Paris

So I went to Paris like a week ago and am now just blogging about it! I know I know I need to update more often! Well Paris was amazing! I would highly recommend travel to Paris! So getting there was the worst part of it all! We had to get to Rome thursday night because our flight left at 7 in the morning on friday and there are no trains from Viterbo to Rome that would get us there in time. So we got to Rome and there was supposed to be a shuttle bus to take us to the airport there was none, so we ended up taking two taxis to the Ciampiano Airport which is the smallest airport ever! Oh and when I say "we" I mean Me, Cassie, Rachal, Amy, Beth, Jenny, and Mike. Back to the story, we ended up sleeping on the cold, concrete ground of the airport from like midnight to 4:30 in the morning! Then we got to check into our flight eat some crappy airport food that I am pretty sure made me sick. We then boarded our flight and flew threw a tornado which didn't help my already upset stomach. The flight was only 2 hours but it felt like 5 with how much turbulence there was! Once we landed at the Paris Beauvais Airport we then had to get on another bus to actually get into Paris, this took about 2 hours because of how much traffic there was. So once there we had no idea where the metro was so we got taxis again to take us to our hostel. We were too early to check in so we went and ate lunch at a cute little cafè a little bit away from our hostel. FYI: France has normal meat options to eat! I was so excited to see chicken on the menu I ordered it immediately! I had chicken with rice and some sauce that was delicious! I was actually full! This was the first time that had happened since I got to Europe! After lunch we chilled in our hostels basement for a while until we could check in. After checking in we went off to be tourists! The Louvre was first on the list! It is seriously amazing! Even if there was no paintings or sculptures to see the architecture inside and out is still worth seeing by itself! It is huge and would take months and months to get through everything so we just did some of the main things. The Mona Lisa of course and then we saw Napoleon's Apartments which was awesome there was so much detail in the interiors I loved it! And the chandliers were absolutely gorgeous! After seeing some other works of art we headed off to see the Eiffel Tower! It is amazing at night! It is all lit up and about every half hour the lights sparkle for about ten minutes! Incredible! We ate dinner on the Seine River with the view of the Eiffel Tower behind us it was absolutely amazing! The next day we decided to come back to the Eiffel Tower to go to the top! So scary! The elevator that takes you up to the very top level is glass on all 4 sides so you can see everything while you are going up and they jam pack you in there like you are sardines or something! It made me really nervous! But I am still alive to tell you all that I did it! And it was worth the nerve racking feelings I had! After this we headed over to the Notre Dame and this is absolutely incredible as well! I got to use some of those french skills I picked up in high school to make sure we were going the right way. We found it with the help of friendly french people! That's right they are actually friendly there contrary to popular belief! We went inside and saw everything and could take pictures but they don't do it justice! After the Notre Dame we went souveneir shopping and then ate a a cafè with a funny waiter who made fun of us because almost everyone ordered a hamburger I got a chicken sandwich though! After lunch we headed over to Arc de Triomphe that is in the middle of a huge round about and the famous street Champs Elyseè connects to it! Again another incredible thing to see in person! We walked down the Champs Elsyeè and some people did some shopping but its the ritzy street so I knew I wasn't going to buy anything so I started figuring out how to get to the Moulin Rouge off of our map! Oh yeah by the way I am pretty much pro at the Paris Metro back in March I mastered the New York one and now the Paris one! So I of course found the way to the Moulin Rouge and we did not get lost once the whole time we were in Paris thanks to Moi! And Cassie taking pics of the directions for places on her camera! The last thing we saw was the Moulin Rouge. We did not go inside because 1) that's gross and 2) it costs a heck of a lot of money to go inside. After the Moulin Rouge we headed back to our hostel and had to get up early to get a taxi to the bus station and a bus to the airport and then a flight to get back to Rome and then another train back to Viterbo. But getting home was not as bad as getting there! I had a great time though and it was worth all the trouble of getting there to see the beautiful city!

Here are some pictures from our trip

Rachal, Cassie, and Me in front of the Mona Lisa (Yeah she is tiny)

Metro Entrance(learned about this in school)
The Louvre(well part of it, the glass triangle is the entrance)

Napoleon's bedroom

The Picasso Wall ( I got yelled at for this picture)

Cool architecture in the Louvre

Eiffel Tower at night

View from the top of the Eiffel Tower

Me in front of the Eiffel Tower(Not sure why I look like such a goober)

Notre Dame

Arc De Triomphe

Famous Street in Paris

Moulin Rouge(Ooh la la)