Thursday, July 4, 2013

Europe - Day Three

Today was a very full day!! We woke up late at like 7:30 and barely made it down by 8. Grabbed a quick typical French breakfast of baguettes, milk and yogurt and then it was off to the Louvre!!!(:(:(:

 It's weird to learn and study all about these incredible places and then actually be there. We took lots of pictures outside by the gorgeous museum and the beautiful famous glass pyramid. It was not disappointing. (: As perfect as I would have imagined. (:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 We bartered with some guys on the street for souvenirs which is fun. (: We wanted to see how good of a deal we could get and we did a pretty good job. (:

 Then it was time to go inside the louvre (: Anyone under 18 gets in free so that was awesome. It would take over a month to see the whole thing, and I wish we would have had more time to look because there was so much amazing art. We needed more than three hours to take it all in. 

But since we had such a short amount of time, we decided to hit up the most famous pieces of course. 

First we found the Mona Lisa which is a lot smaller than we all expected. It's literally tiny, but it's cool to say we've seen the original(: It was crowded with tourists in that room like you can probably imagine so we were happy to get out of there. 

 Next was the Winged Victory!! I was posing for a picture when I felt a tug on my purse. Turns out someone was trying to pick pocket me! I was freaking out about what they took, but they got an empty case. Serves them right. But what's funny is that we got a picture of the exact moment I got  pick pocketed. We have a picture of me turning my head and the side of the guys face. It was a total fail for him because we saw his face and got a picture, plus he got nothing out of the attempt. (: 

 Although after that we kept a super close hold on all our stuff. Pick pockets are everywhere in Europe. Beware if you ever go. We wear a horrible awkward pouch around our neck with all our money and our passports. It's nice to have it all organized and hidden. (:

 So that was funny. If he'd gotten something valuable, it would have been tragic. But since he didn't, funny. 

One guy in our group had his iPhone stolen out of a zippered pants pocket. Crazy. You gotta give these thieves credit. They're good at what they do. Just don't let it happen to you!

We so saw other cool ones like Psyche and Cupid, Michelangelo, and  Aphrodite. It was way cool(: It was pathetic trying to look for all these pieces in such a huge museum. We got super lost so many times. One time we decided to finally ask someone where Michelangelo was and he must have thought we were stupid because it was right behind us. Haha. 

We were on our own for lunch like everyday, so we went to the McDonalds at the Louvre thinking it'd be easy and familiar. Not the case. Completely different menu. I was trying to read it for Kena and I and then order it with someone who didn't speak English. To be honest, it was easier to communicate with this lady in a completely different country than it was with the lady who worked at Fuddruckers in AMERICA. Ridiculous. Still good food though. Weird but good. Found out later there was a place to order in English. Whoops. Good experience anyways to have, ordering in French I guess(;

After the Louvre, we headed out on a bus sight seeing tour. She drove us all around the city and showed us the coolest things and let us stop for pictures. 

I almost passed out the first time I saw the Eiffel Tower. There was nothing I wanted I see more. It is the most perfect thing ever. Kena and I took the cutest picture you'll ever see. Lots of them are perfect. But one in particular. Oh man. We love it. Might as well be professional. I think our whole group is sick of having to take pictures for us. But oh well, we're photoaholics. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
FAVORITE picture of the trip?
I mean this picture is literally Pinterest worthy.
 

 We also saw the Musee d'orsee, nationale republique meeting house, arc de triomphe, and drove along the Seine. 


The drivers in Europe are psycho. No one follows any traffic rules, I'm surprised we haven't gotten in an accident yet. Truly I am. People pulling out in front of each other left and right with no signal, speeding, pedestrians ignoring the street signs and walking when they want.. It's a nightmare! Glad I don't have to drive here!! The worst is in front of the Arc de Triomphe. There's literally no rules or stop signs around that whole area. And because of that, it's a "no fault" accident zone so no one cares enough to be careful. No one even stops to see if its clear, they just go. Scary. 

 We ended our tour at the opera house. Then we went to a perfume factory to learn about how perfume is made. Apparently it takes 600 kilos to 3 tons of flowers just to make one liter of pure essential oil. Crazy huh? We matched every scent perfectly when she tested us(: Then we sampled all the perfumes there, they were amazing. If I had more money I would have bought one for sure. Best perfume I've ever smelled(: Then we had some free time before dinner(: So we went to the Lafeyette galleries. (: It's basically this huge high end shopping districts. They have some crazy fashion there which was fun to see(: While we were there, we past a chocolate shop. The worker looked at us and held out some free samples with this look on his face like he just knew we wanted some. So we had some and it was awesome. So we decided to buy a macaroon from his shop. I got a chocolate one which was fabulous and so cute. Kena got a banana one, which wasn't that great. Oh well. (:
 

 We walked around the area before dinner since our reservations were late and found a statue in a little fountain. Of course me and Kena would jump in the fountain and climb up on the statue when it's not allowed(; We have a record for doing illegal things. (;
 

 Then we went to dinner at another restaurant where we had salad, baguettes, pork chops and potatoes. For dessert we had a chocolate mousse with pieces of real chocolate in it. Freaking awesome. Best dessert of the week. 

It's weird because we can get offered alcohol here. Since there's no legal drinking age, we can have whatever we want. (: I was tempted to try wine just to say I'd legally done it at 17(;

 After dinner we went on a boat sight seeing cruise down the Seine. It was super relaxing and a much different experience than the street life(:

 As we were taking off there were these boys that were waving at us and making hearts at us. We waved back so they started sprinting after our boat. They were waving and blowing kisses and they ran until they couldn't chase us anymore. It was freaking cute. Haha(:

 And we saw lots of cute couples sitting on the walls over the seine which made me wish Brayden was here with me. I miss the boy. 

 
 
 
 
 It started to get cold on the water since it was like 10 when we finished the tour.   We were supposed to go up on the Eiffel Tower after but we ran out of time. We were so mad. So then we just took more cute pictures with the Eiffel Tower, went souvenir shopping, and stood by until the 5 minutes of twinkling it does at 11(: So breathtaking. I loved it.  

 

Then it was off to bed after a long, perfect day. (: 

So happy(:

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