The trip to Paris was definitely a crazy one. First off we had to catch the 3:07 PM train to Koln in order to catch the 3:45 train off to Bruxellel-Mid. We took a total of six different trains to reach Paris. It took over 6 hours to reach Paris. The longest time we were on a train was an hour and fifteen minutes. Luckily no train was delayed because we would not have reached Paris until the next day. We were pretty stressed out on the first train, but it was fine after that. We met some Norweigans on the train as well. The two of them were pretty funny. They told us about their two month long vacation around Europe. That would be pretty fun to do that with my brother. One of them got Drew to try Snuss. It is tobacco that is actually banned in the USA because of how much nicotine it has it. He doesn’t dip or do chewing tobacco so his lip kind of burned. At the end of the trip, we all took a picture at the train station with them. They are now our Facebook friends. Since it was nearly midnight, we took a cab back to our hotel. Even though the taxi cab driver couldn’t speak English, we were able to show him the address of the hotel. We drove past Moulin Rouge with all the lights lit up which was pretty. It took about fifteen minutes to get to the hotel. We got out and rung the door. Unfortunately the receptionist couldn’t speak English. We were able to communicate a little bit though. I was surprised that he couldn’t speak English especially since this was a hotel in a large city. In Germany, it seems like everyone can speak a little English. We had a pretty small room. It was really meant for three people so Matt spent the night on the floor.
The next morning we met up with the other group at the Eiffel Tower. Yes that is a problem within itself. The Eiffel Tower’s base is so large with so many people that you need a better spot to meet up. It would be like meeting somebody at Kyle Field. You would need to walk for about twenty minutes to actually find someone. I called Drew, and we were able to find each other in the park. We decided to go to the Arc de Triophe. This was arc built by Napoleon and is easily recognizable landmark. There are many structures and sculptures on it. We took pictures in front of it. Next we went to the boulevard right directly behind it. This street had many stores on it and was a tourist hotspot. It was similar to 5th avenue in New York but was much wider along with trees on the side. Unfortunately it was raining and I decided to buy a five Euro umbrella. Yes it was a bad umbrella but it worked for the rest of the trip. Next we met up with Drew’s cousin in front of the Modern Art Museum. I thought the outside looked like it was under construction but I was actually supposed to look like the inside of a building. It was a modern art museum so it was understandable. We went to a nice French restaurant with Drew’s cousin and her boyfriend. His cousin had been living in Paris for about five years and came to France with no French experience. She had learned over the years and became fluent. The lunch was nice because it seemed like an authentic French restaurant. Even though the waiter wasn’t a jerk, she was able to speak to us in English. I had a vegetable cheese thing, but it was good. Though it wasn’t very filling, I am glad I ordered it. After lunch we decided, we went to Notre Dame church. We walked inside and I was thoroughly impressed. I liked the gargoyles on the outside of the church. Next we walked up the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur. And we definitely had to go up. It was on top of a large hill, but it provided an excellent view of the city. You could see the Eiffel Tower as well as all the skyscrapers. Next we walked around the corner were all the painters were seated. There were about a hundred different painters in this square that all had paintings of Paris. They were actually painting them right there. Obviously they had painted so many because they had memorized what the popular locations had looked like. There were many different styles of paintings from realistic to the abstract to the 3D. After looking around for thirty minutes I decided on a painting. I tried haggling this painter. I left the painter about three or four times trying to get him to knock down the price. I was able to get him to lower the price a few Euros and finally got it. Our whole group each bought a painting. Next, we walked over to Moulin Rouge even though it was pouring. I had my umbrella, but this didn’t stop me from getting socked. We took a picture in front of the famous cabaret and left. Heather had wanted to go to the Gucci store so we headed over to the Galleria. We went inside and it was a large shopping mall with all the expensive designers. I don’t think there was a single male only store. Everything was geared at women. It is a mall that I won’t ever take a daughter too. Heather bought a wallet at the Gucci store for her boyfriend. It was a nice wallet, but it was way too expensive for me. We were pretty hungry at this point so we headed over to a crepe shop. This was my first crepe. I got chicken. At this point, we decided to go home because everyone was completely drenched. We went upstairs and had an early bedtime.
The next morning we got up early to go to the Eiffel Tower. Since Kristen, Bailey and Aubrey couldn’t get a bus ticket with us, they had to hurry and get up the tower. It was very crowded with many people trying to sell little Eiffel Towers. If I expressed the slightest interest at all, they would try to sell me the junk. One person tried to sell me a watch that was 25 Euros at first. I didn’t want it, but I wanted to haggle. I asked him for 2 Euros but he just laughed at me. We went up to the second level in the Eiffel Tower. It was pretty cold and windy. We just looked out for a little bit and then we bought our ticket to go to the very top. Unfortunately Kristen, Bailey, and Aubrey had to leave to catch the train and weren’t able to go to the top. Drew, Heather, Matt and I went up to the top. There was only one elevator so it took a little while to reach the top. This was not the Empire State Building where there was a bunch of elevators. The top was a spectacular view. I could see the entire city but we left after a few minutes because it had started to rain. After the tower, we went to the Latin Corridor to have some crepes. I had a chicken one and a banana one. They were both very good. Next we went over to the Louv. This was the museum with the glass pyramids and incredible architecture. We took pictures here while posing like we were holding up the glass pyramid. Matt and I decided to in the museum. Drew and Heather went off to talk hang out with his cousin. We actually waited thirty minutes just to enter the museum. I have never waited that long just to enter a museum. When we finally got inside, we headed straight to the Mona Lisa. When we got there, a swarm of people were around it. They had four bodyguards around it with thirty foot wooden arc around it. The Mona Lisa was in a bullet proof glass case. It was actually pretty small. We got our picture with it and headed over to Aphrodites. This was another famous sculpture. It didn’t have the mass swarm of people like the Mona Lisa had, but there were plenty of people still around it. We walked around the museum for a good three hours never stopping to look at a painting for more than three minutes. We walked actually fairly briskly throughout the museum seeing things that were over 35,000 years old. After the museum, we met up with Heather and Drew to go eat. At the restaurant, I was being adventurous and tried eating chitterling. I had no idea what it was. I figured it was some French entrée. It looked similar to a sausage and I took a bite. It tasted like nothing I had ever tasted before. It tasted fine at first, but then had a bad after taste. The smell was strong as well. Then Drew told me it was pig intestines. That was when I knew had ordered the wrong plate. I only took that one bite and had it taken back. The waiter actually made fun of me because he knew I didn’t know what to expect. I don’t think other French people eat this too. After dinner, we headed over to the train station to catch the bus. We couldn’t take a train back to Bonn because they were completely full. We hadn’t made a reservation and it was a vacation weekend for many Germans. The bus left at eleven o’clock and it was pretty miserable. The seats were made for people five feet tall. There was a crying child the whole six hours. Luckily I met a German guy that was pretty cool. We talked for two hours about general stuff like music, movies, and TV shows. He had a girlfriend in Paris and was just visiting for the weekend. He actually did almost the same things I had done. He had gone to the Louv and the Effiel Tower. I slept for about half the trip about it was definitely crappy sleep. When the bus finally got to Cologne, I wished my new friend goodbye and took the train from Cologne to Bonn. Since it was six o’clock in the morning, Drew and I headed over to our host house and took an hour long nap. We then headed to class in the morning.
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