We got started today around 10am! We had so much we wanted to see and do, and luckily there was a metro station directly outside our hostel, so we hopped across the street, each bought 10 metro passes for 12E, then let the exploring begin!
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| Le Pont des Arts |
We began by making head way towards The Louvre. After getting terribly lost and taking the metro the wrong way, then walking the wrong way, then apparently asking all the wrong people, we FINALLY found it. It baffled me that so many locals didn't know where the museum was?? When we finally got there, we were distracted by an awesomely cool bridge, with locks all over it. It was called Le Pont des Arts, meaning the "Love Locked Bridge." Lovers from all over the world come and engrave metal locks to show their mutual commitment towards each other. The collectiveness of all of them is really cool looking.
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| There she is! |
Afterwards, we were off to the Louvre! We figured we couldn't come all the way to Paris and not see the Mona Lisa! It was 10E to get in (everything costs money, everywhere!) It was the biggest museum I could ever imagine. Apparently it takes 2 weeks to see every single piece of art in the museum. There are 4 parts, and each part goes on and on forever! The Mona Lisa was so much smaller than I imagined. And it's also blocked off, nobody can get within 15 feet of it, and its behind like 9 feet of glass, and there is security guards everywhere! And there was also about 23456789 people crowded around it taking pictures...which, at least you could do! A lot of museums you can't take pictures, but this one you could.
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| Outside the Louvre! |
We only spent about 2 hours in the Louvre. I was so anxious to walk the streets and see everything! Afterwards, we walked up Champs-Elysees on the way to the Arc de Triomphe. The road is really historically famous for being the second most expensive streets in the world to live on, topped only by London's Bond Street. There are hundreds of stores that line the street, and it was bustling the whole weekend. Although the authentic French boutiques have been replaced with chain and designer stores, it was still awesomely cool to walk down and have the ambiance of the Eiffel Tower behind us and the Arc de Triomphe in front of us. The Arc itself is sitting on a little island in the middle of a six lane round-about of traffic, with no cross-walk. Well thats because there's an underground cross-walk, which I didn't notice. So I nearly killed myself running across trying to get a close up picture!
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My close up picture that I risked my life for.
I'd say it was worth it. Pretty epic. |
Afterwards, we ventured off to see the Notre Dame. However we quickly realized that the transportation systems in Paris are far more confusing than they are in Milan. First of all, the have color coded lines, which one would think would dumb it down for people like us. Which it would, if the colors they used weren't all so bizarrely similar to each other! They had a light pink line, a purple-pink, and a magenta colored line, a light green and light yellow line, etc., etc. And on top of that, it's incredibly difficult to determine which metro lines intersect, and where. The metro maps looked like they had been slightly misprinted, because all of the dots indicating stops were slightly off the lines. It made it very difficult to navigate, because it seemed like every place we wanted to go to involved at least two transfers! And another thing about the metro, they were very, very dirty...and smelly. There was always trash everywhere, and gross stains on the seats that I didn't even know what they were. They definitely do it better in Milan! :)
We did finally make it to the Notre Dame. And it was amazing; the Gothic architecture was unbelievable close up. We were going to go in, but it cost 8E, so we decided to save some money and pass that one up. 8E...c'mon Paris, it's a church!! I thought those things were supposed to be free!
From there we went to the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur. It is a church that is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It sits on the highest point in Paris, France...it was definitely a hike to get to. So many stairs!! But it was awesome when we got to the top; totally felt like we were on top of the world! It was kind of overcast when we there though, so we couldn't see as far as we may have been able to, but it was still super cool to look down on the whole city from so high up.
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| The Basilique |
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| Us outside The Basilique, the highest point in Paris.. |
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| On the way back down! |
The Basilique was very close to our hostel, so after we saw that, we went back and regrouped, then decided to grab a bite to eat. Thank god that morning we managed to convince the manager to put us all in the same room, so we were all going to be together for the next two nights! We popped our head into a few restaurants, but the prices just absolutely blew our minds...Paris is SO expensive!! We settled on the cheapest place we could find, and we all got the cheapest things on the menu. However, somehow that is just beyond my realm of comprehension, we still spent an obscene amount of money. Picture this: we all drank water, Emily and I both got a ham and cheese sandwich, and split a side of fries, and Caitlin got an omlet...40E. That is $55!!! And it wasn't even good, at all. How someone manages to mess up a ham and cheese sandwich is really confusing to me?? And more than that, how does anyone afford to LIVE in Paris??? Thank God we are not studying there!
After dinner, we went back to the hostel, showered, and got ready to go out. We drank a little before in the hostel with each other, talking and laughing mostly about how bad our hostel sucked. It was really, really dirty. And I don't do well with human filth. Hairs absolutely gross me out. Unflushed toilets...do I even need to touch on that? Men that look like Jesus sleeping two feet away from me, never ok.
That night we caught a taxi to some bars that we heard we supposed to be popular, and hung out for a bit. Apparently Paris doesn't have huge, raging night "clubs" like Milan does; they are more known for their bars. Which is cool, it's always fun to go to new bars and see new places, but I think I'd rather the discoteca's in Milan :) Emily wasn't feeling well, so we went back to the hostel around 3am and called it a night. I think I literally went to sleep dreaming about the Eiffel Tower :)
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