Nice Was Nice, But Paris is Better

So now I'm in Paris. The city of love. Which is true. I've seen more people makeout here than I would ever see in the US. But last time I left off I was still in Nice, so I'll start there.

Sunday night we did not go out. We crumbed up the bed with baguette, did not bathe, and talked to some people in the lobby. And drank a lot of free juice that they had in the lobby of the hotel. Since we were still recovering from Barcelona, we went to bed early, and slept a night terror free night.

We woke up in the morning we woke up late and headed straight for the beach. On our way down the stairs we met a group of guys from Houston (Rice Village area) which was cool. We never spoke to them again, though. Upon arrival, we noticed a homeless man on the beach who had the worst skid marks on his whitie tighties (which served as his swimming trunks because he was washing and drying the rest of his clothes in the shower heads provided. Naturally, I captured him on camera and he has been dubbed 'Streaks'. We saw him later when we were out, once again passed out.

We laid on the beach for about 6 hours, getting surprisingly not burnt; rather brown like a pack of Mexicans. We finally showered (we hadn't done so since crossing the border, and maybe a couple days before that) and decided to head to old Nice to find dinner and something to do. First of all, Nice is purely tourist. And by tourists I mean old, rich, gay men. Its nice for a couple relaxing days at the beach, and the views are stunning. However, it is not in fact known for its nightlife. As we discovered. We went to a bar that we had gotten a flier for (amazing how publicity works) that advertised happy hour. Happy hour doesn't really exist in Europe to our knowledge, so we ran to Ma Nolans as fast as we could. They had some sort of beer on special and cocktails. I had a gin and tonic and a cosmopolitan. But it was not the cosmo I'm used to. It was more like a fruity, delicious girl drink. I loved it. While we waited for a table outside, we got to watch the France-Romania game in a French bar. Pretty awesome. European soccer fans put American football fans to shame. Then we got a table and had good, old-fashioned (although somewhat flame kissed) burgers and fries. After eating bread and cheese for pretty much 2 days, they were delish.

Afterwards, we went in and watched the Netherlands crush Italy, which was funny since Italy won the World Cup 2 years ago. And Analise is Italian and probably the only supporter of Italy in that place. There were some awesome dutch fans, all decked out in orange with funny hats. We decided (and by we I mean Analise because she was embarrassed to be supporting Italy) to try and find a different bar. Nice did not produce. We only found more restaurants. When we finally found a bar, the game was in the last few minutes, drinks were expensive, and we were exhausted from spending so much time in the sun. So we went home and passed out since we were supposed to catch the 9:45 train to Paris.

We got up extra early, packed, and took a cab (for 15 euros...thieves) to the train station. We got in line for tickets and realized that there is currently a train strike going on in France. When we finally got to the ticket desk, the man said that we wouldn't be able to get out of Nice until 5:30 that evening. I mean, at least we could get out the same day, but still. And we had already checked out of our hotel and had all our luggage with us. Awesome. So we paid 8.50 euro (around $13 american) to store it in a locker until we were to get on the train. Only the big pieces fit though, so I was stuck with my backpack and for some reason wore a long sleeve shirt. I boiled all day long. We walked around, shopped some, at cheap pizza, nothing too exciting. While we were eating, however, we were approached by gypsies for the first time. There were beggars in Barcelona, but nothing like this. These parents wanted us to give our pizza to their son. We said no at first, because it was going to be our only meal of the day. We did have a lot so Holly and Analise gave what they had leftover to the child. I didn't have any leftovers so I did not (judge me all you want). Then, the mother and father got in a fight in Italian and he stormed off. And the mother ate our pizza. And then she asked us for something to drink for the boy. What? I think no. Then, the father came back with sacks filled with groceries, which the child ate. Feeling like we'd been tricked, we left to look around Nice some more.

After an epic walk around Nice (okay, Nice is not epic, not even a little bit), we went back to the train station because I was boiling and we were out of things to do. And we sat. In the train station. For 3 hours on the floor. At least the floor was cold, I would not, however, make the mistake of calling it clean. We finally got on our train at 5:30 and were scheduled to be in Paris at 11:15 which for some reason I thought was only 4 hours in transit until we were on the train for 4 hours and realized that math should not be my major. On the train, we sat next to some really cool Australian guys who were traveling for a month...or maybe 2 weeks. I think a month. We had a good time drinking wine that we brought and Zoco (licorice flavored liquor...not bad with apple juice and water) that they brought and sharing stories about traveling in unknown places.

We finally got to Paris and got a cab to our hotel. It is especially bad that we don't speak French because I think we might have jipped some man out of like 2 euros since his job is to call cabs or something. I'm not really sure what happened because he was yelling at us in French. I told him we don't speak French and he just threw up his hands and huffed off. The cab driver was somewhat of an asshole. When he dropped us off at our hotel he was like 'You are staying here??'. Yes, we are, so what. The place is 25 euros a night per person, we can't afford much more. Since it was almost midnight, it was pretty dark and quiet out, making our hotel look extra sketch. The guy at the front desk didn't help all that much either, since I'm pretty sure he was high as a kite. We were situated on the 5th floor, which is actually the 6th floor since the ground floor doesn't count. Fortunately (I think) we met some guy who has been traveling alone who arrogantly whipped out his map to show us everywhere to go. He also helped me get my stuff up the stairs. Which is the only reason I shamelessly flirted with him. After we thought we got rid of him, we checked out our room which looked like a mental hospital with a bathroom lock on the door. I did not care. I was so tired and boiling again from dragging my stuff up the 6 flights on stairs that I stripped of my clothes and got into bed. The place was clean and we had our own bathroom, but modernity clearly happened in the 18th century.

While Holly and Analise were getting ready for bed, we heard a knock on the door. When we asked who it was, a voice said 'Uhhh, the guy from the stairs'. Of course I was pretty much naked in bed and I informed Holly and Analise that I would not be putting clothes on so hopefully he wouldn't be coming in. He asked us if we had a shower because he was supposed to and after several awkward pauses, was on his way. We passed out and woke up early since we were going to try and see as much of Paris in a day.

We woke up early the next morning to get a head start on conquering Paris. After a breakfast of croissant, baguette, and cafe au lait (pretty much just straight carbs and dairy), we went to the train station to get our reservations for the next leg of our trip, having learned from trying to get out of Nice. Thankfully, we made reservations with much trouble and took the metro to the center of the city. Somehow, on the metro, we were like 20,000 leagues underground because we had to climb lots of stairs for fresh air.

Once we found our way outside, we pretty much just started walking, trying to find the Louvre. After turning around a few times, we found it and it was amazing. It covers like several city blocks and at one time was a palace, which is incredible considering how big it is. It looks so French, too, with all the stone architecture and ornate decor on the outside. Then we walked through the garden in the middle, with the giant glass triangles that serve as the entrance and the amazing fountains. Had the fountains been in Barcelona, there would be no water in them due to the drought that is still a problem there. However, in Paris, water is abundant and the fountains are full and gorgeous.

We just walked around, drinking the Louvre in for awhile, and walked on to the Arc de Triomphe which rounds it out. We kept on walking towards the second Arc de Triomphe, which is at the end of the Champs Elysees. Between the Arc and the second Arc, we ran into the giant phallic symbol that France stole from Egypt. That's how the guy from the stairs described it, and I really don't know the actual name, but it was cool to see. It was huge and covered in hieroglyphics. The Champs Elysees is a really famous street in Paris that has a lot of designer stores, restaurants, etc. It was nice to walk on and see but we didn't really go in anywhere except the Quick Hamburger for lunch. The Quick Hamburger is like a nicer French Burger King. We were trying to eat cheaply, so it worked for that. And the fries were really good. But not really noteworthy and definitely not distinctly French.

After eating, we kept walking around the Champs Elysees, stopping to look at the second Arc de Triomphe and making our way down the other side of the Champ Elysees. We decided to try and find Notre Dame, since you have to see that if you go to Paris. However, Holly (who has been to Paris) saw some spires and so we headed that way. We got to the origin of the spires and started wondering where the tourists were, thinking we were at Notre Dame. Guess what, it was not Notre Dame. Cool architecture, but still not Notre Dame. So we decided to just follow the river until we found it. We got to walk through some cool neighborhoods, look into shops, and passed a bar that advertised specials during the soccer game that was happening later.

It wasn't too much further to Notre Dame and we made it in time to watch part of mass. I'm not religious but how many people can say they've been to mass at Notre Dame Cathedral? I can! There was a huge number of tourists, gypsies, and a couple nuns; all of which I ignored. We didn't stay too long, mostly because it was in French and after walking all day we all needed a drink. So we walked back to the pub we had seen the specials for to watch the Eurocup game and have cheap drinks.

The pub was a small dive bar, but I have a cheap mojito and beer was on special so we sat there and watched the game. Its really awesome to be in Europe while the Eurocup is going on because people here are crazy about soccer. Like nuts. The game with Portugal against Czech Republic. Portugal pounded Czech Republic. After the game we decided to find some dinner. We had seen a bunch of Moroccan restaurants and Analise wanted to try it so we found one that was close by and had a pretty cheap menu du jour, which is the same as the menu of the day that I enjoyed in Barcelona.

Moroccan food was amazing. I had a salad with goat cheese on crostini and walnuts and lamb skewers served with vegetables. Holly and Analise had tagine which is like stew with chicken and potato and lemon, also delicious. For dessert I had creme brulee, which was homemade and wonderful. I guess that's the only French thing I ate while in France. After we stuffed ourselves silly, we headed to the metro stop and the Eiffel Tower. By now, the sun had gone down so it was dark outside.

We got to the Eiffel Tower and walked towards the glowing building, since it was all light up it was really easy to spot. I took about 2 million pictures, most of them look the same, and we sat down on a footpath and waited for it to light up. From far away, we could see the top when we were walking around earlier in the day and I wasn't that impressed. But close up, I was blown away. It is bigger than I imagined, and with the night lights and people milling around speaking French, it was such an experience. I could stare it at for hours. Okay, I don't really have that kind of attention span, but I did give it a solid 30 minutes which is pretty good for a stationary object.

Eventually, 10:50 rolled around and it light up all crazy. Unfortunately, while we were sitting there we kept getting approached by street vendors wanting us to buy wine or souvenirs. I informed them that they were ruining my Eiffel Tower experience and to go away. Who knows when the next time I'll be in Paris looking at the Eiffel Tower at night, so I decided being blunt would be more worthwhile. While we were sitting there, this rat came out of nowhere and ran between Holly and Analise, causing mild hysterics for a couple minutes. Everyone survived and I am pleased to report that no diseases were caused by the invasion. After the Eiffel Tower, we finally headed to our hotel and bed after a long day of trekking Paris.

In the morning, we were supposed to get up relatively early to trek some more, but we all over slept and didn't make it out until around 11. We also all needed to shower (second time since being in France) and managed to clog up the shower drain. Awesome. We decided to try a museum but missed breakfast so we got some crepes (with ham and cheese...amazing) from a street vendor and headed to the Pompidou which holds one of the largest modern art museums in the world (this could be completely false but the building is huge so it make sense). We got poured on and went the wrong direction so it took us awhile to get there, but we made it and it was amazing.

There are all kinds of famous, modern artists like Jackson Pollack (although the few pieces they have of him do not seem very Pollack-y), Picasso, Dali, and a whole bunch more that are super famous that I had never heard of. I feel more cultured for having seen so much art, though. Some of it was a little strange and included noises, but overall it was awesome. After the museum we did a little shopping. Analise finally bought some Euro pants from a store that burns incense (she drags us into these places all the time and almost never buys anything). We ate some cheap Lebanese street food (falafel) and walked some more then headed back to our hotel to collect our things and go our separate ways, me to Madrid to meet up with Isabelle and them on the rest of their Euro journey.

I liked Paris a lot, but my heart is still in Barcelona. It is a totally different experience when you know the language and feel comfortable. Granted, we were only in Paris for 2 days, and I fell absolutely in love with it, but I like not feeling like a tourist and knowing stuff about the city, like how to get around. And I don't speak French.

I took a cab across town (for almost 16 euros...grrr) and waited in the train station for an hour before boarding my sleeper car to Madrid. I figured I would probably only be willing to take an overnight train once in my life, right? It was pretty awesome. There are rules about men and women sleeping together, so all the men go in one cabin and all the women go in a different one. Not all together, like 4 per cabin. The grandma in my cabin was traveling with her (hot) grandson who I spoke to, in my broken Spanish, for awhile. He was nice and helped me with my luggage at the insistence of his abuela. Eventually, they came around and let the beds down and I knocked out. I slept, the train moved. By the time I woke up again, we were in Madrid. Awesome.

I found Isabelle and her abuela and her tio and we had some coffee in the station and then boarded several trains and one bus to get back to Las Rozas, where her aunt lives. It is actually a suburb of Madrid, but it really isn't that far. Well, we haven't ventured into Madrid yet so I could be totally wrong about that. I do know that the train station is on the opposite side of the city, so downtown is somewhere in the middle. After getting to her aunts house, we dragged my stuff up the stairs, hung out in our room and chatted, ate lunch, took a 3 hour nap (she's still super jet lagged and I am happy to nap anytime). After our nap we made some plans for tomorrow, which aren't really plans but more intentions, and now we're on our computers since it is afternoon in the States and we can reach our American friends. I'm about to try and call my momma, since I haven't talked to her in like 10 days, hopefully she answers! For the next 2 weeks I'll be here, and then back to the States! I haven't been home since March, so the anticipation is killing me, I miss my sweet sweet Bartimus. But I can't wait to see Madrid and improve my Spanish some more. Isabelle's grandma doesn't speak English, except for 'Oh My God' and a couple holiday greetings (none of which are useful right now) and her uncle understands English but doesn't speak fluently. And her aunt wants me to learn more Spanish. So I should be great by the time I leave in two weeks, hopefully. It is almost midnight here and I understand there will be some sort of breakfast around 9 (juevos con jamon?), so I should go to sleep and call my momma.

¡Felíz viernes trece!