This past weekend I went to Paris with Mike.It was soooo much fun!There were a few setbacks but we still had a really good time.Wednesday afternoon after lunch we both did homework so that we wouldn't have to worry about doing it as soon as we got back to Seville on Sunday, and so that we wouldn't have to bring any with us, because that would be a real pain.Mike dropped off an armload of clothes to me during the day to put in the suitcase and then after dinner he brought over a backpack full of stuff and we watched a movie.After the movie he carried the suitcase downstairs and set it by the door so that in the morning, at 4:30 I wouldn't be trying to wrestle a suitcase down the stairs.

Thursday I had to get up really early to get ready and put my last minute things in the suitcase.We met outside and walked to the Prado bus station.It was about a 20 minute walk at 4:30 in the morning.Not a lot of fun but I was excited to Paris so I was wide awake!We caught the shuttle bus to the airport for only 2.30 euro which was a really good deal.There were a lot of people from our program and our classes who were also traveling really early in the morning.Everyone that we saw was going to Rome; we were the only ones going to Paris.The flight wasn't too bad.The guy in front of me reclined his seat the ENTIRE way back which made it a little uncomfortable, but at least it was only a 2 ½ hour flight.We got to Paris about 15 minutes behind schedule.Then once we got to the airport we tried following the directions that Discover Seville had given us and they were totally not helpful because the guy had given us directions from the train station, not the airport.So we had to take a bus, for the insane price of 6.80 euro one way to a metro station, and then pay to take the metro to the train station, and then walk for about 20 minutes to our hostel.

The hostel was a real treat in itself.We got there and we have to check in on the ground floor, which is a bar.At first I was thinking that it wasn't too bad and it could even be fun to have a bar right there because if we want to hang out and go for a drink we wouldn't have to go far at all.That would prove to be a wrong assumption.The website said that we could use our card to pay, but when we got there the woman checking us in told us we had to pay in cash, so Mike gave her everything he had and I chipped in some too.We figured we would find an ATM soon and he could pay me back and then he would have money.Our room was on the room 6.Which wasn't on the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd floor; it was on the fourth.So poor Mike had to carry the suitcase up this tiny spiral staircase to our room.We get up to the room and it hasn't even been cleaned yet.It was gross.So we put the suitcase in the closet and sat down on the edge of a bed quick to plan what we could see.Mike had bought tickets to go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower at sunset that night, so we knew we had to be at the Eiffel Tower by 5:45 at the latest.That way we would have time to take a bunch of pictures before we went up.It was raining before we left the hostel, but it wasn't too bad.We were worried that we wouldn't get to see very much because it was already 1:00 by the time we were getting ready to leave the hostel.

When we got downstairs the hostel had maps on the counter so I took one of them and figured out that we weren't very far from the Sacre Coeur and Montemarte neighborhood.So we decided that we would walk there and then work our way back towards a Metro that we could take to get to the Eiffel Tower.So we started our walk.Pretty soon we realized that we were not in a great section of Paris because we were walking through some really interesting streets.Mike's green umbrella that he had bought from a Chino store in Seville broke on one side.So when we walked past a shop with umbrellas in the front he borrowed some money to buy one.We didn't get a half mile down the road and the umbrella broke in half.The metal came apart and the top of his umbrella went flying into the street!So Mike runs into the road, umbrella handle in hand, chasing after the top part of his umbrella!It was probably one of the funniest things I've ever seen.He finally got the top half to his umbrella and as we walked he tried to figure out how to put it back together.Once he got the umbrella together enough to use, we noticed that there were holes in the top as well.This was definitely not the best purchase he's made in Europe haha.Of course I had to get a picture of him with his 2 umbrella halves.

Once we got to the Montemarte area, which is supposed to be the most romantic neighborhood in Paris, it started raining even harder.The map showed that we were really close to the Sacre Coeur and as we got about two streets away, we came to the largest set of stairs I've ever seen in my life!So in the pouring rain we had to climb up literally nine flights of stairs.By the time I got to the top I was hurting that's for sure.Then it was a hassle trying to take some pictures quick without getting raindrops on the lens of my camera.We walked through the main road and up the stairs to the entrance, and Mike realizes that he forgot his stupid umbrella back down where we were taking pictures.So he ran down to get his umbrella and I waited under the roof in front of the entrance.Inside was amazing.It was so gorgeous.In the front, behind the alter is an enormous painting of Jesus and angels with gold leafing all over the place.Of course though you aren't allowed to take pictures inside the church.So after walking around in awe for a while I found the souvenir shop, nicely placed inside the church.Weird.So Mike and I both bought a couple postcards of the inside of the church. Since we couldn't take any pictures the postcards would have to do.We started to walk outside and it was absolutely down pouring.Rain was coming from everywhere.It was raining from the sky, the ground, side-to-side.It was miserable.So we decided to go down into the crypts and check those out since the weather was way too bad to try to walk anywhere.It wasn't too great down there, nothing really interesting, but we were able to at least stay out of the rain for a little bit.By the time we came out of there it was still raining pretty hard but it was no longer down pouring so we decided to make a run for it and go to the next place we wanted to check out.We definitely didn't get to appreciate the "most romantic section of Paris" at all, but I'd rather stay dry.

Our next stop was a really neat church made out of brick and turquoise.It was really neat how the entire building was rust colored and blue.It was also nice to be able to check out a bunch of places where we could go inside too.So we went into that church and wandered around for a while and of course took a bunch of pictures.The rain started to let up a bit by the time we were leaving.I had the Montemarte cemetery on our list of things to check out if we had time but since it was still raining we didn't really want to wander around outside a lot.We walked past it on our way out of Montemarte and peeked in through the gates.So I guess that counts as checking it out a little bit.We kept walking and eventually found our way to the Moulin Rouge!You can't check out the inside without a ticket, which costs 120 euro, so we just checked out the outside of the building.It wasn't extremely impressive for all the fuss made about it, but when you're in Paris it is something you have to see.I was able to take pictures of some of the posters out front.A lot of them were pretty risqué though so I only got a couple pictures.I also took some pictures of the outside of the building, with the famous windmill.

After checking that out we decided to take the metro down to the other side of the river towards the Eiffel Tower.That way we could see some things over there and be closer to where we needed to be.When we go out of the metro it had finally stopped raining!So we decided to check out the Musée Rodin because we were so close to it.When we got there we bought a four day Museum Pass, which turned out to be the best investment we made the entire trip.With the pass we could get into over 60 sites and museums for free and we would get to skip the line!And everywhere we wanted to go that had an admission fee was on the list!Except for one place, but the fee was only 4 euro.So after buying our sweet museum pass we continued into the Musée Rodin to check out all the sculptures.Of course right off the bat we saw The Thinker.So I had Mike go up and pose like it so I could take a picture of him.There were tons of sculptures to check out and since the weather was much better we wandered around in there for a while.After that we decided to walk towards the Eiffel Tower and we could check out stuff along the way if we wanted.

We kept seeing the Eiffel Tower peek out between the buildings, so we knew we were getting close!On our walk there I told Mike that we were near the Hotel Invalides, which is Napoleon's tomb.So of course he wanted to stop there and check it out.It was only 4:45 when we got there, but it closes at 5, so they won't let anyone in after 4:45.So we missed checking that out by minutes, and put it back on our list of things to see.We kept walking and came to the gardens in front of the Eiffel Tower!We both took about a million pictures of the Eiffel Tower from all different distances and angles.Then I asked some people to take a picture of Mike and me together in front of it.It always shocks me how terrible a lot of people are with cameras.A lot of people take pictures and zoom in on me and Mike and don't get the monument that we are in front of in the picture.So we had to ask different people a couple times so that we could get some good pictures. We worked our way up to the Eiffel Tower and checked it out from close range.We were still pretty early for our tickets so we wandered around down by the river for a little bit.Finally it was time to go up!We took an elevator to the second floor and already we were so high up!I could tell that Mike was getting kind of nervous because we were so high.At the second floor we had to get out and walk around to another elevator that would take us to the top.When we got up there we were so high above the city!It was insane!It was really really windy up there, which made it kind of hard to take pictures because I felt like I was blowing away.But between Mike and me we got some great photos.After about half an hour up at the top we went down to the second floor and checked out the view from there.It was so amazing to be up there, especially at sunset!While we were going down in the elevator the Eiffel Tower lit up!Once we were outside of it we walked across the bridge to get a good picture of it all lit up.And it just so happened that a few meters away was a crêperie!So of course I had to try a crepe!I'm in Paris for heaven's sake!I got a Nutella crepe and it was absolutely delicious.The gooey chocolaty goodness was amazing.So Mike and I ate that on our way to the Arc de Triomphe.It is open until 10:30 at night and is close to the Eiffel Tower so we figured it'd be good planning to check it out at night while we were in the area.

We walked up the Champs Elyséeuntil it ran into the Arc de Triomphe.It was so neat how there were like 8 roads that all led directly to the arch.It was built by Napoleon during one of his battles so that his troops could come home through an Arc of victory.After that, they would leave the city through the Arc as well.It was so cool being underneath the Arc in the center of all those streets.Our museum pass got us inside for free and we climbed all the stairs to the top.Notice this trend of climbing stairs everywhere?!It was definitely worth the climb though.When we got to the top we had an amazing view from what felt like the center of Paris.It was just so neat how all these streets ran straight to the Arc de Triomphe.We took a bunch of pictures from there as well, but once we started to feel rain again we headed back down.We were so excited to have seen so much already in our first day!But we were also hungry, tired, and wet and wanted to get back to the hostel so we could fix all that.

We took the metro back and walked up the main street to our hostel.On the way back we passed a grocers and bought something to cook for dinner.When we got back we were informed that our third roommate was in the room.So we went upstairs to meet him and set down our bags.When we got up there we realized that our roommate must be a homeless man or something.The room absolutely reeked of dirty feet and he was in bed with all the lights out.The door was locked so we had to knock and wake him up but he didn't seem too phased by us being there because he just climbed back into bed without saying anything.We went over and sat on the bed furthest away, of course it was the bed on the floor, and tried to figure out what to do.Really all we could do was go back downstairs and cook our dinner and avoid the room.We took my backpack and our coats back with us because we didn't want to leave them up there.After dinner we just hung out in the bar and planned our next day.Really, we were trying to avoid going back to that stinky room.Finally around 10:30 we went up and went to bed.I had to open the windows a little because the smell was so bad!We had seen and done a ton already in the first day, and minus the rain and stinky feet smell it was a great start to our trip!