Paris trip

Paris-

Since we had a week off from school, a few of us decided to go to Paris for three days.

The trip started with an overnight bus ride to Madrid from Cadiz, which took eight hours. That bus ride sucked. I slept most of the way but the seats were cramped, the bus was super hot, and there was no bathroom on the bus. Once we got to Madrid, we took the metro to the airport and flew to Paris. The language barrier was a huge problem although most people in Paris speak a little English.

Once we arrived in Paris, we took another metro to our hotel and checked in and everything. Our hotel was about a five-minute walk to the Eiffel Tower, which was nice. So the first night we just went there and walked around that area.

The second day we went to the Louvre in the morning. The Louvre is a huge museum that houses the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and also has Napoleon’s apartment in it. It has three different sections and each section has at least three floors so it takes a while to get around to everything. We spent about three and a half hours there and we were going pretty fast. After that we went to the Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. Then we walked to Notre Dame and looked inside the cathedral for a while. Then we went to the top of one of its towers and its all stairs up and down. There’s no stopping point or anything and its full spiral stairs, it was a work out. Once we got to the top, it was worth it. You could see the whole city and the day was pretty clear. After Notre Dame we walked around some more and finally went back to the hotel. We went out to dinner really late and nothing was open. We eventually just went to Chinese food, haha. The lady didn’t know English and we didn’t know a word of French so I got to practice my Chinese.

The next day we went to the Catacomes of Paris. The Catacomes were an old mine which turned into a grave for all the people that died from the plague. It was cool but also kind of creepy. After that we went to a cemetery that a good number of famous people were buried. This cemetery was huge! The cemetery didn’t have headstones or tombstones; it had huge monuments for each person. A lot of them were family tombs and had a lot of names on the grave. After the cemetery, we went to Sacre Coure, which is another cathedral but this one was up on a hill and you could see the whole city from the top. Then we went to see Moulin Rouge and walked around the neighborhood a little bit.

The last day we walked around in the morning before heading to the airport and flying back to Madrid. Once we got back, we went to the bus station to catch the eight-hour bus ride home. This time, I only slept for about three hours and the bus was still super hot. Never again will I take a bus for that long. I actually hate buses now. I would rather pay a few extra dollars or euros for a plane ticket.

Pictures from the Paris trip will be posted shortly.