Paris!

Where did the pirate go to spend all of his booty? pARRRRRRis.

This weekend has been quite a doozy, I tell you what. We left Thursday night and for some reason, we ended up waiting for 2 extra hours than what was necessary for our flight. I bebopped over to the airport via public transportation and I gotta tell you- it made me feel pretty freaking independent. The flight was shorter than I expected. When we got closer to Paris, there was a thin layer of clouds over the lights. Let’s just say that this may have been the most beautiful thing I saw since I left Prague. I was listening to Sigur Ros, too, which made the whole moment epic.

When we got off of the plane, I was convinced that Nina had no idea what she was doing. However, I found out later that she actually spent 3 months in Paris when she was 18 and she told me she felt she know Paris better than Prague even though she was raised in Prague. We took a van to our hostel and by the time we got there, it was around midnight.

I signed up separately from the group since I wasn’t in the fashion program and therefore, I was placed into a different room from the others. The receptionist informed me that there was a mistake and a dude was in the room that I was supposed to be in. However, he offered to switch me into a room that was all girls. I figured better safe than sorry. He gave me a new room and when I walked in, I was welcomed by the sweet, sour aroma of men. Out of six beds, four were occupied by dudes and two were empty. But, alas, the fifth roommate stumbles in drunk while I’m staring at my unfortunate situation and invites me to get a drink with him. What the?! I haven’t even mentioned the fact that the toilet overflowed all over the floor. I left the room to find someone I knew so that I could try to make a joke out of the whole situation. Instead, I ran into the receptionist. I told him that it was a room full of guys and he looked confused. He told me that sometimes when the guy’s rooms are all full, they pretend to be girls in order to have a place to stay. So, he switched me to another room. As he unlocked the door, he woke up the two people staying in this four-person bedroom. There was a girl on top, but there was a guy on the bottom of the bunk bed. The receptionist said, “what are you doing here?” The guy responded by clearing his throat, making his voice higher and saying “excuse me?” I admired the fact that he tried to pretend to be a girl, so I told the receptionist that it wasn’t a big deal and I stayed there the first night.

The morning started around 8:30 with a buffet breakfast. The food offered was a baguette, instant coffee, and butter/jam. The first stop that morning was to get to a fashion exhibition called Atmospheres. Nina, the teacher who came with us, had free invitations to it, but the invitations were written out to specific names and it wasn’t ours. Therefore, I became Lindsey Milem. They gave me an i.d. card that I had to wear around my neck the whole time. It also said that we were buyers at the bottom, even though I could by no means afford anything at this show. I felt the need to inform every person who struck up conversation that I was just a student, but even then I was sort of lying because I’m not in the fashion program. So far this semester, I have pretended to be an architecture student and a fashion student. I still like being a media major though.

The first show we went to was exciting, but I felt like I was going to faint the whole time. It may have been the fact that it was about 90 degrees inside or due to the fact that I was coming on with a cold, but either way, I had to go outside. I felt nauseous, so I got a soda and took a breather.

Everyone followed not long after and we walked around Paris a bit. We walked into Jimmy Choo’s and the Chanel store just to say that we went into them, but they didn’t appreciate our presence there. Next, we went to the accessories exhibition. I think I have found my calling. I was in the zone. I ended up making a lot of friends at this show, too. I met an Australian man who cuts diamonds for a living. We bonded over our awful French language skills. I also met a man who made candle cases from South Carolina. We bonded over football. There was one guy there who made all this jewelry completely out of sunglass lenses. Yes, please.

Pictures weren’t allowed, but I snuck one of the whole room because it was beautiful. Man, I am a rebel. Afterward this experience, I ditched the Lindsey persona. We went to see Paris from some sweet views. We went to a gallery that had the most expensive shops, but the most priceless view of Paris. (Aw, that was cute.) We decided to get lunch here in the cafeteria and the food was freaking exquisite. We went our separate ways from Nina and went to the Eiffel Tower.

Getting to the Eiffel Tower was quite the adventure. We had 10 metro tickets, but about four of mine had de-sensitized so I was truly struggling with getting through the gates. The metro lines, however, were a whole heck of a lot more complicated than Prague’s. Prague has three. Meanwhile, Paris has about 14. I beasted that metro system, though.

Once we got to the Tower, it started to rain. Of course. I brought my cheap umbrella from Cesky Krumlov and it promptly broke the second I opened it. Never fear, however, because I invested in an umbrella hat. I know that 2 Euros may seem like a bit of splurge for a hat, but considering that I didn’t spend money on anything else except for food, I considered it acceptable. We ended up getting distracted by breakdancers. I admire their efforts in dancing on slippery stone, but they weren’t very nice. Some of the girls on our trip really wanted them to dance to Lil’ Wayne, however when we asked them if they would, the ring leader informed me that he doesn’t like Lil Wayne’s work. Psh.

We jumped back on the metro and stopped by the Arc de Triumph. What a freakin’ detailed piece of work. I stared until a sketchy woman approached me and asked for money. Our next stop was the Louvre. We ended up getting in for free because students were allowed in after six on Fridays. Cha-ching. We decided to take the route that would lead us to the Mona Lisa. I can’t even express how much I enjoyed myself there. I was definitely overcome with joy from all the animated statues and sleeping Asians.

When we got through the Louvre, we ended up getting split up and just met back up at the Hostel. However, Laura and I stopped at a café first to get something to eat. When we got back, my head was throbbing so hard that I couldn’t even think about going out. I went into my new room at the hostel, complete with an Asian, an Indian, and an old French woman. I had a dream after the first night that we were all hand-in-hand inside of a snow globe singing international songs. I could write a lengthy paragraph about living with these people for two nights, but I don’t want to think about it anymore. Instead, I’ll just hint that I enjoyed sleeping with the guy that pretended to be a girl more.

I woke up the next morning and found my camera screen broken. I was devastated. Thus, the second half of my photos are really rough. We started our day by walking to Notre Dame. I really enjoyed our stroll through Paris. We crossed the river and saw the more expensive areas of Paris. When we got there, it hit me that I should probably keep my eye out for Esmeralda and a hunchback. I found both. In other news, the building was intense. I wish my camera were in better shape so that I could get pictures that did it justice. I actually witnessed a baptism there. Pretty darn fancy.

It took everyone forever to get out of there. So in the meantime, I bonded with Nina. She informed me that there is a town right next to Prague called Maslovice where there is a Maslo Museum(aka a butter-making museum). When I looked on the map for it, I found that it is just a hop, skip, and jump through Praha to get there. Perhaps a day trip?

When we got everyone together again, we took a different route back to the Louvre in order to go to a history of fashion museum. It was a lot cooler than I expected it to be. They had runway videos from different designers from over the years. I’m talking all the way back into the 40’s. You could put on the headphones and listen to the music in the video, too. After this, I promised Laura I would go to Jim Morrison’s grave.

It was another journey for the books. We had to switch lines like 5 times, but we got there! The sun just started to peek out, too. Getting around the cemetery itself was a journey. We finally found it. There were a few other people around, but it wasn’t crowded at all. Laura got pretty emotional about it.

Also, can we please discuss the fact that people were putting their shit on top of other graves. I felt really bad for the dead people around Jim Morrison because they were being abused and neglected. I gave them a little attention and then we went on our way…

This one dude passed us and I heard him say, “If your mother was still alive, she’d really enjoy this cemetery.” Man, what a line. Smooth talker. Laura and I grabbed lunch at a stand, enjoyed it in a park, then headed back to the hostel. On our way back, we thought we were witnessing a parade, but we found out later from the receptionist that it was actually a strike. We were clapping along regardless.

After recouping for a bit, we ended up going to the Monoprix, which is essentially a Target. It had everything. We got our dinner from here and then went back to the hostel with it. Laura opened herself a bottle of wine but at this point, my body was on full-scale flu mode. We meandered to the Eiffel Tower again and I’m glad we did because it was a lot better at night.

The whole area was poppin’. People were dancing and glowing in the dark. We went down to get closer to it. Right as I was taking a picture, the whole thing started to sparkle. It was magical. Especially with the Native American flutist beside us playing “My Heart Will Go On.” I started to make out with the men around me. Just kidding.

I think that the other girls went out to a Latin bar, but the cover charge was 20 euros! Oh hell no. So, I decided to save some money and therefore, this was the last thing we did before we headed back.

The next morning I saw Ashley Ohnona (one of my campers from three years ago)! Gah, it was amazing, for one thing, to see someone I know in Paris, but also to catch up. We had breakfast at a café and ended up staying there for about 2 and a half hours. The waiter was a hoot. Homeboy was saying the funniest things- I wouldn’t have known this if it wasn’t for Ashley.

And that’s it! I met up with everyone else from my program by the bus station, we hopped on the plane, flew back to the city of cheap shit, and then metro-ed our way back.

Overall, it was a beautiful place and an extravagant city. I wish that I could have shared it with my favorite people in Raleigh. Ya’ll would have thrived here. I’m still sick and my camera is still broken, but it is in the works. Oy vey.