For my Nativ winter break, I had several options of things to do: go home, stay in Israel and explore, sleep a lot, or ya know.. go to Europe. After stressful and long planning, a group of about 6 (give or take meeting up with others) took our less than knowledgeable selves to Paris and Italy for 2 weeks. Well, the movie Eurotrip has more meaning now than ever before. We started off packing up our ENTIRE rooms the night of the 29th to board the 9am flight to Paris on the 30th.. however, our taxi came at 4am, so we didn't have too much time. After a solid 3 hours of sleep in my roommates bed because mine had no sheets, we were off on our way to Paris. 10 of us luckily were on the same flight so we had much company during the 5 hours to France. We flew over the Swiss Alps and landed at Paris Charles de Gaulle, waited in line at the smallest baggage claim, then received 20 euros for my 80 shekels... got to love the exchange rate. We were driven to our hotel in an outskirt of Paris - Bobingy - which is actually the Algerian quarter, score! After settling in, we figured our way around the metro and headed into the city to meet up with our other 4 friends at the Musee D'Orsay. Getting off at the metro stop by the Bastille, we traversed the entire city seeing so many sites on the way. We stopped at the French version of the Rockefeller Center for dinner where I had the pleasure of trying escargot for the first time. It was shockingly, surprisingly, and amazingly delicious - nothing like I'd ever tasted before - and I loved it. We finally made it to the museum and got to see the famous painting of Van Gogh that we all have seen, so many Monet paintings, and a million more. The Monet's were my favorite because I LOVE his water lilies. I also saw an exhibit on Jerusalem and the "Old World" which depicted the Old City. That may have been one of the coolest things about seeing the paintings because I actually live there and I've actually seen what's painted. The next day we woke up at 8am... but it was far from bright and early. We actually thought our alarm clock went off 2 hours early because outside, it was pitch black. Anywho, we ate our first French breakfast, full of croissants and nutella packets and we were off on day 2 of France. We literally spent the entire day walking around outside. First, we followed our Froder's (our knock off version of Frommer's, as seen in Eurotrip) and went to the Consiegerie (and bought out Sainte Chapelle ticket at the same time). The Conseigerie was once a palace for French kings and was also a prison - Marie Antionette's cell was there as well and recreated with mannequins. Inside, there is also the entire list of all those killed by the guillotine! After, we avoided the 2 hour line, with our pre-bought ticket to the Sainte Chapelle, which is a Cathedral with the most beautiful stained glass windows. The entire thing is full of them, depicting 13,000 Biblical stories from Genesis to the Apocolyps. At this point, the most beautiful thing I'd seen. Then we ran into a police station used in the filming of The Pink Panther! We then had an incredible French lunch at a little bistro on Sainte Germain Street - with much shopping - then headed to the Notre Dame where Lauren and I obviously look a ton of photos looking like Quassimoto. Afterwards we shopped around the Christmas Market on Sainte Germain and had real good churros then we made our 3 attempts at dinner plans. First, we tried finding a restaurant Froder's recommended, well since it was New Year's Eve, there were 4 things on the menu - they were gross. The second place looked pretty casual on the outside, but when we went inside - and sat down - we realized it was far from casual. Waiters in tuxedos, a message on the menu reading "No salad as a meal", and nice array of goose on the menu (the type by the way is apparently illegal in America). Well we stood up and pulled the "Half of us are vegetarians" trick and quickly walked out. We finally set on a restaurant with mostly mussels on the menu but Lauren, the true vegetarian, was able to find something to eat. Then we headed over to the Eiffel Tower with a bottle of champange to ring in the New Year. It was smaller than expected but still miraculous. On the first 10 minutes of every hour the lights on the tower sparkle, that's how we knew it was midnight. It was such an amazing sight, and as Matt said "I can't even express myself". It was truly incredible... until we had to leave. I swear, everyone and their mother or dog (if you're weird like that) was there. It was the biggest mass commotion getting out of there. After standing in a mob for an hour and a half trying to get into the metro stop, through panic attacks and some other mishaps, we decided to screw it and try and find another stop. Well we walked for an hour to another stop and after moving 3 trains, we finally got to the metro where we could change to our line to get back to our hotel... at 3am. And with our luck, the line was shut down.. so we hunted down a cap driver who made us pay 100 euros for the fare. At this point, we didn't care we just paid and got in. Stupidly, the cab driver left the meter on and we found that the fare was only 33 euros... but he would not give us any money back - such a jerk - but we didn't even fight it. It was 4am and that was a New Years to remember.
After a nice rest until 11am, we checked out and headed to our next hostel in the suburb of Clichy which was luckily right on another metro line, perfect luck. The 6 of us got 2 rooms and the girls were unfortunate to get the room with 3 beds a sink but no shower or bathroom, but the boys got one. We were not thrilled, luckily they were nice enough to let us use them.. after a long time of trying to convince us they did not have these fabulous accomodations. Saturday after check in, we went over to the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysses - the Newbury Street of Paris.. on crack. Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Mercedes Benz, you name it. We then met up with the other crew for a cheap quick dinner then headed over to the infamous Moulin Rouge in the oldest section of Paris Montmartre and the Sacred Heart Cathedral. This neighborhood is gorgeous, full of stereotypical Parisian homes and buildings.. then the 23 sex shops on the way to the Moulin Rouge - a little out of place.
The rest of the trip was full of a ton of walking, Starbucks, and more touring- Jewish Quarter, climbing to the top of the Notre Dame, shopping obviously, Paris Opera House (Phantom of the Opera?!), and of course exploring different crepes and croissants. And our last day we finally got to go to Versailles (where King Louis built his beyond lavish palace to escape the horrors of the Parisian citizens. Full of way to much gold and more expensive chairs than my life, it was an incredible site! We also got to get a little peak of Marie Antoinette's village!
We ended our Paris note on such a great note.. until we decided to go to the airport at 11pm for our 7am flight. It makes sense right? Trains stop running at 11pm and a taxi for 6 to the airport would be about 200 euros, so why not go the night before and sleep in the airport like everyone does. Well Paris Orly airport decides to close all terminals and gates from 11pm til 4:30am... only the public areas are open. We obviously had to get sleep so we took shifts while sitting near the freezing cold door - because Paris is 100% colder than Boston - to try and get some sleep. It was a nightmare trying to sleep in the cold and on tile, but hey, it's the experience right? After an hour flight delay, we were finally on our way to Venice Marco Polo Airport! Flying over Venice was possibly the greatest thing in the world. I obviously was excited for Paris but Italy was where I really wanted to go, so I was like a kid in a candy store. I LOVED it. We spent a day in Venice and basically just walked around neighborhoods, the Jewish Ghetto, Rialto Bridge (such good shopping), bought a lot of Murano Glass, and ate damn good pizza. Venice was just as I had pictured it - streams everywhere, water buses not land buses, bridges, houses with windows on the water, just like a storybook. The next day we headed on a 3 hour train ride to Florence - great nap - where we had to walk a mile into the woods to get to our hostel! It was straight out of a horror movie, not a great experience I'd say. In Florence we did more touring - surprise surprise - saw Michelangelo's David, which was GORGEOUS and huge and remarkable, the Duomo Cathedral which looked a painting and lace, shopped around a lot (H&M was having a HUGE sale), and ate so much gelato. We finally headed for Rome on Friday and luckily, our hostel was across the street from the Central Bus Station! All 6 of us were in Rome from Friday until Monday (because they were going on a Poland trip with Nativ) but myself and two friends Ari and Matt decided to stay until Wednesday! So in my 6 days, I basically saw all of Rome. Now in Rome we didn't have Frodor's but we had Rick Steve's, who basically was our best friend. He had all these walking tours for us to do, free of charge so we took advantage of those. One took us to nearly every major site in Rome: Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, a million Plaza, Spanish Steps, shopping district, and so many more random statues on the way. Saturday we went to Vatican City which was beautiful and saw the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. Sadly, I did not have a Eurotrip experience there. Sunday we went to the Colosseum and Roman Forum which was my absolutely favorite part of Rome. Seeing ruins of buildings that are thousands of years old that I've studied for so long was just mind blowing - especially seeing the Arch of Titus (an arch built after the Romans defeated Judea around like 80 AD. Fun fact: the menorah on the Seal of the State of Israel created in 1949 uses the exact menorah that is engraved on the Arch of Titus... kind of to throw it in Rome's face that Israel is a thriving country and they were not or will ever be destroyed. That night may have been one the highlights of my trip, however. Erin Caldwell, a real good friend from home, is doing a 5 month program in Rome learning Italian and just exploring, similar to what I'm doing. We wanted to take us to an Irish Pub Sunday night with a Karaoke Bar. So we went and Erin some how managed to get me, Elana, and her on stage to do our own rendition of Katy Perry's Teenage Dream, while Matt and Ari busted a move to Mika's Grace Kelly... those are interesting videos. But the fun with Erin definitely did not stop there. Tuesday, Matt, Ari, Erin, and I found a segway rental place! Might have been the most fun I've ever had... we just scooted our way allllll over the city for an hour - beyond amazing. But obviously when he was teaching us how to ride, they threw me on first to be the tester. As Erin said, if I could get on a segway successfully, anyone can (remember my middle school accidents?)
So overall, those two weeks were by far the best of my entire life. I guess this year basically is too. The people I'm meeting, the experiences I'm having, damn.. everyone should take a gap year. Why go straight to school when there's so much in the world to see that our little town of Stoughton cannot even begin to show us
Enjoy the pictures at http://gallery.me.com/danabornstein#gallery
I'm going to go hang out with my big brother right now :)
XO- Dana
