We'll Always Have Paris

Sunday 19^th

Night Train

I met Rachel and Hannah at the bus stop by Hannah’s place. From there, we caught our first train to Stuttgart. When we arrived, we found that everything in the station was either closed or just closing. It became a bit tough to wait out our two hour overlay before our train to Paris. 

Here we were trying to stay warm in the train station!

But after many numb limbs, our train arrived. We went out in search of our wagon. A Deutsche Bahn worker asked us where we were headed. We told him we were headed to Paris, and he said “Ganz am Ende” (Way at the end) with a bit of a smile. This was the train that just wouldn’t end. 

The train that would never end!

We got closer and closer, and eventually found our wagon. 

We were getting closer to our wagon! But not yet...

We sat in Rachel and Hannah’s wagon together (I was assigned to a different cabin) A Cabin consisted of six seats, each set of three opposite one another and facing each other. When we opened the door, we found a guy sleeping in one of the seats. He smelled pretty bad, which made it hard to breath. We had the joke that he was our own Professor Lupin (Yes, we are Harry Potter nerds). After several hours, we all fell asleep (very uncomfortably) until I was woken up by a poke from the guy, saying that he needed to get off. Apparently, Hannah said that she saw him stand there for a minute, contemplating if he could get his big suitcase up and over us without waking us up. He must have stared at us for a while. Creepy. The night passed as we slept on and off on our night train to Paris.

Monday 20^th

First Day of Disney

After the train rolled into the very sketch looking Paris Est, we bought some tickets, and hopped on a couple of metros to get to the stop with the Mickey mouse hears on it! When we got off the metro, however, we were very upset to find that our tickets would not get us through the little French barricade they had blocking us from Disney. They only had one machine to buy the right tickets, so we waited until our turn. When our turn came, however, we just couldn’t work the thing! It would not accept my card as payment, so I got frustrated (with a line of people behind me), and walked away. Just as I made some “stupid machine” gesture, a guy walked up and asked us what kind of ticket we needed. We told him and then he let us through the gate, I presume to where the machine told us to go, the info-desk. The guy was a little creepy though, and just as he let us through, a small group of people called him through to a small room behind the info-desk. It was strange. At this point, we were very confused, and did not know if we should wait in line for a ticket, or if we even needed a ticket in the resort/parks area. The other problem: None of us speak French. We try, as we don’t want to immediately talk in English. A few times, I’ve been able to get by with the little French that I learned and retained from 7^th grade. Other times, someone will ask us a question, we’ll just stare at them like idiots, they’ll ask us if we speak French, we’ll say no, they then say, “English?”, to which we respond: YES! I do feel bad, but I feel as though we are at least trying! Anyway, back to the day. We found the shuttle buses to take us to our hotel. When we got to the Sequoia Lodge Resort, we checked in no problem and made our way to our room. When we got there, we couldn’t get the door to open. Luckily, a maintenance worker walked by, checked to make sure it was actually our room, let us in, and then checked the room to make sure everything was in order. I love Disney employees! After we dropped our stuff off and freshened up a bit, we went to go get our keys fixed before we decided to walk to the park to buy our tickets for our next few days in the park. To get to the parks, you have to walk through the Disney Village, which is similar to Downtown Disney in Florida. We stopped for lunch and also in a few shops along the way. 

Hannah found her Prince Charming.

It was love at first sight.

The Disney Village, or Willage as we called it, had a giant mushroom in it!

Always with the birds in motion.

This was our view from the hotel room. And every day that we walked through the Village, we got to see this.

Eventually we found the park and bought our tickets, which were a bit more money than we thought they were going to be. When we got into the park, we walked down Main Street. 

The entrance to the main park.

They were pretty excited for their first day of Disney! (Well Hannah went when she was little, but it had been a while!)

They had old cars that drove down Main Street.

Check out the old buildings. I believe this one says City Hall.

The castle, looking mighty fine down Main St.

Hannah and Rapunzel!

 

We saw the beautiful castle, and then walked through the castle towards Fantasy Land. The first ride we went on was It’s a Small World. 

Fantasyland.

It's a small world after all... it's stuck in your head already isn't it?!

I know it's stuck in mine now!

While we were waiting, we saw Cinderella and Aurora come out and head to the Princess Pavilion.

Hannah and Rachel talking in line.

You can just see the excitement.

On the boat.

And it begins.

The land of my people!

Those two were always my favorite!

Guten Tag Deutschland!

Perhaps one of those is Agent P?

I took this one for our favorite Canadian, Helina! There's a moose! Poor girl has to put up with so many moose jokes.

I love that the impression of the US is Hollywood... and...

Cowboys.

Afterwards, we walked around for a while before going on our next ride: Space Mountain 2… that’s right, 2!

On the way to Space Mt. 2!

It was weird to see something other than that ugly white building for Space Mt.

The cars would go through this tube when they were shot up into the dark!

 We waited in line for a while, all the time being intimidated by the screams of the coaster riders. When we got to the front of the line, the guy asked us where we wanted to sit. We sat in rows 3 and 4. I was alone in 3 and Hannah and Rachel sat in 4. The people before us got off the ride screaming something, and Hannah’s response was, “I don’t speak French, but that sounds like terror”. They told us to put our bags by our feet, we pulled down the harnesses, and off we went. It started off with a pretty significant drop, then we were sped upwards before hitting complete and total darkness. I closed my eyes to help the motion sickness. What I was not expecting: two loops and at least two corkscrews! To cope, I yelled quite a bit and tried to keep my head from banging around too much, in vain I’m afraid. When we got off, I was a mess. I was shaky, my head heart, I was terrified, and my hair was all over the place. That ride was not what I expected, and this became the topic of discussion through our ice cream break.

((Oh and for those of you wondering, no, I did not find Mickey Bars in Disneyland Paris))

After the break, we finalized our passes that we bought at some office. Then we got in line for Buzz Lightyear’s Laser Blast!! I was hoping this ride would cheer everyone up a bit. We waited in line for a  bit, but made it eventually to our cars. 

Buzz Lightyear!

It's a Small World After ALL!! (please make it stop)

The ride is different from the one in Disney World Florida in terms of the French speaking Buzz, the targets were different and placed differently around the different rooms, and the guns could be held in your hand to be moved beyond the ones in Florida. Other than those things, though, it was exactly the same! When we got off, we compared scores, and then went to look at our pictures that were taken during the ride. I didn’t see mine, but Rachel and Hannah’s was enough. Here is my interpretation of the pictures:

It was basically the funniest picture I have probably ever seen. Rachel got really into it, to seay the least. From that laughable moment at the photo-stall, we went to go to the shops on Main Street before leaving the park to walk through the Disney Village to get back to our hotel. 

Main St. on the way out of the park for the day.

When we got back to the hotel, Rachel and Hannah wanted to go swimming (and I have to say that the hot tub sounded good for my muscles after a long day), so we headed to the pool. Once there, we had to pay for towels and go to the locker room where we were supposed to change. We already had our suits on though, so we headed for the pool area. The whole layout of the pool area was just plain stupid, because to get to the hot tub, you had to go through the cold pool which was filled with jumping, splashing, yelling, obnoxious kids. For those of you who do not know me that well: I do not like swimming. One of the main reasons is that the chlorine turns my hair green. So I was not pleased with all the splashing. At all. We finally got a space in the hot tub, but after only about 15 minutes, everyone was kicked out of the hot tub. From the hot tub, in order to get back to the locker room, we had to go through the now comparatively FREEZING water. Worst pool experience ever. After the pool, we had to walk back to our rooms through the cold night air with our wet swimsuits, as we did not know it wouldn’t be connected by a walk way, as pools at home usually are. We made it back to our rooms, showered, and then I just spent the night writing down everything that had happened so I wouldn’t forget!

Tuesday 21^st

Pin-Mania

Tuesday was a busy day. We started off with breakfast at the hotel before setting off for the park. Our first stop: Laser Blast.  We got fast passes, but decided to go on before our pass time too! We got all the way to the loading dock when the ride broke down. About 11-13 people came to fix the problem. Leaving us with the eternal question: How many French people does it take to fix a Disney ride? 

Look at all those French people trying to fix the ride.

There was at some point 13, and then they started letting people off the ride.

It didn’t look promising, so we hopped out of line and hopped on the tea cups before going back for our fast pass time. 

It's like Where's Waldo, but instead it's: Where are Rachel and Hannah?

Hannah coming off the teacups triumphantly.

And Rachel waving, as I played the mom and took pictures!

I should also mention that “Mama Still”, as my mom has been so named by those present in Disney, sent us pins to trade with the employees, which caused Hannah and Rachel to go into ultra-pin mode. At some point Hannah compared the compulsion to trade pins to being on crack. Oh man Mom, what have you gotten these girls into? 

This was before Rachel had started pin trading, but Hannah had a fair start!

Haha, Hannah was very enthusiastic about her pins!

At one point, they both stopped to fix their pins, and I caught them! ADDICTS! :)

Anyway, something about Buzz Lightyear’s Laser Blast brings out the angry, gangster, Liam Neeson side of Rachel. The first time we went on Tuesday, Rachel had her real angry face on, and she got a picture of it!
Here's my interpretation of the picture:

Rachel buying her Buzz Lightyear picture.

The second time, she actually turned her gun sideways, perhaps in an effort to intimidate the inanimate Evil Emperor Zurg, sworn enemy of the Galactic Alliance! 

Me and Hannah waiting in line for Laser Blast.

I was getting pumped!

French Buzz was so much classier. 

And of course, Spanish Buzz is also a lot of fun!

Hannah had her game face on.

This was before the ride, which brought out the killer instinct in Rachel. I have to say, that if there was a zombie apocalypse, I would definitely want Rachel on my team after witnessing her ferocity on this ride. Just think if lives were actually at stake.

I also managed to get gum on my shoe. So here is me getting it off  my shoe!

After that, Hannah and Rachel picked up fast passes to go on Space Mountain 2 again. We headed to the second park, Disney Studios, for lunch in our time before the passes. 

Hey there Walt!

Very Disney Studios-esque.

When Hannah and Rachel went to Space Mountain, I went shopping down Main Street and saw a bit of the parade. 

The parade merely consisted of cars with characters in them, waving to the music.

It was a little unimpressive, I’ve got to say. 

I also walked around a bit in Fantasyland and found Snow White's cottage:

From there we went to seek out the Haunted Mansion, or as it’s called in Paris: The Phantom Manor. At first we couldn’t find it, but we did find the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (In French: The Temple of Peril) rollercoaster. 

This one went upside down, Hannah may have screamed for her life as if an axe murderer was after her, and we went on twice. We then found the Phantom Manor, which was only a little different from the Florida one. 

Hannah went alone, and I went with Rachel on this ride, which Hannah was not happy about. During the ride, the cars stopped, and Hannah got stopped right in front of this guy. He was actually kind of scary.

We then headed to Disney Studios and made a quick stop at the bathroom before heading to the Tower of Terror. I only mention the bathroom, because they played the soundtracks from a bunch of movies while you were doing your business. It was great! I got to pee to the theme of INDIANA JONES! What could be more wonderful?! Anyway, back to Tower of Terror. It was a long line, which became even longer when the guy in front of us kept on smoking. 

A dimension of sight. A dimension of sound. A dimension of mind.

Make your first wish.

Scared before the Tower of Terror.

We saw this on our way out of the park! It was too perfect!

When we got to the library to see the Twilight Zone video (which, of course, was dubbed over in French), and the elevators we were scared and amused by one of the employees. It was some good ole’ Disney fun, except the employees don’t usually follow one group around. The guy would walk behind us in the library, go “Mwa-hahaha” in a real deep voice, and then was the one who loaded us on the elevator and let us out at the end.  After the ride, Hannah proclaimed her complete and utter terror by yelling a lot and showing us her sweaty and clammy hands. She just kept repeating, “No more. No more”. This reminded me of when I took Matthew on the Tower of Terror for his first time. He hated it, and kept saying the same thing. What is it about this ride that terrifies people so much? It must be in the name. When we got off the ride, we decided to calm things down by going to a show called “Cinemagique”. 

I love me some cinema!

The big hat was actually an activity room.

I thought it was going to be similar to the Great Movie Ride, so I was really excited, but alas it was not what I expected. What it really was was a movie on the theater’s screen, which followed Martin Short through the classic movies and genres of the ages in a funny and entertainingly Disney interactive way. I freaked out a bit when the whale from Pinocchio came up in the movie. I forgot how much I hated that whale. They did show scenes from Some Like it Hot, and other great classics, so that just about made up for the whale. The Cinemagique was the last thing we really did besides wander a bit and eat dinner at a place where you could watch things like Pixar shorts while you ate. Although we did walk around Disney Studios a bit.

Rachel found her buddy.

And Hannah and I found ours!

I love Guido!

This was inside the big hat. They had color palates, and activities for kids.

We headed back to the hotel after dinner, and bought an hour of Wi-Fi use, as the internet was not free there, in order to let our families and friends know that we were not dead or TAKEN. That was pretty much it for Tuesday!

Wednesday 22^nd

Goodbye Disney, Hello Real World

Wednesday when I woke up, I felt as though I had only just gone to bed. This put me into a bad mood, but I was determined to improve this mood! I have also been having problems with my feet, and by problems I mean severe pain, because the shoes that I brought with did not give me enough support. With every step I’m in quite a bit of pain, but it was the worst when we just stood in lines because all of the weight went right to my feet. So when I took my first few steps out of bed, the pain was also a contributing factor to the bad mood. Anyway, we went to breakfast before we had to check out of our room. We dropped off our keys before checking our bags at the hotel for the day. The guy at the check-in was helpful, but pretended to be pissed off when we kept adding bags to our checked items. In reality, I don’t think he was pissed, because he smiled genuinely. We then walked to the park and headed first, once again, to feed the hungry, angry Rachel with some Laser Blast. 

A new day.

On the ride again, this time with more pins.

Hannah and I got a picture with Buzz when he was in French mode. Way classier.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to shoot every Z in sight.

After once again witnessing Rachel’s face of fury, we went to get in line at the Princess Pavilion so that Hannah could get a picture with the princesses. 

While waiting in line, they had windows from all of the different princess' castles. See if you can guess them. First comes the castle, then comes the object that goes with that princess.

Snow White.

Do you know it?

Belle.

Then comes...

Aurora's crown.

This one is easy.

I feel like I don't even need to say it.

Running out of Princesses.

Cinderella.

On the water.

This is a shell, so Ariel.

And finally...

Rapunzel.

They did not have Tiana, because she didn't really have a castle.. and she might not be that popular in France. We didn't see much merchandise for that movie.

The line wasn’t too bad, except my feet were killing me, and the kids behind us were running wild and kept bumping into us. I never really had to wait in line to meet characters in my family. Matt and Jenna were always afraid of the characters, unimpressed by the characters, or just had better things to busy themselves with. So I was a bit thrown off when I had to wait in line with my 21 year old friend so that she could meet a character. We got up to the picture place and got to meet Princess Aurora, who spoke both French and English. After meeting the Sleeping Beauty, we may or may not have gone back to Laser Blast (and by this I mean, we totally went back to Laser Blast). From there we got Fast Passes for Big Thunder Mountain. The time we got was right before we said we would leave the park, so that worked out well. We then headed, in our time before the Big Thunder Mountain, to Disney Studios with the intention of going on Tower of Terror again, but Hannah was so terrified by the idea, that we decided to go on Rockin’ Rollercoaster instead. The line wasn’t bad and the ride itself was a lot of fun. It does seem like the rides in Paris were a lot more intense than at the parks in California or Florida. After that ride, we decided to get some lunch and to go shop a little bit. With shops, of course, came more pin trading. Rachel asked one guy, named Sunday, if he would trade two pins with her, and somehow Sunday turned a pin trading conversation into an existential one. He talked about how we are all the same; all his travels; how we are born with nothing and die with nothing; and even managed to throw the Bible into the conversation! Well, thanks for that Sunday! After our deep conversation with Sunday, we had some time to kill before our fast passes for Big Thunder Mountain. I suggested that we go on Star Tours (the motion simulator of a Star Wars flight). At Disney World, that is always one that my family likes! We got in line, which seemed to take forever. When we finally got on the ride, all the jokes and everything were in French, so we lost out on that part of it. On top of that, the simulator on this ride was a LOT more intense. I had to close my eyes at times. It jerked us back and forth so much that I thought it would give me whiplash. Rachel and I came off that ride feeling sick. 

R2 D2.

C3PO was just as annoying in French.

But it was time for the Big Thunder Mountain! 

The Big Thunder Mountain.

We crossed the park, got in line, and rode “the wildest coaster in the west!”. It was a lot of fun, and a good way to end our Disney trip. From there, we took a bus back to the hotel, picked up our luggage, asked about the train tickets we would need at the Concierge desk, and hopped on a bus to the train station. We found the ticket booth and the man there was very friendly as he helped us get our tickets. So with that, we said goodbye to the French who had to be nice to us, and headed out into the Paris where the French gave us dirty looks and loathed our English. We had to transfer trains on our way to the hostel (where we were meeting Helina) which was very stressful. We had no time to stop to make sure we were headed the right way, because the people were going so fast, and the moving walkways were just as fast paced with rushing travelers. As we were walking, I noticed two girls, about my age, with ponytails, matching Northface jackets and backpacks, and matching UGGs. Hmmm….. American perhaps? Anyway, we eventually got to the hostel to find no Helina, no chairs to ease my aching feet, and no free internet like they promised us on the website. We called Helina, and when she said she would be a little later, we headed to the bank before heading back to the hostel to wait. We waited a while, and just when I was about to hit my breaking point of pain and cry, Helina showed up and we checked in. We got to the room, and I was done! Rachel, Helina, and Hannah went to go eat, but I stayed back, because I could not walk without severe pain. I took a shower, which helped a bit, and then just stayed in bed the rest of the night before popping in my iPod and falling asleep.

Thursday 23^rd

The Louvre

We woke up and ate breakfast on Thursday, with plans to go to the Louvre afterwards. I was a little sick that morning, but we had a busy day, so I sucked it up and we set out for the Louvre! When we got there, we took a lot of pictures, including one of the line, which was really long! 

The line was not making us too happy.

One of the wings of the Louvre.

Whew, look at that line!

And it just keeps going.

I liked this picture, because the red guy is obviously a master of stealth.

It didn’t take as long as I thought it was going to, though, and before we knew it, we were inside! We started out just touring some of the exhibits, but did not have a plan on what to see when we first got there, so we became fatigued quickly. The first exhibits we saw were the Mesopotamia exhibit and the Greek Sculptures. 

Hercules' butt.

It was a lion! Well, half a lion.

It looked like a thestral. I know I'm a nerd. Sorry.

A lot of nudity.

Sharing secrets with Venus.

Napoleon.

Angst-y Baby.

Hercules beating that snake down.

Joan of Arc.

Lots of lions in this museum.

Hannah watch out, Scar is gonna get'cha!

Hannah named this room, the hall of nudity.

Julius Caesar.

From inside the Pyramid.

I've got my money on the baby.

After we couldn’t walk any more, we decided to take a break for lunch outside the Louvre. We found a restaurant and sat down to order. I have to say that this part of the trip was always so much easier now that Helina was with, because she speaks French on top of several other languages! She ordered our food for us, but when the waiter messed up our order and she told him, he became surly and pretty much just waited for us to leave. We got out of there and headed back to the Louvre, this time to see the Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa, one of the Easter Island heads, and an Egyptian exhibit before the museum closed. 

The Venus de Milo.

There were a lot of artists sitting in the museum, either drawing based on the statues, or based on the people in the museum.

The Mona Lisa is itty-bitty. And the room was packed.

This was the best shot I got of it.

On the opposite side of the room was this HUGE painting.

Photo-bombed by a child.

This lady's face was super scary.

A porcupine made of nails.

Easter Island Head.

Helina.

View from the museum.

Rachel contemplated this one. Why would you draw this? Sorry people, I don't get it.

Underneath the Louvre, was the foundations from when the Louvre was a medieval castle.

Yes...

...we are tourists.

My feet were killing me by this point, as the museum involved both a lot of walking, and a lot of standing around! When we were done at the Louvre, we headed back to the Metro, which took us back to the hostel. I fell asleep for a little bit while the others made plans for the next day, and then Hannah’s friend Lauren came for drinks at the hostel. It wasn’t long, though, before I was ready for bed!

Friday 24^th

Tour Day

Friday we woke up and got ready to go. We went down to breakfast with the intention of leaving by 9:30 to go see Notre Dame before catching up with a free tour of Paris. We were all sort of late, however, so we did not get to go into Notre Dame that morning, and we barely made it to our tour. Our tour guide, Alex, was from New Zealand, and was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic. 

This is where we met our tour guide and group.

We started our tour by seeing Notre Dame. 

The Notre Dame from afar.

Then we went to a former palace, turned police department. 

The guy in the gray cap was our tour guide, Alex. Here is the old palace, turned police station.

Those are bullet holes from the Second World War; kept there as a reminder of the war and the bad times.

We walked along the river, and as the boats passed I waved at the people on them. It made me happy when they waved back. 

There was the boat where the people waved back to me.

We chilled in a park/square while Alex gave us thousands of years of the history of Paris all in maybe 10-15 minutes. 

From there we walked to a bridge with a statue of King Henry IV.

 We were told the story of his assassination. The man who killed him, François Ravaillac, stabbed the king in the abdomen, to which the King responded, “Is that the best you can do?”. Naturally, François Ravaillac said, “No this is the best I can do” and killed him. The people of France really liked their king, so much so that they tortured François Ravaillac excessively before killing him. I’m talking acid and nastiness. It was a lovely story to hear on a bridge in Paris. Anyway, we then moved one bridge over. 

At each end of the bridge, there was a significant building. One end contained “The Immortals”, whose job it is to try and preserve the French language. This means weeding out the English words such as computer. 

The building with the "Immortals".

The Immortals deliberated for 3 months on the gender of the word “iPod”. In the end, it was deemed masculine: “le”. On the other side of the bridge was the Louvre, which we saw the day before. 

The Louvre again.

There was a guy outside the Louvre, making giant bubbles!

The bridge itself was significant. People would put locks on the bridge, to seal their love forever and then throw the key in the river. Also, this is the bridge where Liam Neeson (SPOILER ALERT) jumps off onto the boat where he kicks major butt and kills the guy who has his daughter!!!  I was there! 

Look at all those people who fell in love!

Don't worry, I was not Taken. So Uncle Dan, you can rest easy and know that you do not have to go all Liam Neeson on anyone.

Next, we went to the Royal Palace, which is where King Louis grew up. He became King at age 5, which proved to be difficult for his childhood. Later he built Versailles to get away from the Royal Palace. 

The Royal Palace.

After that, we stopped for lunch at a cluster of cafes and restaurants. The tour guide made a joke when he saw the McDonalds across the street, that the American Embassy was right on the other side of the road for us. Poor Rachel and Helina didn’t get the joke, and thought that the American Embassy was right around the corner. After lunch, we walked through a beautiful park, and got our first glimpse of the Eifel Tower. 

First glimpse of the Eiffel Tower!

We also saw the Obelisk, which is an Egyptian pillar (makes sense right?). 

By far the oldest piece of architecture in Paris. It is over three thousand years old. And what did the French give for it: A clock, one that never worked, and will never work.

We got a glimpse of Montmatre and the Arc de Triomphe as well, among other things!

Montmatre.

Arc de Triomphe.

We walked further, taking pictures along the way, and got to see the Le Petit Palais and the Grand Palais.

Grand Palais.

Le Petit Palais.

Again, this is the Petit one, but it looks way more grand to me.

The Grand Palais is known for being rigged to look like it was on fire by a general of the Nazi regime when Hitler ordered him to burn Paris to the ground. The guy must have had a soft spot for Paris’ architecture, so he set smaller fires around the city, giving the allies time to liberate Paris. At the end of the tour, we had lunch and had a wonderful view from where we sat! On the way to the restaurant, we walked through the place where Napoleon's tomb was.

Another bird in flight.

This is where Napoleon's tomb is.

There he is, in his famous hat!

The church on the other side.

Look everyone, France gives free water!

Helina got the duck.

Hannah got a lovely meat and cheese platter.

And Rachel got snails!

After her first bite.

The view from our cafe.

After lunch, we set off to the Eiffel Tower, and I went up with Rachel.

They had carriages going by the Tower.

The top was closed off, but we walked up to the second floor. All 669 steps! There was a little boy counting the steps, until he realized that the number of steps was written next to the steps. Walking up wasn’t too bad, because they had signs on the flights of stairs that you could pretend to stop and read when you were actually just trying to catch your breath!

My favorite is "No Roller blades". Who would wear roller blades up 669 steps?!

Look at all those steps!

View going up!

I was pretty warm.

The idea of more stairs did not appeal to me at this time.

Cheesy photos are a must.

Hey look, it's Paris.

500 down.

Finally we made it to 669. The second floor.

That was the rest of the tower from where we were.

Our faces were a bit red for a while.

Cheesing it up again.

And here were the steps down.

They compared the different buildings and their height.

Going down was much faster than going up, because they just slid down. Somehow that doesn't seem all too safe.

Rachel: Here please take this gift as a token of my appreciation.

Emily: Not so sincere.

 
The view from up top was beautiful, so it was worth it, even though my legs were a little twitchy the rest of the day. We walked back down, and as we did, the stairs seemed to blend together, making it really hard to walk down.

Victory shot!

Don't know what climbing up and down has to do with my arms, but I did it!

We met back up with Helina and Hannah and they stopped for crepes and snacks across from the Eiffel Tower. We got to see the tower all lit up at night, before heading to the quai Branly Museum.

I was playing with my camera a bit.

Carousal by the tower.

The tower started to sparkle and glitter!

Hannah photo-bombed Rachel's picture!

This museum featured Asian, Oceanic, African, and American artworks. It would have been super interesting to look around more, but my feet were hurting so much, that I could not stand without feeling awful.

They had a garden of lights at the museum.

They also had another Easter Island head.

There was a stream of words that led up the ramp, which Hannah followed.

These were puppets that went along with music, sort of like the new Karate Kid movie.

The designs were super intricate.

A totem pole from Canada!

 We did get a little lost on the way back to the hostel, but we found our way back and I soon showered and got into bed!

One last shot of the Eiffel Tower as we were walking away.

 

Saturday 25^th

Creeps and Skulls

We started off in good time, but after breakfast, the internet took over as we were trying to make plans for the day. Our plan for the day was to start out at the catacombs then head to Notre Dame. Afterwards, we were supposed to go to the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower, and then catch a ballet. we ended up doing two of these things. We set out for the catacombs. The line when we got there took about two hours. When we finally got into the catacombs, it started off as a sort of labyrinth. Eventually, though, the walls were just made of bones.

The lion statue where we had to wait in line for the catacombs.

FOR YOUNGER READERS, THE NEXT FEW IMAGES MIGHT BE DISTURBING.

Caution, you are now entering the world of the dead... or something like that.

I really only managed to get one picture. It super freaked me out.

 It was terrifying, and after only a few minutes I had to get out. The floor was damp and the bones and tunnels seemed to go on forever. Eventually I made it to the stairs, which were very steep and continued in a circular pattern. After I embraced the sweet sunshine, I waited for the others to make it up to the land of the living. I was surprised to see a German family with two boys, who looked to be about Matt and Jenna’s age, come out of the catacombs. I don’t know why anyone would ever bring their children down there! Once I met back up with everyone, we went to go get lunch. After lunch was over, we realized that it was after 4pm, so we headed out in search of the Notre Dame. Along the way we saw a few buildings including the Pantheon and a University building. 

The Pantheon.

Some University building. If only the buildings at Valpo looked like this!

We also stopped into a Fnac (French Best Buy of sorts) and got tickets to Swan Lake for Sunday. When we left Fnac, we were followed out by an older man with a backpack. He tried to say something in French to us, but when no one responded he switched to English and said, “You are beautiful”. In these cases, it is my strict policy that I speak only German! After we ignored him, he got frustrated and moved on to follow two girls in front of us. It was thoroughly creepy! We finally made it to Notre Dame, and got to see it both up close and inside. 

Notre Dame once more!

Gargoyles!

The Birds were everywhere!!

When we were done, by 6 or 6:30, we decided to go find a café, at which we could warm up, relax, get out of the rain, and make our plans for Sunday. After the café, we hopped on a metro to take us back to our hostel so that we could get to make our plans with the internet at night, instead of in the morning. 

When we got to the elevator, there was an employee who got on and off the elevator with us looking really angry. We let her off first and headed to our room. When we got to our room there was a new person. It was an older woman with graying hair and some sort of a European accent when she spoke. She said hello and that it was nice to meet us. She was opening her cage locker, which are under the beds. Just then, the young girl employee who was in the elevator came into our room. The older woman wanted her to get her things down from her bunk, but the real question is: If she put them up there herself, why couldn’t she get them down herself?! The employee emptied the bunk and gave the things to the older woman. The employee then said, “Is that all? Can you get the rest?”

The older woman replied helplessly, “No.”

“No?”

“No.”

So the employee picked up more than half of the woman’s bags and things, and there were a lot of bags! Just as the employee was heading to the door to be done with this nightmare, the older woman double checked her bunk.

The employee said, “I already checked the bunk”.

The older woman grew exasperated and dramatic. The employee continued to roll her eyes a bit and struggle with everything that she had to carry while trying to open the door. Just then (this is my favorite part, and let me remind all of you that we were just sitting there watching this and feeling horrible for the employee) the older woman says, “Oh! My underwear is hanging up there drying” as she looks up at the bunk. And sure enough, in the corner, was a pair of white underwear hanging from the hook in the corner of her bed.

The poor employee gave a look of disbelief/disgust/confusion and said, “Excuse me?”

“My underwear is hanging up there drying”

The employee replied, super annoyed and very disgusted, “I’ll get it”.

The older woman then had a lot of trouble opening the door and made sure to do it very dramatically. After a few minutes, the employee came back and muttered, “Gross” as she climbed the ladder and used a towel to pick up the underwear and fling it on the floor. She left and we wished her the best. Our other two roommates came back later and told us that they don’t know how she got in the room, as they found her earlier in the hallway, crying, because her key didn’t work, but all her stuff was inside. It was strange.

Also, on top of this marvelous day filled with skulls, creeps, and underwear, I managed to rip… yes, I said rip… another pair of JEANS!!

Grr! Why?!?!?!?!

I went to sit at the café earlier, and the button on the butt pocket got caught on the chair, just like last time!! Only the damage this time was not that bad. I should be able to sew them up. It wouldn’t be the first thing I’ve needed to sew here, and I dare say it won’t be the last! After a crazy night, I went to bed, as we had big plans for our last day in Paris.

Sunday 26^th

Last Day

Saturday night, in the middle of the night (about 4am), the older woman came back with a male employee this time. She was looking for her bunk, which was no longer in our room, and the man must have been sent to assist her. I remember waking up to hear her say, “I hung my underwear up to dry”. The man then suggested that she had the wrong room, and they left. Sunday morning, Rachel went to the bathroom only to find the same older woman butt naked in the middle of the public bathroom. Hannah also went in later to hear her singing in the shower, but only when the water was running. When the water would stop, she would get angry and stop singing while she pressed the button again (the showers only give you about 40 seconds of water, until you press a button that gives you more).  We started off our day with a visit to Montmatre.

I looked over and thought to myself what a white statue that was, and then it moved! I hate those people.

Steep steps down.

A very dramatic pose, giving out Gatorade. I found this on some random wall, and had to take a picture.

When we got there, we were confronted by men trying to sell friendship bracelets to tourists, which would have been fine, except they literally harassed us and grabbed our arms to get us to stop. I did not like that at all. Once we got up to the church, we walked through, and then made our way down through the town to find the Moulin Rouge!

Wait, that's not really the Moulin Rouge!

Oh, I found it!

Unfortunately, we did not get to see it lit up, but it was still nice to see!

They had these vents with air that would blow up at you.

Hannah kind of pulled a Marilyn pose, without the dress.

And the famous red light district.

After the Moulin Rouge, we went to find the theater for our Swan Lake performance! The performance was good, except it did not have the right ending. SPOILER ALERT! In the real ballet, the princess dies in the end, but in this one the evil wizard is defeated by the prince and the princess’ true love. It was wrong. But I guess the French just wanted a happy ending.

Very disappointed at the end of Swan Lake, as it did not end correctly.

They kicked us out and locked it up.

Poor Helina got stuck in there for a little bit, while she was in the bathroom.

After the ballet, we hopped on a metro to head to the Arc de Triomphe. We finally made it there and took a few pictures, only slightly distracted. And here's why:

Hannah and the other ladies explain why we were so distracted on the metro.

Then we walked down the shopping street before heading back to our hostel to get our things. When we got back to our hostel area, though, we stopped for dinner, which took too long and by the time we picked up our things, and made it through the metro transfers to get to our bus to go home, it was getting a little too late. We ran up to the bus, and Helina tried to ask if we could get on, but the surly bus driver said that we had to check in. The line downstairs looked really long, and when Helina tried to explain this, he said to go to a different window. Helina then asked if he would wait, as we only had a few minutes, but he said, quite angrily, that he had to leave at the specific time, and that we were supposed to be there a half hour early. So we ran to the window, made it back in time (with only a few minutes to spare) and found seats. I had to sit in the very back of the bus, because I asked someone if the seat next to them was free towards the middle of the bus, and she just pointed to the back, essentially telling me to get lost! How rude! So I spent my night bus trip, which was about 8 or 9 hours; next to some guy who didn’t speak English or German; behind a man who, at every stop got out to smoke, and then smelled really bad the entire time; and surrounded by Spanish speaking girls who giggled and talked super loud when all I wanted to do was sleep! It wasn’t the best ride home. We got to Stuttgart, and had to transfer trains a few times, but finally made it back to Tübingen!  This post took me forever, but I feel as if I have told it all! I hope it wasn’t too long, and that you all enjoyed my re-telling of my trip to Paris!