bonjour paris!

is it possible for the next post to take like hours to write? if it wasnt before, it is now.

ill start with my last two days of london then finish with the five most incredible days in paris:

on monday, me ashley and marissa met up with a few girls from one of my classes here in italy and ended up getting tickets to see wicked on broadway! the tickets were cheap, and i was sitting only a few rows back from the stage...it was an incredible show. we all loved it so so much! after the show we were feeling super tired, so we called in a night and prepared for our flight to paris the next day.

we woke up early on tuesday to go to ABBEY ROAD! as;kdfja ;isjd;fasdfjij !! i was completely in heaven...it was awesome. it honestly wasnt much to see, but it was sweet taking a picture that the beatles took there years ago. it was magical. i loved it!

after walking abbey road, we had to dart to the airport to make it to paris...we arrived at paris on tuesday night and i went in my first taxi. i hated it...it was stressful watching the meter tick. :) we stayed in a hotel fairly close to the airport on tuesday night since we got in kind of late...there was nothing open as far as places to eat, so we went to a mcdonalds-it was huge! and of course i was in heaven!

the next morning we woke up pretty early to check out of that hotel and into the one we booked in the city. we were kind of shocked at the hotel we got in the city-it was pretty cheap, and it was AWESOME! we were on the 4th floor and had a super awesome view of the city street below us! ashley and i shared a room-it was comfortable! we loved it...but we only had a bath tub-and ashley hates baths-but we made due :) haha.

that same day (wednesday) everyone else came in as well...there were 7 of us total from state. ash and i ventured off on our own mission for the afternoon-first seeing the eiffel tower which was breathtaking. it was just as i pictured. so beautiful. we took a million pictures in front of it...and stood in awe for quite some time.

after seeing the eiffel tower for the first time of many over the next few days, we ventured to the champs-elysees and the arc de triumph! it was magnificent!!! there was absolutely no traffic pattern around the arc, so everyone just drove crazy. it was pretty cool-the arc was in the middle of a circular "round about" and off of it there are 12 streets that make it look like a star from high up. :)

the champs was not exactly what i pictured either...i was anticipating a ton of expensive places to shop-but was suprised to find the expensive shops on the street perpendicular to the champs. we found a HUGE sephora on the champs but refrained from buying anything-at least until a few days later :)

after walking walking and walking some more, we took the complicated metro back to our hotel to get ready for dinner. we all ended up eating together-we asked our hotel desk a good place to eat...where did he direct us to? to the sex shop street. everyone in our group was laughing about where we were, and ashley and i were walking with our heads down so we didnt see anything we shouldnt see in the windows of the shops. it was rather sickening. we just so happened to stumble across the moulin rouge and took a few quick snap shots of the outside of it. it was pretty cool...

we ended up eating at an irish pub? haha. who knew we would come all that way to paris and eat in an irish pub...and of course, i got the most american thing on the menu. it was nice just sipping a margahrita and eating some fries :) after dinner, we all decided to call it a night since it was pretty late by this point in time.

thursday morning we woke up early to walk to get breakfast...and after walking to the pompeideu (i think i spelled that right), ash and i broke away from the group because we had other things that we wanted to see instead. we accomplished seeing notre dame, st micheal, the pantheon and devoured a crepe. :) it was my first crepe and it was delicious! for the remainder of the afternoon, we settled on the grass in front of the eiffel tower. we napped, took pictures, read the bible and enjoyed the afternoon and watching the sun go down on such a beautiful city.

i was in complete shock at how amazing the city was. i think i fell in love with it like i did a few weeks ago in harrogate. it was the most romantic place i have ever been in. there were couples everywhere, kissing, hugging, being cute-and i realized that i can not wait to come here one day a married woman! woo! the buildings were so ellagant and fancy-the streets were clean compared to florence-i saw grass for the first time since being in england a few weeks ago! the leaves were falling off the trees, the weather was amazing, and i realized that i was doing something i have always dreamed about as a little girl. i was SITTING IN FRONT OF THE EIFFEL TOWER. i was reading my bible, soaking up the culture, enjoying the peace and quiet, enjoying everything about it. best part? one of my best friends was sharing the experience with me.

after laying in front of the tower for quite some time, we decided to take a boat tour of the city at night after the sun set. we couldnt have picked a better time to do the tour-the city was all lit up and it was the 120 year anniversary of the eiffel tower so there was a light show on the tower every hour. it was beautiful. on the boat tour we saw where princess diana was killed in the car wreck, we learned the history of the bridges in paris, and took in the awesome scenery. the boat tour was definately one of the highlights of my trip-despite the bitter cold weather that we encountered on the tour.

the next day, we decided to sleep in a little bit. everyone in our group had plans to go to versailles for the day-and although that sounded really cool, we wanted to stay in paris and finish seeing what we came to see before we went to another city. we finally found the longchamp store where i made my huge paris purchase and bought a new purse :) :) it was worth it to say that i got a designer purse in paris?! wooo! after finding a purse and resting in the nearest starbucks for a hot cup of coffee, we decided to do this free walking tour ashley heard about. it was AWESOME-the best tour i have ever had.

dont get me wrong, after 4 hours of walking around the city of paris, my feet were falling off. i still cant feel them days later. but it was worth it. we learned so much history about the city-including the bridge in the city where in sex and the city, mr.big tells carrie she is the one for him. we also stopped at the fountain that anne hathaway throws her cell phone in at the end of the devil wears prada. of course, all of us girls on the tour snapped pictures as we walked by.

we heard some crazy stories on the walking tour as well-like, last year these australian people decided to try to roast a hot dog over the eternal flame at the arc de triumph and they were forever banned from returning to france. hahhaa. i loved the tour and learned so much that i would not have learned other wise. who would have known the oldest bridge in paris is called the "new bridge?" as you can imagine, after hours and hours of walking, we were again exhausted. sounds like our entire trip-awesome but exhausting. we went back to the hotel and got some pizza and sushi for dinner...we ate while watching and trying to interpret friends in french...hahaha. even though we were not motivated, we decided to get our butts out of bed and go see the eiffel tower all lit up at night since it was a fairly clear night out.

i am so glad we climbed it at night as opposed to during the day. it was a phenomenal site. you could see over the entire city. it was freezing cold, but that didnt even matter. there were couples making out left and right, which was kind of sad. ahhaa. one day i will be back to do that too! the light show was going on while we were on top of the eiffel tower-and it looked crazy awesome looking at it all from the top!

another late night led us to bed exhausted and ready to start another day in the morning...

and now, my last day in paris...it was wonderful. we started the day by going to the louvre. and since we have student visas for italy, which is in the european union, we get in free to all state museums! that makes going to the louvre that much sweeter. i saw mona-and was quite suprised that she was pretty small. i was expecting a much bigger painting-but it was still totally awesome to say that i saw mona lisa. it was neat going through the museum and seeing other paintings and statues that i have talked about in my art history class-now i can tell what they are and even explain them...i loved that. we checked out napolean's "house" which was actually in the louvre. it was the fanciest, nicest, place i have ever laid eyes upon!! everything was red and gold. we didnt spend too too much time in the louvre-its honestly so big that we didnt really know where to start. so we decided to walk from painting to painting and make up our own twisted interpretations of everything. it was pretty funny...

the louvre left us craving some starbucks...again. so we took an hour or so break at the next starbucks we saw, and just chatted before checking out museum d'Orsay. this museum was filled with, i guess you would call it, more modern art than other museums we have seen. they had a few monet and vangough paintings-it was not my favorite museum, but we still enjoyed it for a little bit.

feeling a bit hungry and in need of a break, we grabbed some sandwiches and had a picnic in front of the eiffel tower. another beautiful day and another awesome quite time in front of the monument that i have always desired to see. it is so peaceful...

our tour guide from friday told us that the first 50 people to show up at bistille opera the night of the show get tickets for 5 euro instead of 60 euro. so after another long day of walking, ashley and i attempted to be two of the first 50 in line...bummer, we were about number 72 in line. so we didnt get our opera tickets. instead, we met up with the rest of our group for dinner at Laudree. it was a pretty darn nice restaurant on the champs-elysees. and after dinner, we concluded our paris trip with one last night time look at the eiffel tower from the river. it was an incredible way to say bye.

i would say that the paris trip was more than a success. it was wonderful. probably the best place overall that i have ever been. but, im not going to lie, it would be awesome to have someone to share it with one day. i would recommend saving it for a time when you have someone to share it with. it was that awesome. i am so thankful for such an awesome oppritunity. this entire trip has been such a dream come true for me-specifically, the trip to paris. i remember as a little girl watching mary kate and ashley olsens "passport to paris" movie a million times, and dreaming of one day doing what they did. and now? i can say that i have travelled the world! and i am only 20! i would say that this is more than just one dream come true...

my favorite part of paris? sitting in front of the eiffel tower just in complete awe of the beauty-at night in particular. i have never, and will never, see anything like it in my life. did i mention above that the boys in paris are a site themselves? :) seriously, the hottest boys we have ever seen. like, guys you only dream of seeing one day in real life kind of cute :) its probably a good thing we didnt have too much time to see any other "attractions" than the ones we saw. hahah. kidding...

ok, phew. im finally done with this post. well not quite. my mom is on her way here!!! as a matter of fact, i will be seeing her in like 12 hours?!?!?!?! i am ESTATIC!