Study Abroad Part 4 – Paris Weekend

During my time abroad we had a group trip to Paris for the weekend.  Now call me crazy, but this particular adventure I wasn’t really looking forward to.  Paris was just never somewhere that I had a strong desire to visit, and I would much rather have stayed in London, or visited a different area.

Nonetheless, Paris weekend happened, and upon boarding the train, I vowed to have a good, positive experience.  But, there were several reasons why that weekend just wasn’t fun – and I take comfort in the fact that I wasn’t the only one not having fun.

Let’s start with the hotel.  While the room itself was great, the hotel was in the red light district.  Yup, the first vision I had of Paris after getting off the Metro was strip clubs and prostitutes.  So that was problem #1.  Problem #2 was the mandatory activities that we had.  While our brief visits to the outside of Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower were educational, visiting 2 art museums (one being the Louvre) was a bit much.  I’m sure for those people that love art and art history it was great, but for me personally, it as a bit extreme.

One of the highlights of the trip was visiting the Eiffel Tower at night.  It was obviously beautiful at night – much more so than during the day.  And, I even conquered my fears and went up inside the tower, which led to some amazing pictures and views of the city.  But, climbing down the steps was terrifying (haha!). 

But overall, Paris was a scary place.  The language barrier was enormous and difficult to deal with, and much more so than anyone had expected.  Compared with London, Paris is a very dirty city.  And the Metro was confusing and unorganized.  By the end of the weekend, everyone in the group was ready to leave.  We were exhausted, and overwhelmed, and a now a month into the program, and people were getting severely homesick, straining everyone’s attitude and relationships with one another.  By the time we were all in the train station ready to leave, many of us were in tears.

By the time we got off the Tube and back into our London neighborhood, I was personally ready to kiss the ground that we were walking on.  While the weekend wasn’t ideal, it made me appreciate one thing.  London is a truly amazing city, and as of right now, my favorite place in the world.  I admit I’m not the most traveled person I n the world, but out of all the places I’ve been, nothing compares to London.  If you’ve never been to London, then I strongly encourage you to go.  You won’t regret it.