A week ago, me and my sister went to Paris, France. My parents had promised me a trip to Paris since I was 11 years old and they told me then that I would go before I turned 18. So last year I said to my mom "Mommy, I'm turning 18 next year. Shouldn't I have been to Paris before that?" She had totally forgot and ordered the trip right away. Because she isn't as young and outgoing as I am, she asked my sister (28 years old) if she wanted to go with me. Since my sister has lived in France for a few years and lived in Paris for about a year and a half, she totally wanted to go with me. So on Wednesday, I took the bus for about two hours to get to her place, and then on Thursday morning we had to wake up at about 04.30 a.m, because the flight took off at 06.45 a.m.
When we arrived at the airport in Paris, I suddenly realized that Frenchmen are very touchy, loud and not afraid to say what they feel about people. I am a true blonde and Frenchmen love that. And believe me, I could tell. Everywhere I wen, I got comments like "Very nice! I like it! Very beautiful" and people stopped me on the streets just to say hello. It kind of became annoying after a while. I couldn't do anything without somebody noticing it.
Thursday was labor day, so every single shop was closed, much to my displeasure. My sister and I had been looking forward to a lot of shopping because we were going home on Sunday, but since the shops were closed on Thursday, we did all the sightseeing that day. We saw the Eiffel-Tower, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, Champs-Elysées, l'Arc de Triomphe, Opéra Bastille and much more. I don't remember the names for every single monument, but I mostly saw it all.
For lunch, we went to an Italian pizza-place at Les Halles. The staff was very nice, especially one of the guys in particular. He actually followed me when I stood in line for the toilet (:D) just to tell me how beautiful he thought I was. That was sweet. My sister and I loved the restaurant so much that we went there for lunch on Saturday as well. The same guy recognized me and told me that I was "a queen". Or actually, I ordered a pizza called "Reine" which means queen in french, and when he served it, he said "une reine pour la reine" which means "a queen for the queen". LOL, real confidence booster!
Friday, we went shopping! Just shopped all day long. The stores close at 10 o'clock in France, at least at Champs-Elysées. I bought so much new stuff! I don't have a job, so I had to save money a year beforehand to have enough money to shop for. At night, we had planned to go out dancing at a club, but both my sister and I were wearing new shoes which were quite painful to be wearing. I had to buy new shoes in a hurry before the shops closed just to be able to walk towards a taxi to take us to out hotel. Oh, and I have to say this; The hotel was so bad! The rooms were totally small, the hot water didn't work and the staff were weird. We complained about the hot water three times, and guess what the hotel manager told us; "You live in Norway. You go ice-bathing every day". Oh yeah, sure. Just be prejudiced like that towards us. He even told my sister that she didn't look Norwegian because she had brown hair. He thought that all Norwegians had blond hair. Thanks for that. Yeah. My sister actually abandoned me in the middle of Paris because she wanted to go see a friend. And I wasn't allowed to come with her. She gave me a map of Paris, and said; "You are a grown-up now". I mean come on! A blonde alone in Paris, wearing a little dress? Not a good idea. I have to tell you; I was scared to death. I have never walked alone in a strange city, and my first time was going to be Paris?! The biggest city by far I have ever been in? Yeah, good idea sis. My dad was extremely furious at her, but hey; I managed. I just took the Metro (railway-thingy) back to the hotel, but I didn't really remember where the hotel was and I had 8 streets to choose from. I also had 24 different metro-lines to choose from, but I chose the right one ;) I had to wait at the hotel for about 3 and a half hours for my sister though. And without hot water, I had a lot of time to kill. I started curling my hair, and that took about 2 and a half hours. Then I put make-up on and changed my outfit 4 times. Here's a picture:
On Saturday, we were so tired of not having hot water! We actually had to go to the hairdresser just to wash our hair and dry it. After shopping some more, I decided that I wanted to be drawed at Montmartre by one of the artists there. She was amazing! I was offered by a man beside her to be drawed for free, but I didn't feel right about it. He only offered because I was a young, blond girl. Here's a picture:
In the evening, my sister had ordered tickets for a ballet performance at the Opèra house. I thought it was kind of boring (:?). Yeah, I love dancing, but sitting there for 2 and a half hours watching dancers do the same thing wasn't really my thing. Afterwards, we went out for a drink with my sister's friend, Mark. He was a musician from the ballet performance. He was actually the only Frenchman who didn't come on to me. That was refreshing :D But I mean, come on. Do those people actually think that I'm going to jump on them just because they grab my butt? I don't think so! After having drinks with him, my sister and I went out to the Barrio Latino. It was an awesome club where they played samba and salsa music and people were dancing to it as well. I had a really great time, but my sister did the same mistake as she did the night before; she wore bad shoes. We had to go home early, but we didn't mind. We had to wake up at 7 a.m the next day to catch our flight. We actually just caught it because the flight to Amsterdam was delayed. We had to switch flights in Amsterdam to get to Norway, and we had to run several kilometers to get to the gate.
When we arrived in Norway, my parents had actually driven for about 2 hours to pick me up. I was planning to take the bus home, but I didn't really have to. Now, I am planning to take a year abroad to study in Paris after high school. I want to learn the language properly. I have had French in school for about 5 years now, but that's not enough. I have to dye my hair brown though.. :P
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