Paris!!!!

Friday morning I woke up and finished packing to go to Paris. Hopped on the Victoria to Kings Cross St. Pancras to meet everyone and get on the Eurostar to the Gare Du Nord. I think train is my favorite way to travel... it was a very comfortable and relatively short ride. When we got to Paris we were met by our guide and a coach to take us on a tour of the city. The best part of the tour was when we got off the bus at Napoleon's tomb and there was a lady giving out free Orangina! So delicious and even better when you don't have to pay for it... Other than that getting to see the entire city in a few hours was cool. We got dropped off at the hotel which was NICE. I couldn't believe it, because our hotel last year was crappy and far from everything. This year we stayed at the Novotel Tour Eiffel, which is a 4 star and apparently rooms ran at 550 Euro a night! It was a few blocks away from the Eiffel Tower and right on the River Seine. Everyone freshened up after we got to the hotel and then we went to a quaint French restaurant for dinner, which was probably the most delicious meal I've ever had. I got a three course meal with wine... started with Tuna Tartare with spring onions and a balsamic reduction, followed by King Prawns with fresh Asparagus, and then a course of Brie and salad, with 1/2 a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. During the meal, some grumpy french man told us to SHHH and I thought that was very rude, HELLO we are in a party of 19, and the restaurant is making more money off of us than you so you SHHHH. Yes, Americans do tend to be a little loud but with that many people it's impossible to be quiet. After dinner, we went to get some Champagne and then drank it in the park next to the Eiffel Tower, which was very fun and entertaining I must say. Everyone left to go hangout in Josh's room so Rob and I just walked around for a bit, then I went back to the room and fell asleep.

The next morning I went and got breakfast with Andrea, Rob and Ben in the hotel, which was decent but kind of disappointing, If you weren't a guest at the hotel they would charge you 22 euros! Ridiculous. I did figure out that Brie spread on a Baguette is delicious...
So after breakfast we parted ways with Andrea and met up with Sam, Susie, Meredith, and Josh to go to museums. Dr. Turner recommended we buy a museum pass because it gets you into a bunch of museums/landmarks and you get to skip lines. So we took the metro to the Louvre, walked around there for a bit, peeped the Mona Lisa (again) which is by far the most disappointing famous painting, I found the one to the left of it more intriguing. After the Louvre, we decided to get some lunch so we walked toward the Opera house and found a Chinese restaurant. I got Shrimp Dim Sum (dumplings) and rice which was SO GOOD... I've been craving it ever since! After lunch we jumped back on the Metro and went to the Notre Dame... We were going to go up to the top but it was something like 422 steps, and Rob with his bum knee can't climb down them, so we hungout in the Garden in the back for a little bit. We started walking toward the Pampidou Centre, and gathered in a square were hundreds of people watching the French Open on a huge screen... I got some footage of it. When we got to the Pampidou there was some street performer that was really cool, he painted a portrait of Obama in something like two minutes! I got some footage of that as well. There were many vendors outside of the Pampidou so we took a look around and I got a really cool hand made ring for three euro. We finally went inside and looked around, definately the WIERDEST museum I've ever been in, lots of feminist artwork and then classic examples of Modern art as well. It was a great museum but I still think I like the Tate Modern better. After the Pampidou everyone was pretty exhausted and hungry so we ate at the first thing that we saw, which unfortunately was McDonald's. I would say that McDonald's in France was better than in the US, I don't know it must be the Fanta. We headed back to the Hotel after eating where I took a bubble bath, it made me feel like a million bucks! Got dressed and then bought some more Champagne and again drank it underneath the Eiffel Tower in the park, all in good fun. That is probably my favorite place to have drinks in the entire world! Headed back to the hotel around 2:30 and watched the Red Wings game until I fell asleep.

Sunday was a hectic but enjoyable day. Woke up, ate breakfast and then Headed to the grave of Jim Morrison! I was kind of disappointed that his headstone had been replaced, but apparently the old one had a lot of grafitti on it. The graveyard itself was very interesting, the headstones were more like little houses that just markers with names. There were also several statues and busts of people around the graves... that's got to be expensive. After we looked at his grave we left the cemetary and did a little shopping at an antiques market right outside. I didn't really see anything of interest, but a few other people bought things. We then got on the metro and headed to the Sacre Coeur Basilica, which was AWESOME. There is a grassy area a little below it so we decided to get lunch, and I had the worst sandwich of my life... but FANTA makes everything ok. Climbed up some pissy stairs but when we got to the top the view was breathtaking!! You could see pretty much everything but the Eiffel Tower. We got back on the Metro after descending to go to the Arc Du Triomphe, another attraction free with the Museum pass. The view from that was even more breathtaking than from the Sacre Coeur, you could see all of Paris! The Arc is right in the center of the Champs Elysees, so the streets radiate out from it and it's amazing. We left there and almost rented bikes to go back to the Hotel, but decided to take the metro instead. Alas, this was the end of our journey. We met everyone at the hotel and then got the bus back to the Gare Du Nord and the train back to London, where I fell asleep PRONTO.

Monday was quite eventful. In the morning we had a lecture in Parliament from a Conservative MP, Graham Brady. He kind of explained why there is so much turmoil with the MP's in the UK, but otherwise it wasn't too interesting. Made the trip to ULU where we ate lunch and then attended a great lecture on the European Union. I learned more about the EU than I had ever known, which was very beneficial because I knew a little about the EU but I didn't know exactly what the purpose of it was. We then caught a train to Hampton Court Palace, which was cool but a little disappointing because AIFS has jammed too many things into one day. I would have liked to spend way more time there, I felt the hour and a half there wasn't enough, especially with a 2 hour train ride to get there. When we got back to London, Susie, Meredith, Josh, Ben, Rob, Sean and I decided to go to Goose to get dinner, where I had a delicious Steak&Ale pie with mash and my all time favorite, Strongbow. We stayed there for awhile before Ian met up with us. We decided to hop on the tube and go to Kiss the Sky in Crouch End to be a little closer to home. After that I went home and went to sleep.

This morning I woke up and iced my rib before getting ready. Mags told us it was going to be a scorching 90 degrees so I decided to wear a skirt! Hopped on the tube to go to Westminster Abbey, which was enjoyable. There are so many crypts of kings, queens, poets and composers, it was very cool. My favorite part was the memorial to FDR, and the Coronation chair which was made in the 14th century. Our Guide was very informative, but nothing like Bob Craig! After we finished in the Abbey we went to ULU to eat some lunch, where I had a very delicious Chicken Caeser salad. Hopped back on the Tube to tour the BBC, where I learned loads from our guides, Abbey and Annie. We started in the newsroom, which is 7 floors and is the workplace of some odd 2,o00 people. Apparently, they have in-house travel agents to get their journalists to wherever news is breaking, and they get there faster than most other news companies. For instance, when 9/11 happened, they were there before many American journalists because airlines in the US were delayed or canceled.. the BBC flew into Toronto and drove to NYC. Crazy stuff. Our tour also included a peek at a studio, dressing rooms, and the weather studios. Probably one of my favorite tours so far. After that I hopped on the tube, stopped at Tesco for some cottage pie and now I'm sitting here with a giant beefsteak tomato. Tomorrow will be fun, as it's Meredith's birthday, Bob Craig is guiding us around the Imperial War Museum, and we're going to see wicked. I will update as soon as I have time!!!


Cheers,

Alison