Paris!

This post isn't just Paris.  That was just the highlight of last week. :)

Last Sunday, the 26, we had to go to two different church services for my Religions course.  In the morning we went to a Unitarian Church in Hampstead which is in North London, and in the evening we went to an evangelical service.  It was definitely an interesting contrast between two forms of Christianity.  In between services, Alissa and I rode bikes again because it seemed silly to waste the day inside again.
Monday I caught up with a few things and then went to Covent Garden for a while just to look.  On Mondays the market is entirely antiques, which was cool but not exactly my thing.  On my way back though I stumbled upon a map shop---so awesome.  I probably spent an hour in there just looking through all the travel books and different guides and maps they had.
Tuesday I had my work placement; we had to pick up information from a few different places before meeting Julie at the National Gallery cafe.  She went over some press releases with us and gave us a few other things to do.  That evening the program paid for us to go on a Jack the Ripper Tour in the East End, which wasn't scary but was really gory.
Wednesday for work placement Julie had us go to Harrods and Fortnum & Mason, two of London's most expensive department stores.  I don't think I've ever felt so poor in my life.  They were both still really fun to walk around though--they really are more about the experience than the shopping.  I especially liked Fortnum & Mason; it was really quirky and fun compared to Harrods.  I was so mad though to find out that the Queen and Kate were there the following day though!  We literally just missed them.  That night I hung out with a few girls for Abby T's birthday--it was her 5th birthday since she was a Leap Year baby.
Thursday we had lectures all morning which were about the monarchy--it was kind of interesting.  I feel bad that I don't like these classes (Contemporary Britain), because they SHOULD be really good.  Our lecturers though are just so dull.  In the afternoon we had Religions, in which we went over our church visits and watched a couple of documentaries that explained the theology behind them a bit more.
Friday we had a day trip with the program to Canterbury and Leeds Castle.  In Canterbury we had a tour of the cathedral, which was really beautiful.  Then Abby and I found a little tea shop and had cream tea--soo good.  Then we wandered the high street a little before heading back to the bus.  We drove through Dover to see the cliffs before arriving at Leeds Castle.  I wasn't really that excited to go, because I saw sooo many castles in Wales.  But, this was the first castle I saw with a moat, and this castle had peacocks which obviously made it cool.  It was kind of strange inside as it had been lived in until the mid 1900s.  There also was a maze outside, which was so annoying because everyone that made it to the middle before us could see us struggling.  Then we headed back to London.  I had loads to do before Paris--laundry, planning, packing.  Plus I wanted to go to bed early, because we left London at 4 am!
So Saturday Lindsey, Mallory, and I caught the bus from Victoria Rail Station at 4, which got us to Luton Airport at 5am.  We went through security and then boarded the plane.  We were so tired, but it was so hard to sleep with people talking all around us.  We got to Charles de Gaulle, and then we had to figure out how on earth we were getting to the city centre.  We finally decided on a bus that dropped us off at Opera, which sounded like a good idea until we got off and had no idea where we were.  We literally walked in circles for an hour--we actually asked this random bus driver and he just made hand gestures in circles since he didn't speak English.  Finally we decided to just hop on the metro.  We got off at the Louvre and walked around the outside before finding a cafe for lunch--we were SO hungry by then.  Then we walked along the Champs-Elysees, a famous street, to the Arc de Triomphe.  Then we spotted the Eiffel Tower in the distance, so we headed that direction.  I can't tell you how excited I was to finally be there.  It was just amazing.  We walked up part of it--so many stairs!  But it was definitely worth it for the view.  Then we went to the hostel to drop our backpacks off before heading right back to do an evening bike tour.  One of our friends had done the tour before and said it was awesome, so we thought we would check it out.  I am so glad we did--we got to see so much of Paris that we wouldn't have otherwise. We were so cold (this genius didn't take a coat.......) and we hadn't had any supper, but it was so cool to see the city by night.  The tour ended with a riverboat cruise on the Seine, which was the perfect way to end the day.  We grabbed food and then headed back to our very sketchy hostel.  The worst bit of where we stayed was waking up the next morning to find that the bathrooms outside our room had flooded, and no one had cleaned it up.  So gross.  Our room was pretty awful and the other bathrooms weren't very clean, so we didn't even shower and just got out of there.    We took the metro up to see the Sacre-Coeur, a beautiful church in the Montmartre area.  It sits on a hill and overlooks the city, which made for incredible views.  Montmartre is a really interesting neighbourhood so we spent most of the day there.  There were markets, loads of good restaurants, and an entire square where artists just sat painting.  We had time so we ventured to see Moulin Rouge, but we scooted out of there as soon as we realized what it was.  Then we had to figure out how to get back to the airport.  We made it to the central train station, but when we got there there was no one at any of the ticket desks and the self-serve ticket machines wouldn't take our cards or cash.  We were starting to panic when a lady came up and asked us if we needed help.  We told her what was going on, and she just handed us three tickets that would get us to the airport.  We tried to pay her but she wouldn't let us--it was definitely a pay it forward moment.  We had encountered a few fairly rude French people, but she more than made up for them.  We got back to London with no problems, and I absolutely crashed, as in I was asleep before 10.  I'm so glad I decided to go.  I was cold, hungry, tired, and unshowered for the entire weekend, but it was worth it for Paris.
Monday I slept in, ran errands, and tried to work on my papers.  Then I went to Aunt Jenny's for the evening, and we went to her friend Manju's for Thai takeaway with her family.  It was so nice to relax and be taken care of after the weekend.
Phew.
I will have pictures from Paris soon, but my laptop charger decided to not work as of Sunday, so I can't use my own computer at the moment.  As soon as I get that sorted I'll post them!
Hope you all are having a lovely week and enjoying the warm Iowa weather!