Bienvenidos a Bike-a-lona!

We woke up at our new hostel in time for free breakfast- lots of toast but at least this one had fresh fruit too. We were so happy to wake up to a sunny, 60 degree day after the rain we experienced in Paris!

Our priority today was making it to Plaza de Jaume in time for the Fat Tires Bike Tour. Our South African tour guide, JJ, met us in the center of the plaza claiming he could spot us from a mile away…. so much for blending in. Before we knew it we were off and riding around Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter on bright yellow and red bikes.


We saw the Barcelona Cathedral and visited the Placa del Rei, the castle that was once home to Ferdinand and Isabella. We then pedaled past the ornate, Gaudi-esque Opera House toward Barcelona’s own Arc de Triompf built in the 70’s for the World Fair. The Arc led us into Parque Citudela which had a beautiful pond with row-boaters, a huge statue of a mammoth, and the most beautiful fountain we’ve ever seen- a Gaudi original! We had just enough time for Ray to slam a huge chocolate muffin before JJ led us away.


The next stop was the bullfighting arena where JJ told us about Barcelona’s upcoming ban on the activity. Shows have been selling out since the announcement that this is the last year the arena will be in use.


We then saw Gaudi’s famous and unfinished church, Sagrada Familia. One of it’s facades whimsically depicts the nativity scene while the other side shows the Passion in angular, modern sculptures. Of course there were the signature Gaudi traits in the colorful fruit sculptures and flowered turrets.


Our final stop was at San Sabastien beach where we enjoyed sandwiches and sangria on the sand before biking home along the boardwalk.


Before siesta, we decided to head back to the Gothic quarter to visit the ancient Iberian ruins under the Plaza del Rei dating back to 10 BC. We were able to walk through an entire excavated city underneath the plaza while an audio tour told us about the various building remains and the people who lived in them. Unfortunately no pics were allowed, but we were all extremely pumped to be able to see things from thousands of years ago!

No Way Beauvais!

Tonight it was time to finally depart Paris. Come to find out, Paris-Beauvais is nowhere near Paris at all. After a long metro ride and an even longer bus ride, we finally arrived at the zoo that is Beauvais airport. Their slogan proclaims that they only work with the cheapest airlines, which should have been a sign.

RyanAir has a strict luggage policy with 15 kg (33 lbs) for the checked bag and 10 kg (22 lbs) for the very small carry on. Should you happen to go over this, you will be charged 20 euro per additional kilo. Needless to say, we were not about to have any part of that. So we spent the hour before check-in time transferring things back and forth between carry-ons, luggage, and our bodies in the middle of the very crowded airport. Chris decided to walk around carrying a pair of shorts stuffed into a sweatshirt and Galen resorted to wearing a dress as a scarf and 3 cardigans.

We publicly cheered when each of our bags were cleared for the weight. All of our hard work trying to portray the behavior of chic French teens was negated by our overwhelming American-ness at Beauvais.

After going through security, we arrived at the “gate.” One could accurately describe it as a corral. Hundreds of people sat on the floor and stood in a huge mob staring at the planes outside.

Once we were on the plane, we realized how RyanAir makes all their money. They. Sell. Everything. In the one hour flight we were prompted to purchase a full restaurant’s worth of food, scratch-off lottery tickets, duty free items, smokeless cigarettes and calling cards.

We were elated to land and make the last bus to Barcelona at 11:30 pm. The best surprise was definitely when 2 fellow Dartmouth sophomores studying in Barcelona sprinted to the bus only moments before it left.

We never would have found our hostel without them.

Fa-la-la-la-lafel!

Today we had one less baguette at the hostel's free breakfast and instead, went to a little patisserie for yogurt and tartines - cheese covered toast with zucchini.

Jack met us at the Catacombes but it took us about 10 minutes to find the end of the line. We've all gotten really into signs this trip, and deemed this one. The world wanted us to do something else.

We boarded the metro toward Le Centre Georges Pompidou, a modern art museum with an interesting design. All of the duct-work is on the outside of the building. We looked around and saw a few street performers but decided against spending the 12 euro entrance fee. Instead, we took to the streets of the Morais and did some shopping in fun vintage stores.


As we walked, every couple feet had something new to see. We stopped in several churches, including the first domed church in all of Europe. On a back alley, we stopped in another church that housed some modern art and we found an artist hard at work.


We continued to amble around the city, literally traversing an entire section by foot. We walked through a royal family's "hotel," which was basically used as a city residence in lieu of the country palace.

Then began the desperate search for falafel. Jack has a favorite falafel place in the Jewish Quarter of the city which we found after about an hour of walking, but it was definitely worth it. The pita was huge, filled with beets, tomatotes, cucumbers, tons of fresh falafel, hummus, eggplant, topped with more of everything and then delicious tahini and a tomato paste. The man out side serenaded the street with a song that consisted of only the word falafel over and over again. It was glorious.

The perfect end to the day were the chocolate and pear tarts that Caitlin and Galen enjoyed before the long bus ride to Paris-Beauvais.

Ouai Too Much Fun!

Since we're working so hard on blending in with the locals, we try to speak French at any opportunity. We have noticed that locals use the informal "ouai" (pronounced way) rather than the formal "oui" (wee) to mean yes. Ray has become particularly fond of this casual agreement, thus eliciting tonight's title.

Tonight we met Jack near the Hotel de Ville to go to dinner. We went to a small, mostly vegetarian restaurant called Le Passage Obligé where we had what might be the best meal of our lives. Particular standouts include Ray's awesome steak, the sangria and a "meatloaf" made out of mushrooms with blackberry sauce that Jack, Chris and Caitlin all ordered. Tears may or may not have flown as the last bites were being eaten.

We then picked up 4 bottles of terrible wine and one bottle of champagne. Apparently when you pay 3 euro, you get 3 euro quality. Galen won the competition for "best taste," a.k.a the least offensive, with her pomegranate syrah. We decided to be as Parisian as possible and enjoyed the wine on the bank of the Seine near Notre Dame as boat cruises passed by hooting and hollering at us. They totally thought we were French!!

After our shenanigans on the Seine, Jack took us to his favorite bar called Bastille to meet some of his FSP friends for a birthday party. We celebrated amidst Jesus paraphernalia covering the walls and enjoyed Mojitos. The bathroom, on the other hand, had equal amounts of pornography to view while relieving oneself.

The night ended with teaching our Australian room mate a classic American drinking game: Flip Cup. Unfortunately, 3 recently graduated medical students beat us repeatedly. Below is the picture of our entire 8 person dorm.

We said goodbye to our 4 other room mates before turning in for our last sleep at St. Christopher's. Hopefully our other hostels live up to the standards that this one has set.

Sacré Bleu!

This morning we woke up to our hostel mate's BlackBerry alarm circa 7:30. He, however, did not wake up. The alarm, continued to go off for about an hour while he peacefully slept. Chris finally threw his water bottle at him, and he figured it out.

After the hostel's free breakfast (wooo baguettes!) we took a trip up to Montmartre, the highest point of Paris. Once we arrived, we made our way through a street crowded by vendors selling I heart Paris t-shirts and the like.

We made our way toward Sacré Cœur, the beautiful church at the top of the hill that looks over all of Paris, but first we had to part the sea of bracelet men. There were tons of men carrying string who would aggressively approach all who passed. If someone should make eye contact, they would immediately grab their wrist, tie the string and demand money. Thankfully, we made it through, but we did sit atop the hill eating brie and baguette sandwiches while watching two backpackers be outfitted with bracelets they definitely didn't want. Though filled with tourists, the atmosphere was beautiful because a harpist played right on the steps.

Once we got to the top of the hill, we reached the church which resembles the Taj Mahal more than anything Parisian. Apparently the French don't like it, but we thought it was amazing. Inside there were beautiful mosaics covering many of the walls and the ceilings, but unfortunately pictures weren't allowed.

After visiting the church, we wandered through Montmartre in search of Café des Deux Moulins, the place that Amélie works in the movie. It was a really town charming little town that is much more relaxing than some other places we've been. We made sure to sample some all natural French chocolate and it was definitely worth the hype!

While we waited for Jack to get out of class, we stumbled upon Cimetière du Montparnasse. There we found the grave of Jean Paul Sartre, Simon de Beauvoir and a former president of Mexico. For some reason, it seems to be the trend to leave sea shells and metro tickets on Sartre's grave, but we can't figure out why.

Our intention was to go to the Catacombes of Paris today, but it was unfortunately closed due to some sort of holiday, so we will go there tomorrow morning.

Now it's time to get ready for our last night in Paris!

Paris Feet and Greet

Today started off with rushing to take advantage of free breakfast at the hostel. We made sure to fill up on baguettes, jelly and nutella.Then we set off for a roundabout tour of the city. We started at Notre Dame and were lucky enough to be inside while mass began. Next, we happened upon Saint Chappelle which was an incredible surprise. The relatively small building houses 16 stained glass windows that depict every book of the bible. We sat for near an hour “reading” the windows from bottom to top.

All the sightseeing made us hungry, so we went back to the Latin Quarter in search of falafel. The restaurant we found was amazing.

After lunch, we took the metro over to the Louvre and walked through the Tuilieries gardens where we found Napoleon’s personal arc, a giant Egyptian obelisk and hundreds of incredible marble statues. The end of the gardens meets the Avenue de Champs Élysées.Ray thought it would be an incredible idea to traverse the entire street all the way to the Arc de Triomphe. This, though fun, turned out to be exhausting as it is a really long street packed with beautiful shops, people, and even car dealerships.

From the Arc de Triomphe, we met Jack at the Saint Michel fountain and headed over to the Eiffel Tower. As if all the earlier walking wasn’t enough, we decided to take the stairs up the tower since it was the quicker and more economical option. By the second floor (read: a few hundred stairs), we only had energy to stare off into the city for a while, take a few pictures, and climb back down.

Currently recharging, headed to Thai dinner with Jack, and looking forward to another night out on the town.

Chill Out Zone

We started off last night by making our way over to Chinatown to have drinks with Jack’s host family. The served us delicious Muscat, a very, very sweet white wine. We met his three siblings

and mom, all of whom were fantastic, despite the fact that we understood little they said. However, they were so welcoming.

For dinner, we went to the Latin Quarter by Notre Dame and had unending amounts of Couscous. We walked around the Latin Quarter for a while and stopped at a bar called Shywawa and had beer cocktails.

The city was a little dead and freezing so we came back to St. Christopher’s to check out the scene at Belushi’s. Luckily, there was a happening dance party down stairs full of Australians rocking out to bad late 90’s punk rock.

Our roommate, Pennny (the 27 year old travel agent from Australia) was delighted to learn some of our drinking games and teach us some of her best moves on the dance floor. We enjoyed some 3 euro bottles of wine and had a generally relaxing first night.