^my catch phrase for our Paris trip.
This weekend was LOVELY. The past two weeks of travel before this, we went on an educational group trip to Italy for a week and then split off for a week long fall break (we went to Venice, Dublin, and London). I had a great time, but most of it was a STRUGGLE (Olivia and Sarah can attest to this). Anyways, two whole weeks is a whole lot to blog about so I'll try to explain that adventure more through Facebook pictures instead of a blog to save you from boredom.
Back to Paris, the City of Lights! I travelled with a lovely group of girls: Liv, Sarah, Kristen, and my first time traveling with Amy! We hopped on our overnight train Thursday night and poor Amy realized she didn't have her Eurail pass so we had a little stowaway in the cubby above our beds to hide her from the conductors. It was smooth sailing until we awoke to French police officers banging on our compartment door at 6 am. Amy was quick, though, and hid just in time. They shined a flashlight at us, asked to see our passports, and I guess our faces didn't look too guilty because they left without further question. whew.
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| Straightening my hair on the train with the window as my mirror. |
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| Amy the stowaway! |
Arrived at Paris at almost 10:30. Figured out the metro system and found our hostel (St. Christopher's Inn is AWESOME and they're all over so if you ever need a hostel in Europe...). Since we were in France and hungry, our first stop was of course a crepe stand. I got egg, cheese, and sausage and it wasn't bad!
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| Excited to be in Paris! |
Next stop: Eiffel Tower! It was a very rainy gray day, so we had pretty much given up hope of being at the top of the Eiffel Tower during a pretty sunset. Instead we went at around one. Well, since we're pinching pennies at this point, we decided to go the cheaper route and climb the 600 stairs up the Eiffel rather than take the lift. For some reason when I climb stairs, I do it on my tiptoes? So, let's just say the next day I couldn't feel my calves. At all. Well the views were awesome, despite the pretty dense veil of fog hovering around the top. We went down to the little restaurant on the second level and had delicious hot chocolate -another thing on my bucket list to check off!
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| The view from the second level. |
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| A bit foggy and a bit windy at the top! |
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| The second level was better for pictures! |
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| Hot chocolate at the Eiffel! |
After the Eiffel, we hopped on an hour long river boat tour that would take us to all the major highlights along the Seine: Notre Dame, the Louvre, the lock bridge, and a few other things. Well, I guess I have become so used to sleeping during travel that getting on the boat may or may not have put my right to sleep... but I woke up for a few minutes at a time so I at least got to see the major sights! :)
The boat brought us right back to the Eiffel Tour. It was almost 6, which is when the Eiffel starts to literally sparkle with a 5 minute show that makes it look like it's covered in glitter. It was breathtaking! We walked across the river and took lots of fun pictures with it in the background while waiting for the show to start.
Next, we went to see the Arc de Triumphe and explore the shopping district. Probably every designer/ crazy expensive store you can think of was on this street. We hopped in a Sephora looking for a perfume for our friend Cassidy and it was THE biggest Sephora I've ever seen.
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| Perfume for daysss |
Starving, we found a cute, reasonably priced restaurant cafe for dinner. Our waitress was actually really nice (unlike the stereotype rude French waiter we were expecting). Ordering was a struggle, but thankfully Amy took like 5 years of French and was very helpful. I ordered a fish filet with potatoes, but the fish came out ice cold. Soo I got a burger instead with FRENCH fries. So cultured, I know. We did order escargot for our table, however. And yes, I, Sarah Harden, pickiest eater on earth, ate a snail. A little slimy. A little chewy. But all in all, not as bad as expected. Ended dinner with a fabulous chocolate mousse!
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| Liv figuring out the snail holding contraption at dinner. |
Saturday was our second and last day in Paris and Kristen, Amy, and I woke up bright and early to spend the day in Disneyland Paris! Being pretty faithful Disney goers, this was a little taste of home for Kristen and I!
Highlights of the day:
- The park was already decorated for Christmas and playing Christmas music
- 10 minute wait time for Space mountain and Rock 'n Roller Coaster
- Space mountain is WAY more intense in Paris
- On It's a Small World, I was able to point to SO many countries and be able to say I've been to them now!
- Crush's Coaster (finding Nemo themed) surprised us all and turned out to be an AWESOME roller coaster
- Ate a delicious dinner at one of my favorite places: Earl of Sandwich!
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| Biggest "It's a small world" ever! and they sang jingle bells instead of the annoying song! |
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| SO excited about my Earl of Sandwich |
We had just had an awesome day and had a decent 20 minutes to get on our regional train, which should have been plenty of time. We couldn't miss this train because it would take us back to the metro, which would take us to our train back to Vienna. WELL, we walk into the train station and I say "Wow I wonder why there are like a hundred people over there. Think they're a huge tourist group?" Turns out, they were ALL in line for the ticket machine. And we stupidly had not purchased our regional train ticket yet. Our comfy 20 minute time span to get on the train wasn't so comfy anymore. Naturally, I started panicking. Thankfully, Amy and Kristen are masters of persuasion and convinced a guy at the front to let the three of us cut in front of probably 150 people in line. God bless him. By the time we had purchased our tickets, we had 1 minute before out train left. We SPRINTED through that train station, Amazing Race style. God took care of us again, because the train didn't leave for 5 minutes and then we got a call from Sarah and Olivia saying our train to Vienna was delayed 50 minutes. PTL.
Our overnight train went fine, except a 100 minute delay in the morning, but that was fine because we got to sit in a nice WARM Starbucks to wait for our next train. Amy successfully hid from the conductors on both trains and we made it home safe and sound. Paris= one successful weekend!
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| The beautiful view outside our windows on the train ride home! |
