Paris- The Extended Version

Thursday, April 15, 2010
Today I left for Paris with a group of friends. Our flight was delayed by about two hours, but we finally arrived at l'Regent hostel. Since the hostel was really close to the Moulin Rouge, we decided to try and find it and get some dinner. We stopped at the corner restaurant and had the most delicious onion soup. Later, instead of searching for the Moulin Rouge, we had our first nutella crepe!

Friday, April 16, 2010
Woke up early this morning to go to the Palace in Versailles and began discussing the chances of our flight being canceled, but I tried to stay optimistic. The Palace was absolutely beautiful and the gardens were incredible. We had lunch in the gardens at La Flottille and again really delicious onion soup. Later that day we visited the Louvre, which was insane. The majority of the pictures I've studied in art history are in this museum and it was so cool to see them in person. Too bad I seem to have forgotten most of the historical context, but at least I recognize the paintings. Occasionally, I would remember something intelligent. Okay, so after the Louvre began the process of freaking out about our flight the next day. After jacking the up the phone bill, it is confirmed that our flight is definitely canceled. So Courtney's dad successfully booked us a ticket for an overnight train from Paris to Madrid for Sunday night. Three hundred dollars later we are still set to leave and decided it was time for a drink. We grabbed some wine, cheese and baguettes and were super cute having dinner under the Eiffel Tower. In the midst of being cute, Courtney gets an e-mail saying that our train reservation was canceled and turns out we thought was a confirmation was really a pending request that was denied. Back to square one.

Saturday, April 17, 2010
John and Kelly woke up early and went to every train station trying to get a train however all trains were suspended until Tuesday. They then went to the bus station and finally got a ticket for a 17 hour bus ride back to Madrid Monday afternoon- should be fun. The rest of us tried to book the same ticket online at the hostel, but the website was in such overload that we had to go there. We waited in line for an hour (the bus station was chaos) and couldn't get a bus to Madrid until Tuesday afternoon. At this point, we had no other alternative so our weekend vacation suddenly became a week-long stay, but what better place to be stranded than Paris! Unfortunately for me, I thought for once in my life I would pack light so I was far from being prepared for a week. Additionally, my camera was dead, US phone was practically dead and my Spanish phone had no minutes. After the hectic morning, we decided it was time for some shopping so we hit up the best street for shopping, _________. Had some coffee and snacks at Starbucks then browsed around in Zara for some extra clothes since everyone was lacking. That night, we got dressed up and went for Italian (at some point during every trip there is always one Italian meal). Then, went to an Irish pub where we learned some key French phrases from the locals.

Sunday, April 18, 2010
Because we were unable to get home, unfortunately we missed the group trip to el escorial. Instead, we hopped on a four hour walking tour around the city. The tour guide was really informative and we got to see all the major sites in Paris for free! Later, we had some lunch and then me and three girls went to the movies to see Remember Me. We had no idea what the movie was about- all we knew was that Robert Pattinson was in it. Turns out it was a lot sadder than the cute chick flick we had in mind.

Monday, April 19, 2010
Went to see the Sacré Coeur, a beautiful all white church on the highest point in Paris. The views were amazing! Then, we had to stop at the Long Champ store before leaving. We had lunch at this adorable cafe called Angelina's. I had onion soup (of course) and shared a broccoli quiche- so good! We hurried to try and get inside Notre Dame, but missed it by 5 minutes so we just sat outside and watched some 17 year old boys show off on their roller blades. Had sushi for dinner, but it wasn't the same as in the states. We packed all out stuff and bonded over some wine, cheese and baguette.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010
We tried to wake up early in order to have to visit the Impressionist Museum where Manet, Monet and Van Gogh are housed. However, the line was super long and there wouldn't have been enough time to get to the bus station so we just bummed around for a couple hours. The bus station was hectic as expected and we got into a little argument with some woman trying to get to Portugal. Finally, we get on the bus after it arrives late. There was about 20 people on the bus even though all the tickets were sold so I'm getting really annoyed. Apparently, the company was trying to sell the seats again to people that were waiting in line or waiting for the missing people to show up. Hello- you're kidding me?! If you're late, you miss the bus- why are we waiting for people!? So I got off the bus to figure out what was going on- I barely follow the broken English, manage to understand we should be leaving at 3:30, an hour late. It's 3:30 and we are still there so i go find the driver to get some answers and finally we leave. So on top of being 2 hours early for the bus, we left about 2 hours late- at least I had two seats to myself. Oh- forgot to mention- there's no bathroom on the bus. The driver stops after two hours because some Indian guy was complaining- you're joking right? Then, we stop again at 10 for 45 minutes, but the rest stop is closed so we have to walk up the street to a wannabe WaWa kinda thing. Then, we stopped again around 3:30am. It's impossible to sleep on this bus and I pretty much am wearing every piece of clothing I had. At 6:00am, the driver tries to stop at a hotel. Hello?! - what hotel is going to be open for breakfast at 6:00am. this is just dumb. So we have another 45 minute break at a gas station bar- cool. Finally, at 9:00am, two hours late, we made it to Madrid then in another hour we were back in Alcalá. Time for marketing and theology- horray!

Moral of the story- Paris was amazing and I definitely want to go back. Always bring extra clothes and chargers. Never take a 17 hour bus ride.