Paris et Madrid con mi Amour!

Steve came to visit me! It was the best 10 days I've ever had. The end.

Okay fine, I'll elaborate a bit more! 

Steve's flight was supposed to get in to Paris 11:30 or 12.. something like that... and I decided weeks before that I would skip class and surprise him in Paris at the airport! Brilliant plan... right? Yes and no. I woke up at 4:30am to shower and catch my train. I decided to check my email before I left and that, of course, led me to get on Facebook. It was a smart move- I had a message from Steve's sister, Jenny, telling me that he had missed his connecting flight and was now on a different one getting in later. Oh boy. So I scrambled to figure out which flight was his and to change my ticket to a later time so I wouldn't be stranded in the airport by myself for 3 hours! It ended up working out because I was on the same train as a girl in my program who, ironically, was on her way to pick up her boyfriend at the airport! Yay! When I exchanged my ticket I actually ended up getting bumped to first class so that was awesome too!

I was so impatient to see Steve. I sat at the airport trying to study for my exam, but I could not focus at all. I kept opening and closing the book, rereading the same pages! Then I noticed his plane was listed as landed. Yes Yes Yes!!! I went to the waiting area and pushed my way to the front and waited anxiously for him to come through the doors! ...20 minutes later- no Steve. I was getting really antsy and this point and then the door flew open and I saw him wondering around the baggage area! I waited and waited for him to actually come through the doors. ...30 minutes later he finally did! It was such a surreal moment and it was amazing to be back with him again :) :) 

We had a really nice dinner and a bottle of wine at a cute little restaurant in the St. Michel area. We strolled around a little bit, just enjoying the scenery. Then we walked along the Seine and ended our first night in Paris like anyone should- a bottle of wine under the Eiffel Tower :)
Anyways I'll do the vast majority of this trip with pictures! Hope you enjoy :)

We bought a bottle opener from a petit casino nearby and, well, it broke as we tried to open the bottle. Steve went up to some French people nearby and asked them if they could help. One French guy used his key ring to pull the cork and the remaining part of the corkscrew out of the bottle. Nice little life skill!! 

  

So awesome! Oh and the cathedral's not bad either <3

Notre Dame et nous :)

Arc de Triomphe! I had been here before, but had never gone up in it! We went through the museum and then
hiked up to the top! It wasn't a very pretty day, but the view was still neat. You can see the 'modern' Paris
from the top and it looks so different! 

Chateau de Vincennes! For those of you who have seen Versailles,
this place is an entirely different era of French castles! It was still
really neat to see though! We liked the Keep the best.

My first trip to the Louvre! I loved it so much. I saw all of the staples- Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, etc etc. I actually liked the Mesopotamian art and stuff like that. It was really great to get to go there with Steve. It made it that much
better!! Can't wait to get to go back with my parents!

Moulin Rouge! Very cool area... though I'm not sure I'd hang out there at night...
We both stood on the Marilyn Monroe thing which was fun! Steve had on jeans
so he just looked like he had really fat legs haha!

I had an amazing time in Paris. Sure it's cliche, but there really is nothing like being Paris with the person you love most! We saw a lot of the major sites and also had some great food. We went really fancy one evening and ate at this great little restaurant on Ile de St. Louis. There was paté, baked brie, beef bourguignon, lamb, bread, and good wine! The essence of Paris- great food, even better company!

We left bright and early on Monday morning to head to Aix! The train ride was super short- probably because we both slept through the entire thing! I mean it's easy to relax when you're riding in first class all the time like we were! Ha! Anyways we got to Aix and it was kind of sunny.. kind of? We went back to my apartment and then I went right to studying! I studied so hard that whole day... okay okay.. I did study though! I had a midterm the next day but I couldn't let something as trivial as an exam get in the way of showing Steve around!! We did a quick tour of Aix and ate at one of my favorite places here. I took my exam the next day and it sucked, of course, but I actually did well on it! That night Steve got to experience one of Aix's best qualities- Ladies Night! Every Tuesday in Aix is Ladies Night and there is free alcohol and cover at just about every bar and club in the city! So great- unless you're a boy!! Haha! We had a really great time and Steve got to meet a lot of my friends.

Getting ready to go out and rage with the ladies! Yay Aix!

The next day we got ready for our big adventure to Spain! We both had our first Ryanair experience- a super low-cost airline that everyone uses to travel around here. We got to Spain and boy was it an adventure! The hostel we booked had an excellent location- buuut it sucked so much. The beds were so unbelievably uncomfortable, and the place was next to a smelly fish shop! Yuck!

We got in fairly late and spent our first night eating Mexican food!!! Wooooo! and then we went to a pub to watch some of the champions league games! We turned in kind of early that night so that we could get up early and be ready for a great day. Neither of us slept well- I think my bed actually bruised me because it was so hard lol!

 Our first stop on the Spanish adventure was the Royal Palace. For those of you who don't know, Spain has a really interesting history with its monarchy. The Palace is very cool and it has some excellent view of Madrid. We bought and audio guide, and I think we both really enjoyed it. They had really cool armory too with tons of crazy weapons and stuff that the Spanish Armada used!

 This picture is at one of our favorite places in Madrid- Retiro Park! It's a huge park in Madrid with all kinds of neat sculptures, fountains, and gardens. It also has a really big lake type of thing in the middle where people hang out on the banks or rent paddle boats! I loved this place so much, it was great to just get to hang out together. Being in Spain was a plus...

Our next stop after this picture was El Prado Museum. It's second to the Louvre for best art museum. We went at night because it's free after 6pm! We saw a lot of neat art, some similar to the Louvre, but a lot of very different stuff. It was at the end of our trip through El Prado that we started getting itchy... really, really itchy. Steve lifted up his shirt a little and that's when we knew- bed bugs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!

Ew. Nasty. Gross. Sick. Disgusting. etc. etc. 

Needless to say the first thing we did when we got back to the hostel was pack up our things and find a new one! Immediately. We ended up finding a pretty nice one in a great location and they had a washer- thank God. That day was St. Patrick's Day so we decided to leave our bug woes behind and have a nice drink. We found this cool little tapas bar and got great deals on drinks. I had the best mojito there! So good!!  We spent the rest of that night and much of the next morning washing everything that we brought with us, including my stuffed bear, Pete!

Moving locations away from bug-place! Hm.. I think Steve just miiiight be a little taller than your average Spaniard?

The next night we went out and did a Pub Crawl!! It was such a great experience! This is the group that we hung out
with for the vast majority of the time. Most of them are German except for the short guy in the black shirt. Steve
had a wonderful, life-altering experience with the tall German in the back- they had a chugging contest and Steve lost! Just barely though! It was really fun and it was cool to meet new people. We actually met a few people from Quebec who accused me of having a French accent (in French).. he was wrong. He has an accent- a Quebecois accent!!! 

Group Jager bombs! This was actually really neat. After she set up all of the shots, she knocked one in and it created
a domino effect and then almost everyone went forward and got their bombs!

Post- power-hour and jager bombs, we headed out to the next bar. In every bar/club (except the last one) we got free shots included in our price. After the second bar we went to a club and everyone was ready to dance. We met a lot of people there from the Chicago area. Actually one girl had been to Bloomington before, and one German girl actually studied abroad in Indiana! Crazy!
The next stop was actually my favorite- a salsa dancing club! Naturally, at this point, Steve and I thought we were amazing dancers. We totally were though! Tearing up the dance floor with our salsa moves! It was so much fun, I'll never forget it :) :) 

We didn't stay at the last club very long (the one after the salsa) because it was getting quite late and the metro had already closed! Oops! The next day we woke up and headed to Plaza del Sol for some food and then gelato! Yummy!! After eating we decided to do a New Madrid Free Tour (just like the ones I took in all those other places!) and it was great. We learned so much stuff and saw so many things that we would never have had the opportunity to see otherwise. We ate lunch at this place called Museo del Jamon and they just had ham hanging all over the place. The Madrilenos love their ham. The guide on the tour was really helpful and he actually directed us to our next stop-- the Real Madrid-Atletico Madrid game!!! 

This picture doesn't do it justice but there were people EVERYWHERE. The atmosphere
was really great and I was so excited to see some of the best soccer players in the world! This
taken right outside the Atletico Stadium. 

Real Madrid warming up! This picture is unique because Ronaldo is NOT on the ground!
Weird... :) 

Look how awesome our seats were!! We even got to hold up signs stuff like you always
see on t.v.!

 Going to the game was surreal but amazing. Real Madrid won 2-1... boo..! Atletico gave up and then randomly scored but it was too little too late. The next day we stayed in the soccer theme and went to tour the Real Madrid stadium. On our way we actually found a little outdoor festival thing with amazing food everywhere. Naturally, we stopped and ate!!

Zizou!!! Best player ever. 

Steve on the field. We got to sit on the players benches, see the visitor's locker room
and go through the museum and very large trophy room. Amazing!

 After our stadium tour we actually went back to the outdoor thing and ate gelato! It was really good (pictured below). We headed to the other side of Madrid in order to take a cable car ride. The area was really nice and the views from the car were beautiful. When we got to the other side there was a big park and we strolled around and then sat on a bench and took in the view. That night we headed back to del Sol and had some Madrid specialties- churros con chocolate! Basically you take deep fried dough and dunk it in a kind of chocolate soup. I don't think I even need to tell you how good it was! We had a nice dinner later that night of a few tapas, and then we ended our night at the bar where I had my mojito! It was a great end to one of the most amazing trips I've ever been on!


* * * * * * *

For those of you who know Steve, this may no be too shocking, but we did our fair share of eating. In Paris, Aix, and Madrid, it seemed like we were constantly buying and eating food. It was well worth it though. I tried to take as many pictures of Steve eating as possible! We had crepes, gelato, churros, escargot, French cuisine, Spanish cuisine, Colombian food, Mexican food, beer, sangria, etc etc! Ahh what a trip!! I think our favorites were probably crepes and gelato, of course!

Sandwiches from one of my favorite places that I used to have all of the time in St. Brieuc! I'm pretty
sure that we had jambon, beurre, fromage. Oh don't forget the pain au chocolate et pistole sucre with that! 

Les escargots! Yummy!! These things were
really tough to get out of the shells. Steve totally did NOT
have to ask the waiter for help... haha in his defense
the one he was struggling with was actually empty! 

There's the Steve I know and love- thoroughly attacking and enjoying
his crepe! I believe this was jambon, oeuf, fromage? Probably. I, of course
stuck with the Nutella crepe :) This was right before we went to Montmarte.
I think we got food in every single neighborhood we ended up in! Yay!

* * * * * * * *

Well after all the fun Steve had to go home. It sucked, a lot. I sobbed in the airport like an idiot for quite some time before I got on my train and cried there too. Eventually I fell asleep and headed back to Aix. I hated it when he left, but it was worth it to get to spend time with him and travel to amazing places!

Thank you so much, Stephen! Je t'aime :)


See you all in about a month!!

-Liv