) En route, who do we run into but Erin and co. heading in the opposite direction?! Turns out, although the bar had ESPN America, ESPN was not playing the Duke game. WHYYY ESPN, WHY?!?!?! We instead, turned back to try to catch some of it online. After stopping for crepes on the way (a necessary stop) we got back in time to catch the precious last few minutes. Although the 30 second updates didn’t actually update every thirty seconds, we still had enough information to know that we’d won! All sorts of exciting. (Unfortunately, now we’re all worried about Kyrie Irving…but hopefully he’ll recover quickly!) After the game, we decided to head back to our respective rooms. Before going to bed (and after pillow talk), Aubrey psychoanalyzed me. She eventually got to everyone we were with, and everyone had at least one hilarious result. Although she didn’t tell me definitively that I was sane, she clarified some things about myself that I mostly already knew. Dad will be happy to hear however, that according to my subconscious I’m not destined for the derelict/bad boy he’s dreading. (Bummer!)

The next morning we enjoyed our last hotel breakfast, and watched the last of my money slip out of my fingers as we paid our bill. We had a bit of time in the morning so we decided to give the Museé d’Orsay one last try. We started off at Les Tuileries, and stopped in this delicious café called Angelina’s. Anne had heard that the hot chocolate was delicious and she was right. It was so thick and chocolaty! Perfect! We walked through the gardens and crossed over the Seine via this awesome little bridge, “Le Pont des Arts.” People put love locks there to assure they’ll be together forever. Awwwwwwwww. Aubrey had put one there with her mom when they visited in October. Awwwwwwwww. 

We got to the museum and the line was gigantic! We gave it about 15 minutes and then had to make an executive decision. To go or not to go? Anne was all in because she’s artsy like that. The general consensus of the rest of the party was to redo the Christmas market and get falafel for lunch. While it’s hard for me to turn down falafel, it’s harder to miss out on an intimate art adventure date with Anne. We planned to meet back in the hotel before our flights left! It turns out the line was so long because the museum is FREE the first Sunday of every month. As I mentioned, I love free. We saw all sorts of art that we learned about in class which was exciting, and found some new art that we both really liked! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri-Edmond_Cross) We went on a wild Monet waterlily goose chase to no avail, but otherwise saw a lot of cool stuff!

Anne walking on the scale model of Paris.
               I've often said she was larger than life.

Rather than stopping to get lunch, we popped into a super market and got bread and cheese. It was a great life decision. So cheap & so tasty! I even tried goat cheese! Our herb filled cheese was much better, but I wouldn’t say no to goat cheese if offered it again. It was then that my friends left for their earlier flight! Bye Margo, Anne, Perry, Mike, and Aubrey! Jessica and I had some bonding time which was beautiful but then she left me too. There I was again, chillin in the hotel lobby. I got a little reading done for school, and then after they asked me if I needed help for the third time, went to go meet Erin, Chaele, and Hannah before heading out myself! I saw a bit of Chaele’s host family’s apartment and even saw her adorable younger host sister! We watched some Duke game highlights and hung out a little before Erin and I had to leave.

We took the sketchy train back but at least this time we were on it together. After pooling all of our money to get enough coins to pay for our tickets (Madrid metro beats yet another system) we were on our way! It turns out we got on the wrong train at one point, but luckily realized it before all was lost. We ended up getting to the airport right about when we wanted to and made the crazy trek back in the opposite direction. Finally, we spotted terminal B in the horizon. We made our approach and tried to get around a police man and presumably a patron having a conversation. Unfortunately, as we did, the policeman put his hand out. “EXCUSE ME. POLICE.” He said, and pointed importantly to his badge. It seemed as though this was the only English phrase he knew as he would give us no answers as to why we weren’t allowed to pass and what we were supposed to do since there was no other way to terminal B. Luckily (probably the only time I would ever say lucky about this) our flight was delayed so we were in no danger of missing it. We went back to grab some dinner and wondered if we would ever get home.

We heard rumors that it was a suspicious bag, however, Anne later informed us that while they were awaiting their flight there was some sort of electrical fire which was sending out toxic fumes and that now they probably all have some sort of gas poisoning. Who knows? Maybe that had something to do with? Regardless, eventually they changed the minds and let us through. Thanks, France. The board of broken dreams had told us to head to B1. Obviously there’s no such gate as B1 that sends out EasyJet flights. Eventually we just winged it and hoped for the best and went through the security check that was by the EasyJet flights. It soon became clear that by “B1” the board actually meant “B22.” …I know I don’t speak French, but somehow that doesn’t seem right. Apparently no one else had a problem though, since seats were nearly filled once we got there. I spent the two hour delay reading (don’t read La de los Tristes Destinos unless you’re forced to like I was) and getting antsy about whether or not we were going to catch the metro.

I love the Madrid metro. Truly, I do. Compared to probably every other metro system I’ve ridden in (which at this point is a decent sample size) it was much better in many ways. One thing that confuses and worries me about the Madrid metro, however, is when it actually closes. They say 1:30AM, however, they say you must be in the station by 1:30AM. When do the trains actually stop? Nobody knows! (Well, I’m sure somebody does. Just not me.) Anyway, we landed at 1:05AM. Erin and I were those girls and jumped up and cut the entire line to ensure getting off the plane first. (It was terrible airplane etiquette, a move I hope never to have to pull again.)  We finally got out to the terminal at 1:10. The Madrid airport is huge. If you’re in terminal 1 (we were) you have to go all the way to terminal 3 (read: very far) to catch the metro. I kept one eye on my watch and the other up at the signs while we started our walk/run through the airport. We saw another young person making power moves through the airport as well. Turns out he’s doing NYU in Madrid and was in the same situation as us (as in refusing to pay for a taxi.) Eventually we make it to the metro. The time: 1:25. Success? Who knows! We still had two transfers to make! Leg one of the journey: check! (1:40ish) Leg two of the journey: CHECK! (2:00ish) Leg three of the journey?!?!?! CHECK! (In bed by 2:15ish!) We like to believe we caught the last train (again, for dramatic effect), but really who knows? All that matters is we came out of hurricane EasyJet with only minimal (emotional) damage.