Paris!

I love spanish. I love Spain. I love spaniards. I like being able to travel, but I am sure happy that I love my home. French is hard. And it is hard being in a country without even knowing the numbers in their language. We boarded the plane to Paris early Friday morning, and yes, I didn't miss my flight! Thanks to the 7 alarms and the fact that my roommate was going. We all slept the entire 2 hour flight, and we also got an extra hour of sleep because the plane couldn't leave right away because of fog. The flight attendant woke us up and was trying to ask if our seatbelts were buckled, because our jackets were covering them, and I realized I don't understand a single word of french. Morgan and I just looked at her while she repeated herself over and over, and finally her hand motions worked. This was the beginning of my confidence about my spanish knowledge increasing. After we landed, we found our hotel and couldn't check in yet so food was the next mission. FRANCE HAS REAL FOOD! I had a chicken sandwich with tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil, and a salad! A real salad! Spain doesn't believe in salads. Or food. Once we checked into our hotel, we realized that we booked it for 2 people, and apparently they are strict on that. Whoops too bad there are 4 of us. So we had to come in two by two each time we entered, and it was a lot of extra stress that I would've rather paid for another room instead of dealing with it. But, ya learn. We went and saw the Eiffel Tower, which was walking distance from our hotel. It was one of those moments that you can't believe is real, that you are standing in Paris looking at the Eiffel Tower. We enjoyed the tower for a while, then walked to the Notre Dame. It was beautiful! The whole city is separated by a river so it is easy to tell where you are if you can just find the river and the tower. We got to Notre Dame, once again breathtaking, and the coolest part about it was that as we strolled on in, we realized there was a mass going on inside! Definitely makes the experience different. We quietly walked around while trying to be respectful of the service, but there were a ton of tourists just strolling as if nothing was happening. The next part of the night is going down in the books as one of the top 3 best meals of my entire life. French onion soup, in France. If I could've bottled my happiness I got from this meal and saved it for later, I would've. Being tired, hungry, cold, tired, and more tired, this was everything I could have asked for and more. I also got to experience my first crepe that night. And now I have gone on a mission almost every day looking for crepes in Madrid. Doesn't compare to the cute creperie carts with the french men trying to charm you into buying another crepe after you have finished your first. And believe me, it is hard to turn that down.
We went to bed at the crazy hour of 10 p.m., and I can honestly say I don't think I have gone to bed that early since I had a bedtime. Even then I didn't follow the rules. It was the best sleep of my life, even though there were 4 girls crammed into a full sized bed. Good thing we aren't huge. We woke up in the morning and explored/shopped until lunchtime. And what did we have for lunch? Thats right, french onion soup. Again. And I didn't even feel bad about it. We went to the Louvre next. And saw the Mona Lisa. Hate to say it, but it was almost a disappointment. It was very small, and the crowd around it just stressed me out so I couldn't appreciate it as much. But, the picture behind it was cool! The Louvre was HUGE. It was pouring outside so it was nice to be inside for a good portion of the day. We got in a fight with the ticket lady on our way inside. We are students in Europe, and so we are supposed to get a discount at all museums and tours and such. We were speaking english, and so the lady didn't initially give us the discount. I then nicely told her we are studying in Madrid, and as I go to pull out my University library card, that has my picture and states that I go to school in Madrid, she yelled "well you are clearly Americans!" Well duh. As we are still trying to prove we go to school here, the other girls have their international EU cards that showed they are student in Europe, she just took my 20 and didn't give me change. Obviously we start to cause more of a scene and the stereotype of the French being rude to Americans was becoming prevalent, and I really hate when people prove stereotypes right. The only person she gave the discount to was Morgan, because she had a copy of her visa with her. I mean my card with my picture and my three other forms of I.D. and my proof of being a student wasn't enough I guess. After that ordeal, we got to experience the miles and miles and miles of walking through what has got to be top 5 biggest museums in the universe. I really don't know the actual size, but I do know I was sore after exploring it. We saw so many famous statues, and I would've liked to see more paintings but I literally couldn't walk up one more stair. They had a display of Napoleon's apartment, which was so extravagant and beautiful.
After this excursion, we made our way back home and saw a few key monuments. The Arch de Triomph, the Royal Palace, a few other buildings that I don't know the importance of but they have to have some sort of responsibility, the ferris wheel from the World Expo, and many other historical items.
Let's talk about the metro. Ew. Saw not one but TWO rats in the metro, and saw a homeless man peeing inside. Trash, dirt, puddles, drippage from the ceiling, dirty people, smelly people, smelly hallways, gross graffiti, more trash, dirt everywhere, rude people, french words that all sound the same and so finding your stop is nearly impossible, lack of maps, maps that are incorrect, your stop being the only one that has construction going on so the metro glides on past it and you are supposed to figure out what to do without any guidance, doors that could kill you when they close, and then they open halfway and then kill you once again, whiplash from the abrupt stops, and the smelly people touching you. It made Madrid metro look like a palace, and you can eat off the floors.
We went to the Eiffel Tower at night, and this was 47 times cooler than during the day, which seems impossible. It is lit up beautifully, and the fog around the top made it look like a painting. We ate dinner at a restaurant with the view of the tower, and I shockingly didn't order french onion soup. Morgan and I met up with the boys after going back to the hotel to get our stuff together, and we went to the top of the tower. It was pretty windy from the top, but, I felt like I was at the top of the world. I think I was right. You could see the entire city, and everyone kept complaining that it was foggy but I really liked the effect. You are on top of the Eiffel Tower, I don't think there is one thing you can complain about. We went to a bar with the boys and got really bad service, when they gave us our drinks they gave us our bill, and we were planning on ordering food. Rude. The 7 am flight and not sleeping beforehand was rough, but all worth it.
Paris, France, checked off the list.

top of the wooooorld