Paris

Jessica in our hostel room
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On Thursday the 23 we left for París. We flew out of the airport here in Bilbao. It was my first time seeing that airport because we flew into Madrid and then took a bus here to Bilbao. Anyways we flew one of the many discount airlines here in Spain. It´s a perfectly good airline they just seem to always be delayed. I don´t know if that´s just a Spanish thing or if it is because they are a discount airline. We were delayed about a half an hour leaving Bilbao so we got to Barcelona with only about 7 minutes to grab the luggage we´d checked and race to the check-in desk to make our next flight. (The desk closes about 30 minutes before the flight is scheduled to take off). Fortunately we made it and then that flight left late also. We got to Paris around 11ish. It was cold and snowing and there were no more buses into the city so we had to figure out how to work the metro. The ticket machine wouldn´t take any of our american credit cards even though VISA is ¨everywhere you want to be!¨ And if you didn’t´put it on a credit card it would only take coins. The ticket was 8€ because the airport is a ways away and none of us had that many coins. Anyhoo a very nice German man who spoke english put our tickets on his credit card and we paid him in cash. Then we had to figure out the metro. Bilbao metro is very simple. There are only two lines - you get on and your either going to one end of the city of the other. Not París! There were 14 regular lines and then lines A-E and a couple of other random ones. Fortunately a girl who was going our way showed us how to get where we needed to be. Four metro lines later we were all the way on the other end of town and close to our hotel. I have to say I wasn´t impressed with París at first sight. It was cold and flurrying, the metro stank and was dirty and I was afraid to touch anything. I can´t stand public transportation in large cities. I don´t think I could ever get used to things being dirty all the time. We came up out of the metro right in front of guess what? A McDonalds of course! However we didn´t go there at all. We´re adapting J

In front of the Moulin Rouge
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Our hostel room had 3 bunkbeds for the 5 of us. I haven´t slept in a bunkbed in I don´t know how long but I managed not to roll over onto the floor (I was in a top bunk). The room was decently clean but really hot. I think the heater was permanently on. Anyway we all collapsed the first night because by the time we got there and situated and everything it was probably near one in the morning.

Bright and early (and groggily) the next morning we went down for breakfast which was included at the particular hostel. That consisted of coffee, orange juice and bread. The europeans love their bread. But hey it was included so who´s complaining. Then we set out to see some sights. First we took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe. We saw the tomb of the unknown soldier and climbed hundreds of stairs to the top of the arc. The view was amazing! That views would definitely have to be my favorite part of París. You can´t get a bad view (unless your in the metro). You could see all over París from up there. We were complete tourists whipping out our cameras and going a little crazy but there were so many other tourists there it didn’t matter. At least we weren´t in a big dorky tour group. Despúes de la Arc we walked down the Champs Elysees. Many say that it is the most beautiful street in the world. It is pretty amazing. It is completely lined in trees that are bare now but must look amazing in the spring. Stores, restaurants, and movie theaters are everywhere. Most of the stores were way out of my price range but it was fun to window shop. Once we had walked down this street we were at the Louvre museum so we decided to go in there for a while. I´m not a museum person but that place was pretty cool. And so huge! I got through a lot of it but there was sooooooooooo much stuff. I saw the Mona Lisa, I have to say its pretty unimpressive in person. We have a copy of it hanging in the hall in our apartment and I have to say I see no difference. I saw some other famous paintings and sculptures too but after a while I was ready to go. After the museum we walked around shopping for souvenirs and slowly making our way to the Tour Eiffel. It was dark by then and we rode the elevator all the way up to the top. Again, a stunning view! Absolutely amazing. The tower itself was pretty cool too because at night its all lit up.

The Arc de Triomphe
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The next day we visited the Opera Garniér, which is the opera house that the Phantom of the Opera was patterned after. It was a really cool place. I took some pictures for the girls - I know they like that movie a lot. After that we walked along the Seine river and went to a church that is famous for its stained glass windows. Notre Dame cathedral was next on the list. Again we climbed what seemed like a million stairs to the top of the tower for yet another amazing view of París.

The next day we went to the Moulin Rouge and wandered more of París and finally on Monday we went for lunch at the Hard Rock Café París. We´re making this a trend of sorts.

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Then the misery began. We waited forever in the airport because our flight didn’t leave til 11:30 bu the weather was crappy and we didn’t feel like lugging our bags around to all the sights all day. Plus we had seen everything we wanted to see and were really París´d out. Finally we flew to Barcelona, arriving around 2 in the morning and sleeping miserably on the airport benches waiting for our next flight. We boarded our next flight around 7, then were informed that something was wrong with the plane and we would be delayed 3 hours! So we had to get off the plane, then they fixed it and we got back on and flew home thank God! A bus, a metro, and a short walk later we were sleepy and starving but back in our apartment! London is coming up this week and I´m actually ready to be off traveling again believe it or not.