Ca va, toi!

So this will be the last of my travel blogs.... meaning the last of my travels outside Denmark. I got back from Paris late Monday night, and have been doing work ever since. Finals are this week, but I have a little over an hour between classes right now, so obviously I have to prioritize and write my blog. It's a little difficult right now because I'm on a Danish computer at school, and everytime I try to type an apostrophe, I end up getting one of these: ø

Becky and I left for our Paris adventure on Thursday night, and neither of us were really feeling up to it. We had been traveling for essentially an entire month straight, with only a week and a half in Copenhagen. BUT Paris is a must-see, and we decided that we were willing to rally. I mean, not that we had a choice.... being the genius that I am I never put cancellation insurance on my flights.

The first order of business was finding our hostel. The second order of business was finding a crepe. We fell in love. If we counted correctly, I'm pretty sure Becky managed to eat a grand total of 9 crepes in the 4 days that we were there haha. But anyway, our hostel was called "Yound and Happy" and it was on Rue Mouffetard in the Latin Quarter. The location was definitely ideal, and the name led us to believe that the hostel would be full of young, happy people. We had been pretty lucky with hostels up until this point, so I guess it's only fair that we got stuck with a stinker. Well, really, it was just cleanliness that was the issue. I know I'm kind of high maintenance, but there were multiple mysterious stains on my sheets (which we had to PAY FOR by the way) and the bathroom floors were covered in some suspicious little black curly hairs. Yummmmmm.

Young and.... dirty??

We managed to suck it up for 4 nights, and it was worth it. Friday morning, we wandered around a little bit, checked out Notre Dame (didn't find Quasimodo though) and waited for the rest of the Gettysburg crew to arrive. Jenn, Jamie, and the Megs showed up around 1 and we spent the remainder of the day being fabulous and shopping on Champs-Elysees.... probably the best shopping street in the world. We picked the right time of year to come, too, because there was a huge Christmas market set up.... kind of like the one in Bath. Unfortunately, I wasn't really able to BUY anything (see bank account) but walking around was enjoyable enough. There were lots of pretty lights & all that good stuff too.

Notre Dame, the tree, and Becky

Lights!

We decided to stick to the area of our hostel in the Latin Quarter for dinner almost every night to save money. We found a pretty good place the first night and got a 3 course meal for €10-13. Okay, maybe that's not THAT cheap... but hey, it's Paris. Afterwards, Meg led us to an apartment where 2 other Gettysburg girls are apparently living for the semester. They were celebrating a birthday, and there were randomly like 10 other Gburgers there. So weird. We hung out for a while, roamed the streets, and then ended up just going home. Jenn, Meg, and I didn't feel like waiting (or paying) for a taxi, so we walked ourselves home from the Bastille area. On the way, we encountered some interesting French men who were asking for directions. They clearly knew where they were going... but they were just like "ohhhh we're confused! We'll just follow you to where you are going!" Ummm, nej tak. Jenn went into teacher mode on them and made good and clear the path that they actually needed to take.

Gettysburg in Paris

Saturday morning, I insisted that we do my favorite thing ever: the NewEurope free walking tour. Once again, did not disappoint... but our tour guide, Jacqueline, was CRAZY and almost everything turned into some sort of sexual innuendo. Fortunately free tours appeal to people my age, so no one seemed particularly horrified.

I'm Louvre'n it! (bahaha)

That afternoon, we met up with one of Meg's friends in Montmarte (I think that's how you spell it? I don't feel like looking it up.) which is where Pigalle st., the red light district, is located. We ended up sitting on the stairs outside of a big cathedral (this name is also escaping me) listening to some live music. It was at the top of a hill, and we had a view of the entire city. Perfect.


That night, we went to the Eiffel tower, fully intending to climb up. However, we were too late by like 5 minutes. So sad, but I ended up saving €13 so I can't complain. We got more crepes (ahaha...) watched the light show, and took tons of unecessary photos. At one point, I was just standing there harmlessly, and all of a sudden there was a guy in my face saying something in French. And then in a split second he was gone. I was so confused. Our French speaking friends informed me that he had said "ca va toi", which apparently translates to something like "you're good." Whaaateverrr.



The first Sunday of every month is free museum day in Paris. (Good to know if you are traveling on a budget!! Of course, this was just coincidence for us bc we obviously don't do much research) UNFORTUNATELY, this past week or so, the vast majority of the public museums in Paris have been on strike. Go figure. We did managed to get into at least a small part of the Louvre, as well as l'Orangerie... so that was good. I saw a few of the paintings that I've been studying in my art history class this semester so I was really excited about that, but Becky and I agreed that our attention spans for museums are not what they should be. Plus, we had gotten caught in the pouring rain and were all wet and squishy. My wonderful Old Navy boots are now completely destroyed. So we ended up just going back to the hostel, showering, and hanging out for a while. (I mean... not that a shower in that hostel gets you clean or anything.)

All of the other girls had left, and once again it was just me and Becky. We decided to be really cheap/really French for dinner, and got crepes, french fries, and brie cheese. Oh, it was healthy too. We saved the cheese for last.. and when I opened it, something smelled AWFUL. Conversation at this point went something like this:

Me: Ew, Becky did you fart? (Come on, this is not that out of the question)
Becky: NO? Oh my god, it's the cheese.
Me: Ew!! Do you think it's okay to eat?
Becky: I don't know, you eat it first.
(we sit and stare at the cheese, alternately smelling it and laughing for like 10 minutes)
Me: Maybe we should text Jenn and ask her?
Becky: Yeah, go for it.

So we texted Jen, our resident France expert. She just laughed at us and told us that all French cheese smells bad. We pretended to be reassured and ate the cheese, but we were definitely nervous and awkward the entire time. Kind of took away from the moment, you know?

Monday was kind of a waste, unfortunately. Because the museums were closed, because we were out of money, and because we had packed everything else into the first 3 days, we esentially had nothing left to do. And our flight wasn't until 9:15pm. We wandered around the red light district for a little bit, but ultimately ended up back in the common area of our hostel hanging out with some strange man whose name we do not know but that I like to call Howard, who is in his late 30s and has been traveling the world for a few years now. He really was weird, but he had some great stories about how he met Obama's grandmother in Kenya and all kinds of crazy stuff like that. So that kept us entertained until it was time for the airport.

All in all, I thought Paris was a great city... but I would really like to go back sometime when I have more energy... and money. Up until this weekend I will be scrambling to get the bulk of my work done so that I can have the last week to hang out in CPH with my friends and host fam. I am going to miss this place so much, it's not even funny. I do not envy the people at home who get to deal with my depression once the fairy tale semester is over.

Okay! Time for my last Visual Journal class everrrr. Stay tuned for at least one more blog post in the next week or so. I haven't written much about actual Denmark lately... and there is BIG STUFF going on here, with the COP15 Climate Conference and all that jazz. I just realized this, but it's going to be reeeaalllyyy fun trying to fly out of here on the 20th with all of the climate delegates and world leaders. Yep.


Vi ses!