Anastasia

This past weekend was one of the best in my whole life. I love Paris. Not quite sure how else to put it. I apologize in advance for two things. First, that this will probably be incredibly long, don't feel the need to read it all. Second, I will in no way convey Paris in the way I want, nor will my descriptions do it justice. So to begin with, Thursday night. I spent the night in Heidi and Henriette's room. We woke up at about 6:20 (ugh.)on Friday and got ready and packed all of our things up. In the midst of the rush and packing, Henriette hard boiled some eggs, and we sat down to a breakfast of eggs, bread, cheese, and cereal. So European. We then however realized that we had 20 minutes until our train left and we had a ten minute tram ride to the station, let alone getting to the stop and waiting for the tram. So panic mode set in a bit, but we made it to the station and literally had to run to catch our train. About 3 minutes after we got on the train, the doors closed and we were on our way. What can I say, we like to live on the edge. We talked, played cards, and slept during our 2ish hour train ride. When we arrived in Paris, we had to buy metro tickets (which was a sham) and went to find our hostel/hotel. Still not sure which one it is. It was, however, located across the street from the grocery store and a Starbucks. Perfect! The hotel was pretty jank. There were four beds in our room, and the bedspreads were super ratty and uncomfortable, but the bathrooms were completely tiled and clean. Didn’t match the room at all, but I’m actually very grateful for that. We dropped off all our stuff and got some lunch at this adorable little French diner called Subway. Afterwards, we bought our tickets for the ballet on Saturday and headed down to a place where Heidi knew of a bunch of shops that surrounded a big shopping center. I bought a cheap but cute pair of boots and a cookbook. Both of those items cost me 13 euro. Thennn came the shopping center. Oops. Not going to specify how much I spent but let’s just say I lived extremely frugally the next two days (minus my coffee!). After a full day of shopping we returned to our hotel to drop off our things. Heidi, Anne, and Elias went out to eat at a restaurant and Mariread and I ran across the street to buy our dinner at the grocery store. I bought a box of cereal, which was smart as it lasted me all weekend and through many a meal, and a little sandwich. We had good girl talk etc in our room as we ate our high class meal and then got ready to go out when the others got back. Funny story though. We heard knocking and thought someone was at our door, so we went out to look and saw a guy just standing out in the hallway. Then a few minutes later we heard knocking again so we opened our door and saw the guy standing outside Elias and Heidi’s room. So we told him that they were out and would be back soon. So we were a little freaked out because we didn’t know what he was doing but just ignored it. Then about 5 minutes later we heard banging on the door next to us and then heard it open. Mariread grabbed a wine bottle and I flung open the door and him and another guy were standing there with the door open. This is how the conversation went between me and the guy (with Mariread looking very intimidating with her wine bottle and dress on behind me). “WHAT are you doing!? This is NOT ok.” “Um? This is my room. Ask the lady downstairs.” “Yea ok. No it’s not. You need to leave right now.” “No really, this is my room I promise.” At which point I walked past him into his room to check and see if Elias and Heidi’s things were in there. Well, turns out they were staying in the room on the OTHER side of us. Sooo, I yelled at a guy for going into his own room. All I can say is just try stealing my friend’s possessions. Just try. When they all finally came back we walked around to find a bar, but we only stayed for about an hour because it closed. On Saturday we all woke up around 10:30 and discovered we were supposed to leave by 11. So at 11:30 the cleaning ladies were not happy but I was because I went to Starbucks. We had a lovely coffee (and I ate my cereal) and planned our day. Our first stop was to take all of our things to our other hotel. Needless to say, we got off on the wrong stop, and after being lost for an hour in the cold rain, we finally found our hotel. This one was significantly nicer than the previous and only 4 euro more expensive. Riddle me that. After stashing all of our bags in a storage room, we set off to the Arc de Triomphe. BEAUTIFUL. There is such rich history found all over Paris. After the arc we walked down the famous Avenue des Champs-Elysees. There was literally a line (which everyone in Europe calls a queue) that probably had around 50 people waiting in it to get into the Louis Vuitton store. We ate an early dinner at a takeout Chinese place (delicious but wayy overpriced) and got ready to go to the ballet at the Opera! We saw the ballet, Caligula, and I cannot describe to you how breathtaking everything was. To begin with, the building itself had me almost beside myself. One of my first thoughts upon entering was, “this is where a scene in the movie Anastasia took place.” Juvenile, yes, but just thinking about how much history it held and people such as royalty attended the same place I was, I don’t know it was just awesome. Then to top it off, I saw some of the most talented dancers in the world perform a ballet that I probably should have researched before attending. Regardless of not following most of what happened, the fluidity of their movements and the gracefulness I witnessed is just impossible to explain. (I keep saying that but I honestly can’t put it down in finite form) Oh! It was also pretty amazing that we could see muscle definition in the lead dancer’s legs from 4 stories up..Heidi and I thought that was rather impressive) Basically what I’m trying to say is go to the stinkin ballet if you’re ever in Paris. We met up with Henrietta, her boyfriend, and some of his friends at a bar a couple streets away and then went to a two floor Irish pub. Quite impressive but too warm inside for my taste. Sunday our first stop was the Eiffel Tower. It was everything I thought it would be, but I should have expected some things that I didn’t. First, there were street sellers everywhere! Then a man in a gorilla costume jumped in one of our pictures (pretty funny actually) and tourists everywhere. Granted, I expected the last one, but I thought there would be a certain ambiance around it for some reason. However, it was wonderful being at such a world icon and I would go back without hesitation. After spending some time at the Eiffel Tower, the goal was to walk to the Louvre. Wellll, we walked for about an hour out of our way because we had absolutely no idea what we were doing, but it was good because I got to see the American Embassy. Again, the Louvre was awesommeee! Mona Lisa was eh, cool to see but still not quite sure what the fuss is about. If anyone would like to inform me as to why that’s so famous, all I’ve gotten is we can’t tell if she’s happy or sad or if it’s Leo himself. Fun fun. But I love love loved the painting of Napoleon’s Coronation by Jacques-Louis David. That is a painting worth preserving. And the history behind the painting is really interesting (thanks Mrs. Perry). You should definitely research it. We walked around about an hour more, although we determined you could spend a week there and still not see everything, and then left to meet Anne and Heidi. Not too much happened after that, we ate dinner at McDonalds (ew), got our things from the hotel, and yet again had to run to catch our train. About 2 minutes to spare after getting through the door. Excellent timing if I do say so myself. And that my friends, concludes my trip to Paris. Sorry it took a full week to update!