Paris

My blog posts have been a long time coming, since today I had a presentation.  My presentation didn't go so swell, but since I don't even receive grades, I guess that's water under the bridge.  What's important right now is that I went to Paris for New Year's!

I just want to get this out there:  Every problem that American tourists hear about Europe is true about Paris.  Food is expensive, it's incredibly difficult to be a vegetarian, etc.  I always wondered why people said these things, because nowhere I've been in Germany is remotely like that.  I now know where that comes from.  I'm still really glad I came and I would like to go back to visit sometime before I leave.

Paris was pretty busy for the New Year's.  My friend had recommended a hostel, but it was all booked by early/mid-November.  In fact, this hostel had eleven sister hostels, and all of them save one were completely booked by this time!  Luckily, the hostel that was open turned out to be nice and they had small rooms, so my group was able to book an entire room to ourselves.  Even better - we randomly ran into someone from our program in the lobby of our hostel on our first day in Paris!  He was traveling to Paris for New Year's with his brother and cousin.  It was a pretty cool coincidence, if you ask me.
The hostel wasn't perfect, but it was a good deal for the price, in my opinion and I certainly couldn't have afforded a hotel.  If any one reading this is planning a trip from Paris, this hostel would be a good choice!

Our hostel was situated in the Latin Quarter, which was (is?) an area full of students.  Since way back when, students learned in Latin, it was also widely spoken in this area, so this is how it got its name.

Our first day was spent shopping.  This turned out to be a trend on my sister and my adventures.  Between the 4 cities I visited with her, we have probably been to 7+ different H&Ms.  H&Ms are like a beautiful, cheap, fashionable plague in Europe.  I think Europeans would be shocked and appalled to learn that it is possible to travel more than 5 km in an American city and only see 1 (or possibly none!) H&Ms, but I digress...

Our second day in Paris, we went to the Louvre.  The Louvre is actually free for EU residents between the ages of 18-25.  Since I am 22 years old with a German visa, I get free entry to the Louvre.  My poor sister was both the only person who had to pay and the only person who didn't really like art that much.  It is actually physically impossible to see the entire Louvre in one day, since it is so huge, but I enjoyed what I did see for the couple hours we were there.  It was extra nice, because I went with my friend who studies Graphic Design.  As part of his major, he's taken a few art history courses, so he was able to kind of explain things.

They allow flash-free photos inside the museum.  Of course some assholes still use flash, but I didn't!  We made sure to see the Mona Lisa, but it was sort of hidden behind glass to protect it from said assholes.  It also isn't really as impressive as you would expect it to be.  

I actually took quite a few pictures of the art, but my internet is way too slow for me to post them here. 

After the Louvre, we attempted to go to the Catacombs.  We were told it closes at 4pm by the PPPler we ran into on our first day, but it turned out it closed at 3pm, so we didn't make it in.  At the Catacombs, we  ran into him and he advised we go to the Basillica of the Sacred Heart to get a nice view of Paris and the Eiffel tower.  

Unfortunately, there was a ton of fog.  It cleared up a little bit and we saw a little bit of the Eiffel Tower. We also saw a super cool street performer.

For New Year's, we ended up wandering around near the Eiffel Tour until we had a good view by a bridge.  We were expecting fireworks, but when New Year hit, all the Eiffel Tour did was sparkle.  

Really Paris?  I came to see fireworks, not an example of what Edward Cullen does in the sunlight!  Plus, the Eiffel Tower sparkled before midnight too!  Also, we learned the hard way that the metro shuts down fairly early in the night.  Without an adequate bus map and with all the cabs full due to it being New Year's, we were forced to walk about 2-3 hours to the hostel.  Regardless, I had a good night.  

On New Year's Day, everything was closed, so we opted to take the free tour then.  I took a Sandemans tour in Amsterdam, which I really enjoyed, but I found the one in Paris to be rather boring at times.  We did see a bridge that was carved with faces.  Apparently the king threw a party and wanted to forever remember his excellent guests. 

After the tour we sort of ran around Paris doing random sightseeing.  We dropped by the Eiffel Tower, but unfortunately there were too long of lines to actually go up it.  

The Arc de Triomphe 

and the Moulin Rouge

The next day it was time to leave for Prague.  I definitely want to head back to Paris sometime before I leave!  It is worth braving the scheißteuer food and lack of vegetarian options!