After all of the walking on Saturday, I woke up tired, but after having to figure out the shower I woke up quickly. The dial was controlled by picking the actual temperature (in Celcius) that you wanted then pulling a plug thing. And the glass wall to the shower only went halfway down the tub, so the rest of the bathroom got sprayed with water while I was sudsing. It was definitely an experience...
Alice and Courtney met me to go have another delicious, croissant-filled breakfast, then we took the metro to Notre Dame. We had to get on at a different station on our street and then figure out how to find the cathedral once we were on the island--it was not too hard, but it made me feel accomplished that we did it without asking for major help.
The road on which we exited the metro on the island was filled with rows of vendors in a market, which sounds pretty normal. Except they were selling rabbits and all different types of birds and hamsters and guinea pigs and all the assorted accessories. It was...odd. And very noisy with all sorts of squawks and chirps and people running around. Craziness.
The cathedral was really busy as usual with tourists, especially since it was Sunday and Mass was going on.
I had completely forgotten that there would be a service there, and I felt so so guilty walking around when all those people in the middle were trying to have a peaceful hour of prayer. It spoiled the visit for me because all the tourists were snapping pictures and talking loudly and being obnoxious. I couldn't stand how rude it seemed, and I hated being part of it.
The building was quite beautiful, though, so I am glad we went, although I wished we'd picked a better time. We were thinking about going up in the towers, but there was a huge line and it was pretty pricey.
So instead we went to some of the million souvenir shops on the street and then got crepes at a cafe.
My first crepe ever! It has Nutella and bananas in it.
This is Alice's, which had some sort of caramel creme inside.
On the metro back to the hotel, we stood in the elevator next to this big burly man...with a miniature chihuahua in his pocket. It was so cute and cold! And then inside the station, while we were waiting, the woman next to us took a pigeon out of her purse and talked to it for a while before putting it back in to get on the train. I'm not so sure French people are normal after all.We got back with at least an hour to spare before we had to leave to go home, so we decided to walk down the street to this church that we saw every time we walked past but hadn't gone to yet. You could see down the alleys, sitting on top of a hill.
Another carousel was next to it...
Once we got to the top, the view was great.
But getting there sucked. Every 10 or 15 feet, there was a group of African men (the one I talked to said he was from Senegal, Alice's said Nigeria) who grabbed on to tourists and wouldn't let go until you let them tie a bracelet on your wrist. Then they demanded that you give them five euros to pay for it. Courtney got left alone, but I got caught by a second one after I shook off the first and Alice got one too. They wouldn't let us go until we paid them, but neither of us had any money left, so they finally left us alone and walked on to their next victims. It was pretty annoying, but definitely would have been scary if it hadn't been a bright morning surrounded by tons of people.
Then, at the top of the paths on either side there were groups of deaf people who wouldn't let you pass unless you signed their form and gave them some money. Courtney and I slipped by, but Alice got caught once again and ended up just going back down the hill and waiting for us to finish snapping pictures up top. I really don't think these groups are allowed to do turn people away like that, but no one stopped them. It was so frustrating and ruined the morning.
We didn't have time to go up to the church itself and we didn't want to leave Alice on her own at the bottom, so we headed back down and then just went and sat in the hotel until it was time to leave.
The bus ride back was fun since we had only seen the area at night before. Most people were sleeping off their Saturday night exploits, but I enjoyed seeing the sights one last time.The airport in France was so much less organized. We stood around for an hour trying to get in the right line and waiting for them to open lanes. It was a pain, but once we got on the plane I didn't worry about it anymore. It was so nice to be traveling back to my cute little Galway.
Alice and I played Skip-Bo on the plane, so I guess the acupuncture bracelets worked at least a little--normally that would make me quite sick. We also ate the rest of my sugary dessert and some M&Ms, so we were quite hyper. And then there was still the 1.5 hour bus ride back to Galway! I sat next to Alice again, so we listened to Disney music and rapped to Glee music.
And then--home! I made myself a nice warm supper of pasta and wrote out some postcards while watching the scarce Olympics that show here. I unpacked most of my stuff that night and got caught up on what I needed to do for the coming week.
Lastly, here is a candy bar that I ate recently. I've noticed that I have a tendency to go for caramel ones...yum.
And that was Paris! Hope you enjoyed the pictures and stories. Slan!
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