Eiffel in love with Paris...hehehe

Bonjour!!

Well we had a wonderful February Mid-Term break!!  Paris for 3 days, lots of Olympics, a couple lazy days, Camden Market in London, and of course a bar in London for the men's gold medal hockey game.

Monday we got ourselves up and headed out pretty early to print our tickets for Disneyland Paris, get some euros, and grab a bite to eat before heading to the airport to catch our flight.

We got there REALLY early so we watched some Olympics while we waited.
We landed to a gorgeous sunset in Paris and got through customs quickly.

We had our directions from the airport to the hostel written out on a piece of paper because our phones were basically cameras unless we're on wifi, so we get our tickets and jump on the metro.  About 4 stops from the airport the train stops like normal, then we sit, and wait...and wait...and wait.  About 5 minutes later an announcement comes on (in French that we can't understand).  So we sit and wait again...about 20 minutes later another announcement comes on (again in French and not understood by us).  We finally ask someone and in very broken English she tells us that there's an accident on the tracks ahead and they don't know when we'll be able to move.  So we're stuck somewhere with no ability to figure out another way to get to the hostel...and most people just seem to be waiting it out.  We ended up waiting there for about an hour.  When we finally got to our stop (Lumiere) we got off and followed the directions to the hostel.  We've decided that Europeans don't like street signs...we can rarely find one in London and in Paris they are tiny and halfway up buildings only on one side.  So needless to say, we don't see the one for the road we need because we are going the "wrong way" to see the sign.  So we figured we were too far and asked someone...she spoke little English and we only a bit of French but we managed to get across what we were looking for and she looked around for a few minutes then explained, using hand gestures, where the road was.  So off we went again and we managed to find it quite easily after that.  It is a really nice hostel...right on a canal with a cool bridge beside it.

So we check in and head out to get something to eat.
When we got back we met some of the people in our room (we were in a mixed 12 person bunk room).  There were 3 girls from Australia and a girl from Manchester that we talked to quite a bit, there was also a girl from Kazakhstan, a very quiet guy (don't know where he's from), and a guy and girl from South America that turned out to be really annoying.
Basically everyone in our room had gotten there at some point that same day so most of us were exhausted.  Sam and I ended up lying in our bunks chatting with the 3 Aussies and the Man. girl (Man.=Manchester). So as we're talking the quiet guy comes in and pulls out his cage from under the bunk (he's on the top bunk of the Man. girl's bunk).  He starts pulling stuff out of his bag and Man. girl looks down and says "So...what are you doing with all those knives?" at which point we all stop talking and lean out our bunks to try to see what she's talking about.  He gives no real response and closes his bag and walks out of the room.  Once he's gone we all explode with "what?!", she then told us that he had a few really big knives in his bag.  One of the girls then jumped in that she had talked to him earlier in the day and he's really shy and is there trying to be a chef.  So we all decided it was fine. (In retrospect...maybe should have looked into that a bit more?)  So we all went to bed at a decent time so that we could get an early start on Tuesday.

Tuesday was a really busy day.  We got up early and didn't really think about getting our stuff organized the night before...oops.  We got ready, ate a very healthy breakfast of baguettes, nutella, and tea, and headed out to the metro station (Crimee).  We had been looking at a tube map with attraction pictures so we had figured out how we're going to get places.  We'd figured out an easy way to get to our first stop...the Eiffel Tower.  We got off the train in a bit of a different place than Sam thought (she may have been here a few times before...and by a few I mean 5).  We figured it out pretty quickly and soon saw the Eiffel Tower through the trees...it was a wonderful first view of it.
We took some pictures from across a big grass park from a monument before we made the walk across to go up. 

We hiked up the 670 stairs to the second level (the highest place you could walk up)

then took the elevator to the top.  It was so cool!  It blew my mind thinking about how old it is and how big.  It's very different in person.

So we took pictures, found which direction Canada was to say hi, and then left because it was so cold up on the top.  We headed the opposite way that we had come from to a big area with fountains for some more pictures

 and then to head to the Arc de Triumph.  We got lots of pictures and then went up the arc...lots of spiral stairs.  They were doing construction on the side of the arc that faces the Eiffel Tower which was too bad, but it was a really cool view from the top.

The roads around the arc is called Etoile (star) because there are 12 roads that come off the big circle road around.  It was really cool, and crazy driving!  They don't believe in road lines in Paris apparently so we saw cars going from the middle "lane" across what would be 6 or 7 lanes, to go out an exit.  It was nuts.
After the arc we headed to Notre Dame.  We got out of the metro, walked around the corner and TA DA, there it was...

 ...surrounded by cops.

There was tape blocking the way into the square in front of Notre Dame and the doors, there were also a ton of police and police cars around the area.  We thought that maybe they were trying to prevent a protest (we saw a ton of posters on the side of the hospital beside the square), but didn't know.  So we took some pictures and then walked a bit further along to ask a policeman what was going on.  His response to me: "There is a suspicious object that was left in the middle of the square and we think it might be a bomb threat.  Maybe come back in 30 minutes or an hour."  Oh good! So this square is about the length of a football field (from where we were standing to the front door of Notre Dame) and this "object" is a bit more than halfway across it.  So we decided to walk around the area a bit, get a crepe, and get some souvenirs. But first we went to the Lock Bridge, which is so cool!  Thousands of locks covers this little bridge behind Notre Dame.  It was just mind boggling.  So Sam and I decided that we definitely needed to put a lock on.  So we walked around, bought our souvenirs, had lunch, and got crepes and nutella.

So then we're walking down the street beside Notre Dame (from the back towards the front) and Sam decides she wants a drink, so I went up to the tape to see what was going on. I got up to the tape just as a robot thing was reaching the "object" (a box) and then it shot it!  I called Sam over as soon as it happened, and we watched as a police woman (with no bomb gear) went to check it out and give the all clear.  In retrospect...maybe not the best call to get closer to the possible bomb, but was really cool :)

We figured that it wold take a bit to get the tape cleared and open the doors again so we walked around a bit more then went back to go in.  It's very cool. The stained glass is amazing!  So many colours and patterns.

We walked around inside for a while then headed out.

Before we left the Notre Dame area we got ourselves a lock to add to the lock bridge, made a wish, and threw the key into the canal.  SFLR <3 2014

Our next stop was Sacre-Coeur.  We approached from below...it sits really high up a hill.  It was gorgeous to walk up to. 

We spent a bit of time up there just sitting and looking at the view and taking some pictures.

We got a few pictures of the Eiffel Tower with the sun setting behind it before we headed out. 

We were going to go to the Louvre this day, but it is open every day except Tuesdays apparently.  So we headed back to the Eiffel Tower to see it all lit up. 
We got there a bit before the lights came on so we decided to go to a coffee shop and grab a tea and sit for a bit while we waited.  We walked around the area for about 10 minutes...there are no coffee shops in that city.  They have fancy cafes with waiters in tuxedos and tea for 5+ euros...so we decided we didn't really need one.  We ended up just going and sitting on the stairs by the fountains.  There were some roller bladers doing cool tricks that kept us entertained for a while, but it was really cold!

The lights finally came on and it was gorgeous...definitely worth the wait.

We headed back to our hostel ready for some food and bed.  When we got there we dropped our stuff and headed down to the bar in our hostel.  It was more of a pub at this hour so we grabbed a seat and some food and they had the Olympics on so we were happy.  About halfway through our meal and in the middle of an event, they switched it to soccer...sorry football.  "Hard pass, hard pass" (with head shaking).  So we finished our dinners and went upstairs.  We wanted to get a really good sleep that night because we were going to Disneyland the next day.
So we go up and get ready for bed, so do the Aussie girls and girl from Man. Only about half of us are in bed at this so we decide to be nice and leave the lights on for the others...bad call.  They took this as be as loud as you want! So you know how earlier in the blog I said 2 of them became really annoying?  Yea, this is that time.  They were in and out of the room, yelling, talking loudly, making a ton of noise until about 1:00 AM when Sam finally got up and turned the light out.  They were noisy for another half hour or so then finally clued in or passed out, not sure which. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep that night.
So Wednesday morning we're up bright and early.  We grabbed breakfast as soon as it started and were out of the hostel by 7:40.  We had to take the tube to where our shuttle was picking us up to take us out there.  It's a good thing we left a bit early because Paris doesn't make sense.  We were supposed to get picked up at 8 Place du Opera...so we're assuming outside a store or something with that address.  So we get up to the area and it's a big square road with roads coming out all directions, so we just walk around a bit, when we finally see one of those really useful tiny street signs that says 2 Place du Opera, so we think, great, here's the street.  We walk down it a bit and aren't seeing an 8.  So we go into a pharmacy to ask and she points us back out to the square and to the left.  So back we go, left at the square. And still not seeing it.  We walk a bit more then we figure that the square road is what Place du Opera is and the numbers are the corners.  So we can't find 8 anywhere and end up asking a vender in the center of the square road. He points us to a corner and says that's where the Disneyland shuttle comes.  It was corner 9, just so you know.
So we finally look more closely at our tickets...Feb 20.  It's the 19th.  We fly out on the 20th, why would we book our tickets for the 20th?!  So we've messed that up and are a bit worry about that.  The shuttle comes and she says we can still come on the shuttle they just can't promise us entry.  So on we get for the hour ride out to the park.  About 5 minutes before we get there the bus gets pulled over by some police for a control check or something.  That took about 15 minutes.  We were finally able to keep going.  We managed to get in by paying a bit extra...but we were in. YAY!!!
Disneyland Paris!!!!

We had so much fun.

We went on a bunch of rides (and got really funny pictures from some)

Buzz Lightyear Astro Blast

Rock 'N' RollerCoaster

 Ate food, saw Ariel and Mickey Mouse

and did all those wonderful Disneyland things.

 It was such a great day.

We were there opening to closing and caught our shuttle back into Paris.  We finally got back into Paris, took the metro to our stop and got back to the hostel...exhausted, hungry, and happy :)
We dropped our stuff and went down for a bit of food.  We chatted with one of the Aussie and the Man. girl and met a guy from Canada who had just got in and was there for a week.  Tour guide Sam gave him the down-low on Paris.  So we finally were ready for bed.  We got ready, turned OFF the lights, and went to sleep.
Thursday we slept in a bit (for us that's about 8), had breakfast, and headed to the Louvre. 

We saw the pyramids, the Mona Lisa, and Venus de Milo (where we heard a tour guide explaining to these 2 young girls how they figured out that it was the goddess Aphrodite based on the positioning of the shoulders...it was really cool). 

We wandered around for a while after those and saw a bunch of paintings and statues...including some Canadian Native carvings.
When we headed out we took a few pictures.

Then decided to head back to the lock bridge to find ours.  It took us a while but we did it.
We ended our trip with lunch back at the hostel and watching the women's curling gold medal win! Yay!  Unfortunately we weren't able to watch the women's hockey game, but YAY again though.
We headed to the airport...looking fabulous...and headed for home.

Our souvenirs from Disneyland Paris <3

Keyboard in Paris airport...check out key placements

Random ice rink in Paris

Au revoir Paris!

When we got into London we got through customs pretty quickly again, took our long journey home on the trains and bus, and basically went to bed as soon as we got back.  It was a wonderful trip.

Friday we had a pretty lazy day...got a vacuum, grocery shopped, and watched movies.
Saturday we went to a big market in London called Camden Market...lots of cool things and we'll definitely be going back.  We each got a couple tanks and a wallet though.

Sunday we got up pretty early, got Canada'd out, and went to meet our friends from Ontario (Mary and Brianne) to go up to the Maple Leaf pub in London for the gold medal game.

We got up there about 10:45, about 45 minutes before they opened...and there were already hundreds of Canadians all decked out and pumped for the game lined up outside.

So we lined up with them waiting, cheering, singing Oh Canada, until the pub opened.  Best part of the line up...when an old British couple came up and said "oh, is it Canada day or something?" hahaha! I said "no, it's the gold medal hockey game of the Olympics" and he nodded and looked at me and scanned the line like we were from Mars and walked away.
We managed to get in and had a great time!!  Such a wonderful atmosphere especially in an unexpected place.

Heard "sorry" a lot, sang Oh Canada with the last few seconds of the game winding down, and then they played "We are the Champions" for us all to sing along with after the final buzzer.

It was a great end to our Mid-term break!
Sam and I loved every minute we got to watch the Olympics this February and have an excuse to wear our Canada gear...so many medals and athletes to be proud of :)  Some awesome new events added! And an awesome way to finish with double golds in both men and women's hockey and curling. 

First day back to teaching...both got high school.  Woot. Hopefully it's not a trend.

Thanks for reading, sorry it's so long...we had a busy week!

Au revoir.

We out.

Lisa and Sam