PARIS
I packed up by hiking backpack and half a suitcase to share with Claire and set out for a week of adventures. We left on a train at 8: 45 to Milan, where we caught our connecting sleeper train to PARIS. The train was broken into coquettes, which are rooms with 6 beds, 2 triple bunk beds. Claire and I snagged the top bunk that was by far the best beds in the room. We had a lot of room above us to sit up; the others couldn’t and were very claustrophobic (sorry bout it). I slept like a baby. We arrived in Paris around 8am and wandered around for almost an hour before finding our hostel, St. Christopher’s. It was ENORMOUS! There were lots of young Americans there. After dropping off our luggage we searched for the closest Kebab place. On the way to the Notre dame we stopped at a museum, which the boys convinces us were Versailles and of course we believed them. We walked through the gardens and around the museum for a while then headed toward Notre Dame when we ran into a zoo. There were all these crazy animals there, includes OSTRICHES! Finally we reached the NOTRE DAME. It is by far my favorite church I have seen thus far. It was absolutely amazing. I especially liked the gargoyles on the outside. It took our group almost an hour to see the whole church.* on our way back we spotted a Mickey Ds and had to go! After ordering we realized what we missed out on, GOLDEN MENU. Which consisted of 2 Hamburgers, chicken nuggets, fries, and a drink for only 9 Euros! Since we missed out on this amazing offer, Greg took a picture of it, however one of the employees made him delete the picture saying “we have no right to take picture” the boys weren’t very happy with this! We decided to head back to the hostel to check in. Our room had 10 beds but only 9 of us. Our roommate for the first night was Miles from California. We were all exhausted so we took a 2-hour nap and started getting ready. The showers were interesting to say the least. To get the water on you had to push a button for the water to come out and it only lasted 30 seconds. It was very annoying so I just took the shortest shower possible. We headed to the bar downstairs for a while before Me Scott Meeks, Meredith, Josh, Greg and C Ham decided to go to a club. Just as we got off the Metro, Meeks and Me decided we were way to tired to go clubbing and took the metro back. We ended up getting off at the right stop but walking up the wrong exit. On our adventure home we were lured in by a neon sign pointing to Kebabs so of course we stopped. Once we finished our delizioso Kebab we were getting up from the table when we heard a familiar voice. It was JOSH, MEREDITH, and GREG! They took the wrong way and somehow ended up in the same place! What a coincidence!
The Next morning we woke up early to see the LOUVRE. The First thing we saw was the huge glass pyramid. Then we waiting in line and had to go security check before we could enter this ENORMOUS museum. Of course we were drawn to the MONA LISA first. It was quite a disappointment. It was small and nothing special, even though there was a crowd surrounding it at all times. The Louvre was so big you could spend the whole day there, however after a few hours we were dragging a long and decided to go on to another site in a Paris. First we had to book our train tickets to Rome. Because we always wait to the last minute, the overnight train was booked so we ended up buying tickets for almost a whole day of traveling. Because we had to change our plans it was going to be our last day in Paris! We had a lot to see and only a short amount of time!! We scurried off to the Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart). It was up a huge flight of stairs, but defiantly worth the view! We only spent a short time in this beautiful church, but we had no time to spare. On the way to the Red Light District we picked up some berets and other souvenirs (I got a glass Eiffel tower and shot glass). We walked in the red light district till we reached MOULIN ROUGE. We took a picture outside of it, but were not brave enough to go inside. Next stop ARCH DE TRIUMP! Which is conveniently located on the champs de lise, the most famous shopping strip in Paris. There was even a Memorial service going on right below the Arc, which was pretty interesting. We took a bunch of pictures and decided to head to the Eiffel tower we could now see in the distance. By the time we got off the metro at the tower stop it was dark out. The girls and Scott ran toward the tower in hopes of standing next to it as the lights flickered, which only happens once every hour. It was hard to pass al the crêpes stands but we made it just in time. We snapped some pics then moved toward the time to climb the tower, trying to dodge all the gypsies trying to sell us “bling bling” and mini Eiffel towers. It cost around 8 Euros to take a very shaking elevator to the top. Although it was freezing at the top it was an amazing view of Paris. We soaked up the view then headed down and took jumping pictures in the front lawn of the tower. We sat on a bench and just enjoyed the view* for about 20 minutes before heading back to St. Christophers. We stopped for Crêpes, finally! I got a strawberry jam one and Greg got a nutella one and we went split them both! We arrived back to the hostel around 9pm and were all exhausted, we napped until the Super bowl came on (11pm our time). I grabbed my bottle of vino and headed the Super bowl party on the bottom level of our place. They had a huge screen showing the game and a buffet with chicken nuggets, wings, and fries! I was so excited to hear the game in English and have American food, even just for one night. I was so happy the Saint beat the Colts 31-17. After some celebration it was about 4am at the time, Me Christian, Scott, and C Ham decided it wasn’t worth going to bed for only 2 hours and risk missing the train we had to catch at 7:44am. Christian who has a friend in Paris, showed us around town and just enjoyed how quite and peaceful Paris was in the middle of the night. We headed back to the hostel to make sure everyone was ready to go at 7:00 to find every STILL SLEEPING. It went into straight panic mode. I yelled, “EVERYONE WAKE UP WE HAVE TO LEAVE IN 5 MINUTES!!!” I seriously felt like I was in a Home Alone movie, trying to rush everyone out on time. We ran from metro stop to metro stop and then to the train, to arrive with a minute to spare! PHEWWW. I never thought we were going make it! Just to add to our frustration once we found our seats. An Asian couple was in our seats and was confused that we were trying to tell them they were in the wrong cart. Finally after 20 minutes they moved and we all passed out for a few hours. I just barley opened my eyes for Greg to tempt me into playing rummy, so of course I agreed. Then an announcement came on stating we had a 2-hour delay. Because of this we ended up in Nice (pronounced NEICEE) Luckily we found a train leaving from there in 2 hours straight to Rome for only 3 Euros. We took our refund money, got some wine and headed down to the closest beach in Nice. I was gorgeous and much warmer there; I am even tempted to go back for a weekend in the future. Once we got our sleeping train we realized it was the sketchiest train I’ve ever been on. We had a room with six seats that lounged out. Luckily Claire, Bama, and Steph put their feet up and passed out like a sleeping beauties while we the rest of us sat in discomfort the whole way. Scott and Greg and I stayed up the whole time, unable to sleep due to the small space and gypsies pacing the halls the whole night waiting for us to fall asleep so they could rob us. At least we had Bama’s bike lock to somewhat secure the door. It was a rough night to say the least.
ROME
We arrived in Rome way to early, 6ish I believe. The town was practically deserted so we wandered around and found our hostel (Chianti) fairly easily. Once we got there we found out that we weren’t allowed to check in till 4pm! I was beyond exhausted at this point, not having slept in 2 days! We found a coffee shop then headed toward the Roman Forums. IT was Huge! After 2 hours or so of seeing all the ruins and even a bunch of orange trees, I was “rocked out” and ready to be in the inside the Coliseum where over (140,00 people died in battle). By this time the sun was fully out and I warmed up a bit. There was a line to get in so we headed down the street for lunch before. We all got pizzas and I got my first GELATO. It was delicious! Then we entered the Coliseum, I couldn’t believe how much of it was still standing! Once we left the coliseum we went toward the train station to make our reservations for our train to Venice. We dillydallied, shopping and walking around the city till we could finally check in at 4. Nap time! We all passed out till about 8pm, then showered and tried to find somewhere to eat. Christian found this small restaurant on a corner near our hostel. We got there and they rushed us to order because the kitchen was closing, we didn’t realize it was already 11pm by this point! I had the an amazing meal, it was fettuccine with cut up asparagus in it with melted provolone cheese on top with a nice refreshing beer YUMMMY!! On the way back we stopped for some gelati where I discovered limone gelati. Everyone proceeded to try it and became just as obsessed as I am. We all slept so good that night. We woke up early to meet our tour guide for the Vatican. We walked in and got our audio devices and headphones so we could here the tour guide over all the other groups visiting the Vatican. First we saw a bunch of amazing paintings murals and sculptures before we reached Michelangelo’s main piece the Sistine Chapel. The whole ceiling took Michelangelo four years to finish and the front wall took 5 hrs, it was unreal. I wish we were allowed to take pictures because it was so gorgeous! (I did sneak one in without the guards seeing, oops!) At the end of the tour we were led up to St.Peters cathedral. By this time we were all starving so we took a road to a small restaurant where I got spaghetti and some red wine. We headed back to the Vatican Square. We climbed to the top of St. Peters Basilica and then went underground where the Popes tombstones were! We left the Vatican and walked about 20 minutes to another famous church, the Pantheon. The Pantheon has one of the largest domes in a church in Europe! After walking around there we found a McDonalds conveniently across the street where we found 1€ burgers. We decided to hop on the metro and go back to the hostel to get ready for the night. We showered and got dressed up then ventured back out in the city. We found the Spanish steps, and I was a bit disappointed. I expected them to be much larger than they were, oh well. Next stop...TREVI FOUTAIN! We picked up some cheap-boxed wine for the walk. We got lost for a little until we heard the water; we followed it up to the fountain. It was much larger than a expected and was so pretty lit up at night. We each got out a coin and threw it over our shoulder and made a wish. We stopped by a bar on the way home till about 2 or 3am. We woke up to a Chianti hostel worker banging on our door asking for our passports. He told us that the police were in our hostel, but didn’t give us any details past that. He came back about 45 minutes later, informing us that the hostel would be shutting down at 12pm (this was around 10am)… As we were packing up our luggage, the man at the front desk (young, tatteted up man) told us that they were shutting it down because of bad paperwork. Luckily he set us up with a new hostel, only about 10 minutes walking away. Once we got there we found ourselves in Rome’s “China Town.” We dropped off our stuff and walked around by the train station to find a church that had the prime meridian line running across it! Then we walked around by the shops for a few hours. I found a black pea-type coat on sale and had to buy it! There was also a small parade through the streets getting everyone excited for Carnivale!! As the sun started to set we headed back to the hostel to get ready for the PUB CRAWL! Luckily it was Ladies night so it only cost 15€ for the whole night! The first bar we were at was free drinks and pizza for an hour. We found a large table to sit at and started drinking. We also got a free t-shirt as we walked in; on the back it read “WE CAME, WE SAW, WE CRAWLED!” The next bar we had to hop on a bus full of Americans. We got a free shot when we walked in. After about 45 minutes we moved on to the next bar (free shot), where there was more dancing then to the next then finally the discotheque! I grabbed a cab with Claire, Josh, and Meeks (who fell asleep at the bar) and headed back to the hostel.
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