Off to Africa!

Off to Africa!

While in Sevilla this lovely statue caught my eye. Yes, that is in fact a knitted cover for the statue...

Also while in Sevilla I bought a long skirt because I didn't own anything Muslim country appropriate for the weather.

Adiós España

 

مرحبا أفريقيا

(for all you non Arabic readers out there Hello Africa)

Ok so technically this picture was still taken in port (in Spanish waters), but the mountains in the distance are in fact Africa. Its only about a 45 minute ferry ride to Morocco. It is pretty amazing and also a little weird to be able to see, not only a different country, but a different continent just across a body of water.

Au Revoir Paris!

Au Revoir Paris!

Last day in Paris? Of course we have to climb the Eiffel Tower!!

Right up underneath the tower.

On the ground looking out from under the tower.

Looking up from the first platform to the second one.

The beautiful, typical, french buildings.

Where all those people are between the buildings in this picture is where I took all my pictures of the Eiffel Tower on the other days in Paris. 

The shadow of the Tower

Look how disgusting the River is!

Looking up towards the top.

Unfortunately there were too many people wanting to go up to the top of the tower, so we were unable to reach the top. That was pretty much the final sign telling us Paris no longer wanted us. It was in fact time to go home

And this is where the trip starts to fall apart...

And this is where the trip starts to fall apart...

We started the day with a boat tour. (After having a struggle of a morning where nothing really seemed to be going right.) If any of you are thinking of going to Paris and have the opportunity to take a boat tour, skip it. Seriously, it's not worth it. Take a bus tour. That will help you figure out where you really want to go and if you weren't planning on seeing a sight or at least didn't want to go out of your way to see something, you will probably stop to take some picture and you won't have to spend more time there if you take a bus tour. Also, the water in the river is DISGUSTING!! It is straight up brown. I think if you swim it you would get a disease. 

However, from the river there is a lovely view of the Eiffel Tower.

After the boat tour we planned on going to Versailles. Well, that's when things went downhill. First we had to get on the train that was headed out of Paris. Well, these guys almost pick pocketed my friend Megan. He was obviously bad at it because she felt him in her bag. She ripped her bag away from him and yelled and I almost felt worse for the guy. I thought she was going to deck him. Well, they were working on the tracks so we had to take a bus and then get back on the train. It was definitely a struggle. Then when we finally got to the Versailles station another struggle occurred. We needed to use our ticket to get out of the gate. We didn't understand the gate though. My friend Megan asked this guy who worked there how the gate worked, it was unlike any other gate we had ever seen before. He said "Where is your ticket??" But in a very strong french accent. Megan said "I want to leave the station. I'm not going anywhere else." Again, "Where is your ticket??" This exchanged went back and forth neither saying anything different than they had before for a good minute and a half until I realized that we needed our ticket to get out. Ana put her ticket through and she made it out of the station. Megan and I think proceeded to look for our tickets for 5 minutes, all while Ana is scared that she is going to alone in Versailles for the rest of the day. She actually yelled "please don't leave me here!" While all of this excitement is going on Eric is no where to be found. Later he told us that he "got stuck in a box" I had no Idea what that meant. He had tried to exit through the entrance. When you put your tick in the entrance 2 sets of gates open to let you into the station. He got trapped in between the gates. He finally got out of the gates and joined us so we could join Ana and go to Versailles. 

Versailles is so over the top gaudy. It is all just a little too much for me.

 I liked that this crow looked like it really belonged on this statue.

Marie Antoinette and her 3 children looking very royal.

The very famous hall of mirrors. They aren't as clean as I had expected them to be.

A posed and a more nature picture of my friends and me.

(Megan, Ana, and Me)

 On the way back to Paris was just as much of a struggle as getting to Versailles. We missed 3 trains just trying to buy a ticket because most people struggle to use technology. And then none of us had enough money in coins and the machines didn't take cash. Then only one person's card would work. Then we had to wait for 20 minutes until the next train came. But we were headed for food, so that what we focused on.

This is the cutlery you are given when you ask for escargot and foie gras. The weird nut cracker looking thing is for you to hold the snail shell so you can pull the snail body out of the shell with the tiny 2 pronged fork.

 The snails were delicious!

The goose liver was good too, but I prefer snails.

Paris in 1 day? ¡No pasa nada!

Paris in 1 day? ¡No pasa nada!

Trying to do everything we wanted to do in Paris in a weekend was like trying to do a marathon at a full sprint. It just wasn't going to happen, but let me tell you that didn't keep us from trying. 

Dôme des Invalides. This church is the sight of Napoleon's tomb. It is also attached to Paris's Military Museum. 

Here we are in the gardens of the Military Museum and Napoleon's Tomb.

Some OSU pride (kind of) in front of the Eiffel Tower. We were struggling to say the least.

I don't know if this guy was really bored waiting for his family, homeless, or just wanting someone to draw him like a french girl, but no matter what it was fabulous. 

Notre Dame Cathedral. It was very pretty, unfortunitely though I did not have time to go inside the Cathedral and go to the top. Hopefully on my next trip to Paris I will go up there. 

This was the view of the very cute very french looking cafe from the restaurant we ate lunch at. The french really do know how to cook. If I studied in France I would definitely get very very fat.

Arc de Triomphe or the Arc of Triumph. This arc was built in memory of the fallen soldiers in the French Revolutionaly war as well as the Nepolionic Wars.

Pont de l'Archevêché or more fondly known as the Love Lock Bridge. On this bridge you and your love get a lock and write or carve your initials on the lock. Then you lock it to the bridge and then throw the key into the water. Unfortunately the bridge is becoming to heavy with all the locks, so it is becoming dangerous and the government is thinking about cutting all the locks off the bridge. 

Obélisque de Louxor is in the center of the city extremely close to the Arc. I like this picture because you can see the arc in the background.

Luxembourg Gardens. It was nice to finally see some Autumn colors. Salamanca doesn't have a lot of trees and so fall isn't super apparent. 

The Louvre. This is such a huge museum. It is kind of overwhelming actually.  

The pyramid from inside and out.

I loved this painting because I felt like I could just walk into. It is still weird to me that most art isn't in glass o really protected by anything. You can literally reach out and touch the art.

Except for the Mona Lisa. This painting is definitely protected well. It is in a glass case and then the rope around it to keep people out is about 6 feet from the actual painting.