Well it's official, I'm 21. Now I know that doesn't mean much while I'm here in Europe, but you better believe that as soon as I get back to the States, I will be having a big old American beer. Alissa's birthday is the day before mine, the thirteenth, so we decided we should do something extra special to celebrate our birthdays, so we choose to go to Paris.
Our luck with traveling continues. Those of you who have traveled in Europe I'm sure have heard of Ryanair. Ryanair is the Dollar General of airline, you get what you pay for. Since we paid 40 Euro for our flight, apparently that meant there was no guarantee we'd actually get to Paris. When we got to Pisa, we saw that there was a twenty minute delay for our flight, then they changed it to 45. We were finally starting to board the plane, Alissa hands the nice French women her ticket and she says "oh no, there is a problem, we have to stop boarding". A few minutes later we found out there was something wrong with the plane we were suppose to be on, and they had to send a plane from God knows where to get us to Paris. I of course am freaking out becuase Sigrid has already been waiting for us in Paris for over an hour.
The next problem that arises is that the airport we had planned on flying into, Beauvais which is still an hour away from Paris, closes at midnight and we weren't even planning on leaving Pisa until almost 11:30. Soooo...what does Ryanair decide is the best solution?? Fly us to Belgium and bus us to Paris. Ok, it wasn't really Belgium, but it was Northern France and it makes the story better. We'll call it "Almost Belgium" from now on. So it took us another two and a half hours to get from Almost Belgium to Paris, making it 3:00am before we got to Paris.
Although it was a pain in the a** trying to get to Paris, as soon as we got into the city we realized it was totally worth it. Sigrid was able to check into the hotel and was at the hotel to greet us at the door when we arrived...let the fun begin!!
Midnight of Alissa's birthday, spent on the airplane. How exciting!
Leaving Florence at 4:00pm for our 7:50 flight, turned 11:30. Here we are posing for a picture in Almost Belgium, only to fight for a seat on the 2 and a half hour bus ride to Paris.
The six of us in front of the door to our hotel. It was such a nice place, very small and quiet. However; this came to haunt us. So, to save money we decided to book a five person room for the three nights we were there. The first two nights there were going to be six of us, and the last night seven. Sounds like a good idea, but the people at the front desk were keeping tabs on us. VERY long story short, we totally got away with it, after paying off the man at the front desk. So 70 Euro later, and lots of negoitating we were home free.
Paris has a really good metro system, and since it is such a big city, we took it just about everywhere we went. This is a friend McKenzie made on our first metro ride. They had a rap-off. I think McKenzie won for sure.
After stopping at the Starbucks around the corner from our hotel (I hadn't had Starbucks for three months, and if you know me at all you would understand my excitement), we headed to the Louvre.
Hopefully this looks familiar.
The Louvre was really neat. It had all different eras of art from Renaissance to modern art. Besides the Mona Lisa, my favorite part was a Picasso exhibit.
We love fall!
On our way to the Eiffel Tower, we walked past a building with lots of people and police officer standing outside it. They were waiting for someone important. We were hoping maybe Obama or Brittney Spears, but it was the French foreign minister and his Palestinian guest. Not quite as exciting, but still interesting.
The Eiffel Tower at night...Priceless. It started sparkeling and was beautiful!
We're 21!!
Getting all pretty for her birthday dinner.
We ate a restaurant down the street from our hotel, called Hippo. It was exactly like an Applebees. We asked them if they did anything special for birthdays, and they said yes. Ten minutes later they came out from the back singing happy birthday (just like Appelbees) and gave Alissa this. We thought it would include cake, or some kind of dessert for the matter, but all it was, was foil with sparklers sticking out of it. It's the thought that counts, right?
Anohter hilarious story in Paris....So we met these college students studying in Paris while we were waiting for our plane in Pisa and they told us a bunch of places we should check out. They told us about a club that was always a "hot spot" on Thursdays, and was really close to our hotel. Since it was Thursday we thought we'd check it out. So we find this "hot spot club", paid the 20 euro to get in, the 2 euro to check our coats, and walked to the dance floor. It didn't take us long to figure out that we were completely out of place. Everyone there was wearing white, and the six of us were wearing a range of brown, dark blue, and black. Apparently it was a party for a school and everyone was suppose to wear white. We decided we needed to get out of there so Marie and McKenzie tried to talk the doorman into getting our money back. We found out it was going to be impossible to get our money back, so we went outside to try to sell our tickets to other people. After our we all sold our tickets for 15 Euro (if you did the math you will realize this little escapade), we were off to find another place to celebrate.
Since none of us had been to Paris, we didn't know where all the real hot spots were, so we decided to ask a random guy on the streets. So instead of just pointing in the direction or showing us on a map, he decides to take us there. Now this guy seems pretty harmless at first, but the farther we walk, the darker it gets and the less people we see. You would think if we were going to the bar seen it would be the opposite. Anyway, somehow we end up by the Luxemburg Gardens, and I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure a few dead bodies have turned up there. We finally asked him, and shortly after we turned down a road that was pretty comparable to Welch...kind of.
The first bar we went into was filled with old men, so we thought we'd try another, a more exclusive one. Our friend takes us to Castell, but he said we may not get in because we need to have "smart shoes". Apparently our shoes were "smart" enough because we got in after being looked up and down by the doorman. So we walk into this "club" and it looks like a house at first. We keep walking, check our coats and head to the dance floor. I decide to get a drink, because by this time it's my birthday. I don't know why I thought this would be a good idea considering we were in one of the nicest clubs in Paris, but my drink was 18 Euro!! Later we find out that this club is for members only, and we just happen to ask one of them for directions to a bar. For your enjoyment I have posted links for you to visit and learn more about this club.
http://petitebrigitte.com/2007/03/12/chez-castel-hot-boite-or-shameless-brothel/
Our luck with traveling continues. Those of you who have traveled in Europe I'm sure have heard of Ryanair. Ryanair is the Dollar General of airline, you get what you pay for. Since we paid 40 Euro for our flight, apparently that meant there was no guarantee we'd actually get to Paris. When we got to Pisa, we saw that there was a twenty minute delay for our flight, then they changed it to 45. We were finally starting to board the plane, Alissa hands the nice French women her ticket and she says "oh no, there is a problem, we have to stop boarding". A few minutes later we found out there was something wrong with the plane we were suppose to be on, and they had to send a plane from God knows where to get us to Paris. I of course am freaking out becuase Sigrid has already been waiting for us in Paris for over an hour.
The next problem that arises is that the airport we had planned on flying into, Beauvais which is still an hour away from Paris, closes at midnight and we weren't even planning on leaving Pisa until almost 11:30. Soooo...what does Ryanair decide is the best solution?? Fly us to Belgium and bus us to Paris. Ok, it wasn't really Belgium, but it was Northern France and it makes the story better. We'll call it "Almost Belgium" from now on. So it took us another two and a half hours to get from Almost Belgium to Paris, making it 3:00am before we got to Paris.
Although it was a pain in the a** trying to get to Paris, as soon as we got into the city we realized it was totally worth it. Sigrid was able to check into the hotel and was at the hotel to greet us at the door when we arrived...let the fun begin!!
Midnight of Alissa's birthday, spent on the airplane. How exciting!
Leaving Florence at 4:00pm for our 7:50 flight, turned 11:30. Here we are posing for a picture in Almost Belgium, only to fight for a seat on the 2 and a half hour bus ride to Paris.
The six of us in front of the door to our hotel. It was such a nice place, very small and quiet. However; this came to haunt us. So, to save money we decided to book a five person room for the three nights we were there. The first two nights there were going to be six of us, and the last night seven. Sounds like a good idea, but the people at the front desk were keeping tabs on us. VERY long story short, we totally got away with it, after paying off the man at the front desk. So 70 Euro later, and lots of negoitating we were home free.
Paris has a really good metro system, and since it is such a big city, we took it just about everywhere we went. This is a friend McKenzie made on our first metro ride. They had a rap-off. I think McKenzie won for sure.
After stopping at the Starbucks around the corner from our hotel (I hadn't had Starbucks for three months, and if you know me at all you would understand my excitement), we headed to the Louvre.
Hopefully this looks familiar.
The Louvre was really neat. It had all different eras of art from Renaissance to modern art. Besides the Mona Lisa, my favorite part was a Picasso exhibit.
We love fall!
On our way to the Eiffel Tower, we walked past a building with lots of people and police officer standing outside it. They were waiting for someone important. We were hoping maybe Obama or Brittney Spears, but it was the French foreign minister and his Palestinian guest. Not quite as exciting, but still interesting.
The Eiffel Tower at night...Priceless. It started sparkeling and was beautiful!
We're 21!!
Getting all pretty for her birthday dinner.
We ate a restaurant down the street from our hotel, called Hippo. It was exactly like an Applebees. We asked them if they did anything special for birthdays, and they said yes. Ten minutes later they came out from the back singing happy birthday (just like Appelbees) and gave Alissa this. We thought it would include cake, or some kind of dessert for the matter, but all it was, was foil with sparklers sticking out of it. It's the thought that counts, right?
Anohter hilarious story in Paris....So we met these college students studying in Paris while we were waiting for our plane in Pisa and they told us a bunch of places we should check out. They told us about a club that was always a "hot spot" on Thursdays, and was really close to our hotel. Since it was Thursday we thought we'd check it out. So we find this "hot spot club", paid the 20 euro to get in, the 2 euro to check our coats, and walked to the dance floor. It didn't take us long to figure out that we were completely out of place. Everyone there was wearing white, and the six of us were wearing a range of brown, dark blue, and black. Apparently it was a party for a school and everyone was suppose to wear white. We decided we needed to get out of there so Marie and McKenzie tried to talk the doorman into getting our money back. We found out it was going to be impossible to get our money back, so we went outside to try to sell our tickets to other people. After our we all sold our tickets for 15 Euro (if you did the math you will realize this little escapade), we were off to find another place to celebrate.
Since none of us had been to Paris, we didn't know where all the real hot spots were, so we decided to ask a random guy on the streets. So instead of just pointing in the direction or showing us on a map, he decides to take us there. Now this guy seems pretty harmless at first, but the farther we walk, the darker it gets and the less people we see. You would think if we were going to the bar seen it would be the opposite. Anyway, somehow we end up by the Luxemburg Gardens, and I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure a few dead bodies have turned up there. We finally asked him, and shortly after we turned down a road that was pretty comparable to Welch...kind of.
The first bar we went into was filled with old men, so we thought we'd try another, a more exclusive one. Our friend takes us to Castell, but he said we may not get in because we need to have "smart shoes". Apparently our shoes were "smart" enough because we got in after being looked up and down by the doorman. So we walk into this "club" and it looks like a house at first. We keep walking, check our coats and head to the dance floor. I decide to get a drink, because by this time it's my birthday. I don't know why I thought this would be a good idea considering we were in one of the nicest clubs in Paris, but my drink was 18 Euro!! Later we find out that this club is for members only, and we just happen to ask one of them for directions to a bar. For your enjoyment I have posted links for you to visit and learn more about this club.
http://petitebrigitte.com/
All the pretty people...I'm surprised they didn't take my camera away from me for taking this picture. Apparently they like to keep it private, but I wasn't getting out of there without snapping a few shots!
The normal clientel. As you can see not much different from the first club we went into. Old rich men...and why couldn't one of these old farts by me my damn drink??
All of us thinking its absolutely hilarious that we somehow have gotten ourselves into another unbelievable situation.
The outside of the club.
The four of us will be living together next semester!! (hannah, mckenzie, abbey, me)
We had a picnic outside the Eiffel tower on my birthday. Of course we got champagne! Can't think of a better way to celebrate our birthdays!
We had two bottles. Sigrid opened this one, and I opened another. The corks shot off far from where we were sitting, but when we were walkng to go up the tower, we found one of them!!
Views from the top!
I know what you're thinking...."Vivi, you were in Paris in 1998?" Nope, apparently I'm not the only Vivi out there! Exciting news for me.
Arc de Triumph. Not very exciting, but felt like it was something we needed to see.
Outside the Notre Dame.
Apparently it's free to go inside...well at least it was the day we went. Pretty exciting news for us.
Model of the Notre Dame. If you look realllly closely, you can see the Hunch-back.
So to save ourselves the trouble, we decided to stick close to our hotel. We went to the Thai restaurant right down the street and then a bar right across the street after. It worked out much better than walking around Paris. The only downer was we had to make our own fun, which didn't seem to be hard with me and Alissa there for entertainment.
At the Thai restaurant, blowing our the candles to my weird birthday cake.
Our giraffe of beer.
The creepster bought all seven of us flowers. I know it sounds nice, but he was definitely creepin'.
Speaking of creepin'...this is me TOTALLY creepin' on this guy. I don't know why but I thought it was absolutely hilarious to touch his hair. Don't ask! As you can see, he got a little irritated with me, in good reason. Sorry French dude!
This is pretty much where the appropriate pictures end. Hey, what do you expect, it was my 21st birthday.
Of course my camera died, so I don't have any pictures of the final day, but I'll try to get some from Abbey or Alissa so stay posted!
Paris was absolutely amazing, by far my favorite city ever! Yes, even better than Chi-town, hate to say. I hope everyone gets a chance to go someday! My birthday was perfect, well of course it would have been more perfect if all of you were there :)...well most of you, I'm not sure who all is reading this.
Thanks for all of the birthday wishes, cards, and phone calls!
Miss and love you alllllll!!
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