Ah Paris! Mon a'mi- Je no para le pa France

And so the next week came and went in a flash, classes had caught up to me and loaded me with the work as the weeks were beginning to slowly draw to a close. As a matter of fact at this point in time there was just under 8 days of classes including finals left and everyone was beginning their excited countdown. For some it was the countdown of the day they'd go home, for other's the day they'd start a journey of a lifetime. For me it was the countdown till the realization of a dream. But before that time came the roomies were to plan one final trip together to bring us closer together and to begin our uneasy goodbyes to one another. We booked a weekend get away to Paris the city of love. Originally we'd planned for all four of us to be there but it turned out that Matty poo wasn't going to be able to join us. So Friday after Tom and Casi finished with classes we headed on on the first train we could catch to Hendayaon a little thing called the Eusko train. From there we caught another train that headed straight into Paris. Total time took us just over 6 hours to get from San Sabby to Paris.

When we arrived it was almost a feeling of deja vu, walking out once more into the scene of a movie once more. The Eiffel Tower, the symbol of France was no where in sight at this point but we knew that would be seen in the days to come as we'd arrived late and hadn't much time for then checking in and getting a quick meal before heading off to bed.

The next morning we awoke relatively early and set out for a free tour offered by a group in relation with the hostel we were staying at. This tour took us through almost all the famous high points of Paris. It was through this tour that we got to see the Notre dame Cathedral, another famous Cathedral whose name I don't know, a bunch of famous statues of king Henry's and the likes, The arc de Triumph, Champs Elysee, The christmas ferris wheel, the xmas market, The spot where the guillotene used to be but now stands the golden point, the Louvre (outside), Petite Palace, Gran Palace, and the Eiffel Tower. The tour lasted a good majority of the afternoon with a break for lunch. After the break we made our way back to the Christmas market to look around, then over to the Arc de Triumph to take more photos. And then over to the Eiffel Tower to see about going up. We arrived somewhere in the late afternoon at the Eifell Tower to see some street performers and thought about going up the stairs to see the view from the top only to find out it's price as well as the issue we were all having with our cameras. Everyone's batteries were dying so we decided not to go up at that point that we would come back and go up at another time. So we decided to head back to the hostel and get ready for our night out that evening.

After a short siesta we awoke to get ready to go out and spend a night on the town in Paris. We went out only to find that the Spaniards seemed to know how to party just a little better then the French and returned to the hostel early the next morning (around 1 or so). After sleeping off a hard night of dancing we awoke the next morning and headed to the Monmarte district for another tour through the same company. This time a paid tour where we saw many more of Paris' amazing sights including the Moulin Rouge, the Van Goh apartment, the arts district, the Basilica of Paris, and also where we got the best view and shot of the Paris skyline that was even better then what we would've gotten from the Eiffel Tower. Thus allowing us to skip that other part of our day so that we didn't have to make another trip across town and then take the long walk up the stairs. After that tour was over we went quickly over to Louvre to enjoy the free entrance as it was the first Sunday of the month and they wave the entry fee on that day. We made our way around the Louvre as quickly as possible as it was getting close to closing time, but we got to see a good majority of the building as it's nearly impossible to see it all in one day anyways let alone a few hours. But we did rather well for having only two hours. After that we headed back over to the arts district to grab a nice dinner before heading back and turning in for the night.

The next morning was our last day in Paris and so we spent it doing the things we felt needed to be done and tying up lose ends before booking a train ticket home. We went inside the Notre-Dame and had a truly strange catholic experience. Entrance was free to the Cathedral but to go up to the towers would've costed so we decided we didn't like that idea and walked around the church enjoying the sermon that was taking place on a Monday morning and the pretty voices of the choir that filled the church hall. After that we walked around Paris a little more taking a few more snapshots before we decided to find a grovery store where we could purchase some French wine and possibly some Champeigne. After that we went to the train station to book our tickets home.

We booked tickets for the next time that afternoon which was set to leave around 3 ish putting us into San Sebastian around 9 that night. But when we booked the tickets little did we know we'd booked them at a seperate station and the woman we'd purchased the tickets from didn't bother to explain to us that these tickets were for a train that was to leave from a station ten minutes away by metro. So we sat around that afternoon waiting for our platform number to be posted only to find out ten minutes before the departure time that we'd been waiting at the wrong station. So we booked it over to the metro and tried our best but missed our train by a good twenty minutes. Thus causing us to change our tickets to the last scheduled train leaving Paris putting us into Hendaya very late and making it so that there was no metro back to San Sebastian which forced us to take a taxi all the way into the other city. All in all it was one heck of a journey and the taxi only costed about 15 a person which pleased us not to have to dish out the big bucks in order to get home. Ending our eventful trip through Paris.