It's a little after midnight on Day 2 of Barcelona, and I'm going to try and give you a quickie summary of Friday in Paris. Friday was definitely my fav, as a lot of the most notable and fun things happened then! I can't wait to catch up so I can tell you all about the fun we're having in Barcelonaaa.
Friday, June 18th, 2010
The plan for Friday was to hit up the Musee d'Orsy and then split up. Danielle and I were looking forward to the break from our male counterparts :) We started with brunch at a restaurant near our Hotel ((which wasn't all that great, btw)) and then headed off to the museum.
I liked the Musee d'Orsy better than the Louvre for a few different reasons. Primarily because it was air conditioned (hehe, jk), but also because it was smaller and no cameras were allowed. I guess the last two reasons are counterintuitive, but they allowed you to stop and really consider the works as opposed to snapping a picture and running on so you can cram everything in. We separated from the guys there (mostly because they are so darn impatient!) and Danielle and I took everything at our own pace. The only problem this created was that a lot of the titles/descriptions were in French so without Eric it was sometimes difficult to figure out what was happening in the painting.
We finished the museum in the early afternoon and resumed our aimless wandering, where we stumbled into a mall of sorts on the Champs Elysees. A mall, you say? We go in, of course, and stop at the food court. Michael and Eric had pizza, and why anyone would want a bad pizza when you are in PARIS, I don't know, but that's what they had. :) Danielle decided she had to try the McDonald's McCafe before we left so she went there and then we split up again to divide and conquer.
Danielle needed a dress to wear to the cabaret that evening and the guys weren't so excited about dress shopping. Go figure! Luckily enough we found a really cute red dress for her at a reasonable price.
We couldn't make up our minds about which cabaret we wanted to go to, as they are about $100 and we only had this one opportunity so we didn't want to just pick one at random. There were three that we were aware of: the Moulin Rouge, the Lido, and the Crazy Horse. The Moulin Rouge you have probably heard of, as it the most famous, but we had heard that it was mostly a tourist trap. The other two we knew very little about but Danielle had read on tripadvisor that it was the best. Information online was very confusing about show times and prices so we decided to stop by each one and get a feel for them, and ask any questions we might have. When we visited the Moulin Rouge we found that it was only about 2 metro stops away from our hotel which was very convenient except that it's in the Red Light District--not something we really wanted to stay close to! We couldn't resist walking around there briefly, but I'm glad it wasn't at night. Within a one block radius of the metro and the Moulin Rouge we saw at least a dozen strip clubs and erotic boutiques.
Suddenly we realized we were pressed for time, which is very easy to lose track of being that the days are so long in Paris-it gets dark about an hour or two before midnight! We hurried back to the hotel and got the room key from the clerk (they keep them at the desk for you during the day, isn't that weird?) and asked for the ironing board as Danielle's purdy new dress was wrinkled. We got to the room and realized that he gave us key 40 in stead of 14 so we went back down to exchange the keys. It was a little difficult to understand what he was saying as he spoke English but his accent was extremely thick. All I know is that he very generously offered me a private massage in my room for free. Do I need to run that by you again? Creeeeeeeeeeeeeepy!!!!! I, like an idiot, asked him to repeat it because I was certain I had misheard him, but sure enough, he was serious. Danielle and I exchanged awkward looks and pressed the elevator button a dozen times. While we waited impatiently for it to arrive he elaborated on his offer and when I politely declined by explaining that we had plans to go to the cabaret he generously extended his offer to the next night. Whoa. Ding! The elevator arrives, and not fast enough, if you asked me.
We got ready in a hurry and headed over to the cabaret, arriving so late that we had to skip dinner, but we figured we'd grab something on the strip after the show. Our seats were amazing, in the FRONT ROW, and the show was spectacular. By the way, we ended up going to the Crazy Horse, and I highly recommend it! I snapped pictures illegaly throughout the show, shame on me. Then my flash went off accidentally and I was encouraged (rather angrily, I might add :-P) by Danielle to put my damn camera away before we got kicked out. It sounded something like, "Way to go, swifty!", hahaha. Thanks for the new nickname, Danielle. Here's a pg13-rated one for you:
About a half a bottle of champagne later I skipped happily out of the cabaret in search of food and maybe a cute guy or two (just kidding!) We walked down the Champs Elysees towards the restaurants/the metro and were taken aback by the alarming number of people yelling and cars honking. Traffic was at a stand still, which is a big big deal in Paris, and people were standing on top of their cars waving flags. We even saw one car with the rear window bashed in. What the hell was going on?! Then we saw a group of extremely good looking riot police carrying the big plastic shields and AK-47's. Suddenly I felt very safe, Danielle-not so much. Turns out one of the World Cup games had just ended and France had played. It was a LITTLE crazy because for some reason we appeared to be the only females around for at least a half a mile and a bunch of really happy/drunk guys were hitting on us in a language we didn't understand. A couple copped a feel, but then a very nice guy had mercy on us and escorted us to the nearest metro stop. It wasn't too bad until a group of guys followed us onto the metro. Mom is probably freaking out right now, haha. They were quite persistent and a little obnoxious but thankfully didn't get off at the same stop that we did.
Here's a really crappy picture of the riot police using the shields to contain the crowds and prevent them from spilling over into the side streets:
We made it back to the hotel safe and sound and fell into bed exhausted. The next morning Michael came to wake us up and informed us that we had left the key in the doorknob. Danielle told me that next time I get drunk she is going to be in charge of the room key. In retrospect I'm just really glad the hotel clerk didn't come up and see the key in the door as an invitation!
More to come asap, sleep tight!!
<3 Ashley
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