Paris continued and then some

so tomorrow really meant 3 days later (sorry...)

Luxembourg Palace

so we left off on friday night we all went to sleep after dinner. we woke up on saturday feeling fresh but still groggy eyed and needing some serious cafe au lait -- excuse me, "creme." so of course on our way we stopped into a bakery and got fresh chocolate croissants (the lady didnt hear when i said chocolate though so i ended up with a reg one that was still great). after breakfast we started aimlessly walking towards the Luxembourg gardens, ended up stumbling across some cool zoo-like thingy so we walked through it, walked through some more cool plazas (stopping in a couple shops along the way...) and eventually actually made it to the Luxembourg gardens/Palace. gotta say though -- the gardens not as cool in the winter when it's really just dirt....and not a garden yet....but whatevs. after that we walked along the Champs de Elysees which is a really long road where there's a buuunch of cool shops/restaurants/bakeries and at the end is the Arc de Triomphe! cooliooo. stopped for a photo op duh. 

locals..nbd

after our fun-filled and busy day we went back to the hostel to shower and change and theeen we met up with some of Zoe's "friends" (read: she met them one time outside of a bar when they were visiting Copenhagen for the weekend but they live in Paris). turned out being really legit! it was the six of us girls + one of Zoe's girlfriends who is studying abroad in Spain and then the 6 local Parisian boys! haha they recommended this really yummy restaurant (but what isn't yummy in paris..) and they were really nice and fun! they also ended up picking up more than half of the bill which was tiight because we may or may not have gotten many bottles of wine. after dinner, since we were w/ locals, they obvi took us to this cool local discoteca that was actually really big called CAB. well zoe, courtney (her friend), and i only ended up being there a mere 15 minutes because zoe wasn't feelin too hot. on our way out we spotted a bike stand (they're like all over europe) so we thought itd be a greatttt idea to bike home (courtney actually knows the city). let me assure you, it was not. first of all, i kinda dont do so well with bikes thanks to my short stature and having a hard time with the pedals (dont laugh). so obviously my shoes kept falling off and i finally just decided to throw them in the little basket thingy in the front and go barefoot (well, with tights). ok i also haven't ridden a bike in i dont know at least TEN YEARS so i was a little wobbly to say the least.  after about 15 minutes of death-riding and 3 wipeouts by Zoe (very comical at the time), we decided to hop off and hail a cab. we also forgot that its nearly impossible to flag down a cab in paris (hoo woulda thunk?!) so we ended up walking the rest and safely made it back to our humble hostel. oh whaaattaaa night! (...did you try to sing that?)

the next day we wake up with everyone alive and not so well but its our last day and we're determined to make it great. we journeyed for some coffee and quick lunch and first stopped in the Musee d' Orsay which is like the museum of Impressionist painters like Monet, Manet, and some other old guys. they were suuuchhh pretty paintings but unfortunately starry night wasn't there. dang. so then we headed off to the Eiffel Tower! Of course we stopped for a crepe along the way. Took some neat-o pics in front of the Eiffel Tower -- it's so surreal looking at it - like it looks like this big metal toy from the 1800's. we wanted to go up it but lines were literally curving around the entire thing so we decided against it so we could do other stuff. we walked back over to see the Arc de Triomphe in daylight (real cool) and stopped at a cafe. next door there was a little bakery-food place (think HotCakes...oh how i miss it Kay!) and we saw some escargot chillin in the window so i kneww i had to get some! we asked the guy for three of them so we could try them. exquisite! jean was getting really freaked out by the fact that she had a snail in her mouth but i prefer to always refer to it as escargot so i dont have to think about the mental image haha. anyways, it was the perfect/appropriate way to end our wonderful, fun-filled, crepe-stuffing weekend in Paris. i looooved it and i wanna go backk!!

So there you have it. On another note, we booked tickets for Palma de Mallorca for March 24-27th, land of the topless beaches woo hoooo. im so excited to get to a beach!!!!! im starting to scare myself when i look in the mirror. aye.

also yesterday was the most perfect day we've had in Valencia so far...the sun was shining so bright and there wasn't a cloud in the sky...needless to say everyone had a little more pep in their step than usual aaand on top of all that, for our spanish arte class our teacher took us to a museum! he showed us some cool paintings from the "Románico" period including some with their "tetas" cut off and on top of a platter..weird? yeahhh...but after the museum we walked around the city a lot, got gelato, and did a lil shopping which is always fun.

this morning we finally got to visit the oceanográfico!! the biggest aquarium in europe and the third largest in the world! pretty neat...we also got to watch a dolphin show which was so cute but i feel a little bad for the animals because all the tanks are like really small compared to the amount of fish/sealife they have in those things...saddies. we also saw the infamous walrus from hannah shatzen's blog but luckily for us it didn't perform the same "trick". bummer.

im off to do some insanity and then we have dinner w/ madre. (who's starting to like us more btw but ill elaborate more later on that...). we're off to a discoteca tonight! hasta luegoooooo