Dec. 26- Paris

     My train from Amsterdam to Paris left at 6:16 in the morning. I almost totally screwed it all up! When Thijs asked me if my train left from Schiphol (the airport train station), I told him yes when in reality it was leaving from Amsterdam Centraal. I mistakenly had it in my head that I was leaving from the airport because I was arriving at the airport train station in Paris! I didn’t realize my mistake until midnight. Thijs was already in bed, but I apologetically woke him up and explained the situation. We were supposed to be leaving at 5:15 so that we could make the 30-minute drive to the train station without any problems. Thijs doesn’t know how to drive to the Amsterdam Centraal station, and neither does Suzanne. It is a difficult train station to get to by car. Suzanne started looking up my different options. The only option that would work was this… I woke up at 4:15. Thijs and I left his apartment in Maarssen at 4:30 to make the 15-minute drive to Utrecht Centraal train station. I took a train leaving at 5:07 from Utrecht Centraal arriving at Amsterdam Centraal at 5:42. So I had less than 4 hours of ‘sleep’. I was too stressed out to truly sleep. It was the kind where I was kind of asleep, but I was still conscious of my surroundings the whole time. Everything ended up working out just right with my trains in the morning. I even got bumped up to 1^st class on my train from Utrecht to Amsterdam. Without any problems, I boarded my high-speed train from Amsterdam to Brussels. I thought the high-speed train was going to be a lot faster than it actually was, but I also realized that in my head I was imagining it to be like the Hogwarts Express or the Polar Express! Reality did not live up to it. Once again, I changed trains in Brussels without any problems. I feel like a professional train rider now with all the different trains I have taken in the past week.

     When I arrived in Paris, I texted Mike’s dad to see if they had landed yet. I didn’t get a response so I just headed towards the hotel thinking that I would just wait in the lobby for them. As I was walking up to the hotel, I could see through the windows and see a group of people all waving! It instantly brought tears to my eyes as it does again now thinking about it. I was so happy to see Mike and his family. Last year, I basically lived at Mike’s apartment. I became their 5^th roommate since I was there at least 3 nights a week. I can’t really tell you in words how great it was to see one of my best friends again! After I hugged everyone, Mike’s mom gave me a Christmas present from someone that she was supposed to give me as soon as she saw me. I still can’t tell you what it was, but it was the best Christmas present I have ever gotten! I really started crying when I opened it. I will tell you soon what it was! :)

     We took our bags up to our room before heading into the city. We were staying at a hotel at the airport so it was about a 30-minute train ride into the city. Mike was disappointed that we weren’t staying at the Hilton in Paris. Get it?! haha I was in charge of making sure we got on the right trains during the trip. We bought our two-day train passes and boarded the train. As we stepped outside from the train station, this was what I immediately saw!

     I officially knew I was in Paris! There was a free English tour of Notre Dame at 14:00 so we decided to walk around the city until then. We saw some amazing architecture and churches with beautiful stained glass windows.

We headed back to Notre Dame.

We were a little early so we sat on a bench. It was amazing because I could have gotten a tan sitting there. I hadn’t felt the sun that strong on my skin since I left America. I had kind of forgotten about the sun and feeling the heat of it. We headed inside the cathedral.

We walked around on our own before the tour started. There was only one little lady and probably 40-50 people wanting to hear her speak. It was such a large group that we couldn’t walk around the cathedral so we had to sit in some chairs. It was very difficult to hear her speak. Mike and I were both trying really hard to listen and learn about Notre Dame. Everyone else fell asleep! I wish I could have gotten a picture of Mike’s grandmother, parents, and two sisters all sleeping. It would have been great. After they all woke up, we decided to leave the talk early. We tried to go up into the towers of the cathedral, but the line was too long. We decided to move on to the Eiffel Tower!

     We took another train (something that we did often in Paris as well). Once again, the sight that I saw stepping above ground from getting off the train blew me away.

After walking two blocks further, I was speechless.

I knew the Eiffel Tower was big, but I was completely shocked at the sight of it. It was absolutely amazing! I think everyone should see the Eiffel Tower at some point in their life. I cannot even put into words what an amazing site it is! The line was very long here to go up in the tower so we decided to wait to go up in it. We walked around by the Eiffel Tower and through a street fair. The Milligan clan were all very tired from the flight and time change, even more tired than I was from less than 4 hours of sleep!

     We decided to find some quick dinner before heading back to the hotel. We found a nice little café that had hamburgers. I was the odd ball out who did not order a hamburger. One meal on the menu was andouillette sausage with roasted potatoes. I have had andouille cajun sausage before, and I love it. I figured that it would be something similar to that. When I ordered it, the waiter asked me “do you know what it is?” I told him I didn’t know but it’s ok. He responded with telling me that it was a very French tradition and that it was all different parts of the pig while he pointed all over his body. Again, I told him it would be all right I would eat it! It was rather interesting. I ate most of it. It wasn’t the worst thing I have had, but I don’t think I will ever eat it again. After later research, I have found out that it is pig colon and small intestine!

The best site I found about andouillette is a blog entitled “Things That Stink”. Here is the link to read the quite funny take on andouillette: http://unclestinky.wordpress.com/2008/01/14/andouillette-french-pig-colon-sausage/.

We were back to the hotel by 19:30. We all slept very well after our previous day’s travels.