Third Times The Charm.

So yes I went to Paris this weekend...wait did you read that right? YES I WENT TO PARIS THIS WEEKEND!! But lets just rewind to the morning of Thursday...departure day. I went to class like normal and that lasted to 1:00 then I ran a few errands, had to mail a few letters and grab some snacks for the big trip. Finally I ventured back to Woburn to finish preparing for the 9 hour bus ride that was waiting for me that night. So I get to the door, get out my card and scan myself into the building. Walking past the front desk I looked straight ahead at the table that sits right in front of the stairs and I mentally noted that the girl sitting at the table was FOR SURE American. (Our program director always tells us that he can recognize Americans from a mile away, I'm starting to understand what he means, its a sixth sense). Then reality hit me in the face when I realized the American looking girl sitting at the table was a girl named Ciera that goes to CENTRAL. Then I really started putting the pieces together when it hit me again, she is studying in Wales this semester, the same program that one of my good friends Shannon is in, so what did I do? Look over to see who she was sitting at the table with. Yep. I look and guess who I saw? SHANNON COULSON! Yes. I screamed! And then she screamed, and then I screamed again and she did and this happened back and forth with a lot of hugging for a solid seven minutes! Then there were tears and more hugging and more screaming...basically people walking by were thinking "damn Americans." But it was so so so so amazing!! So we talked and talked and looked into each others eyes and talked some more and then later on had a cheeseburger and shake and talked some more! Then I handed over my room key to her and a friend so they could have a free stay in a full furnished room...I mean what hotel comes with two beds, sheets, towels (okay hotels have that stuff), two closets full of clothes, lap tops and best thing for London...RAIN COATS! They landed a good one huh? Yep!! And off to the bus station we went...Paris bound and super giddy! I mean seeing a dear friend and heading to Paris, what more could a girl want? Well I am about to tell you what I got!!

So just to put our trip in perspective...we left London on Thursday night at 9:30 and would arrive in Paris on Friday morning at 7:30. But how would we get there? Yep here is the kicker folks. We rode the bus for three hours, got woken up to go through customs, then another hour, then woken up to board a ferry for another hour and then back to the bus for another four hours to Paris. The ferry? Pretty darn sweet, until my head met the table and I was out cold! What about customs you ask? Well let me just tell you according to the people of customs and everyone in France and England Mallory Danielle Schulenberg of the United States never entered or left France...yep I was the only one without a stamp or paperwork either way. Yikes! No idea how this happened, but it did. Below is a picture of myself in the ferry and then the nice MegaBus we took. Seriously first class folks!

 Kind of reminded me of a cruise ship...or I guess a giant bus holder in the water which was what it was in reality!

This picture was taken at approximately 7:50 in the morning right after a ten minute giggle fest because we were in PARIS!! So what did we do when we got there?

DAY 1:
We arrived in Paris and like I said, had a giant giggle fest...we even saw a moving building. See the thing is, is that we all thought the building was moving and it was really funny when we got there, probably because we were so sleep deprived! So we decided to venture towards our hostel...that was a little over a hour of a walk. Well we had to start somewhere, so we did. Reading the maps that appeared every now and then we thought we knew what was going on, so we walked and walked and walked some more. Then we ran into this beauty:

In case you aren't familiar with this marvelous thing, it is the Arc de Triomphe. Have you ever watched the Tour de France? Yep light bulb, that's where you saw it! So we took some pictures here! And then kept walking to our hostel. Well we walked for another hour or so when we finally gave up, we were going the completely wrong way and were giving up. Like giving up to the point of making a group decision we would pitch in for a Taxi. So me being me decided to hail the Taxi for the group. It was cake. I got the dude and he pulled over and we showed him the address of where we needed to go, then it happened...he put the car into drive and sped off, no words, nothing, just left us! Hmmmm, okay? So I got another, showed him where and we got a little further, he asked how many. So I told him we had four girls, and yep it happened again, the car went into drive and sped off. And that is when we made the group choice to become Canadian for the weekend....and get Starbucks. We got Starbucks and a two day Metro pass because we were done with the mean taxis and worthless walking.

 After finding our hostel we ventured over to Notre Dame to see the beautiful place and all it had to offer, it was so amazing and worth all the sleep deprivation and walking that we had done.

 We also went to the Bridge of Secrets. This is a bridge that people bring locks to and lock their love (or whatever they want) onto it, then throw the key over into the canal. It was so fantastic and awesome to read all of the locks that had been put on there in the past.

 And we spotted the Eiffel Tower...just slightly, but we promised ourselves that we would go back later after we ate dinner. So we found a little Italian restaurant and had some dinner. That is when we decided that we were way too tired and nasty to go back and take pictures in that state of mind, so we waited until later on in the night.

We checked into our hostel and took a nice nap until our tour guide showed up to take us around Paris. Brandon is a guy from Central who is studying in Paris so he met us to show us a few of his favorite spots in Paris and hang out for a bit. And he took us to the Sacred Heart Basilica which is the highest spot in Paris, yep pretty much the most beautiful view in the world! Pictures: oh and by the way, we had to walk a ton of stairs to get to the top, yes we are getting our conditioning in but just in case we aren't, we walk millions of stairs a day!

 And after we did all of the walking and touring, we went back to the Eiffel Tower again, but just wait the third time we went is the money maker! Oh and this picture is sparkly in case you were wondering! The Eiffel Tower sparkles for ten minutes on every hour...this was at 8:00pm!

And we said goodbye to our great friend and amazing host for the night, he was awesome and we could really tell that he loves the place! Paris is perfect for him! Off to bed for us, since we never really even slept the day before!

DAY 2:
We woke up, ate and off to the Eiffel Tower. Gotta be first in line for pictures...too bad everyone in Paris goes to the Eiffel Tower every single day!! Here are some of mine:

What do you do when you are in France? Take millions of pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower! Well we did that and then some. Yes the last one is me having a romantic kiss in front of the most romantic piece of art in the world...with myself!! After that we ventured over to see the Moulin Rouge Windmill, home of the can-can dance. Then to the Luve where we didn't actually see Mona Lisa but were in the presence of her home! Good enough right? Day two went a lot quicker than day one but overall the trip was brilliant! Would I go back? Maybe not, but it was way worth the weekend trip! I don't want to spend another weekend pretending to be from Alberta, Canada in my life. I'm proud to be an American and I will flaunt it so take that Frenchies!!! Okay well that was it, Paris came and went and we experienced much more than I can put into words. There are some pretty hilarious stories that can be told in person, but for the record...I spent enough time in front of the Eiffel Tower for all of you out there reading!

Love you all.
XOXO
The Site-Seeing Softball Player