Paris :)

Sorry, it has been a while since I updated this! I have been uber busy with the last week of classes and my 4 day trip to Paris!!

Paris is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. It is peaceful, serene and gorgeous. I loved every second of my adventure there. I went with Kelly, Lauren, Andrew, Tommy, Andrew's roommate who has been in Spain for a while, and their friend Remy who is French!! It worked out so well having Remy since he is fluent in French.

We went to class Thursday morning and had a normal day. Class took hours becuase we were so excited to leave for Paris. We had to be at the train station by 1230 and we hopped on our first of 3 trains that day. The first was a little tiny metro type train that took us to Hendaia, France. It is right on the border of Spain and France. Then we had to take another train from Hendaia to Biarritz which is another town near the border of Spain. Then, we hopped on our long 7 hour train which was big and very nice! We were starving by then so we got some lunch on the train. That was our first encounter with French speaking workers!! It was so funny, the lady laughed at us because Remy was reading everything to us and ordering for us! I got a baguette sandwich and had 2 bottles of wine which made me really sleepy. I passed out for the last 3 hours of the train ride and woke up in Paris! We checked into our hotel and wandered around town.

Our hotel ended up being pretty decent. Kelly, Lauren and I had our own room and Tommy and Andrew shared a room and so did Ed and Remy. The girls room was right in the lobby and the only room on the first floor, it was really weird, but it ended up being alright. Every morning they had a little continental breakfast of coffee, tea and orange juice to drink and a roll and a croissant with nutella. Nutella is amazing! Our hotel was literally a two second walk from the metro station so we bought a pack of 10 tickets so we could ride the metro whenever we needed.

Thursday night, we made our way up to the Sacre Coure, which is a huge chruch on top of a giant hill that overlooks the amazing city. It was crowded with natives so we decided to stick around for a while and just sit and hang out looking at the city at night from the hilltop.

Friday was 0ur first day there, we woke up around 9am and headed out. We went to the Louvre first. This is a hugeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee art museum that houses DaVinci's Mona Lisa upon many others. It was literally the biggest museum I have ever seen. You could spend days in that museum and still not see everything. We spent about 5 hours at the Louvre and then got some lunch. We stopped at a little cafe on the way to go see the Arc de Triomphe. We walked down the infamous Chance Elysees on our way to the Arc. The streets in Paris are stuffed, all day every day. It obviously is a very touristy town. The people were pretty friendly though.

After a long day of the Louvre and walking all over town, Kelly got a call from her Aunt and Uncle who were also visiting in Paris at the same time. They offered to take us to dinner and show us Notre Dame. Lauren, Kelly and I went to dinner with them. They took us to a great little resturant where we all had a bottle of wine and delicious food. They paid for our whole dinner and dessert as well! It was so nice of them. We got to talk to them about school and they told us about great places to go while we were in Paris. It was nice to be around somewhat of a family. Later that night, we met up with Lauren and Kelly's friend Arnaud, who they met when they were in Barcelona. Arnaud lives in Paris and was our personal tour guide. He took us to the cool bars and awesome places to take great pictures. We had mojiots and great drinks (which were so expensive!) and just hung out. It was a great night.

Saturday, we woke up early again and it was raining all day! It was yuckie. Kelly, Lauren, Andrew and I decided to go walk around town and do some souvenier shopping. I bought myself a "J'adore Paris" shirt :) and some gifts for some people! It was a very relaxed day since we couldnt do much of anything.

Saturday night, we went to a great resturant to try French pizza, and it was amazing. The food was great, the wine was even better! After that, we all went to the Eiffle Tower and just hung out infront of the fountains, took lots of pictures and just talked. It was awesome. We meet some Moroccan guys, who turned out to be pretty freaky. Good thing we had the boys with us! This was where my brand new camera, that I just bought last week, pooped out on me! I am having terrible luck with cameras here. So, I have to go return it and get a new one!!!

Sunday, we made our way to Versailles. It was PACKED. Kelly was not feeling good what so ever so her and I left Versailles and met up with Arnaud and just sat under the Eiffle Tower and enjoyed the beautiful day. It was a nice relaxing Sunday before we had to leave. The three of us went to goo see the Moulin Rogue after we got some crepes! Arnaud bought us crepes with nutella. Aunt Jane, you would LOVE them. After walking around Moulin Rogue, we were running out of time in Paris. So, Arnaud, Kelly and I got some dinner at an Irish Pub then headed back to the hotel. We met up with the rest of the group, got snacks and made our way to the train station.

Our train left Paris at 10:50pm on Sunday night. We did not get back into San Sebastian until 8:30am the following morning, just in time for class at 9am!! I did not get one lick of sleep on the train due to having mass amounts of homework, an uncomfortable first class seat and a screaming baby. It was terrible. I was so crabby and cranky and sick that day, I was a mess. And I am glad it is over.

Looking back, visiting Paris is a must for anyone. It is the coolest place I have been thus far. We'll see how Rome, Florence, Milan, and Geneva measure up!!

This week is just filled of cleaning, packing, finalizing plans for travel, studying and finals. It is a stressful week and I don't do well with stress!! Yesterday was the festival of San Juan, they celebrate how it is the longest day of the year. There were bonfires and fesitvals all over town, and I was stuck inside writing a 4 page spanish paper on Andy Warhol and studying for my Art final-- which was a piece of cake!

I have over 200 pictures from France. So, I decided to make an album instead of posting them in this post. Make sure you look at them!!

Come Friday, I will no longer have the internet and will no longer be in San Sebastian. So this maybe the last post until further notice. I enjoyed writing all of my experiences on here for you all to see. It was such a great idea to start a blog. I will do my best to upload things. I will be returning to the beautiful United States of American July 7th. Only 13 more days!!

Hasta Luego.
Katie