We finished classes around 1 p.m. and packed up for the weekend. Grace, Andrew, Stephen and I went to termini the previous day and reserved our spots on an overnight train to Paris for the weekend. So after packing and picking up some food for the weekend we set off for Termini. We had a little time to kill so we picked up some pizza for dinner at a place near Termini then set off for the train. Our seats were spread out through the train but for the first leg to Milan we all sat in one cab together and hung out. It was going to be a full train so once we hit Milan we went to our separate cabs and went to sleep. A very nice French old lady helped me get situated and showed me where the sheets and blankets were for me. There were six people in my cab, the chairs folded down into beds and I got a decent nights sleep. The conductor came around about a half an hour before we hit Paris and gave back my passport and ticket. I packed up all my stuff and met everyone outside the train. We were all really excited to be in Paris. While we met together another UD person, Eric Martin called out our names. 
We had no idea he was going to be there so he kind of attached himself to our group. We stopped by the ticket office to get our return tickets. This particular train station was a little smaller and they said Grace and I would have to pay full price and not be able to use our eurail pass. So we went to the main train station down the street and got tickets for Saturday evening because it was the only one available for us. Steven and Andrew got tickets for Sunday and paid the price because they didn't have a eurail pass. Once we got all that taken care of we hit the town and searched for our hotel. After walking around a while with Eric's broken French and us asking for directions in a million cafés we finally found our hotel. We only booked a room for three people so we had a little dilemma in getting the five of us into the hotel in the daylight. So we just carried everyone's luggage up to the room and had Eric and Stephen hang out outside. We were finally settled and we went off to see Paris. Because of the returning train ticket issues we had less time to see Paris so we didn't want to waste any time. 
From our hotel we walked to the Bastille. It was a large monument in the middle of an intersection that looked pretty cool. It was a giant pillar with a golden dude with wings at the top. From there we followed the signs to Cathedral de Notre Dame. Along the way we stopped at a couple other gothic style churches and a park to fill up our water bottles. We finally found Notre Dame and we were all blown away with its beautiful architecture. After being in Rome for weeks and seeing hundreds of baroque style churches Notre Dame was a big change. Its gothic architecture was amazing. The inside is also beautiful the stain glass lit us the inside with a large spectrum of color. The high vaulted ceilings made the organ's sound carry throughout the church. Once we walked through the whole church we met up outside. From there we walked to the Louvre. The Louvre is inside the old palace that all the old French kings use to live. So inside the walls of the large palace we found the glass p
yramid where we took the escalator down to enter the museum. Grace found out before hand that we would be able to go into the museum for free because we are temporary citizens of the EU with our student visa's. We showed the ticket office our visa's and they gave us our tickets it was great. We set a meeting time and we all explored the museum. The Louvre has the largest most grand collection of art in the world. It was so overwhelming it was impossible to appreciate all the great works that are offered there. The museum uses the old palace to section off different styles and time periods of art in its four stories that pretty much cover an entire city block. We saw a lot of great works like 
Hammurabi's code, the Winged victory statue, the Mona Lisa and many many many more. After running through the museum we got through it all in about four hours and met up with our friends. From the Louvre we walked down the Champs de Lisse to the Arch de Triumph. While we were walking down the Champs de Lisse we happened upon a Bugatti car show where they had at least 2 Bugatti Varons that I could see. It was crazy! After that we found a crepere and got some 'dinner'. Grace and I shared a delectable banana 
chocolate crepe and the rest of the guys tried various other kinds. After we finished eating we walked to the park behind the Eiffel Tower and sat and watched the view of the grand tower from a park bench. Grace and I took a walk un
derneath the tower and took some pictures directly underneath the middle of the tower. When we walked back to our friends the tower all of the sudden started to freak out. All the lights on the tower started to flash and blink- it was crazy. We found out later that the tower does this every hour in the evening. After a delightful evening under the tower we walked to the subway and took the metro back to our hotel. We were all pretty tired from the long day and headed to bed. We had one dilemma we needed to get everyone into our room without causing a scene. So on our way back to the hotel we came up with a bunch of ideas to sneak the other guys in and try not to get caught. When we got to the hotel the clerk was really distracted on the phone with his mom and gave us our key and didn’t notice the other guys go up the stairs. We all made it to the room and had a great nights sleep.The next morning Grace Eric and I packed up our stuff and went down to breakfast. Andrew and Stephen didn't have to leave until the next day so they kept the room for the next night. Our train wasn't
until later that afternoon so we went exploring a little more. We walked along an open market down the street. These stands had everything you could ever think of. Grace and I ended up getting some really cool WWII backpacks. Stephen bought a corduroy jacket and we had a great time looking all around. After the open market we found our way to an indoor food market that had tons of exotic foods and different things. We got some begets and 
avocado's and stuff to eat for lunch. At a butcher shop we watched the butcher skin and gut a rabbit right in front of us. After the food market we went over to Sacre Coeure which was really beautiful . We arrived their at the bottom of the hill. We walked up a ton of steps up to the church. While we were their there were a bunch of hagglers who were really working hard. At the base of the steps they made a wall of men and grabbed Grace and me and we had to fight our way through them without loosing our wallets. Once we made it past them we sat on the grass hill in front of the church and had a really nice picnic. While we sat there we watched the hacklers making their rounds trying to swindle the tourists around. On the hill was a great view of Paris, it rises above everything so we were able to look out over everything. After we finished eating we made our way up the rest of the hill and went into the church. Sacre Coeure was very beautiful inside. It was a strange combination of gothic and a sort of eastern style. After the church we found a spot outside with a nice view of the Eifel tower and hung out for a little while. Then we started to head back to the hotel to get our stuff to catch the train. We made our way down the hill and took the metro back to our hotel. We grabbed our stuff from the 
hotel and said our good byes to Andrew and Stephen. Then Grace Eric and I got on our train to Milano. The train ride was absolutely beautiful. We went through the country side of France and through the alps. The views are indescribable, going through mountains next to lakes and valleys. It was just amazing. We did not have a connection from Milan and we weren't sure if we would have to stay the night there or not. When we got to Milan the ticket office had just closed for the night so we checked the ticket machine and there was a train for us leaving fifteen minutes from that time. With our eurail passes it only cost us 3 euro to get a reservation. So we got on the train and it was packed. We were surprised because it was an overnight on a Saturday. We unfortunately did not get beds this time, we were in a cabin with just seats and another guy came in and sat with us. The guy was very friendly and told us he lived in Italy. Later on he pulled out this book that was written in Arabic and he read it for a while. He told us it was Egyptian. After he finished reading he pulled out his prayer beads and sat there and didn't sleep the whole night. He sat there bobbing praying with his beads for hours. I understand piety but he prayed the entire night! Haha we were just a little unsettled- just because of all the fuss there is about Arab terrorists and stuff. Anyways we made it to Rome in the morning safe and sound and we took the metro and bus back to campus in time for breakfast Sunday morning.
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