Paris in Autumn

This past weekend in Paris was seriously one of the best weekends of my life. Paris is absolutely stunning in the fall, plus I got to see two of my best friends from home. Oh yeah ... and crepes with chocolate and banana is my my new favorite food.

Only the 10 single-semester Loyola students went on this trip, which proved to be much less hectic than all 30 of us traveling around. We all met up at the airport Friday evening and landed in Paris around 9pm. Getting to the hotel was a bit of a mess, but by the time we checked in it was around 11pm. Our hotel was only a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower, so we all walked over after we ditched our bags to soak in the nighttime atmosphere. The Eiffel Tower all lit up and sparkling at night is probably the most incredible sight I'll ever see. It was almost surreal to think that I was actually in Paris. Some of Jill's friends from Loyola who are studying in Cork, Ireland (and also happen to be my roommates for the spring semester) were also touring Paris the same weekend, so we met up with them under the Eiffel Tower and hung out until 1am or so until we just had to crash so we could get up and tour in the morning.

Another absurdly early wake up call, unfortunately with no coffee in sight (you'd think you could find coffee in Paris ... apparently not where we were). We all headed over to the Louvre and got Museum passes courtesy of Loyola which let us tour everything free for 2 days. Before we toured the Louvre galleries all of us caffeine addicts grabbed coffee and croissants in Starbucks. We saw the Mona Lisa first ... amazing in person. I didn't really understand all the hype over the Mona Lisa until I saw it for myself. It really is just that amazing. We quickly toured the rest of the painting galleries in just a couple of hours and headed out to find lunch and explore Paris. Most of the Loyola crew wasn't that enthused about touring (why not I can't even imagine), so Rachel and I branched off with a plan to conquer the city by ourselves. We ate quiche (typical, right?) in the Louvre courtyard like proper tourists, then walked along the Seine river taking in all the sights and shopping at the art vendor stands along the way. We walked all the way down to Notre Dame to tour the cathedral, then waited in line to climb to the top of the towers to chill with the gargoyles. SO many stairs! But by the time we got to the top the sky was clear and sunny so we could see all of Paris. What a beautiful city. We walked back down along the Seine River, grabbing coffee and crepes along the way, to the Musee de Orsay to see their extensive impressionist collection. We stayed until the museum closed at 6pm, and then Mary and Clarice met up with us! Mini-Ocho reunion in Paris! I was SO ridiculously excited to see them. They took Rachel and I on the metro to get dinner and see their nice Paris apartment. We spent hours at dinner just catching up and eating the most amazing French food ever. Their apartment is close to the Eiffel Tower as well, so we walked back over there at night. Mary, Rachel, and I bought tickets to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. It was too windy to go all the way to the very top, but we got up to the second tier. Paris is even more stunning at night. It seemed so surreal that I was actually standing on the Eiffel Tower ... isn't that something you only see in movies? When we went back down to ground we saw Jill and my future roommates all hanging out on the green behind the tower. At night the field behind the tower is just one international party/photo shoot. Everyone just brings a blanket and a bottle of wine and just hangs out. So European.

Exhausted as we were, we got up early again on Sunday to see the rest of the city. Rachel and I took the metro to Mary and Clarice's apartment and they took us to the market to get baguettes for breakfast. Clarice had a huge paper to finish, but Mary spent the day being our tour guide. We went to Concorde Plaza, then walked all the way down the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triumph. Again, being proper tourists, Rachel and I climbed up another huge spiral staircase all the way to the top. It was a bit hazy on Sunday, but we could still see the Eiffel tower in the distance. We had extra time, so Mary took us to the Musee de l'Orangerie, the small Monet museum that's pretty tricky to find. Rachel and I are both huge Monet fans, so we were really excited that she could take us there. Since she's an art history major, she's by far the best person to tour museums with. The museum is small, but was definitely my favorite gallery in Paris. It just had 2 huge oval rooms with Monet's giant waterlily paintings. You could just sit in the center of the room all day and lose yourself in the paintings. Absolutely stunning. By 3:30 we had to leave Mary and get back to the hotel to pickup our luggage. We met up with Jill again and navigated the super-confusing metro/RER/train route to the airport. Luckily we had planned enough time to get a little lost. We got to the airport in time, but just absolutely drained from 2 packed days of walking all over Paris. I'm definitely considering going back to Paris for another weekend while I'm here. There's just so much more to see and do!

This week I get to be a tourist in Newcastle. Anna and Janine arrive in just a matter of hours ... another mini-Ocho reunion! I'm almost bouncing off the walls with excitement. Even though I've been here for a few weeks, I still haven't had time to see all the typical tourist sites in Newcastle. So Wednesday I'm just skipping classes and going out in the city and to the coast with them. Then Friday morning we all head off to Dublin. This should be a crazy week, but so much fun. I'm just so happy to see more of my best friends from home that I can't stop smiling!