Weekend Trip to Paris!

Bonjour!!! This last weekend, a group of my friends and I took off for the beautiful, romantic city…Paris! To say it was freezing was an understatement…no words could explain how cold it really was. Coming from living in the snow for the past 2.5 years, one would think I would be able to deal with it, but all of us Boulder kids said we haven’t experienced something this cold…ever! The first day we were there was the coldest day in HISTORY in Paris. Can you believe that!?!? Ahhh SO COLD. I wore 3 pairs of socks and still could not feel my toes. Once we arrived to our hostel, St. Christopher, we had lunch down the canal. Our hostel was great and so much fun. We got an 8 person hostel room, which was huge and very spacious for all of us. We went to lunch at this great local restaurant, where I had THE BEST tiramisu. It was OUT OF THIS WORLD. AMAZING. UNREAL. It was the best tiramisu I have ever had and just wish I could have it again in my lifetime. After lunch, we went to nothing else but, the Eiffel Tower. Luckily, I had been to Paris before and got to go to the top, but this time..due to the weather, the very top was shut down due to “freezing.” Bummer! Oh well…we went up anyways to the midpoint (2^nd level) and it was just as good as a view! We climbed up all the stairs (my found counted going down and I believe it was around 685 stairs). Climbing up this was challenging seeing how unbearable the weather was to begin with and now having wind hit against our faces. I was surprised how many people were in line/climbing up due to it being off-season and freezing temperatures. After about 30-45 minutes at the top, we watched the sunrise set and the lights turned on throughout the city and on the tower itself…so beautiful. We made it down to the bottom and walked across the street for a direct view of the light show that takes place every hour for 5 minutes. It was fun to see this in person and felt so surreal that I was with all my friends standing in front of the Eiffel tower on a casual Friday night…it was too good to be true. Afterwards, we went back to our hostel and headed out for a night on the town. We ended up at a club along one of the canals, which was fun! Saturday morning we woke up and went on a free 3.5 hour walking tour through parts of Paris. This was a lot of fun, but very miserable at the same time due to the weather. We got to see Notre Dame, Tuileries Gardens, local squares, the Louvre, Champs Elysee, Arc de Triomphe, and more. It was a great way to see main parts of the city, given only the weekend. It was somewhat of a tease going to Paris, because there’s so much to do there and we only had about a day and a half to explore. After the tour, we headed to a little café for lunch that was recommend by our tour guide. Guess what I had…Frog Legs!!!! I thought I had to go all out because you only get to go to Paris how many times in your life? It was surprsingy really good and tasted like crab. I was just proud that I went for it! Afterwards, we went back to our hostel for a little nap and headed back out on the town for a Pub Crawl! This was my first Pub Crawl ever and it was a lot of fun!! It took place in Paris’ red light district and was led by the same people who led our walking tour earlier in the morning. This area was where the Moulin Rouge was as well. This part of the city was bustling with lots of people…sooo cold, but very fun! We went to three bars and then a club to end the night. We went back somewhat early (1-2am) because we had to wake up at 6am for our flight back to Barca…I probably got a total of 9 hours of sleep in the last 3 nights, but it was all worth it. Absolutely loved Paris, but didn’t have time for the most important thing…Crepes! Excited for this week because Zach comes to visit and off to London!!! This experience has been unreal so far, it still feels like I am living a dream…I never want this to end. 

The group climbing up the Eiffel Tower

We made it!

Group at night during light show

Pont des Arts Bridge (Love Padlocks)

The Louvre 

Frog legs for lunch

Lia and I in front of Moulin Rouge during the Pub Crawl

This last weekend was the coldest weekend in Europe since 1962 (I think I have that date correct). It has been soooo cold! Luckily, I’ve had some great meals to make up for this unnecessary weather. Yesterday, my friend Vinny and I went to this homemade pasta restaurant/store. It was DELICIOUS! We had Lasagna Bolognese and it was the most homemade tasting lasagna I may have ever had. It is called Taller de Pasta and it is only a block by our school…uh oh. I have a feeling we will be going back too soon. Tonight, Lia and I made our way to find some necessary Mexican food. I have been in need of a burrito since I have arrived and it has taken up until now to finally find something of that nature. Teicawey, which is down a little alley in the neighborhood of Gracia was a delicious request that was given to us by our program ISA. Thank god! Only 2 metro stops from campus…I can see this being a weekly occurrence as well. Other than food (not surprising), I don’t have much else to report other than I and many others are going to Paris this weekend! It is going to be freezzzzzing, but maybe if we climb the Eifel Tower, we will warm up a bit. 

On Friday, it was bitter cold out! I guess this was the coldest weekend in all of Europe for the past several years. ISA organized a walking tour through the neighborhood of Gracia, just outside the city center. I have heard a lot of great things about this neighborhood and have wanted to check it out for some time. When we arrived outside of the metro stop, it was soo cold and we did not know how long we would be able to last on this tour. My friends and I lasted about ten minutes and decided that we were too miserable and wanted to head back. Luckily I am here for three more months, so I will have more time to explore! Later in the evening, my girlfriends and I went to this “fairy bar” held in the wax museum right off of La Rambla. El Bosc de Les Fades, felt a little bit like a mix between a Disneyland ride and Rain Forest Café. It was sooo neat!!! Unfortunately we got there at 11pm and by then, all the tables were mostly taken. Also, this was definitely a local place and the fact that eight girls came in and started taking a bunch of pictures did not help us either. Next time we know to show up earlier!! We then took a cab down to the bars along the beachfront. These were really fun because there was a strip of about ten bars with loud music, flashing lights, and a bunch of people in them. After, we walked to Shoko, a beachfront Japanese club. It was huge and a ton of fun! I had never been there before, so it was fun to experience something new. Last night, some friends and I went to Camp Nou to watch the BARCA vs. Real Sociedad game…this was definitely an experience of a lifetime. The only downside was that it was about 30 degrees out and we were all FREEZING. We couldn’t feel our toes or hands, so we decided to leave at half time, which was a bummer…at least we get to say that we’ve been to a Barca game at Camp Nou! I would recommend going on not the coldest weekend in centuries…tonight is the super bowl, but it starts here at around 1am so I doubt I’ll be making it because I am feeling a bit under the weather. I wish I could go because I know it’ll be a lot of fun, but this is one of the first things in Barca that I have had to say no to…es muy dificil!!!  

 On our way to the Wax Museum/ Fairy Bar

El Bosc de Les Fades

It was FREEZING

Messi Jerseys 

SO AWESOME!

Wednesday night I had my first authentic tapas dinner…it only took 3 weeks. Two of my guy friends and I went to this little restaurant/bar that our tour guide from our bike ride recommended to us. It was in a little alley, with about six very very small wooden tables with little stools and low ceilings. We had octopus, mussels, bread with a tomato spread, patatas braves (potatoes with a special sauce), chicken croquettes, and manchego cheese. Thursday was a SNOW DAY in Barcelona!!! Can you believe that?! I looked out my window and was a bit confused because I saw zero inches of snow on the ground…but I guess one snowflake constitutes as a snow day in Barca? Classes were cancelled because people couldn’t get to work…too funny!! Thursday night, I went out with some of my girlfriends to this great restaurant called Melic Del Gotic. It was delicious!!! It was a place that served mainly meats and you got to choose which kind of meat you wanted, toppings, and the sauce. I shared Ox and potatoes with aioli sauce with my friend Laura. For an appetizer, we got bread with tomatoes, but usually they prepare it for you before bringing it to the table. However here, he brought us warm bread, cherry tomatoes, and garlic and we got to make our own! First you cut the garlic in half and rub the open side all over the bread. Then you cut the tomato in half and rub the juices over the garlic. Next, you drizzle some olive oil and salt on top and your ready to go! For dessert, we had Crema Catalana, which is a dessert they are known for. The restaurant itself was adorable and felt like we were in a small stone cave. Definitely worth going back! Afterwards, we headed off to a bar called Pippermints, where you can get 6 or 13 L drinks to share with a big group. We wanted to get the 13L fishbowl drink, but it seemed a little crazy…so we settled for the 6L and had lots of fun. It was a small place, but fun to go in a big group of friends. We headed home for an early night at about 1:30am.

Making our appetizer! 

 Ox!!

Friends at Pippermints