Paris

Just for now my blogs aren't going to be in order, but I'll still get better at keeping everyone updated.


So for the beginning of my trip I had to navigate the train system alone, and I was very terrified! But I asked some people for help and everything turned out being just perfect. Then we had the seven hour bus ride to Paris. I got to see friends I made at camp, so that was really fun and the ride wasn't all that bad. Once we got to France, the traffic was horrid so we just skipped the planned boat tour and went to the hotel. To be perfectly honest, it was the most boring night ever. The hotel was in a very secluded location with only a restaurant and a bar. Soooo that being sad, that night wasn't the funnest.
The next morning we all loaded back onto the bus for a tour of all the main monuments, streets, bla bla. Now i know we've all seen movies and heard things about Paris, but nothing can compare to actually being there. It's magical. All the buildings are so old and so so beautiful. The streets are huge, just watching people drive is scary and interesting, there's almost no limit, just go when you can. It was such a surreal, amazing moment.  Anyways, so we spent a few hours driving around listening to the tour guide, learning everything he had to tell us about the city. We had a few minutes at some places to step out and take pictures and get a better look. We stopped at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre Palace, Eiffel tower, and the Pace de la Concord. They were all just breathtaking and amazing. At the Eiffel tower however, something pretty unique and crazy happened. We were all just taking pictures being all touristy, when some lady came up to us with a stack of cardboard cards with pictures of men and women on them. They were there as a part of a revolution. The men and women on the cards were people in Venezuela who were put into jail because of their different views on the government. So then she asked us all to hold one of the cards in front of our face and then follow her into a group as she talked to created a video. It was pretty cool, until the police came. They were trying to talk to her, and she was super frantic, our coordinators were freaking out, it was a mess. But in the end, she gave us some candy and as far I know she still has her video. That was pretty insane and interesting. After that we had some free time to shop and do what we wanted. First some of us all ate together, the best pizza I have ever had.  After that we spent hours looking for one store, never found it. Gave up and went back to the bus. We then went on the boat tour on the Seine river. It was beautiful, the bridges all had amazing carvings, we passed some of the monuments we had seen earlier, so it was nice to see them from a different point of view. The boat itself was gorgeous, with vines, flowers and old lamposts with all glass ceiling. It felt very good after walking for so long. After that we went to eat dinner with some of our friends. Of course we had to eat snails, we were in France after all. It was horrible and I hated it, but Katie loved it sooo... Then we had some very pasta and completely pissed off the French waiter and had to run back to the bus. That night we all just hung out with each other, talked about our homes here in Holland and what we have all done. It was a fantastic day over all.


The next day we went off again on the bus to the Eiffel tower, this time we were going to go up. We waited for an hour in cold cold cold, but I had the best croissant with chocolate creme ever. After waiting forever, we finally went up to the second floor. It was amazing, I know I've said that about a lot of things so far, but really. Paris is very white, with a golden monument sticking up here and there. We took a ton of pictures, looked at all we could, and had a good time. After that we had free time so we all went to eat again and a cute little French cafe. The food was yummy, but I think it made me sick because the rest of the middag(afternoon) my stomach was hurting.   We walked around, shopped, got some of the touristy gifts for people at home. The street just went on and on with antique books, posters, and other little knick knacks. I bought an old Doors poster since I didn't get to see his grave. ): I would just have those moments when I would look around at the large streets, the trees, parks, and the people think of how surreal and amazing the moment was. I was in Paris, walking with people from all over the world, just enjoying it all. Nothing will be able to compare to that feeling. After that we ended up getting lost and I was sick, so we had to hurry to the bus without me throwing up. We took the metro, which wasn't the best part of Paris, but you still saw some very interesting things... There are people everywhere with Eiffel tower trinkets for sale at very cheap prices, but it's illegal. So the police will come to arrest them, and suddenly they all run to the metro, jumping over the gates. Heaps and heaps of them would come out of no where and just hide everywhere. It was just so odd, I had never seen anything like that before. We finally made it back, and went off to the next stop. We then went to the Sacre Coeur church. In the street there was a parade of music, dancers, and people in costumes just going through the city. There was some sort of festival, but I never heard of what it  was exactly. To get to the church we had to climb up tons of stairs just to get there, but once we did, the best night of my life began. We saw the steps to the church, long and wide, covered in people everywhere. Just sitting, drinking, smoking, dancing, singing and talking all together. So of course we all found a spot and started to join in. We met a man who had come from Africa to play music, so he started playing for us, we shared some of our food and drinks with him. We soon were all singing with him, some of the boys were playing and singing with him and everyone was up dancing. We had Russians, French, Brazilians, all sorts of people dancing and having a good time with us. Now the situation was amazing, but if you took a second to look around, it got even better. One direction you could see a beautiful church and tons of wonderful people, then you turn around and you could see all of Paris. The most beautiful view, almost as good as the Eiffel tower. It was such an amazing and unique experience I did not want to ever leave that place. We finally did though, and we went back to the bus and back to the hotel. Nothing really special happened, we went to dinner at the Hippopotamus cafe and had some deep fried yumminess. Since everyone was either missing or asleep Katie and I decided to go to sleep, and this is where the whole weekend is amazing ruined.




We were in a room with another girl, we asked if she was sleeping there tonight, and she said yes. So what we had been doing all the time we were in hotel was to keep the door open. From the outside the door looked like it was close, but if you pushed on it, it would open completely. Katie and I fell asleep around 12, and at 2 one of our friends were knocking on our door to ask us something. The girl wasn't in bed at this point. Since we had both fallen asleep we wanted to know the time, I asked Katie to check my phone when we said it wasn't on the charger. I had remembered setting the alarm and plugging in my phone, so I was positive it was there. We both jumped up and started checking all of our stuff. My iPhone was definitely gone, all of Katie's euros were taken out of her wallet and her credit cards moved around. Her dutch phone was taken, and so was mine. As far as we know nothing else was taken. For the person to get all of those items, they would have had to walk across the entire room, around my bed and past Katie to unplug and search everything. Things were scattered all over the floor, moved and touch, but not taken. Thankfully our passports were not taken. If they had wanted to, they could have hurt us. So we have to be thankful for our safety. After I realized what had happened, I went running around the hotel like crazy. I asked the other students who were awake if they saw anything, then I went to the concierge, but of course he didn't speak good english and was no help at all. There was a computer to use, but you had to pay for it, so I used that for only 10 minutes, the only coins I had. At that point I was crying and had given up. But, a Russian couple noticed my distress and asked what happened, I tried to explain in simple english. They offered me 50 euro and change, but I said all I wanted was to talk to my mother. The man then went off and got his Ipad for me to call my mother. He was seriously one of the nicest people I have ever met. After I let my mother know what was going on, he said they would stay up with me and cheer me up. So he started talking about how stupid George Bush is, and about all the other silly people. He showed me his friends, his travels, some french and Russian music. It was actually a really nice time to just relax and laugh rather than freak out about what was going on. We stayed with him for a while and then went back to sleep at around 330. In the morning we told our coordinators what had happened, they reported it to the front desk, then the police. Katie and I had to go to the police station to file a report to look for the guy to get our stuff. Sandrina was very nice and translated all of the French for us, so I'm very thankful for her. I will always be creeped out about some random person seeing me asleep, seeing my pictures, reading my notes, and pretty much knowing my entire life, and I'll probably never meet him. Oh well, after that we rode the bus back home and we all ended our trip safely.


Paris was amazing despite the creepy ending. I love it so so so much, and I will be back before I die.