paris pt.1

saturday, the 13th.

me and my friend were both tired but had to somehow get from the airport to our hotel. so after getting from our plane we got to our bus which drove us to porte maillot and from there we got to a metro station. we bought 10 tickets (which was a mistake since we barely used up 6 of them) and started driving. we didn't know how the metro worked so we failed the first time but it was all fine when we asked the workers there how to drive to our metro station.

we got outside and easily found our hotel which was near us, registered into our room and dropped down on our beds. we really wanted to eat something so we found a supermarket near us and bought some pastries, potato chips and so on. came back, at a little. i don't remember if we slept then for a bit (i think we did) or if we went out, but yeah, we found on the map that we are close to sacre coeur so we went out.

the view we saw from the top was incredible, i don't think i will ever forget how beutiful everything looked and how happy i felt right at that moment. basilica was also huge and beautiful (and the entry was free). that day we also went to see moulin rouge which was just a windmill but i love that on both sides of the streets were sex shops, they were hilarious. we also explored montmartre which was such a quiet and beautiful place. before heading back home we found a little park and sat there for a while.

sunday, the 14th.
we were so excited to explore that we went the second day and saw pretty much every other popular touristy thing there was to see in paris. firstly we went to louvre, not the actual museum but the outside of it. i have to say, the view was so amazing, the weather was incredible too. after we took a bunch of photos we went on to the park nearby.

the park looked like something i've seen in movies, people were sitting in chairs, reading, smoking, enjoying that beautiful day. children were playing with they parents football, old people were discussing something in their beautiful french language. i was so in love with paris at that moment.

and when we walked through the park we saw the eiffel tower for the first time, have to say even though it is such a touristy thing but we got super excited and decided for our next destination to be that.

we saw a bunch of wonderful things while going to the eiffel tower, but at that moment we were so tired/it was so hot that the excitement kind of wore off, also my feet were hurting so much, i don't think i've ever walked so much in my entire life.

but we reached it! it got bigger and bigger with every street we passed. have to say - louvre was much more exciting because everywhere you looked it was beautiful and the eiffel tower was just.. there. standing. people taking photos and then going away. the music and smell was also weird since there were a few places to buy some food on both sides and it just reminded us of those 'celebrations' in our city with horrible music and weird smelling food. but we had some pictures to send to our moms which was great and we headed home. in an hour and a half we were back home and we wanted to die because we didn't eat much that day and everything was hurting. i guess we are just too old for travelling.

monday, the 15th.
we couldn't believe it was only monday because we had seen so much already. but we had a few more places to visit so we headed to latin quarter. my friend was told to visit this place because it was soo amazing yet no one told us what to look for in there :D so, we firstly headed to notre-dame cathedral, of course we saw some amazing things while going to it, i mostly loved the fountains everywhere, they really spent so much time on every little detail.

so, that's notre-dame for you. yet we didn't go inside of it since the line was CRAZY i don't think i've ever seen so many people standing in line ever. we sat for a while and headed to sainte-chapelle which is famous for it's stained glass collection.

this was the exit for this chapel. yup, everything looked that beautiful in real life too.

the entry was actually 10 euros but since we were citizens of EU and we were under 25 (or 26?) we got in for free. at first it doesn't look that incredible but then you get to the second floor and bam.

after that we sat on a bench because we wanted to check how to get to that latin quarter and we met an old french man and talked to him for 15 minutes about paris, about our country and french and english languages. then we started going to that quarter. we were hoping to find something amazing there but.. it was just a bunch of streets. of course, they were beautiful but we were hoping to find something. we sat for a while and went to a chinese restaurant to eat, we paid 8.90 euros for chicken curry, egg rolls (my friend for salad) and then a weird looking cookie. we were amazed how cheap it was. after that we to jardin du luxembourg which was so beautiful, i don't think i've ever seen something like that. and there were a bunch of palm trees which i loove.

we saw this weird beach type of thing while going down the street, people were tanning and showering in the middle of the city.

we were heading home but before that we accidentally found my favourite spot in paris - a book/vinyl shop. everything there was for around 0.50 euro cents to 5 euros. we spent a good half an hour or maybe even more in there and i got a vinyl named 'european bird sounds', have to say, it's interesting to listen to bird sounds while doing something else. i also got a humorous book of weird drawings and i told myself i'll translate everything to either english or lithuanian when i'm back in my dorm. also that day i bought myself a white shopping bag with a drawing on it and a text saying 'les bouquinistes des quais de paris' which translates to booksellers of paris docks and if you're interested where i got this, google that translation and hit images.