French crepes

Returned from Paris, France this morning... what an eventful weekend!
First, let me update on last week in Barca.
Last sunday, I visited the Picasso Museum because a lot of the museums are free the first Sunday of the month, good deal, but very crowded. We went to Nubaa near our apt in Barceloneta to watch the Superbowl. I didn't stay the whole game, but all of the Chicago fans were not too happy the next day (including roommie Laurie). Wednesday I went out with my friends to a club called Piratas (Pirates). You can guess what the motif was.
Thursday, I hurried home from class to pack and catch a cab to the bus station to take a bus to Girona airport. We got a good deal on our flight with Ryanair, but the flight is out of a far away airport and then we landed at Beauvais (not the main Paris airport). It's kind of a big hassle so I don't know if we will be traveling like that anymore if it can be prevented. I traveled with my roommates Kim and Laurie, and also our friends Claire and Sarah.
Thursday evening we checked in to our hotel in the Latin Quarter on Montparnasse and had dinner at the Hippopotomus. Friday we woke up for a full day of sightseeing. First, we headed out to grab a quick crepe (yum!) and then to the Luxembourg Gardens. Then to the Notre Dame cathedral, Laurie even posed as the hunchback. Next, a nice stroll along the river Seine to the Eiffel Tower, we took lots of fun pics and then waited in the line to take the elevator all the way to the top! What a great view and weird feeling to be so high when the rest of the Parisian buildings are only a few stories high...Quick panini lunch and then off to explore only a fraction of the art exhibited at the Louvre museum. This collection is huge and I don't think any normal person could enjoy even a fourth of it in one day. We headed for the main attractions: the Mona Lisa, Venus sculpture, the crown jewels, the Egyptian collection, and the medieval section of the Louvre.
Then back to a spectacular night view of the Eiffel Tower- it sparkles so pretty!! Dinner at Kleber cafe, a rest stop at the hotel and then a drink at Lotus bar (swanky lounge with techno DJ) near our hotel in the Latin Quarter.
Saturday, we had another full day scheduled. First, we headed straight for the Arc di Triomph, a monument built by Napoleon and which now holds the eternal flame of the unknown soldier. We paroused the shops and luxury designer clothing stores of Champs Elysee but I refuse to pay $39048239048 for a freakin purse. We next walked to the Musee d'Orsay for an Impressionist experience. I saw Monet, Van Gogh, and lots of other cool art- it just so happened that the workers were on strike that day so the museum was free entrance! cool.
We metroed our way to the Church of the Sacred, my favorite out of all the gazillion churches I have seen since I've been in Europe- there's a lot of Christians here.
It is the highest point in Paris and has a great view of the neighborhood of Montmartre down below and the rest of Paris. We had lunch at a cafe and then attempted to see the grave of Jim Morrison- oops- we walked to the wrong cemetery. Then we saw red light district and the Moulin Rouge! We metroed to the monument where the prison of Bastille used to be (history lesson: the storming of the Bastille started the French Revolution). The neighborhood in that area, St. Paul, had lots of cool shops and bakeries and stylish clothing stores. Laurie's friend recommended a photography exhibit and when we went in the one artist we were there to see was actually closed for the evening. We spent about 15 minutes looking around until we realized it was not art, but weird and nothing that we could appreciate... there were little pictures of body-builder men taped to butterfly bodies- it was called "Fly or Die"- freakin weird. Rest stop at the hotel, dinner at a huge restuarant, Cupole, where all the waitors winked at us- and tried to talk to us in the most incomplete English sentences, and they were probably around the age of 16. hehe
We taxi'd to a bar recommended in my "brown pages," the nickname that Laurie gave the pages I ripped out of my Let's Go Europe book. Hey, I wasn't about to carry a huge heavy book if I only needed about 15 pages for the weekend.
There was a really good live blues music band, 7 members total. Dad, you would've been jammin. Everybody was packed in all sweaty and dancin, we had a good time just soakin it all in. The real trouble came when we left the bar and waited FOREVER for a cab in the rain. Then we had a 4:45am wakeup call to catch the bus back to the airport.
Overall, I'd say it was a very successful weekend, we all had a great time learning a new city together and laughing when we got lost. The city is fairly easy to navigate, and we had little trouble using the metro system. French people have BO- eww. And it was a little difficult when we needed something because none of the 5 of us speak more than 3 words of French.
We returned to our apartment in Barceloneta at around noon. Today was the Feste de Eulalia, so there was a lot going on in the Gothic Quarter. Kim and I walked through to see the tall people statues parading through the streets and then the castellers (human castles) in the government square. They go 6 or 7 layers high! So dangerous and so cool to see the little kids on top so confident and serious.
We also took a walk along the boardwalk and it was pretty full, lots of rollerbladers, bikers, couples, tourists. Tons of sailboats out on the water. I can't imagine what it's going to be like in a month or two when it gets for real warmer and more tourists start coming, craziness.
Class and such this week, same old ... only I'm in spain! Kim put it best when she said that, it's so much fun to take weekend trips, and it's even better because we know at the end of our travels we are "only" goin back to barcelona!
Au revoir!!!
<3steph

a travel blog by stephshap

Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Louvre.... Paris duhhhhhh

Paris, France