We wake at 6:00AM to catch a train from florence to pisa, for an 11:15AM flight. make it to the florence train station and i look at the ticket (that we had purchased the previous day - in hope that everything would run smoother the next day) and think 'oh no!' (that was the 'G' rated thought) 'we told the machine the wrong date!' i immediately race to the ticket counter and to ask what we should do i was informed that the ticket would last until the date that is listed. oh. 1st mshap of the day. we board the train and are on our way...once we arrive in pisa we have to get from the train station to the airport. i go to the ticket/info counter to ask an attendant (thankfully they spoke english, and were very helpful), and he presented me with two options. 1.take a bus/shuttle or 2.hop on another train. under pressure at 9:00AM to make it to the airport on time i opted for the train (reasoning being- you can not encounter unexpected traffic delays on a train track like you can on the street). the tickets were purchased and quickly validated (learned the hard way on the train back from venice- remember). during our organization process, lil coco encounters the 2nd mshap of the day. her camera (one of this HUGE 'soccer mom' cameras that legit photographers use) is COVERED in nutella in her purse. hopefully you are wondering why she would have nutella in her purse. at the hotel we stayed at with school offered a complimentary breakfast. our reasoning was throw a few of the tray packets (think the perfect dipping tray - like chick fil a sauce) in the purse so when you want a snack later you would be prepared.
in the process of cleaning her camera the train arrives. we haul all our crap (5 carry on's and 3 large suitcases to check) on to the train for a 60 second train ride. it was re-dic how close the airport was to the train station. YAY! we made it! i was sure we were almost home free for the paris birthday weekend (no so fast...). we walk into the airport (after a debate on which side of the airport our check-in desk was located) to find that the 11:15 flight is not listed as a departing flight. asking and receiving a response in broken english we began to think a 11:15 flight does not exist. cyd gets excited because her flight was 2:25PM and worried that she was going to initially have to fly by herself, and the rate things were going it looked like we were all on the same flight. a quick easyjet account check and our fears were true, we were at the airport 4 HOURS early. i would have sworn that the flight was 11:15, but obviously i was wrong (mshap #3). so we decide to grab breakfast and internet at a little cafe. lil coco is still trying to get her nutella caked camera clean and decides that she wants to bite the end of a bobby pin off to create a small sharp edge for the crevices. bad idea. mshap #4, lil coco chips her front tooth. thankfully it wasn't too bad.
Amazingly the hours we had to spend buying internet (something i swore i would never do on this trip. 30 minutes cost 3.50E! re-dic.) we were very productive. in the three hours i mapped out all our metro trips to the various places we planned on traveling throughout paris, decided the classes that i wish to take this summer, and even started picking out fall semester classes. before we knew it, it was 12:25 - time to check in for out flight! somehow we managed to wait in the wrong line (i know- a complete shocker). mshap #5. we were standing in the 'online check-in' line. after switching lines the anxiety set in. lil coco and i were sharing a bag to check and cyd and nortold were doing the same -share a bag thing. the initial reasoning last sunday in ariccia was 'we will be out of town for 7 days. we won't be able to fit all of that (plus the stuff we buy- i am not stupid we are girls, and love to shop) in a dinky carry-on.' solution = pack together and save $$ in the long run because checking a bag when you check in is more expensive than paying to check a bag when you buy your ticket (the difference is an added 21E). back to friday in the security line - so my heart is racing. our bag is supposed to weigh 20kg (which is roughly 40lbs). i place the suitcase on the scale and it is almost 30 KG! YIKES. mshap #6 -not knowing the proper weight of the suitcase. i start pulling out coats and boots (the heaviest items in the suitcase) and miraculously stuffing them into my book bag. not only did i learn that i would have to go stand in a different line after my suitcase got the green light for being the proper weight (20.7 kg), i learned of the BIGGEST mshap of the day. lil coco does not have a ticket for the flight. uh-oh. she is informed that the flight she purchased was on saturday the 6th , not friday the 5th. she never received a conformation email, which oddly enough is extremely typical when you book/reserve things in europe (it has happened to me multiple times). we are now at a running total of #8 mshaps (not having the correct ticket amounted to a double mshap). we ran though multiple scenarios of getting lil coco to paris: train all night (they had 14 hours train rides that left at 6:00PM), catch the flight tomorrow or (the worst scenario) travel back to rome! when i finally checked the bag, i pleaded with the people at the counter 'it is my birthday weekend.,' even with watery eyes (for a more dramatic effect). but the easyjet people did inform me that she could change her ticker --- for a price. with an expected 45 minutes until take off, lil coco runs back to the ticket counter and buys the ticket. SUCCESS!!! time is running out and we havent even tackled the security line. soon we are sprinting thought the airport, i am wearing 3 jackets on, a backpack, a notebook and lil coco's carry on bag. thankfully the security line is short, and we make it!!! (once again, don't count your chickens before the hatch). i am almost always stopped at airport security, and friday was no different, my new leather bracelets manage to set off the detector, and (probably) due to my mass amount of layers resulted in me getting pulled to the side and patted down (which was a first). normally i would count that as a mshap, but someone else was stranded in security too. cydney. they ran her carry-on 3 times, each time they would pull her back over to the side asking 'sprite,' 'sprie,' 'spray.' basically we had no idea what they were saying. then we realized they were talking about her water bottle. she has one of the camel bak's that has the straw and they thought that was a 'pump' making it a spray bottle. so she had to chug the water (or go back out to the bathroom and empty it and then wait back in line....yeah. like we had the time for that). she joined the 'chugged a water bottle in the airport security line' club (i am the founding member). now we REALLY made it, and only to learn that our flight was 25 minutes late. Never (or ever again) will i rejoice over a late flight. this added cushion of time gave us the opportunity to grab lunch before boarding the plane. i stopped at a generic eatery in the airport only to find they had the best food EVER. i got a great turkey sandwich and some popcorn (italians are not big fans of popcorn - i guess because they don't have that grain in abundance like we do in the US). yum!
the plane ride was pleasant. with a little turbulence we finally arrive in PARIS! yes, all this happened before we even made it to paris. now we had the obstacle of tackling the metro with all our massive bags. after we get off the airplane we get 2-day passes that allow us to use the metro and/or buses all over paris (and even included our travel out to versailles on saturday). we asked the attendant (who spoke little to no english - should have been our red flag to not get a ticket from her) if the tickets lasted 48 hours after they were used the first time, or only worked for 2 days. she assured us in her broken english that they would work for the 48 hours. we think 'perfect,' because that was roughly the amount of time we would have to spend in paris. immediately we have issues with the metro. the metro decided that it had something against nortold. even after a 'patrol' person in the metro rescued her from her distress (they saw her having trouble with the ticket and pulled her aside and issued a new one - mshap #9 ), her new ticket still did not want to work. we battled issues with tickets in the metro the entire weekend.
FINALLY WE ARRIVE TO OPPS, the hostel (i now realize the irony in the name of the hostel we chose). and our bubble is quickly popped, the room we booked (a 6 bed dorm for the 5 of us, so we wouldn't have to battle with any randos) was currently having electrical problems. grrrreeeeaaaaat. the guy at the front desk said they had 2 private rooms that had 4 beds avilable, and they were going to allow us to use them friday night. before accepting the offer i made it clear that the reason we booked the 6 bed room before was because we wanted to be alone. he assured me that we would be alone (yeah right). we got settled into the 2 rooms and then headed back to the metro. the plan was to hit up the louvre (free on friday nights after 6:00PM).
the louvre!
cliche picture in front of the mona lisa.
it really is that small, and i am standing as close as i possibly could.
i am going to be on the hunt for a pair of sandals like this, in either morocco or positano.we spend WAY too much time there and ended up closing down the museum at 9:30. then on our way out we spotted a little piece of america. STARBUCKS! so duh, we stopped. i saw cupcakes and had to order one.
posing with our goods.
up close and personal. yuuummmm :)it was vanilla cake - but the sugary sweet cake that you are used to in the states, this cake was more savory. then it had whipped peanut butter icing topped with peanuts and drizzled with caramel (my stomach it literally growling writing/thinking about it). cupcakes are hard to find in europe.
closing down the museum.
nortold, me, lil coco, cyd and kelly
after we made it out of the maze the museum called an exit strategy we headed for sushi. found this legit sushi place, made it with minutes to spare. we had 10 minutes to decide what we wanted (before they quit accepting orders). the menu was in both japanese and french = really hard to decipher. i played it safe and chose a california roll with green tea. mmmm. the cali roll was A LOT different from the rolls that you get in america. first it was just 4 HUGE pieces, and then it had 2 types of crab meat on the inside and a couple random veggies (advocado and lettuce).
california roll (paris style) + green tea = heaven
overall it was GREAT, just a little too salty. by now we are all EXHAUSTED. we head back to the hostel.
S---Show Saturday. (once again...fill in the blanks)
This day began at 2:30AM. lil coco and i stayed in one of the rooms; and cydney, nortold and kelly stayed in the other across the hall. at 2:30 in the morning the door is opened and the light switches on and an unknown girl walks into their (cyd, nortold, and kelly) room. speaking in FAST spanish and with virtually no comprehension of english, walks up to the vacant bed and grabs the spare pillow and leaves as abruptly as she arrives. enraged (as they should be) kelly and norton march downstairs to the reception desk and ask 'WTF.' (ok - maybe not literally but if this would have happened if i would have been bothered, definitely been raising some hell.) the employee informed them that the ledger was showing their room had 2 extra beds, which they had sold to a party of spanish girls. there were 2 things wrong with this scenario. 1. the man who checked us in PROMISED us we would be by ourselves since the 6 bed dorm was unavailable and 2. they were double booking to make more $$$. as a group of 5 girls we RESERVED a room with 6 beds to ensure that we would be avoiding a situation with random people (which did not work). the employee assured them we would all be credited for one night (a potential 30E back ---each).
later that morning (at a more normal time) we all woke up and were getting ready to train to versailles! the part of the weekend i was most excited about, due to my intense fascination for marie antionette. before we could train - we had to pack up ALL out things and bring them downstairs to store in the luggage room. i had already eaten a croissant from the 'free breakfast' (seems like a random fact now, but trust me it is a critical detail). we get our bags into the storage room that conveniently stored both luggage and breakfast (croissants and rolls - in open containers) - YUM. but it gets worse, kelly had picked up a carbohydrate plate earlier, but after seeing how OPPS! stored their food, she decided to play it safe and stick to drinking her tea. when she was done drinking her tea she placed the remaining trash on her food. she gave it back to the breakfast server person. shockingly he pulled the trash off the plate, discarded the trash, and then returned the food to the 'buffet' line with the other food. EEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWW. now i wonder where the croissant had been that i had eaten earlier....
thankfully the weather was great (i mean as great as 5 degree weather can get). saturday was expected to be rainy/snowy and turned out to be sunny all day (just a slight chill due to the out of control wind). training to versailles was long and we were all exhausted when we finally made it to versailles and thankfully we immediately found a starbucks after we got off the metro.
liquid energy. never thought i would admit that i miss crappy starbucks.it was just a few minutes after consuming my liquid caramel mocha crack that i was skipping down the sidewalk to versailles. wondering if marie antoinette had walked the same area a few hundred years before (you don't know).
I AM HERE! me in front of the gates at versailles.we decided (well i decided) that we should 'go big, or go home,' and went all out and got the passport pass. this pass pretty much covers your entrance (not the shuttle rides - those are added expense. but worth the $$$. versailles is BEYOND huge) to anything on the grounds. i would love to go back and do EVERYTHING. we just did the main palace and 'petit trianon' aka marie antoinette's home away from home on the grounds.
royal chapel. marie antoinette was MARRIED here. 
bust of the 'grandfather king' king louis XIV. this bust is considered the most accurate depiction of the handsome king.
cast of the BEST movie ever. marie antoinette. duh.
me thoroughly enjoying the 'hall of mirrors.' fact- the mirrors were installed as 'mirrors' of the windows on the opposite wall. 
MARIE ANTOINETTE's bedroom.
painting of marie antionette. i got this as a magnet, and i got a marie antoinette music box, and a cd of her favorite songs. ok...maybe i am a little obsessed :)at 2:30 we were versaille-d out, and HUNGRY. the initial plan was head back to paris (a 45 minute train ride) and grab some lunch and then hit up the shopping. but we were all tired and decided to keep the 'ode to america' charade up and settled on mcdonalds. let me defend myself really quick - american fast food is only good outside of america. it is all gourmet and what not. the entire design of the mcdonalds is even better (not efficient what so ever...but aesthetically pleasing to eye and senses). i choose some mustard burger that i could not pronounce, with 'deluxe' fries and a fanta! it was pretty good. would i order it again? i doubt it.
my mcdonalds spread outside of versailles. i don't think marie antoinette ate here...we head back to the hostel after enjoying our mc-heart attack, to move our bags out of the sketchy luggage room and into the new room. after we were settled and freshened up we hopped back on the metro and headed to montemarte, or the outskirts of the the 'red-light' district (where moulin rouge is located). montemarte is famed for having great art, and it is true. i got 2 new pieces for my apartment. but they are also the home to the one of the only cupcake bakery's in the city. of course we stopped, i mean when they are advertising this (see picture below) in the window you can't just walk by...
it is a cupcake tree!
i decided to sample 2 flavors and obviously i was advernterous...so i randomly chose the two flavors that had the least amount of cupcakes left. my strategy was, obviously they must be good because they had the fewest cupcakes left. success! i ended up trying tiramisu and some chocolate cake with white chocolate mousse that had been dipped in dark chocolate (my favorite of the two). the place is called 'berko,' and a MUST if you are in the area (it is right around the corner from moulin rouge!), don't let the line discourage you. all the cupcakes looked BEAUTIFUL and delicious...
YUM!
YUM!after we purchased the cupcakes and art we headed back to metro to go SHOP on champ elysees (and grab dinner). for some reason the metro was unbelievable crowded this evening. when we were literally JUMPING on a train and shoving everyone to make room for ourselves...kelly had her first mshap of the trip (#11), she got her hair closed in the doors of the train!
she literally could not move because her hair was caught, we had to wait until the next stop to free her hair when the door opened.
arc de triophme.this is located on champ elysees. SHOPPING DISTRICT. i was on a mission to get new sunglasses - which was an unsuccessful search. after multiple failed attempts we gave up and headed to find food. we stopped at a little local place on a side street, and i got some good french onion soup. it was a cold night and something warm was very soothing. lil coco also made me try this crazy dish - beef carpaccio. if you don't know what it is...it is thinly sliced raw beef on a bed of lettuce with some cheese. it was gooooood. after dinner we headed to the EIFFEL TOWER.
EIFFEL TOWER at night.love it.
marie is getting real excited about going up to the top.(she has never been)
the only other hardcore girls that hung out on the top deck long enough to take pictures.
marie and me!sunday = slim day
sunday we woke before the sun (6:30 AM - i don't think i will ever have the chance to sleep in), so we could pack and leave/be at the notre dame at 8:00AM and utilize the last few hours we had to enjoy in paris. made it in time to hear some of mass in french at notre dame. BEAUTIFUL. i could have sat there and listened to the entire thing...but we had more things to do!
notre dame.
river by the notre dame. this photo was cydney's idea - she is such a great photographer!sadly we could not figure out how to climb the tower at notre dame (so we were not able to hang out with Quasimodo - remember the hunchback from the disney movie?), because the parisian people are not very helpful. but now knowing the crap we would have to do in the afternoon i am kinda glad i saved my energy (oops! i have said too much...). now we were all starving and began our search for the cafe 'les deux magots.' a popular and iconic cafe of paris (located in the outskirts of the latin district), it was a personal favorite to both hemingway and picasso. the cafe was pretty pricey so i decided on a ham&cheese omelet and 1/2 of a grapefruit.
ham and cheese omelet. with lots of pepper - europeans are not big 'season-ers' when it comes to food...
after finishing our lunch we were on a quest for a longchamp store. with around 25 located in the city of paris, i kinda figured that i would 'stumble' across one. nope. and another fun fact about paris - almost EVERYTHING is closed on sunday. why would someone want a day off??
so long story short we didn't find a longchamp store. :( next on the sunday itenerary was a quick stop to kelly wearstler's (she is a uber famous interior designer) favorite modern art museum in paris. it opens at 11:00AM on sunday's, and we arrived at 11:15 and had to stand in line (weird). but then i was informed the museum was free on the 1st sunday of every month. SWEET! 2 free museums in one weekend - sadly this did not contribute to me saving a lot of money. haha. the museum was...um...well, graphic. i mean that in every possible sense - including nudity and bold impacts of color. they had an entire exhibit devoted to 'genitals.' needless to say i felt very violated which resulted in me not taking or posting any of the pictures for the exhibit.
ham and cheese omelet. with lots of pepper - europeans are not big 'season-ers' when it comes to food...after finishing our lunch we were on a quest for a longchamp store. with around 25 located in the city of paris, i kinda figured that i would 'stumble' across one. nope. and another fun fact about paris - almost EVERYTHING is closed on sunday. why would someone want a day off??
so long story short we didn't find a longchamp store. :( next on the sunday itenerary was a quick stop to kelly wearstler's (she is a uber famous interior designer) favorite modern art museum in paris. it opens at 11:00AM on sunday's, and we arrived at 11:15 and had to stand in line (weird). but then i was informed the museum was free on the 1st sunday of every month. SWEET! 2 free museums in one weekend - sadly this did not contribute to me saving a lot of money. haha. the museum was...um...well, graphic. i mean that in every possible sense - including nudity and bold impacts of color. they had an entire exhibit devoted to 'genitals.' needless to say i felt very violated which resulted in me not taking or posting any of the pictures for the exhibit.
this was the best 'G' rated nude piece that i could get
LOVED this one. so simple. the colors were AMAZING in person.
the new background of my computer. why? because it is green!
they even had a small exhibit about industrial design.ultimately during my short stay in europe i have learned a lot about myself. like, that i am VERY conservative. i felt like i was almost perverted looking at some of the 'art.' after i was finished being violated, we headed back to eiffel tower to appreciate its splendor in the daylight.
my future residence, it is right across from the eiffel tower :) 
me in front of the eiffel tower.i had to stand really far away so the entire tower would fit! it is soooooooo
BIG.
before i knew it, it was a few minutes after 2:00. we needed to grab a quick lunch before we head back to the hostel to grab our bags and start making our way to the airport for our 6:00PM flight. like i said earlier, a lot of places are closed on sunday - making it VERY hard trying to find a place to eat. soon it was 2:30 and i knew that we needed to just eat at the next place we came upon. le sketch was the winner. i was a cute little restaurant off the beaten path by a university and still reasonably close to the eiffel tower. we were in a major rush. when the waiter asked what we wanted to drink, we ordered drinks and our meals (trout almondine - mmmm. except i had to clean the fish. i keep forgetting they serve the WHOLE thing over here...) at the same time. we he brought our food we were requesting the check to pay. now it is 3:00. we asked if there was a closer metro than the one we came from (we had walked all the way on the other side of the eiffel tower). he assured us that the 'invalides' station would be the closest and our best bet. the fact that the station was named 'invalid' should have been a red flag for how the quest to find it was going to go.
my trout.
i forgot they served fish whole over here,
but my dad would be very proud - i am turning into a very good 'cleaner.'
we pay and run out the door. we keep walking...and walking...and walking some more. i try using the metro map (which gives the stops of the metro - and a few main street names, so you know where you are) with no success. unsure of where we were, and how close or far we were to the station we stop 2 men walking down the street. of course they are foreigners looking for the same station (see we aren't retarded - other people were looking for it too!). soon i hear some people speaking french behind us, i think that they would most likely know the way. i ask them and they respond that we are headed in the right direction (yes!) and that was where they were headed too and offered that we follow them. the obviously could not read the urgency in my tone of voice or body language, because they were the SLOWEST walkers in the history of walking. at 4ish we finally made it to the terminal. according to my rough estimation we should have already been back by the hostel, picked up our luggage and on the metro headed to the airport. yikes.
the next 2 hours are a blur. we got on the train, kind of in a mid panic. in the back of my mind i was like 'we have to make it, this is the last flight of the day.' i tried to stay as calm, cool and collected as possible because i knew that stressing about the time would not allot us any more minutes or help the situation. let me tell you some quick facts about flying budget airlines in europe. they open check-in 2 hours before the flight departs, the quit checking bags about an hour before the flight leaves and if you haven't checked in 30 minutes before departure...you should start looking for another flight. after a few metro changes we make it to the hostel and get our bags out and head back to the metro around 4:30ish. remember earlier when i was saying that were were having problems with our metro cards? well normally it wasn't that big of deal but now we were going to have BAGS. lots and lots of heavy bags. and did i mention we were on a major time crunch? we came up with a system. the people who had cards that would work (like myself) would go through with a carry-on and then prop the door open and the other people would slide the bags under the 1st gate and i (or whoever else was already through) would grab the bag and pull it through the door. i am sure that we were quite a sight. thankfully we only had to do this 2 or 3 times, but by the last time we had it down to a fine system. basically if it was an olypmic sport, our team would totally sweep the gold medal category.
now we are on the train to go to the airport. it is 5:00. the projected/estimated time to arrive to the airport is 10 minutes. while we are the train we met a family (that is currently living in paris) from georgia! small world. they were amused by our story of us trying to get to the airport...and wished us good luck. on the next tram we ran into a pilot and initially he was very helpful, but when he realized how frazzled we were he asked when our flight was. we respond '6:00PM.' he looked at his watch - and i don't think i will forget the look of 'holy shit' that ran across his face. as soon as the tram stopped we darted out of the machine. i almost wish i had someone film us running through the halls and down the escalators, of the airport. we only had 30 minutes to check our bags (this included waiting in line twice - once to get our tickets, and then once to pay for the bag), going through security and then finding our gate. we immediately run to the front of the easyjet check in line, and find a man who pulls us aside and checks us in. lil coco and i get slapped with a 80E bag fine (due to it being overweight - we did not have the precious time to add more to the carry-on's). after the fine is paid we run across the airport to do security. the security of the orly, paris airport was the slowest security line ever. i am sure that i didn't help that i was in a MAJOR hurry. of course i get stopped, like i have time for that. they make me take EVERYTHING out of my bag. i had 3 purses jammed in there (remember i was in florence - leather markets!- before i was in paris) and the made me open every single pocket of every single purse. then i had to take all my scarves out and various other presents i had in boxes. eventually i found the culprit. my toner. 20 more euro down the drain, i had gotten a couple weeks ago and it is now in the trash at orly airport paris. i finally get all my layers back on and everything in my bag and take off running to my gate - i looked like i was in an olympic marathon (and winning).
so somehow (by the grace of god) we all made it to the gate and boarded the airplane, with 40 pre-teen french boys. lovely. i have never been sooooo happy to make it back to rome. now obviously this was majorly abridged, it took me 2 nights just to document all of this. so i think you can get the major picture that paris was a trip that none of us will ever forget. hopefully my next trip will be a lot 'easier.' :)
my trout.
i forgot they served fish whole over here,
but my dad would be very proud - i am turning into a very good 'cleaner.'
we pay and run out the door. we keep walking...and walking...and walking some more. i try using the metro map (which gives the stops of the metro - and a few main street names, so you know where you are) with no success. unsure of where we were, and how close or far we were to the station we stop 2 men walking down the street. of course they are foreigners looking for the same station (see we aren't retarded - other people were looking for it too!). soon i hear some people speaking french behind us, i think that they would most likely know the way. i ask them and they respond that we are headed in the right direction (yes!) and that was where they were headed too and offered that we follow them. the obviously could not read the urgency in my tone of voice or body language, because they were the SLOWEST walkers in the history of walking. at 4ish we finally made it to the terminal. according to my rough estimation we should have already been back by the hostel, picked up our luggage and on the metro headed to the airport. yikes.
the next 2 hours are a blur. we got on the train, kind of in a mid panic. in the back of my mind i was like 'we have to make it, this is the last flight of the day.' i tried to stay as calm, cool and collected as possible because i knew that stressing about the time would not allot us any more minutes or help the situation. let me tell you some quick facts about flying budget airlines in europe. they open check-in 2 hours before the flight departs, the quit checking bags about an hour before the flight leaves and if you haven't checked in 30 minutes before departure...you should start looking for another flight. after a few metro changes we make it to the hostel and get our bags out and head back to the metro around 4:30ish. remember earlier when i was saying that were were having problems with our metro cards? well normally it wasn't that big of deal but now we were going to have BAGS. lots and lots of heavy bags. and did i mention we were on a major time crunch? we came up with a system. the people who had cards that would work (like myself) would go through with a carry-on and then prop the door open and the other people would slide the bags under the 1st gate and i (or whoever else was already through) would grab the bag and pull it through the door. i am sure that we were quite a sight. thankfully we only had to do this 2 or 3 times, but by the last time we had it down to a fine system. basically if it was an olypmic sport, our team would totally sweep the gold medal category.
now we are on the train to go to the airport. it is 5:00. the projected/estimated time to arrive to the airport is 10 minutes. while we are the train we met a family (that is currently living in paris) from georgia! small world. they were amused by our story of us trying to get to the airport...and wished us good luck. on the next tram we ran into a pilot and initially he was very helpful, but when he realized how frazzled we were he asked when our flight was. we respond '6:00PM.' he looked at his watch - and i don't think i will forget the look of 'holy shit' that ran across his face. as soon as the tram stopped we darted out of the machine. i almost wish i had someone film us running through the halls and down the escalators, of the airport. we only had 30 minutes to check our bags (this included waiting in line twice - once to get our tickets, and then once to pay for the bag), going through security and then finding our gate. we immediately run to the front of the easyjet check in line, and find a man who pulls us aside and checks us in. lil coco and i get slapped with a 80E bag fine (due to it being overweight - we did not have the precious time to add more to the carry-on's). after the fine is paid we run across the airport to do security. the security of the orly, paris airport was the slowest security line ever. i am sure that i didn't help that i was in a MAJOR hurry. of course i get stopped, like i have time for that. they make me take EVERYTHING out of my bag. i had 3 purses jammed in there (remember i was in florence - leather markets!- before i was in paris) and the made me open every single pocket of every single purse. then i had to take all my scarves out and various other presents i had in boxes. eventually i found the culprit. my toner. 20 more euro down the drain, i had gotten a couple weeks ago and it is now in the trash at orly airport paris. i finally get all my layers back on and everything in my bag and take off running to my gate - i looked like i was in an olympic marathon (and winning).
so somehow (by the grace of god) we all made it to the gate and boarded the airplane, with 40 pre-teen french boys. lovely. i have never been sooooo happy to make it back to rome. now obviously this was majorly abridged, it took me 2 nights just to document all of this. so i think you can get the major picture that paris was a trip that none of us will ever forget. hopefully my next trip will be a lot 'easier.' :)
au revoir paris!hope i have a better trip next time.
PS- NEVER, EVER stay at oops! hostel. i think sleeping in the metro station would have been cleaner and cheaper. overall the design of the hostel was very decieving...the website made it look and sound AWESOME. i guess it is true that you should not judge a book by its cover...
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