*The City of Lights~

Next on our trip was a visit to....FRANCE! 

January 15th:

Today was our longest travel day.  After a very early start to the day (in which I accidentally changed the combo to the lock on my suitcase as I was locking it, consequently locking myself out...), we headed to the train station where we hopped on a train from Vienna to Frankfurt.  I did a little homework and watched a movie on the way there.  When we got to Frankfurt, we had a layover during which some of us got food to tide us over and then walked around for a bit.  After that, we hopped on the train again, this time from Vienna to Paris.  On the way to Paris, I mainly focused on doing more homework.  We also got delayed about an hour and 40 minutes because of an accident that had occurred with the train ahead of us.  I decided to make use of that time and figure out the combo on my lock; it only took me about 20 minutes (although, it should have only taken me less than a minute because my new combo was only off by two digits on one of the three numbers from my original combo)!  Grrrr...  Either way, I was happy I figured it out!  After our delay, we got moving again and finally made it to Paris.  We arrived pretty late (which I don’t think our hotel was too happy about), and checked in.  Although it was kind of late, a few of my friends and I decided to walk around a bit; we ended up getting crepes from a street stand (they were SO good!), and then walking to Notre Dame.  It is quite beautiful at night!  Finally, we decided to head back to our hotel and call it a night because it was such a long day of traveling!

January 16th:

The morning started off with a really great french breakfast; baguettes!  We also got a little cup of fruit and a drink of course, but boy oh boy, were those baguettes good!  After enjoying our breakfast, we departed for church at Notre Dame.  It was quite a confusing service; everything was either in French or Latin, and we couldn’t really figure out where we were in the service most of the time, but it was still a really neat experience!  After the service, a group of us went back to the hotel and changed before we decided to make our way out to the Eiffel Tower for the afternoon.  We stopped at a cute little cafe on the way and got some really good paninis, and then continued on.  Finally, after a longgg walk, we made it to the Eiffel Tower!  It really is a great work of architecture--I loved it!  :)  We decided to walk up the tower as well; the top was closed to the public while I was there (which I was really bummed about), but we still were able to make it to the second floor!  After spending a good hour or so at the tower (and taking lots of pics of course), we made our way back to the hotel where we met up with our entire class for a dinner together.  We ate at a restaurant that specialized in crepes; I didn’t think that they were as good as the crepes that you can buy at the little stands on the street, but it was still good.  It was there that I also saw Laura for the first time while in Europe!  For those of you who don’t know, Laura was my roommate freshman year of college, and we’re still really good friends.  :)  She’s on a J-term trip too, and we found out that we were going to be in Paris and London at the same time, so I was hoping I’d see her!  She actually ended up staying in the same hotel as me, so that was awesome!  Anyway, it was fun seeing her at dinner!  After dinner, our class headed to the water where we took a night cruise on the Sienne River.  It was really gorgeous to see everything lit up at night!  There is definitely a reason that Paris is called “The City of Lights.”  After our cruise, I met back up with Laura.  She, a couple of friends, and I went out exploring some of the souvenir shops and got more crepes together...hehe.  What can I say?  The crepes in France are really good!  After hanging out for a while, we went back to the hotel and called it a night.  

January 17th:

After waking up and having breakfast, I finished my reading assignment which was shortly followed by discussion group.  Following that, I took a nap for a while because I was pooped that morning!  After my nap, a bunch of us headed out to go see the Louvre Museum!  We spent a couple of hours there, and of course, I took the time and saw the Mona Lisa!  That was pretty neat!  Apparently some researcher just found some numbers in her eyes of something, and some people think it’s part of a code...either way, it’s a pretty interesting painting in itself.  After wandering around and exploring the art in the museum for a while, a group of us went back the hotel for a bit.  I took the time to call home and wish my dad “Happy Birthday,” and to talk to my family for a while.  It was really good hearing from them!  :)  After that, some of us headed out to go shopping for a bit, followed by dinner at a panini place where I got a panini and a crepe.  After that, I spent a little time at the hotel before Laura, Anna, Ryann and I tried to visit the Arc de Triomphe.  However, we ended up going in the completely wrong direction and consequently ended up having to take a long walk back to hotel.  However, we got to see the other side of the Notre Dame that night, so that was cool!  After our adventure, we turned in for the night.

January 18th:

This was the day that our class took a day-trip to Nancy, France.  After waking up and eating breakfast, we hopped on the train to Nancy.  When we got there, we were taken to an acquarium/museum/amphitheater where we were given a presentation on the Nancy School (not to be confused with an actual school, but rather, a school of psychology) and the French psychologist Alfred Binet.  After our lectures (and a lunch in between), our class made our way to a cute cafe with two of the lecturers and had cocoa.  It was quite delicious!  Following that, we hopped on a train to go back to Paris.  That night, I did laundry in the hotel’s laundry machines, and then a group of us left to have dinner together.  After dinner, we went to the Eiffel Tower again.  It was cool to see the tower (and the view from the tower) during the day, but it was REALLY cool to see the tower lit up at night, as well as the view from it!  It was quite gorgeous!  We took the elevators this time, and that was fun!  But the BEST part was that we got to go ice skating!  :)  Even though I hadn’t been skating in a while, I took it up pretty fast (and I never fell!).  After our visit to the tower, a few of us split up for the night and continued on to go see the Arc since we failed at our attempt the night before.  We just stopped for a few minutes to admire it, snapped some pics, and then we headed back to the hotel.  It was a great last night in the city!