barceLOna abroad: 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.