Paris with Pryor

Opéra Garnier

After getting back from Spain on Tuesday, I worked for a few days before I met Alex Pryor who is studying in Germany in the Paris train station.  We spent the weekend touring Paris. It was his first time here. We actually stayed in Paris too because the commute back to Compiègne would have been too much. Our hotel was reasonably cheap and huge, for a Parisian hotel that is, and we even got our own shower and toilet in our room! It’s the little things!

Notre Dame

Alex arrived late Friday night so we got dinner and then headed back to the hotel. Saturday morning we started our day off at the Bastille and worked our way down to Breakfast in America. Yes, we went to Breakfast in America. I know what you are all saying, not too French, but the food is really good and filling. I had real French toast and homefries. Yummy. If you remember I went to Breakfast in America back in August. Since then, they have built a second one and that is where we went this time.  After breakfast we continued on to Notre Dame, past the Louvre and onto the Eiffel Tower. At the Eiffel Tower, Alex and I stopped for lunch and sat along the Seine listening to a 

                                                                                         Native American band play. It was very 

                                                                                         unique.  

Louvre

Afterwards, we headed to the Champs-Elysées and the Arc du Triomphe. It started raining so we went shopping in a few stores and then by that time we were hungry again so we went to a pizzeria for dinner. Again, not too French. After dinner we were going to see a movie but we stumbled upon and Irish pub instead. We had Murphys, which was delicious as usual, and watched a Liverpool vs. Chelsea game. The bar was filled with a bunch of Irishmen. After the game, we met some kids at the bar and started talking with them and they knew the bartenders so we got free drinks for the rest of the night!

What a good dog!!

Sunday morning we got up and headed to Sacré Coeur and Montmartre. It was lovely as always. Then we made our way down to Moulin Rouge. Our next stop was the Opéra Garnier. I had wanted to tour the inside of the Opera house since I arrived in Paris, but never had had the chance to go in. It was gorgeous inside. I would love to see a ballet there someday. Afterwards we went to the Louvre, to actually go inside this time. It was the first Sunday of May so the Louvre was free to the public. Every first Sunday of the month is free admission. Everyone and their mother decided that they wanted to go to the Louvre so it was packed, but we still got to see all the main attractions.

Grand Hall at the Opéra Garnier

Theatre

Once we were done looking at art, we headed over to Montparnasse and had dinner before I dropped Alex off at the train station and headed back to Compiègne myself. It was nice to see a familiar face from home. Alex was determined to see as much as he could while he was here and we certainly accomplished that. We walked the entire length of the city! Well not really, but it seemed that way. It was nice to walk through all the streets, but it was very tiring.

O Valencia!

On Thursday, April 26^th, I left work a little early and headed to the airport because I was going to Spain! Exciting, I know. This would mark my first trip to Spain. I got there without a hitch and my friend Matt met me at the airport. I got there around 9pm, just in time to see a beautiful sunset. After he picked me up, we went and sat by the ocean, can you believe that, he lives near the ocean :) and we drank some wine while we waited for our other two friends, Ashley and Kelly to come in from San Sebastian (another Spanish town). When they got there we headed to our hostel and finished drinking some wine and catching up with each other.

Friday morning, Kelly, Ashley and I left for Valencia. O Valencia! – 10 points to anyone can guess the band who sings this?  I had the song stuck in my head all weekend! We took a quick one hour flight and arrived early afternoon. First, we checked into our hostel, the most adorable and quaint hostel ever, in which the owners even had a cat that greeted us at the door. I of course made friends with him immediately.. Since it was really nice out, we decided to take the opportunity to eat lunch outside in one of the little restaurants and then tour the city. Both Ashley and I got paella along with the appetizer sampler. Everything was delicious and so cheap compared to France. Afterwards we headed into the center of the city and walked all around.

 We ended up seeing almost all of the inner city on Friday. At night, we were out in town looking for something to do when we came across a spring version of Oktoberfest. We decided what the hell and joined the party. It was awesome because they had the long tables set up and Maβ glasses filled with German beer. They even had bratwurst and other German cuisine.  I felt like I was at the real thing, minus all the Spanish people of course. Ashley and I both had so much beer that we were completely full and couldn’t drink anymore. We even finished Kelly’s Maβ because she couldn’t drink anymore. When it ended we stumbled home and 

                                                                                          fell right asleep.

  

For Saturday, we planned to shop in the city center in the morning and then head to the beach and to the science museum and aquarium complex in the afternoon. The morning turned out to be gorgeous and we all enjoyed shopping in all the little shops. I mean, what girl doesn’t. Then as we were taking the bus toward the science museum complex, it started to downpour and didn’t let up. We didn’t get to go to the beach because the weather was not the nicest. Ashley and I really wanted to go to the aquarium because it was supposed to be one of the best but Kelly didn’t want to. When we found out that most of the exhibits were outside, we decided to pass on that as well. It was really disappointing because that was the main thing I was looking forward to seeing in Valencia. We didn’t do anything too crazy on Saturday night but we still had a great time. Even little blonde puppy got in on the fun!

 

On Sunday, my birthday, we got up and ate breakfast on the go. We went through all the markets and then headed to the airport to go back to northern Spain. We landed back in Santander and then had to take a 3 hour bus to San Sebastian.  We didn’t end up getting home (to Ashley’s apartment in San Sebastian) until after 7pm. It was quite a long day of traveling. Not exactly how I wanted to spend my birthday, but I was with one of my best friends so it didn’t matter. When we got to Ashley’s apartment, we met up with her boyfriend and headed out to tour San Sebastian which is also on the coast. It was so nice to hear the surf and watch the sunset of the water. God did I miss seeing the ocean and the beach. Then we went to dinner at a place called Fosters which served American cuisine. Afterwards we got ice cream, walked around a little more and then called it a night. We were both exhausted and couldn’t wait to get into bed.

Monday was dedicated to touring San Sebastian. We did and saw everything there was to see by midafternoon. The town was truly quite beautiful and seemed very rich.  We lucked out with the weather too. It was supposed to rain all day, but didn’t. We even got bagels, real bagels for breakfast. I had a blueberry bagel and it was so good! You don’t think bagels would be something you’d miss from home, but you do. I took lots of pictures and walked a lot and got to enjoy the sun, even got a little color, and had a wonderful day. We went home and made sandwiches and relaxed a bit before we headed to Sidrería Petritegi (a cider house) for dinner. I have never been to one and after wondering around the little town it was in and getting completely soaked because it decided to start raining, we finally found it and had a typical Basque dinner, (Basque is the region of Spain we were in) along with tasting all of the ciders.  Something I will probably never do again in my life, but amazing nonetheless.

Tuesday morning I got up and Ashley made me breakfast – bacon, eggs and toast, and then I boarded another bus back to Santander to head back to Paris. The bus takes you along the coast so it quite beautiful despite the 3 hour and 45 minute ride. I left Ashley’s at 11:15am and didn’t get back to my room until 10:30pm. It was quite an exhausting day. This was the first trip in which there were no problems and/or stupid things that I did to mess up my travel plans. It was quite a success in my book; it only took me 9 months to figure it out!  It was also my birthday so that made the trip that much better :)