J'aime Paris

I am in love with Paris. And I will be back soon to get more banana nutella crepes.

I went to Paris a couple weeks ago with Dorota, Ida, and two of Dorota's Polish acquaintances. The first day in Paris was really an adventure. Dorota, Ida, and I walked to our "hotel" (which really wasn't a hotel because the bathrooms weren't in our rooms, they only gave us 2 baby sized towels for the 3 of us, and there was no soap or shampoo provided) in a pretty rundown part of Paris and quickly realized that we were the only female non-dark skinned people walking the streets and that was why literally everyone was staring at us. We were so starved by the time we finally made it to Paris that we settled for a greasy quick kebab dinner and contemplated stealing soap from the bathroom of the kebab shop. 

Nicer than our hotel bathroom

After our very traditional French kebab dinner, we got some cheap wine and headed towards the Eiffel Tower - the first of our many Eiffel Tower experiences. All 3 of us pretty much fell in love the moment we saw it and couldn't stop take pictures of it the rest of the trip. We took pictures of it at night, during the day, when it was lit up, when it was sunny, when it was raining, from the top, from the bottom, from the boat, etc etc. I also don't understand why everyone thinks that Parisians are rude to tourists because everyone we met that day was so nice to us. A couple guys pried the metro doors open for us, another group led us to the metro and helped us jump the turnstile, and a server at a restaurant literally translated the entire menu for us. I thought everyone was very friendly. 

Eiffel Tower: Love at first sight

The next day we did a walking tour of Paris where I also met up with a few of my sorority sisters. It's crazy how we all ended up in Paris the same weekend without planning it - 1 from Madrid, 2 from Rome, and 1 from Tours. During the tour Dorota, Ida, and I (having lived in Norway for the past 3 months) were so ecstatic to see flowers that we tried to take a picture with all of them. One of the photos required us to lie in the grass with the flowers, and we found out from our tour guide that Paris is particular about their grass thus no one is allowed to even stand on it. My apologies, Paris. After our tour we all ended up grabbing lunch, going up to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and taking a boat cruise down the River Seine together. 

SO GREEN SO PRETTY

Flowers AND the Eiffel Tower. Doesn't get any better

Sisters on the love bridge

We had no access to a wine opener in Paris so we had to improvise with what we had. Aka scissors. And this is what happened:

The scissors broke

The next day was free museum Sunday so we went to the Louvre and Musee D'Orsay. I don't really have much of an interest in art so we literally walked in, went straight for the famous pieces, and walked out. It was pretty straightforward. We also went to Notre Dame, Centre Pompidou, Champs Elysee, and L'Arc de Triomphe. I met up with Hilary again at the Arc de Triomphe and had a swanky French dinner with her and her friend at Cafe Marly. Soooo delicious. I highly suggest it for anyone who is going to Paris. 

Paris is such a large city that even with 3.5 days I couldn't see everything I wanted. A lot of our time in Paris was spent waiting in some form of a line so I can't even imagine how long it takes to do everything in the prime of tourist season. We didn't have enough time to do Versailles, Sacre Coeur, or the Catacombs so I made a promise to myself that I will make it back again within the next few years. Besides the occasional dog poo on the street, the piss smelling metros, and the gypsies hounding you to sign their petitions for "peace", I thought Paris was absolutely stunning. One of my favorite cities by far.