A Visit to the City of Love: Paris

DAY 2 of Spring Break, DAY 1 of the City of Paris: March 27th


First day in Paris, we met up with some more of Val's friends from U of I, Nancy and Sarah, who are studying in south of France so we had someone who could speak French with us. That is one thing that Val and I quickly got frustrated with, not knowing the language at all. All I had was, "Bonjour," "Merci," "L'adition si vouz ple." I just felt like an ignorant American by knowing very little of the language. Also, everyone says that everyone in Paris speaks English, but that is just not true. 


First thing we did was head over to the Musee Orsay, which was my favorite museum, smaller than the Louvre with more impressionist artists like Van Gogh, Monet, Degas and Renior. I really enjoyed this museum because its the type of art that I like and it was of artist I knew and not just hundreds of 16th century interpretations of Jesus' birth. 


Next, we headed to the Montmartre district of Paris to see the Sacre Coeur, "Sacred Heart," which looks like a version of the Taj Mahal. It sits up on the highest point in the city, so it is a gorgeous view! We also had the pleasure of seeing some street performers. 

Sacre Couer

Street performer

Nice break dancing

View of the city from Sacre Couer

View of Sacre Couer from the bottom

And since we were in the neighborhood, we walked over to the Moulin Rouge, the area full of sex shops. It looks like all the pictures I've seen of it, just a place to see, get a photo, then move on.

The Moulin Rouge

Then it was time to see the biggest sight of all of Paris, the Eiffel Tower, which is full of gypsies ("Do you speak english?") and men trying to sell you cheap, metal replicas of the tower. They get quite annoying after a while. I must say that the Eiffel Tower truely is a big tower of metal. I don't know but I guess I was expecting something prettier. It was extremely windy and combined with my fear of heights, I decided not to pay 13 euros to go to the top. Instead, Nancy, Sarah, and I found some macaroons, which were delicious, and waited at the bottom for everyone else. 

Famous Eiffel Tower

Yummy Macaroons!

That night we got a true European dinner, not until 10pm. We fortunately found this place that had a menu deal for 12 euros, appetizer, entree, dessert, drink, and bread! For the appetizer, I had salmon tartare, smoked salmon bits on a garlic toast bread and a light salad; entree was beef bourguignon, which was very, very tender and melted in my mouth! As for dessert, I had a light chocolate mousse. It was the perfect French dinner!

The group at dinner.

DAY 3 of Spring Break, DAY 2 of the City of Paris: March 28th

So Val and I realized that we kinda did Paris backwards, you are suppose to do the free walking tour the first day and then Versailles is suppose to be the last day, but it was all good. Sunday morning we met up with a free walking tour which started at St. Michel fountain. Our tour guide, Jackie from Melbourne, Australia, was energetic, quirky, hilarious, but knew her stuff. I loved her! Unfortunately our whole 3 hour tour was accompanied by a cold, misty drizzle. This tour was great though because we saw everything in the main part of Paris, Notre Dame, Pont Neuf, Palais Justice, Siene River, Henry IV statue, Louvre, Jardines Tuileries, Concorde Plaza, Champs Elysees to finish at Petit Palais. It was exhausting, but totally worth it!

St. Michel

Notre Dame

Pont Neuf

Such a misty day

Jardines Tuileries

Plaza de Concorde. That was a "gift" from the Egyptians when Napoleon invaded.

Fountain that Anne Hathaway throws her phone in at the end of The Devil Wears Prada.

Champs Elysees

Petit Palais

Val and I by the Siene River

After that we headed over to the Louvre, which we also got into for free with our student visas! I was really tired and had only one true mission, to see the Mona Lisa. Val and I gave ourselves and hour and a half then we were going to head back to our hostel. So I saw the Mona Lisa, which is really tiny and there were so many people around to just see her! Then I also saw the Last Supper by Da Vinci which is beautiful. Then I walked around, sat as much as I could, and looked at some Spanish renaissance paintings. The Louvre is just so overwhelming and very easy to get lost in, but the building itself is gorgeous because it was the royal palace before Versailles was built. 

Inside the Louvre

The Mona Lisa, so tiny

All the people around the Mona Lisa

Da Vinci painting, last supper

Inside the Louvre

The Louvre

DAY 4 of Spring Break, DAY 3 of the City of Paris: March 29th

In the morning, I headed to a flea market that a friend had told me about which is supposedly really famous. Well, it actually wasn't that cool and way out on the north end of Paris. I thought i was going to have some really cool jewelry finds and stuff but it basically just had random clothing, shoes, and cheap looking jewelry. I was a little disappointed, but determined to find some cool paintings so I headed back to the Montmarte district. I found a beautiful, original water color up by Sacre Couer, then grabbed a sandwhich and ate lunch in this little park which looked over the entire city. It was just beautiful and a much prettier day than the day before.

After that I went back and hit up some of the places we had gone by on our walking tour. I actually went inside the Notre Dame which was stunning. At one point there are all these wood carvings of stories of the bible, so back in the day illiterate people could understand. However, I did not feel like climbing the 500 stairs up a spiral staircase to the top. I also walked across the pedestrian bridge over the Siene River, the bridge where on the series finale of Sex and the City Big tells Carrie that he loves her! But he is not the only one, many couples share their love by signing and attaching a lock to the wires of the bridge. Oh and one other movie reference, at the end of the Pont Neuf bridge there is a building with "Samaritaine" on it. Matt Damon in Bourne Supremacy hid behind the "M" when he tells the guy to meet him on Pont Neuf, take off his jacket and turn around!

Notre Dame

Inside the Cathedral

Carvings of Bible stories

Stain glass of Notre Dame

Locks on the bridge

See the Samaritaine in the background?

Afterwards, I grabbed a crepe with nutella from a street vendor and relaxed in the Luxembourg gardens. The French do know how to relax they have chairs everywhere by fountains and in gardens for people to sit down. Also, they are the country that gives their employees the most holidays off. I should work here! haha

Luxembourg gardens and the only skyscraper in Paris city limits.

Luxembourg Palace

From my tour guide, I had heard that the Comedie Theater saves about 60 seats every show that you can buy for 5 euros about an hour before the show starts. I had nothing better to do that night, so I stood in line and got my ticket for 5 euros, grabbed a quick dinner, and then went to the French Theatre. The show was the L'Illusion Comique so I understood it was about an comic illusion. I was hoping that it was going to be with a lot of action so I could possible have an idea, but it was mostly monologues and dialouge that I did not undeerstand at all! It was supposedly really funny though and the acting appreared really good. The theatre was also gorgeous! However after about 2 hours of watching a show in a language that I didn't know, I was ready to go. But it was an excellent cultural experience!

Theatre

Stage

DAY 5 of Spring Break, DAY 4 of the City of Paris: March 30th

This was my last day in Paris. I woke up and headed straight for the Petit Palais where they were holding a Yves Saint Laurent, YSL, exhibit for the late fashion designer. An hour and a half wait in line and 11 euros later, I finally made it into the exhibit! It was spectacular, the highlight of my visit to Paris!!! There were hundreds of haute couture dresses that he designed from his days at Dior in the 60s to his final fashion show in 2002. The exhibit was just perfectly designed! I spent about 2 hours in there and even though pictures were prohibited, I couldn't help but sneak some in. 

From the Dior years

Mock up of his work space

Window in the exhibit

Inspired by Spain

Final room with a hundred couture dresses!

Petit Palais is located at the end of Champs Elysees, so after the exhibit I walked up it to the Arc de Triomphe which has 12 streets that enter the traffic circle. According to statistics an accident on this circle happens every 30 minutes! But don't worry pedestrians don't have to worry about crossing it, there is a tunnel underground. Under the arc is where the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is located in France. I bought a ticket to travel to the top but I was not aware of the hundred stairs you have to climb to get there. It was totally worth it though! Before you get to the very top there is a part with a screen that looks down below, so you can see everyone walking under the arc. The view from the top was spectacular though! 

Arc de Triomphe

underneath the arc

Tomb of Unknown Soldier

Screen to see below you

Intersecting roads

Sacre Couer in the distance

View of the city

That pretty much consists of my trip to Paris. I went to bed early that night, because I woke up at 2:30am to catch the shuttle I reserved to pick me up around 3:30am. Of course we picked up some other people to take, but they ended up having to go to Orly Airport and I was going to Charles D'Gualle. My driver seemed a little upset about this but he said it would be ok, if we went to Orly first then Charles. Of course, we hit a bad car accident on the way to Orly, I was worried that my bad travel kharma had returned! I only wanted to see my mom! But we made it through and then made it to Charles D'Gualle with plenty of time! I landed safe and sound in Madrid a few hours later and found my mom easily!

Spring Break Begins with Versailles

Thursday March 25th, my friend, Val, and I left Bilbao to Barcelona to Paris. In Barecelona we met up with Val's friend from U of I, Sam, and Sam's friend. Our flight was delayed about an hour so we didn't get into Paris until 11pm. The train we were suppose to take into the city was not functioning for some odd reason, we were told to take a night bus. After about an hour wait, people started bailing into taxis. We decided since we had 4 people, it couldn't be that expensive and grabbed a taxi. On our way to our hostel we caught a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower and it was sparkling because it was exactly 1am, so pretty!



Friday, March 26th Val, Sam, and I headed into Versailles to tour the Chateau and to meet up with Val and Sam's friend, Caroline, who's studying in Versailles, which is about a 30 minute train ride outside Paris. When we first got there we were going to tour the gardens and wait to see the chateau later becuase it was cheaper after 3pm. Of course, it was windy, cold, and little drizzly so we ditched the gardens, ducked into a McDonald's and waited for to come get us.

The gardens all misty and cloudy

By the time we met up with Caroline the sun had come out and it was a beautiful day. Caroline toured us around her University; she's studying architecture and her university is the old stables of the Chateau, so right across the street. During the tour, she pointed out these statues in a glass room and they are from the Louvre and being restored there! So cool! Also, her apartment is right next to the Chateau, perfect location! Next, she took us to get some traditional Crepes! I got one with chocolate and glace cafe, coffee ice cream, it was huge and delicious!

Crepe with chocolate and coffee ice cream! YUMMY!

After Crepes Caroline informed us that we could get into the Chateau for free with our student visa! YES! So we headed over to the Chateau for our tour with a free audio guide. The Chateau is incredible on the inside! It always amazes me that people actually lived here and ruled a country from here! Also, it is amazing how people can keep all their stuff in great condition. One of my favorite parts of the Chateau, though, was they have an exhibit up right now called, Versailles Photography. It has pictures from the late 1800s up until now of the gardens, kings, visting US Presidents, and much more, incredible!

Versailles Chateau

The Chapel inside the Chateau

Hall of Mirrors

Queen's bed where she actually gave birth in front of the public to prove the legitimacy of her children.

 

After the Chateau, we walked around the gardens until the security told us they were closed. The gardens are so vast and expansive! Unfortunately it wasn't quite April yet, so none of the fountains were turned on or flowers planted. I was already impressed, so I can't imagine what they look like in their full extent! Then it was back to the city of Paris. I was so excited that it became such a lovely day, I was worried in the beginning there. Out of all the chateaus, palaces, and castles I've seen this semester, this was my favorite!

Neptune Statue in the Garden. Behind it the King would store his navy fleet.

View of the Gardens

Back of the Chateau

Kiss Me I'm Irish

Yes, even in Spain they celebrate Saint Patrick's Day, San Patricio. However, I asked Carmen why she was not wearing any green and she didn't understand. I explained to her that if you don't wear green on St. Patrick's Day than the kids will pinch you! She got a laugh out of that and said she had never heard of it. 
But that night a group of us went out to one of the many Irish Pubs in Bilbao, The Irish Stone, and found it was crowded with other Spanish students. There was a band and all the students had these tall, green, foam hats that said, "Happy St. Patrick's Day 2010! Guiness" I really wanted one but wasn't sure how to get one, oh well. We just stayed out for a little while, but it was a good time. I was just happy that Spaniards do celebrate St. Patrick's Day! 

Decorations in the bar

Irish Flag waving outside the bar

The foam hats everyone had

Relaxing Weekends in Bilbao

The past 2 weekends, March 12-14 and March 19-21, have been spent just relaxing in Bilbao. I decided not to travel and rest up for my big spring break coming up. However it seems that in Bilbao we have great weather during the week, like this past week was in the 70s and sunny. Wednesday some of my friends had a picnic on the beach, sadly I could not join them because I was in class. But once Friday rolls around the weather turns cloudy with a chance of rain, fortunately it stayed warm this past weekend. 


For the first weekend in Bilbao, on Friday the girls, Val, Katie, Dayna, Kassandra, and Morgan, had been craving good Mexican food and they heard of this place called Placer de Guadalupe that was really popular and we needed to get a reservation. For Friday lunch we got a reservation, however when we got there we were the only ones in the restaurant, which was fine with us. I think one of the greatest things about Spain is the menu del dia, menu of the day, which every restaurant has during lunch. It is a set price, three courses, appetizer, entrée, and dessert with about 3 to 4 choices for every course, also, wine or water and bread are included. At the Placer de Guadalupe it was only 10 euros for 3 courses! The USA really needs to adopt this idea. It was the best food, the bread was toasted garlic bread served with salsa, for appetizer I got a sort of quesadilla with ham, entrée was chicken enchiladas, and dessert was an amazing chocolate mousse cake drenched in rich chocolate sauce and whipped cream! And all for 10 euros!! This is definitely on my list of places to come back to! 

Quesadilla, Patato cakes (which I didn't try), and Garlic Bread

Sombrero decoration on the wall

After a great lunch, I met up with Mike and Jacklyn for some bike riding around the city. Bilbao through the tourist office allows people to rent bikes for free. All you need to do is register the first time you rent and then there are multiple locations around the city where you can pick up and drop off bikes. For about an hour, we road through the streets of Bilbao and along the Ria. It was a little colder than I would have liked, my hands turned bright red, and after a while it looked like it was going to pour so we decided to drop off the bikes. I still had a lot of fun even if my bike was little broken and kept shifting gears on its own when I would go up hills. It is a great, free way to see the city. I just am planning on doing it again when its warmer and sunnier out!

Mike and Jacklyn ready to ride around Bilbao!

Riding through the streets of Bilbao

That night was decided to be the Spanish all nighter night. In Spain, the clubs do not open until 2am so that is when everyone goes out and nobody returns until they are kicked out at 6am. We hadn't pulled an all-nighter yet so we decided to go to Fever which is way far away from Algorta so it would got 30 euros for a taxi if we wanted to leave early. See on Friday nights, the metro stops running at 2am, so enough time to get to the club and doesn't start running again til Saturday morning at 6am. First all the Spaniards hang out and drink in front of the club on the streets before going into the clubs, therefore they don't have to pay for expensive drinks in the club. So once we got to the club we were stuck until 6am! After about 4 hours and lots of dancing, I was very exhausted and ready to go. I successfully made it though! But I was about to fall asleep on the metro ride home. At 7am I tucked myself into bed to fully recover!

Me, Kassandra, Morgan, Val, Dayna, and Katie outside the club

Stage and DJ in the club

Saturday was just a relaxing day. Later that night I went to the Spanish cinema for the first time which is cheaper, 6 euros, than going to see a movie in the states. Also, they let you bring whatever food into the theater, like McDonald's. We went to see An Education which Dayna said was going to be a chick flick, although there is a romantic plot line in the story I would not call it a chick flick. I loved the movie though! I cannot wait to see it in English because Spanish dubbing does not show the true quality of the acting. Also, I was so excited that I knew what was going the whole time, my Spanish is improving!

Sunday, the sun made a small appearance so I figured it was a good time for a walk, but by the time I made it out of the house it was cloudy again. I met up Kassandra, Val, and Dayna and we walked along the beach. There is a great walking path with benches all along the Getxo beach, also it is scattered with ice cream stands which replaced the churro stands for the spring and summer time. We decided to take the cable bridge over to Portugalete, talked about it in one of my first posts, to just go explore. Even though it was Sunday we found a few things that were open, China Oriental store, bakery, and few bars. These Chinese Oriental stores are everywhere in Getxo and Bilbao. They are run by Chinese immigrants and sell basically about every cheap thing in the world, almost like a dollar store. They sell makeup to barbies to paper cutlery to party hats to linens to workshop tools and on and on and on. These stores are jam packed with anything and everything imaginable at a ridiculously low price! 

We stumbled upon this Mexican bar, Nopal Bar-Mex, and they have an excellent tex-mex menu so we got some guacamole to share. The guacamole was delicious and it came with salsa verde and jalapeños, which Dayna was very excited about! We decided to go back there this past Saturday too, Morgan and Katie us this time. We ordered margaritas and guacamole again. Then the bartenders put sombreros on top of our heads and took our picture for their website. It was hilarious! But Val started talking to the guy in Spanish and he said, "I'm sorry, I don't speak english." And we were just so confused because she was speaking spanish! Other than that this is definitely on our list of places to go back to. 

 

Dayna enjoying her Jalapeños 

The delicious guacamole!

with our margaritas & in our sombreros!

This past Friday, we all went to Casco Viejo to grab some pintxos and hang out because it was such a nice night. But first we saw this big, fair going on in the plaza by the ria. It is like a world market with vendors from all over the world. It is only going on from March 18 to April 11. They were selling jewelry, scarves, clothes, and other things. I didn't buy anything but I would love to go back to try and find some unique gifts for people.

Entrance to the Fair

After exploring the market, we headed into Plaza Nueva in Casco Viejo for some pintxos. Pintxos are small portions, like appetizers, of seafood, salads, meat-filled pastries, deep-fried pastries, and on and on. Each bar has their own variety of pintxos that they sit on top of the bar. You just ask for a plate and pick out which ones you want and then just let the bartenders know how many you got. I grabbed two, a croqueta and a seafood one. A croqueta is fried ball filled with a mixture made from butter, milk, and flour, and ham. (Carmen makes the best homemade ones). The seafood pintxo was shrimp and squid on a skewer on top of a piece of bread. It was very tasty! We sat outside the bars in the tables they have set up in the plaza. We just ate and talked for a while with many other Spaniards enjoying the weather and pintxos while their kids just ran around the plaza.

Pintxos!

It was nice to just have two weekends to chill in Bilbao, although I love to travel to different places, I need to explore where I am living too. I only have 7 weekends left in Bilbao and I would hate to leave a place I have lived for 4 months and not know it at all. I am very happy to have relaxed and seen where I have been living. Now, I just wish the weather would be nicer during the weekends!

Host Mom

I have been living with my host mom for a little over two months now. It is going well, I mean it is a very different living situation than I am used to. I cannot just walk down the hallway and hang out with friends anymore, also it is very different than having a roommate of your own age. I miss my roommate. However, my accommodations are very nice. My host mom always has delicious food prepared for every meal. Although it is harder to live on someone else's schedule who expects you to be home for every meal and spend time at the apartment. So at times, I feel like I have lost some flexibility and independence. 


With that being said, I really like my host mom, Carmen. She is flexible if I want to go out with friends or just spend the whole day in my room. Every once in a while we will watch one of her movies from her large collection. So far we have watched, My Best Friend's Wedding, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and Serendipity. The majority of the days Carmen sits in her chair and watches TV while knitting a scarf. She actually knit me a scarf! But I can always count on her being in the house if I ever need anything. I have almost become spoiled because I never cook my own food, if I do it consists of me putting it in the microwave for 2 minutes, I don't change my sheets, or do any of the laundry, my clothes show up clean, folded, and ironed on my bed! It will be an adjustment when I get home because I know my Mom won't be doing everything for me. Another great thing is Carmen is very patient with my Spanish and corrects me if I'm wrong so I can learn. We have conversations that range from everyday life to political topics. 


Carmen has a side table next to her couch that has a picture of her with every student she has ever had. We finally took our picture this last weekend. I am having my mom print and frame it so I can give it to Carmen as a going away present at the end of the semester!


I got really lucky, I know two people that have already moved houses due to their host moms and some other people that requested non-smoking houses and their families smoke. I got everything I asked for in a host mom and I am certainly grateful for it. 

My host mom, Carmen, and I