Interested in my 3-day trip to Paris? Click here.
Rewind 5 months…..
Ahh, there’s nothing better than a break from school, right? Let’s add a cherry to that delicious idea….PARIS! Originally, I was to spend December 28-January 14th in Paris with A. My motto for the past year has been: “life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans” so much as I’ve learned to expect the unexpected, I was 99% confident that this trip was going to happen. Low and behold, November rolls around and I unexpectedly find myself accepting an internship in DC. My start date: January 5th. Uh oh.
At this point, disaster strikes. As soon as all paperwork with IBM is finalized I call Luftansa to change my flight. Last October, I found an amazing deal and paid $450.00 RT from Chicago to Paris. I knew it was going to cost me to change my flight, but I wasn’t expecting to find NOTHING. Everything was sold out for the holidays. Even if I wanted to cough up another $1000, the earliest flight out was January 9th.
Not going to Paris was NOT an option. I was planning this vacation since the day I left Australia. After practically draining my tear ducts of all liquid, I realized crying was not going to get me to Paris. The next day, I found a one-way flight from London directly to DC, leaving January 4th in the AM. I would arrive around 4pm, about 16 hours before I started working. $600 dollars later and a forfeited return from Paris, I was still going to see A!
The plan was to spend 4 days in Paris, 3 days in London. Instead of recapping every detail of each day, I’m going to highlight my favorite memories:
Versailles
This was the first château I’d seen in France. I couldn’t tell who was more excited to see it, me or A. The weather was terrible (cold and rainy) but we still had fun.
We started the day visiting Marie Antoinette’s Estate. Someone recommended going there first to avoid the lines getting into the castle. I loved seeing her Estate. The picture below is of her bedroom (I believe). Alex and I took a private tour through some Marie’s most personal rooms. The downside of the tour? It was all in French. Alex stood behind me and tried to quickly translate everything into my ear. Eventually, I just made up my own story about what was happening. When we finally made it into the castle, I was incredibly impressed. There is so much history lining every wall, inside every painting and covering every room. The downside to the castle was the lack of restrooms. Only in France would they have one bathroom with 15 stalls for hundreds of people. The “line” wasn’t really a line and people kept cutting in front of me. It took me over 30 minutes to go and by the time I got back to the castle, Alex was nowhere to be found. I eventually found him (thank God) because I didn’t have a cell phone, nor his number…We ended up staying about 7 hours at the castle before we had to head back to get ready for New Year’s Eve!
New Years Eve
When you’re in Paris on New Year’s Eve, where do you want to go? The Eiffel Tower. Did A take Lauren to the Eiffel Tower? Absolutely not. Because of safety reasons, we did not go see the fireworks. Luckily, it was too foggy to see anything anyway. Instead, we spent the evening eating a nice dinner at A’s house. I helped cook a little too. Well, I made jello shots. The boys happily followed my lead and gulped the large wads down in one gulp. The girls, however, were much less enthusiastic. I didn’t realize (thanks to probably too much alcohol) that I was the only female participating in taking the jello shots. Oops.
For dessert, two of the girls brought a Gâteau des Rois (King’s Cake). Baked inside one of the pieces is a tiny figurine. If you’re lucky enough to find it in your piece, you are crowned king or queen. You also get to choose your queen/king. Because I was the youngest, I had to close my eyes and randomly divvy out the cake pieces. As soon as I finished, everyone started eating, eagerly looking for the piece. Who found it? ME!
recognize this? me licking my chops before taking a jello shot
most unflattering picture, but I got the crown!
We walked along the street to get a good view of the Eiffel Tower. Champagne bottle in hand, we popped the cork at midnight. Again, one of my happiest moments in a long time.
Exploring Paris
Because I was robbed of a lot of time in Paris, I didn’t get to do many of things I had hoped. No Louvre or Musee D’Orsay (the lines were probably 1 million people long). No Notre Dame…lines too long again. We didn’t ice skate because it was pouring and there were too many little kids going insane, and no climbing the Eiffel Tower or Arc de Triomphe. We did, however, spend some quality time enjoying Paris. Here are some of my favorite pictures:
I snapped this seconds before Alex (or maybe it was me?) locked the keys to his scooter in the trunk.
Jardin du Luxembourg
Oustide Invalide
London
After almost missing the train to London. And when I say almost, I mean I was ready to never talk to A again, almost…we arrived. A planned a very romantic weekend in a beautiful hotel in London. For reasons I will not talk about, merely two hours after we arrived, A found himself packing his bags again. That gave me 3 more days alone in London. I won’t talk about what I did, because most of my trip is a blur. I tried as best I could to distract myself from the given circumstances by taking some beautiful pictures. See below:
That’s all I’ve got for now. Man, this post makes me want to go abroad NOW!
