Party in the FRA

When I woke up this morning, I could not fathom that it was already morning. I thought Kaylee was somehow deranged and had mixed up the time somehow! Yesterday must have really taken a toll on me (and understandably so--we got up at 3 and once we arrived, we only sat down for a collective 15 minutes, because we walked everywhere and ate standing...)

We went down to our hostel's gourmet French breakfast buffet. Yummy cereal, a baguette, hot chocolate with real milk, and orange juice. Le Regent Montmartre took care of us. It may have had interesting scents in the building, and questionable stickers on the walls and stairs, but it was fabulous. Our two little sets of bunk beds felt just like home! Plus, we loved our red carpet with clashing magenta curtains and burnt orange checked blankets. Sick! Yet so perfect.

We walked out of the hostel and looked straight up to the Sacre Coeur. We were legitimately three streets away from the base of the staircases leading upwards. Stairs do not fear us, and we made it up. There were hundreds of Scottish men in kilts playing their bagpipes up there and men painted white acting like statues. It was amazing! And inside the actual basilica, the mosaic ceilings and the architecture was such a cool review from my college humanities classes.

It was then that I realized how close we were standing from the apartment my Mom and I stayed at when we came to Paris two years ago. I somehow led us straight to the front door of the apartment, then showed the girls around the surrounding area. It was an exact replica from two years ago, minus leaves. It was so cool to see the carousel, then buy fresh strawberries at a fruit stand, and get a "banula" crepe. (Banana nutella. Heaven.) It's the best creperie I have ever been to, and my Mom is the one who gets the credit for discovering it.

Then we rushed to meet our friends who stayed at a hotel under the Half of us flew up the stairs and enjoyed the breathtaking view from the top. After two Paris trips, I can still call that my favorite part of Paris. Then we walked down the Champs Elysees and saw all of the elaborate shops on our way to the Eiffel Tower.

We were almost at the Eiffel when we decided to hop on a boat and do a Seine River boat tour! I love spontaneity! We sat outside and socialized so we couldn't really hear the tour-guide recording, but I've already heard it twice so I didn't care one bit. Oh, and two OLD men in kilts mooned us from the top of one of the bridges. Don't worry, they each mooned us twice. That was not the first time on the trip, either, which made it even funnier!

After our boat-tour, we went to the Eiffel Tower. Last night when we went, the top floor was closed to the public and the man said it would be closed for a week. We were shocked when we got there and there were lines for the top. We crossed everything else off of our agendas for the day and got onto that elevator. It was freezing up top and very windy but it was gorgeous and so much fun! It made the L'arch de Triomphe look absolutely tiny. We got split between two elevators, and my friends' elevator actually got stuck half way down! They say that only happens once a year!! Scary! One of the girls is claustrophobic, too, so I'm glad they weren't stuck forever. But we did not know they got stuck, so we thought they left us and were way worried the group would never reunite. As we were leaving, they lit it up, and as we started walking away, the twinkling lights turned on. It was stunning. Oh I just love Paris!

And of course we went to get more crepes; some of these girls here haven't been eating sugar and decided to eat sugar while we were in Paris, so they may or may not have been living that up fully. But we walked like 50 miles this week, so who cares?! Then we went to find them a Monoprix so they could get chocolate. We found Milka with hazelnuts inside, and it's incredible. Thanks for the tip, family!

When we got back to London, it felt like we were returning home. I love London! London is so much cleaner than Paris!!!! And it was so fun to walk with the young, drunken Scottish men in kilts in the train station. They were so wasted, and it was entirely entertaining. I loved Paris, but boy does it feel good to be back in my little bunk bed with zero privacy!

So posting pictures to Blogger is too frustrating for me and I do not have enough time to mess with more pictures and getting them put in the right place. Sorry! I'll put them all on Facebook in the next week, hopefully!

Ashley and I by the Seine and the Eiffel

Notre Dame is gorgeous at night!

It was a little windy and chilly at the top of the Eiffel tower... We got inventive ;)

Look at the gorgeous view of the city and my gorgeous Liz!

This is my future room-mate Elise for Fall Semester. We possibly went in this small porta-potty together to save time and skip the sanitation step! Hehe too funny! When we walked out together, there was a guy in his mid-twenties first in line and just looking at us completely confused. We just kept on walking and never looked back! She'll be a perfect roommate for me!!