I can remember when I started planning my spring break trip with a few friends in the St. John's computer lab. I was so excited to finally start traveling, but was sad to realize that the trip wouldn't be for another month and a half.
All of a sudden midterm week was upon us and the light at the end of the tunnel consisted of a nine-day trip to Paris, Dublin and London. Needless to say my mind frequently wandered off to planning what I wanted to do in each city rather than focusing on the liturgical developments of the fourth century.
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| The Eiffel Tower Light Show |
For some reason, on a random Sunday afternoon in January, my friends and I thought that taking early flights to each of our destinations would be a good idea. We began our spring break trip with a 4:30 am shuttle from Termini train station to Ciampino airport. From this point on I realized that sleep was going to be as scarce as the money in all of our pockets.
Paris
Flying Ryanair, while cheap, served to be very inconvenient, since nearly every plane we took (except when flying into Dublin), landed at an obscure and distant airport at least one hour away from the city we planned on visiting. Aboard the plane the flight attendants also planned on disrupting any kind of sleep a passenger planned on getting by making announcements every six minutes and trying to sell you cigarettes, scratch-off lottery cards and non-complimentary drinks. (I apologize for my Ryanair rant. It is a decent airline, however, I would not recommend it to anyone other than college students.)
The weather in Paris was cool, windy, and periodically rainy. On the first day we found a Starbucks, something that some of my friends had been dreaming about since leaving America. After a quick American caffeine fix, we headed to Versailles where we ran through the non-bloomed gardens and managed to get into the palace during the final minutes of admittance.
This trip was my first time visiting a country (besides Italy) since being abroad that I did not know the language. All but one of my friends had no French background at all. Our solution? We tried to speak Italian everywhere.Fresh out of our Italian final we were all feeling more confident than ever in our speaking skills. (This quickly faded once we traveled to Dublin and London where we were in our glory speaking English!)
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| Palace of Versailles |
The next day was an intense sight-seeing day. We went to the Louvre, where we saw the somewhat underwhelming Mona Lisa, thousands of paintings and sculptures, and Hammurabi's Code. I liked Hammurabi's Code the best; it reminded me of the fifth grade when I learned about the Babylonians and the discovery of Hammurabi's Code.We took the mandatory tourist pictures of the giant pyramid at the museum with our second Starbucks of the trip in hand.
The Cathedral of Notre Dame was our next stop. For those of us in the Liturgical Art and Architecture class, we felt compelled to point out every gothic element of the church, demonstrating how much we still remembered from out midterm from two days prior. After about an hour in the cathedral we ate in the Quasimodo Cafe where we ordered quiches and french onion soup.
After a steep and windy climb to the top of the Eiffle Tower, a visit to Laduree for amazing macaroons and a stop at the Moulin Rouge, I indulged in a fresh buttery croissant and shared a warm, fresh out of the oven baguette with some friends before finishing my up my last night in Paris. When we returned to our friend's apartment that we were staying at we looked out her window to watch the Eiffel Tower light up. This moment, while may not seem too important to others, was magical to us. We watched the Eiffel Tower gradually light up with a warm golden light and then sparkle with its hourly light show.
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| Laduree Macaroons |
Some of my last moments in the "City of Lights" can be characterized by one word: cuisine. Our entire group managed to find a restaurant with a three-course dinner meal all for about 11 euro! Our table was filled with french onion soup, escargot and beef bourguignon. Naturally we found a creperie after dinner that made one of the most delicious desserts I have ever consumed. A large, fresh crepe filled with chocolate and bananas was the perfect way to conclude my time in Paris.
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