Jill and I stayed in Paris for four nights (we stayed there longer because we had a free place to stay in Paris!). Paris is a beautiful city with so much to offer. Jill and I took the train out to Versailles on the first day we were there. The Palace of Versailles is gigantic, but gorgeous! We did a walking tour of the Palace listening to head phones that explained the history of each room and what the kings and queens used to do in those rooms. My favorite spot in the palace was the Hall of Mirrors, which is breathtaking! It has beautiful paintings all over the walls and ceilings and it lined with mirrors that match up with windows looking out onto the immense gardens outside (I will post some pictures!). After Versailles we went back to the city and walked along the Seine river. The river is beautiful and seemed to be the heart of the city. That night we went on a Seine river cruise which was awesome. Even though it was freezing cold that night, I still enjoyed seeing the whole city lit up at night (especially the light show at the Eiffel tower!). On the cruise Jill and I met an Australian couple from Noosa (a place Julia liked to visit, it is close to where she lived), so needless to say we had a lot to talk about :) They were very nice people!
Our second day in Paris we went to the Louvre museum. I can't even begin to describe how big this museum is!! There was a pretty long line to get in because every first Sunday of the month it is free to get in (yay!). After finally getting inside and orienting ourselves, we went to see the Mona Lisa. I was surprised at how small the painting is in real life. Even though there were a million people surrounding the painting, it was really fun to see in real life :) After that we went to another wing of the museum where all the ancient Egyptian art and artifacts are, it was awesome! We walked all around that side of the museum (and even got a little lost haha). After we left the Louvre we stopped at a little cafe near the Seine and treated ourselves to a delicious banana chocolate crepe, yummy! Then we walked to the Notre Dame cathedral and waiting in line to go inside. The cathedral is also very big and beautiful. The stain glass inside the cathedral is amazing! That night we went treated Manu & Slyvain (the people we stayed with) to dinner because they were so nice to let us stay at their apartment for free!
On our third day we took the train to the Eiffel tower. We had planned on having a picnic in the park by the Eiffel tower but it was pouring rain on that day :( We waited to go up the Eiffel tower until Monday because we thought the line would be shorter on a week day, but it turns out that we probably should have gone over the weekend because we couldn't see much at all from the top of the Eiffel tower due to the fog. Even though we couldn't picnic and couldn't really see much, it was still an awesome experience to go up the Eiffel tower! We sat at the cafe on the second level for a while and had some coffee and tried to enjoy the view (what we could see of it!). That night (our last night in Paris) Manu and his friend Gabriel took Jill and I to an authentic French restaurant. We tried some authentic French cuisine which was a fun experience! Are you ready for this?...I tried goose liver!! Goose liver is the typical dish they eat at Christmas time. I didn't really like it at all, but I tried it! I am so happy we were able to stay with people that live in Paris because we definitely experienced some things we probably wouldn't have, had we not stayed with them.
On the fourth day we got ready to leave on our 14 hour adventure to get back to Granada :( We had to take a bus to get to the airport that we were flying out of (it is outside of Pairs) then fly to Madrid. In Madrid we had to wait a few hours before we got on our bus to head back to Granada. After a five hour bus ride we arrived in Granada at 5am...only to wake up for the first day of classes at 830am the same day! To say the least, we were extremely tired! However, we were able to travel cheaply which is all the matters on a starving student's budget!
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