Parisian Valentine's Day Weekend

Sooo, I haven't blogged in almost a month but I am vowing to catch up now.

On the Thursday of Valentine's Day, we left for Paris on the overnight train. The most romantic city in the world on the most romantic day of the year. I know, cliche. So, armed with some chocolate from a Valentine, I made our goal to leave our apartment at 10:50 pm, because our train was scheduled to leave at 11:44 pm. We were only two metro stops from Termini, the main train station in Rome, but I just wanted to be safe.

As we were waiting for the metro to come, someone questioned whether or not the train was actually out of Termini or not.. we had all just assumed it would be without checking the tickets. All of the sudden I had this terrible flashback to when we bought the tickets, and I was suddenly pretty sure it wasn't. The metro pulled up right then as Danielle was searching for our tickets, so we really had no choice but to get on. Right when we got on, she pulled out the tickets. "Roma Tiburtina" was the station we needed to be at, and we all started panicking a little. None of knew how to get to Tiburtina. Alex said we could take a cab, and we all thought that maybe it was better that we were on our way to Termini. There would be more cabs outside the station than near our apartment anyway. At one point I happened to look up, and realized that Tiburtina was a stop on the blue line, the line we were on! Except, going in the other direction.

We jumped off the metro at Termini and ran to the other side to catch the one in the Laurentina direction. During the few minutes that the three of us stood there, I couldn't help but start laughing. Like, this was ridiculous. The one place I've been wanting to go my entire life, and we were about to miss the train!! Our connections were all so perfectly placed that if we missed this one, the other ones were goners. At one point, Danielle looked at the clock: 11:24 pm. We literally had twenty minutes to get over there. The worst part is, if there's one thing in the country of Italy that ever runs on time, it's the trains. 

Finally, the metro pulled up and we leapt on, as though us moving faster would make the metro move an faster. We ended up getting into Tiburtina sooner than estimated, but we still made a break for it.

Danielle popping open the vino

I felt like I was in a movie. We were sprinting through the train station, and couldn't stop laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. Alex's roller suitcase flipped over so that she ended up dragging it behind it her, I was getting really concerned about my backpack unzipping and letting my tuna sandwich fall out, and Danielle was seriously lagging behind. We rushed to figure out which track our train was on and literally sprinted to it. WE MADE IT! We sat down in our little couchette, which had two guys already in it, and watched out the window as the train pulled away at exactly 11:44 pm.

After a few minutes of catching our breath, we remembered that we had come prepared. Danielle whipped out the bottle of red wine, the wine opener, and the plastic cups, and poured out three cups. The other men in the couchette kind of eyed us, but hey, they didn't speak English, we barely spoke Italian, so we just did our own thing. The rest of the seven hour train ride to Milan (don't know why it took that long...) consisted of us attempting to sleep. At one point, I had dozed off on the armrest, and I felt Alex's head literally on top of mine. No way that was going to work. So I shifted against the window, and found that I had let Danielle put her legs on that side. Danielle couldn't get comfortable cause she let me put my legs on one side, too. Basically, I think the total amount of time that we all slept on that thing was under two hours.

I set my alarm for 6:30 am, so that we would be ready to get up and jump off the train right when it stopped in Milan. I had thought Danielle said the train to Zurich left at 7:00 am, and was freaking out a little when our train stopped on the tracks for a few minutes a few feet from the station. When she clarified that she had said 7:10 am, I calmed down a little.

The train from Milan to Zurich was largely uneventful, although I did excitingly buy a KitKat from a vending machine next to the train. To my horror, it was actually gross, and I was so sad. I guess I won't be buying anymore of my favorite candy in Italy... We arrived in Zurich on time and we were all feeling a little hungry. When we went to go look at the food the station offered, it looked pretty decent, but we had no idea what language they were speaking or what the heck their currency translated to. We decided not to take the risk and instead had our hours-old sandwiches. Tuna after twelve hours? Sue me, I ate it.

We arrived in Paris at 3:30 pm and headed straight to our hotel. I was sooo excited. Finally, Paris! We did have a little interesting experience when we came out of the metro station and onto a block that clearly was dominated by some old prostitutes. At 4 in the afternoon. Geezus. Anyway, we walked to our hotel (which was thankfully a good distance from that corner). I was pleasantly surprised, and it was a really cute place. When the man at the front handed us the key, he looked at us regretfully and told us that only two people would fit in the elevator. Huh? Then we saw it. Literally a closet. I was actually scared for my life in it. We were the top floor, and when we went in the room it was really cute. We hurried up and got freshened up, because we were supposed to meet Katherine and Anna, along with my sister and Shelby, at the Louvre at 4:30, and we were definitely running late.

The one and only

Thankfully, the hotel was only a short walk to the Louvre. As we walked, I took it all in, and loved it all. I was so excited to hear people speaking French, knowing that I could actually understand some of it, compared to the extremely rudimentary Italian that I could grasp. When we got to the big glass pyramid in front of the Louvre, it was easy to spot our roommates. I couldn't find Catherine and Shelby, so we decided to just go into the museum. We got in free by showing our passports with our student visas, and pretty much went directly to the Mona Lisa. I honestly didn't know what anything else was, and wish that I had done more research before so that I would have known what else to look at. The Mona Lisa was, as everyone says, small. The most humorous part to me, though, was the signs next to the painting warning everyone to beware of pickpocketers. How rude. You became a target just by wanting to look and take a picture of a famous (the most famous?) piece of art. Not gonna lie, I got bored with the Mona Lisa quickly and we all moved on down a hall where I still had no idea what everything was, but there was a pretty cool painting of tigers that I obviously had to take a picture of.

We left the Louvre and decided to head back to the hotel to get ready for dinner, and I made plans with Catherine and Shelby to meet on my street for dinner around eight thirty. I met them at the metro stop and was sooo excited to see them. I couldn't believe that it was real- we were all in Paris together!

Reunited in Paris

The concierge at our hotel told us that the street we were on had really fantastic restaurants, so we just walked down the street and stopped in a more casual place. It ended up being me, Katherine, Anna, Catherine, Shelby, and two of her roommates. The restaurant's menu was just in French, and I tried my best to help the girls who didn't speak it translate it. I ordered the steak et frites (just steak and fries), and started with French onion soup. For some reason, my whole life I had convinced myself that I didn't like that soup, maybe just because the idea of it didn't seem appealing. The soup I had that night changed my whoooole perspective, and I'm now officially obsessed. Although the sad part is that I probably will never have French onion soup as good as that until I make it back to Paris...

Fire shots!

Emma arrived to dinner from the airport and I took her up to my hotel room because it was so close so that she could get dressed to go out. I tried to make plans with a friend, Claire, who was studying in Paris. She suggested I meet her at a place called "The Hideout" in Bastille, and I quickly learned that our hotel was actually in that area, and we were only a short walk away!

Late night crepes

Me, Katherine, Catherine, Anna, and Catherine's roommate Maggie ended up being the only ones who stayed out that night, but it was blast. The Coronas were cheap, and the place had kind of pub vibe that had a club underneath (which we discovered later in the evening). We listened to music the likes of "Call Me Maybe", some oldies, and even Grease, and the two C(K)atherine's convinced the bartenders and the French boys next to us to keep serving them fire shots. Eventually, we decided it was time to head out, and Catherine and Maggie ran for the last metro of the night to get to their hotel, and we made THE greatest discovery of late-night Paris. Street crepes at 2 am. As the French boys next to us laughed at us and helped us order at the same time, me and Anna split a banana, Nutella, and almond crepe, and Katherine ordered a crepe just with cheese (which gave way to more laughter from les garcons). We went to bed very happily that night, dreaming of possibilities of crepes...

We woke up bright and early to get to the walking tour in time, where we met up with Maureen and her roommate. I couldn't get over how surreal it was that me, Catherine, Shelby, Maureen and Emma were in Paris together. We grabbed some Starbucks, and I happily enjoyed the first mocha I'd had in six months. I loved the cappuccino in Italy, but I'm a Starbucks girl.

The Louvre

The girls in Paris

Me and Cath at the Love Bridge

The tour started in the Latin Quarter, and we wove our way past the love bridge (where the last scene of Sex and the City was filmed!), past the Academia (where scholars figure out ways to crush English influence on their language, and decide which new words are masculine or feminine), and then eventually to the Cathedral Notre Dame. We went to the Louvre, where the tour guide showed us where Catherine de Medici's palace had once been (when she married the French king), and how she had basically invented underwear as we know it. Her husband had essentially popularized the high heel.

When the tour ended, some of us split off for lunch, while others of us went to the Longchamp store. Originally not planning on making any kind of purchase, I decided to buy the big red bag. I was pretty pumped about my purchase, and it was actually cheaper to buy it in Paris than the United States! After that, we trekked over to the Eiffel Tower.

Roommates at the Eiffel Tower

I have to say, it is not overly surprising that the French initially hated the monument. If it didn't stand for everything I associate with Paris since I was a little girl, I would think the thing was pretty ugly, too. We took about a billion pictures in front of it, and we wandered down the street searching for crepes. Okay, you'd think we'd be able to find the things considering how easily we'd found them at 2 am the night before! Finally, we crossed over back under the Eiffel Tower, and found a crepe place. How cliche, sitting on steps eating a crepe directly in front of the Eiffel Tower. Check that one off my bucket list.

Cathedral Notre Dame and the Siene River

We went over to the Cathedral of Notre Dame next, as the tour guide hadn't brought us inside. After waiting in a falsely-daunting line that actually moved really fast, we got inside. I was surprised at the inside. It was beautiful and overwhelming, but definitely more Gothic than the mosaic and fresco-covered churches in Rome that I was used to. Everything was a cold, grey stone, and the ceiling seemed to stretch on for miles. We actually managed to enter right in time for the start of mass, although we didn't stay. It was a pretty intense but cool affair, and I'm glad we got to witness the start of it. They ring these massive bells in the center of the aisles, and they reverberate so loudly you almost have to cover your ears. All in all, it makes for quite a dramatic initial impression.

We left and split, Katherine and Anna heading back to their hotel, and me and Catherine and Maggie heading over to their hotel. We made an agreement to meet back up for dinner in Montmartre at a savory crepe place (crepes for dessert, crepes for dinner!!). Montmartre is a historical area in the city, and I actually wish I got to spend more time there. It's where all the bohemian artists and writers made their careers and lived their lives in the early 20th century, and apparently there's a tour just on Montmartre centering around love, sex, and suicide. Hemingway and other big names bided their time there. When we got there for dinner, the crepe place was so packed there was no way they could fit us all in. I was disappointed, but we stopped at another place on the cobblestoned streets that looked pretty good. I ordered French onion soup and a savory crepe, and me, Catherine and Maggie split a bottle of white wine. The meal was actually really good, though the soup wasn't as good as the night before (this is bad, now I have such high expectations!). After dinner, Alex's friend from home, who was studying in Paris, took us up to Sacre Couer for some spectacular views of the city, including the Eiffel Tower all  lit-up. The church itself was beautiful, and will definitely be on my list to visit during my next trip to Paris.

We eventually made our way back to the Eiffel Tower to meet up with the other girls so that we could catch the midnight lights show. Every hour in the evening, it would light up for two minutes. We positioned ourselves across the street and up above fountains so that we had the perfect view. I caught sight of a man in a suit, clearly waiting for someone. I fleetingly wondered whether or not he was proposing or something. Hey, it's the Eiffel Tower, and it's the midnight lights show. Forgive me for pegging every man in a suit, but it is Paris. We got some really great pictures, and some of the girls went out to a club, but my feet hurt too badly from my uncomfortable new boots (oops, Mom would've disapproved of that decision), and I had to get up at 6 am for an early flight out in the morning. I walked to the metro with Catherine, Maggie, Molly and Emma, and hugged them all good bye. I was a little sad that I had only gotten a day with my sister, but I was seeing all the girls again in Florence in only a few weeks.

I headed back to the hotel by myself. I wasn't nervous. I knew the language pretty decently, knew where I had to go and where I had to switch lines, and there were plenty of people around to be sure that nothing sketchy happened. I also just don't think I'm the kind of person that gets stressed about navigating those kinds of things on my own.

Midnight lights show

I got back to the hotel and conked out for a few hours until I had to wake up and head back to the airport. The one thing that is annoying about flying into Paris is that the Paris Beauvais airport is literally an hour away. Finally, we got to the airport and were able to grab something to eat. Of course I got a croissant. Ugh, and I literally didn't want that croissant to end. Cornettos are good in Italy, but nothing beats the French croissant. Can't wait to go back to Paris soon...