I found a cheap flight with Ryanair (even though they SUCK! Ugh, I really really hate flying Ryanair, but they are so darn cheap they make it imposible to not fly them. Stupid ryanair.) and since I am still on the Valle where I get paid by UW and work at a company in Sweden for free, I can take off pretty much whenever. I know it may not seem like it, but I honestly haven't taken much time off this year, mostly because I travel with Blake and he has a real job, so we only take a day off from time to time and plan our vacations around the ridiculous amounts of Swedish holidays. So I was looking forward to taking advantage of my fellowship status and taking a trip with a girlfriend (translation = shopping).
I arrived mid Wednesday afternoon, and found the amazing apartment that Meghan had booked via craigslist on Île Saint-Louis. It was a really small studio up 5 very steep flights of stairs, but it was so nice to stay somewhere more personal than a hotel room. It was rather warm, so we stepped out without a jacket and an umbrella to go grab a bite to eat. Bad idea. We were eating and catching up in a cute park (after getting yelled at in French for sitting at a table in Häagen-Dazs even after Meghan ordered from there. Psshhh, Freaking French.) when all of a sudden a huge thunderstorm rolled in. We had to just wait it out for over a half hour under an awning while being pelted with hail. It was crazy. This picture doesnt even begin to capture it:
Later that night we met up with my friend Lori, who went to MSU, but who I know through her brother, Jason, who was in my program at MSU, and who ended up dating my best friend Laura when they (Lori, Jason and Laura) all lived in Phoenix. Did you get that? Anyways, Lori is doing her post-doc in neuro science in Paris right now, and I didnt get a chance to meet up with her when I was in Paris in January, but this time I made sure it happened. She took Meghan and I to a great Gypsy Jazz place on the outskirts of town and we had a great dinner and listened to some great music.
The next morning, Meghan and I were drinking coffee when we noticed a bunch of bubbles in a seemingly normal street. I mean, how awesome is that? So we of course followed them until we found the source and I danced around in the bubbles until Meghan couldnt stand to be seen with me in public any longer.
After I calmed down from the sensory overload, we made our way over to the Pompidou, which was a pretty good modern art museum.
After the museum we walked around to find this restaurant that Meghan had read about on some blog- Hotel Costes. When we finally found it, we knew right away that it was going to be expensive and that we did not belong, but we decided to go for it anyways. I caught the waiter laughing at us with other waiters after Meghan tried to order off of the kids menu- it was that type of place. However, it was nothing compared to us getting in a fit of laughter while over-hearing part of the conversation from the table next to us. Let's just say that we both heard some guy say the worst word you can think of outloud and very casually and it took us both by suprise, especially since we were in this absurdly nice place. After we somehow controlled our laughter we were somehow able to embrace the obvious unworthiness of ourselves and had a great time in the end.
The next day we went up to Montmarte to see the beautiful Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, which was nice because when I went to go see this in 2004 the first time I was in Paris with my parents, I decided it would be a good idea to run all the way up the hill to the church. By the time I got there, I was so dizzy that I just had to sit down and didnt get to enjoy any of it. So this time I paced myself and enjoyed it a lot more.
We wandered around some more in the crappy weather, but found a random little boutique where we both found some cute things, and then made our way over the the Eifel Tower. So I mentioned that I had been to Paris twice before, right? Well I have never seen the Eifel Tower close up. I didnt think I would be that excited to see it, but I definately was:
And, to make it even better, the sun finally came out! It didnt seem worth it to go up in the tower, but it was nice to walk around the parks in the area and get some sun.
Later that evening, we met up with Lori again, who took us to this great restaurant called Chez Janou (it has amazing all you can eat chocolate mousse).
We were joined by a Swedish co-worker of mine, Annika, and her husband, Anders, who happened to be in Paris that weekend too.
After dinner we went to Lori's favorite bar, (where they are nice to americans), and ended up hanging out there until waaaay after closing time. Lori knows the bartenders, so around 2 am, one of the bartenders told us to cover our ears. We were confused, but covered our ears anyways, as he yelled, "Closing time- everyone out of here!" It was awesome.
We had a blast, but I definately should have gone to bed earlier since I had an early flight to catch the next morning and had to be ready to go as soon as I got to Stockholm, since Blake's brother Byron and his girlfriend Abby were already in town. I'm not going to blog about that by the way, because Blake already did a good job on his post.
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