The Great Europe Adventure: Paris

Tonight is my last night in Paris. Tomorrow at 8:20AM, I get on a train to Vienna (and arrive at 10:40PM). I miss London so much, and while I'm really enjoying my travels, I also cannot wait to go "home" to the United Kingdom.

I arrived in Paris after a rather uneventful train ride, and my host, Alix, met me at the station. She lives in Montmartre, right next to the Sacre Couer on this really cute, quaint street. Mind you, I had to drag my suitcase up a gigantic hill. Anyways, Alix made a delicious, healthy dinner, and honestly, I was just so excited to be eating veggies (that weren't frites, anyways)! I slept well on an air mattress but woke up early to meet up with Abbey and her friends. I felt so bad because I was trying to be quiet so as not to wake Alix, but I pretty much dropped everything I could've... And to top it off, I couldn't figure out how to open the door, so she had to get out of bed and let me out.

I met up with Abbey and her friends (Shosh, Dana, and Miriam) at the site of the old Bastille prison, where there is now only a commemmorative column. We took the requisite tourist photos and went off in search of breakfast, specifically crepes. We were overwhelmed by hunger before finding an affordable crepe cart and instead got a croissant and chocolat chaud at a small cafe. However, on our way to Notre Dame, we found a crepe cart and got crepes anyway.

We walked around Notre Dame, with Abbey singing the Disney movie songs. The church itself was very beautiful, but not many of my photos came out in the dark church. Abbey wanted to climb to the top, but the line was insane.

After getting a bit turned around, we made it to the Louvre. It was free for us, as we are all residents of the European Union. Win! We saw all the major tourist items (Mona Lisa, Victory, Dying Slave, Code of Hammurabi, etc), and we walked around for a bit; however, the museum was huge and Abbey and Team needed to get to some fasion event/show/museum/thing by 3, so we decided to grab lunch... I got pate...

I parted ways with Abbey and Team to go meet up with my host in Monmartre. She gave me the grand tour of the area, everything from the Sacre Couer to the Moulin de la Gallette and the Moulin Rouge itself. The area is absolutely gorgeous and the weather (for once) was sunny and warm. Alix had to run to class. She offered me the keys, but I told her that I would meet up with Abbey instead. I texted Abbey and decided to wander around for a bit while I waited for her to respond. I ended up near the train station, where a bunch of skeevy Frenchmen tried to hit on me. I returned to Montmartre in the hopes of using the Internet, but the cafe was closed. I walked back to Alix's and was able to connect to the wireless from the front stoop. It'd been about 1.5hrs since I first texted Abbey (and I'd tried calling several times and texted a few more times as well). I used the wireless to check my messages and send her one on Facebook. Still no response, and by this time, I was hungry.

I wandered the neighborhood until I found an affordable meal (crepes), but I still had some time before Alix returned from class. I decided to go to the Sacre Couer, where a number of other tourists were taking in the view of Paris at night and some musicians were playing. It was pleasant, but I was approached by a few sleazy Frenchmen and felt that sitting down would have made me way too vulnerable. Alix texted me to say she was heading home. And I beelined it for the flat. I used Alix's computer to hunt down Abbey's friends on Facebook and send them messages to see if she was okay. I pretty much went to sleep not long after. I was exhausted and cold and worried.

I woke up early the next morning, as there was some commotion from the neighbors moving out. When I checked Facebook, I found that Abbey had lost her phone and the two friends whose numbers she still had did not know mine or did not pick up respectively. Abbey had brought some things for me from London, and we agreed to meet up in the evening so I could get my stuff.

I had breakfast with Alix, and I left to meet Ed at the Arc de Triomphe. From there, we went to the Catacombs. The Catacombs were incredible (and creepy). Ed and I made up a bunch of great horror movie scenarios. When we got out, it was about 2:45, and I was ravenous! We flipped through my guidebook and found a "traditional French restaurant with mains from €7" within walking distance from the Catacombs. However, we got a bit lost and by 4PM, places were mostly closed and I was about to gnaw on an inanimate object. So, we settled for a nearby cafe. The food was delicious, but we didn't finish until close to 6. We went over to the Eiffel Tower and sat for a bit in the nearby gardens. It was a rather pleasant evening, but Ed was eventually called home. As one of the books Abbey brought for me was actually his, we agreed to meet up the next day.

Alix had gone out with friends, and I still needed to get my stuff from Abbey. I met Abbey and her friends at dinner, but I wasn't particularly hungry. I ordered a glass of wine and the cheapest thing on the menu, a cheese plate. On the bill, the cheese plate was double what I expected. When I inquired with the waiter, he explained that there were two cheese plates, a big one and a small one. They had brought me the big one, I had been charged accordingly, and there was not much I could do. At this point, all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and collapse, but Abbey and her friends wanted to climb the Arc de Triomphe at night (it was right down the street). I waited below, as I didn't want to pay and am not comfortable with heights. While waiting on a bench in the underground pathway to the arch, I watched two American tourists taking photos with the large panorama photo of the view, as though they had actually done the climb. Ridiculous or genius?

From there, we went back to Abbey's hostel, but we took a bit of a long way. By that time, it was close to midnight. I was practically a zombie and I didn't want to keep Alix awake, so I grabbed my books and came straight back. I collapsed and slept until 10:30 (9:30 GMT, mind you). I had a weird dream where I was part of this boating community and we were traveling over the ocean in 5 row boats. My boat was a little behind all the others, and as we were rowing, this huge shark swam up from the ocean and towered over our boat. In my dream, I knew it was a shark, but it was really this big, burly, WWE-type man. He told us that we would need to choose four boats to sacrifice to him or he would slaughter us all. I told our chief of this, but he said that if we acquiesced, we would forever be subservient to the shark. Instead, we would fight and die with honor. I had a premonition that we would all die terribly, so I snuck away to where we had hidden the boats and separated the four with the fewest provisions on board. When the shark came, he was very angry and said that we had tried to trick him. That's about when I woke up...

Anyways, Alix and I decided to go on a picnic because it was a beautiful day. She made bread with blue cheese, walnuts, and pear, and she brought cherry tomatoes. We met up with her friend who brought some other snacks. It was a lovely picnic, but it got cloudy and cold as the day wore on.

Eventually, I left to meet up with Ed and to give him his book. We walked around Montmartre and grabbed hot chocolate before I bade him farewell and returned to Alix's flat. Alix was watching the Ultimate Gift, and we ended up watching together. However, her grandfather called. Apparently, she had forgotten to meet him for dinner on the other side of the city and she bolted out to meet up with him. I, in turn, am still in the flat and will spend my evening preparing for my train ride tomorrow. I bought snacks for the trip and just need to repack my bag. Then I'm off, bright and early tomorrow...

FYI: This took me a little over an hour to type on my iPhone keyboard because I was too frustrated to attempt Alix's AZER keyboard...