PARIS

Hello! apologies that I haven't updated in so long,

Now that I am DONE WITH SCHOOL (!!) I am just enjoying some time in London and figured 1 AM is a good time to start a blog entry.

Since we have last spoken, I've gone to dublin and came back already. But this here entry is about PARIS (April 13-16). Some reflections about Paris in general: People were a lot nicer than I anticpated; Claire and I totally rocked the city with no guidebook and just a hostel map, but we saw SO MUCH, as you will soon be able to tell; their architecture is probably my favorite but in terms of the churches I must side with St. Peter's Basilica; table wine is always a good idea; no shortage of bread in this city; the Metro is nice but I like London's better; we bring the good weather with us (it was supposed to rain all three days but totally didn't).

The first day, Claire and I took a plane from London to Paris super early in the morning, like 6 am on April 13th. We were SO TIRED and got basically no sleep, but tried to rally and ended up going to see the Eiffel tower because it was uncharacteristically nice out. Then, we walked to the Arc de Triomphe and realized why people like Paris so much. After that, we were pretty pooped so we headed back to the hostel, which itself was a strange place. We were in a 4-bed mixed dorm, and our one roommate was a girl from Brandeis that we kept seeing all over the city, she was really nice and had been traveling for like 3 weeks. The other person was a really nice Brazilian Canadian guy, who had a kind of a hard time with English but was really really cool and had been to a billion places. After a significant nap, we decided to eat dinner in Monmarte and we saw Sacre-Coeur. We also saw a bunch of Parisian youth drinking outside on the church steps, which in Spanish is called botellon (KScriv- can you back me up on that?) but I don't know if there is an equivalent in English. We tried to be a part of that, but by the time we figured out how to get a bottle of wine, the police had stopped it.

She's a bit intimidating.

Up the skirt of the Tour Eiffel
A more typical picture, I guess.

What up ARC?

The youth participating in botellon. Sacre-Coeur

They love carousels in Paris; this one was in Monmarte but they were all over the city.

The next day, we had the biggest tourist day EVER. We started out walking to Notre Dame and then my favorite place, Saint Chapelle in the sunny morning. After that, we went to the Luxembourg gardens, which were BEAUTIFUL since the day was so nice. Although I am pretty partial to the British gardening and parks, those Gardens were gorgeous, and it felt like we really got to enjoy Paris in springtime with some legitimate Parisians. After a crepe, we headed to the Catacombs, which was by far the weirdest part of Paris. I enjoyed that much; I hadn't done that the first time around in Paris (2002) and it was sufficiently creepy. The catacombs are a network of skeletons that started to be organized in the 1400s I believe, should really check Wikipedia but I can't be bothered. That night, we met up with my friend from the huge BC New Year's Party named Emma. It was fun; she took us around to her favorite bar in Bastille and then we went into the gay district of Paris, strangely enough with one of her friends from her program that went to BROPHY Prep in Phoenix--all you AZ kids know people who went to Brophy. It was so weird to talk to someone who knew anything about Arizona, and he had gone to U of A a bunch of times AND said it was more fun than BC, so eat that private school kids. Haha I am joking; he was nice, knew French fluently. We went to an Irish bar, then we left.. Claire and I were rightfully pooped.

If I were religious, this would be why.

The infamous Rose Windows of Notre Dame

Another "If I were religious..." picture

ART..the best thing about EuroChurches is that you can go behind the altar and get cool perspectives like this.

A bit blurry, but you get the picture.

The side of Notre Dame

A back view of the Notre Dame

Saint Chapelle remains my favorite

St. Chapelle's own Rose Window

I LOVE THE SUN

Some symmetry in the gardens

The palace and gardens

Pretty!

Modern Art in the Luxembourg Gardens

Skulls in the Catacombs

SO MANY SKULLS

Translation?

The next day, our last full day, we decided to hit up the museums. We started at out at Musee D'Orsay and then went and had lunch along the Champs-Ellysses and took the time to walk up the stairs to the top of the Arc. While that was exhausting, it yielded some of the best views I have ever seen, of any city. Then we decided we were pretty tired still, so headed back to the hostel. That night we found out it was free for students to go into the Louvre, so we went! It was cool to go to a museum instead of a bar on a Friday night - something that just wouldn't happen in London. We saw the major sights, and I instantly remembered how immense that museum is. I would like to go back and spend days in there. Really. Then we got a good night's sleep and came back to London around 2 pm the next day!

On the Seine, walking towards D'Orsay.. it'd be nice to start everyday like this

Musee D'Orsay, just as cool as I remembered

A view from the top of the Arc

Looking down the stairs of the Arc

LOUVRE

Winged Victory!

Mona Lisa- I was more fascinated by the tourists. How many Christmas Card photos are taken here a year do you think?

Windblown HOTTIES outside the Louvre

I took a few days off from work, then quickly realized how much I had to do for school so basically remembered my academia and then studied for finals, because I was going to Dublin May 2-4 and had my last final on May 6.

Dublin was awesome. I was not expecting to like it as much as I did, but it was so nice to hang out with my family after so many months of not seeing them. Claire came too, and Aaron was there with his brother so we met up a lot. I It was a jam-packed three days and as soon as Claire puts up the pictures I will e-mail them and post them here, I promise! Being with my family made me realize how much I love them and how much I can't wait to reunite with the Arizona fam. Concentrating on the present, though, I've just been hanging out in London and basically waiting for my birthday. :) Emma (from Paris) is here this weekend and last night we had a good time. The rest of the weekend looks to be good, although the presence of tourists is almost too much to bear. Then KELLY COMES ON MAY 18!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT is so soon and I am so excited. I can't wait to have her here. We have vague plans to go to Barcelona, pending if Mariel comes to London or not... thank god you can plan things last-minute in Europe. I have been trying to settle a lot of things in Tucson, and it looks as though I might go back to live there early this summer if I don't get an internship in NYC for baeblemusic.com, a cool indie music website that streams free live video. But either way, if I live home for the summer or spend some of it in Tucson, being here has made me realized how much I miss these places I once claimed to detest.

Especially, bearing in mind London's not so favoUrable weather, I can't wait to get back to this, taken on a day when Beth and I decided to forego a football game in favor of Mount Lemmon:

Only a few more months!