Paris: the vacation within my vacation

I made it back safely from a whirlwind weekend in Paris, and between getting back into my courses and going through my 830+ photos from the trip, it's been hard to find time to blog. (Especially because I didn't have a computer/Internet for the whole weekend...

I did, however, write down summaries at the end of each day... So pretend like you're reading these separately...

Friday

Friday was an EAAARRRRLLLLYYY morning. I woke up and made sure I had everything ready to go before we left the dorm at 6 a.m. It takes about 15-20 min. to walk to the station, but when we got there, neither of our cards were accepted at the automatic ticket machine and the live-person ones weren't open yet.

Eventually, we found one that was, but we didn't leave Leiden until 7 a.m.

Fortunately, the transition to the airport in Amsterdam went very smoothly, and we went right through check-in and security to board the plane at 7:40. (It was really nice to not have any checked bags!)

As we were boarding the plane, we talked to a guy from Toronto who was on his way to Africa. It was nice to meet another American!

The flight went smoothly and we landed in Amsterdam around 9:15. I really liked our airline, KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines). The people were very friendly, the food was good and authentic and everything ran smoothly!

After going to the "Tourisme Information" booth, we bought our Paris Museum Cards (32 euro for free entry to 60 museums)

We talked to an Italian guy on the train into central Paris who suggested some sights to see in Paris. In the first station, we had to buy our 2-day Metro passes, and a very friendly guy from Africa (but now lives in London) talked to us in line.

We rode the Metro and walked to our hosted, the Le Montclaire Montmartre. It was nice for the money... we had breakfast both mornings and had a double bed to share the first night and twin bunk beds the second night.

We picked up fruit for lunch on our way to central Paris. Our first stop was Palaise de Challiot. It is known for being one of the best views of the Eiffel Tower, and it was pretty spectacular... a great way to start our adventure! We took lots of pictures!!


We then walked down the road to the base of the Eiffel Tower and decided to climb the stairs to the second level. That doesn't sound very far, but it's 340 steps to the second level!! It was a long way, and it was frightening to look down and see through steel bars all the way to the ground! I do have to say, though, that the views were beautiful...




We walked along the Seine to the Place de la Concorde and the Jardin de Tuileries. We got some ice cream as we walked through the park...

We walked around and found a nice place for dinner. Then we went to the Louvre!

The Louvre was an amazing piece of artwork in and of itself! We saw the infamous glass pyramids from the outside...


From the floors to the walls to especially the ceilings, the building is probably the most beautiful building I've ever seen... (but another one I saw the next day comes close!)


We saw the Mona Lisa... and I was very awestruck by the enormous paintings! How does one paint something like that??


Afterwards, we took the Metro back out to the Palaice de Chaillot to see the Eiffel Tower lit up.


It was pretty, but we didn't even realize that the best was yet to come... At 11, the lit it up with other lights that made it look like it was sparkling. The pictures don't do it justice, but try to use your imagination... It was magical!


After the lights, we went back to our hostel and went to sleep... we were exhausted! We both got some sun, but nothing too terrible... The 70s and 80s were a big change from 60-65 degree weather in Leiden!

Thankfully, the Metro system is very easy in Paris, so I was able to find our way around for the whole trip! (I was the fearless navigator... haha)

Saturday

After getting up and ready, we started our day by going to the Notre Dame cathedral. It was beautiful inside and out. We also went to the crypt, where they've done archeological digs and found remains of buildings from classical and medieval Paris.

the not-as-famous back of the Notre Dame cathedral

We walked over to another church, the Sainte Chapelle. This is the building I said was the other possible most beautiful building I've ever seen. Again, the pictures don't do it justice... But it was the preferred church of the royals in the 10th to the 14th centuries, and the upper chapel is almost the ENTIRE made of stained glass...

According to the brochure, there are "1,113 scenes depicted on the 15 stained glass windows that tell the story of mankind from Genesis through to Christ's resurrection. Fourteen of the windows, depicting episodes from the Bible, should be read from left to right, from the bottom upwards."

After that, we took the Metro to the Hotel des Invalides. Not really a hotel, the institution that accommodated disabled ex-soldiers is now home to Napoleon's tomb. It is crazy... The brochure says: "Bonaparte's body rests in five successive coffins (made of tin, mahogany, lead, lead again and ebony) within a monumental sarcophagus made from red quartize, resting on a green granite base."


It is important to note, though, that this was all because Louis-Philippe ordered that Napoleon's body be returned from the Island of Saint Helena to Paris in 1840.

We ate lunch and then walked to another art museum, the Musee d'Orsay. It was really cool, but the architecture wasn't as amazing as the Louvre.

Our next adventure was finding the Harley store in Amsterdam to buy some souvenir. It was near the Bastille monument, so we killed two birds with one stone!

We took the Metro to the Champs-Elysees and walked up the street to the Arc de Triomphe. We took pictures in front of it...


And then decided to climb it... Another 300 stairs...


After descending those same 284 stairs, we walked around for quite a while before finding a restaurant where we could a) afford to eat and b) somewhat intelligently guess what was on the menu. We finished with creme brulee!


We went back to the Arc de Triomphe to take pictures at night... They turned out INCREDIBLE! The sky was beautiful!!



We walked around the area near our hostel for a while and saw the front of the Moulin Rouge. We stopped in a pub and had a drink before we headed back to the hostel to crash after another looong day.

I got the bottom bunk! (We flipped a Euro for it.)


Sunday

Allison woke up with a bad headache on Sunday, so our morning got off to a late start. Luckily, we didn't have a lot planned for the day, and the things that were on the list were in our area of Paris.

We stopped for brunch at a cafe and ended up talking to a young guy from Ohio who is a mathematician and lives in Boston during the year and in Europe for the summers. He has lived in London and Germany! It was interesting to talk to him about our views of Europe and Europeans and how they view us!

We started by walking toward the Sacre Coeur, a huge Roman Catholic basilica. It is located on the highest point in Paris, so the view from the dome is breathtaking! (But it was another 234 steps to climb!!)



Photography wasn't allowed inside the church, and the crypt (which was one of the things we really wanted to see) was closed.

Allison still wasn't feeling the best, so we decided to just take it easy and go back to the hostel for a little while before our departure. She fell asleep, and I read some magazines and played solitaire (with real cards!). Then she woke up, and we played Scrabble Slam!

We walked to the train station and caught our train to the Paris airport. Again, check-in and security went smoothly... Except Allison's bag had to be searched because her melted curling iron looked like a weapon!

We boarded at 7:00 and made it back to Amsterdam by 8:20... We caught our train to Leiden and walked back to our dorm.

It actually felt great to be back in the Netherlands... When we walked onto our floor and said "We're back!" all of our friends came out of their rooms and wanted to see all of the pictures and hear all of the stories... They actually endured the 850+ photos I took during the weekend, and we all hung out in my room for a while... It was a great trip, but it was also really nice to be back.

Thoughts...

My overall thoughts about Paris were that it was more diverse than I was expecting, dirtier than I thought it would be and easier to get around on the Metro than I imagined. However, the streets were impossible because many of the streets weren't on any of my maps...

We only ran into a few language problems, but you could tell that they have less patience for people who don't speak French.

Paris is VERY expensive, and it just difficult to find a restaurant when you don't know the language...

Monday

Today, I had graphic design class, and it was pretty routine. We had to print out some photos for tomorrow's photography class, so Allison and I went to the HEMA. While our pictures were being developed, we went to some of the shops nearby and I bought a purse and a couple of scarves. One of the scarves may or may not be a souvenir for someone...

This was the longest and most intense blog post I've ever written... If you're still reading, I commend you greatly and will give you a big hug the next time I see you!