Castles, Cobblestones and Crepes: City of Lights-PARIS, FRANCE

My signature move

The Louvre

Okay, I'm trying get this thing updated, I've been so busy doing a whole lot of nothing. So the weekend after Amsterdam, my Saudi friend from the States, Fahad, was flying home for the Christmas Holiday and stopped in Germany for a few days to see me :) He flew into Frankfurt Airport so I met him there. Then shortly after he arrived we caught a flight to Paris, France. I asked him where Europe he'd like to visit and we decided on Paris, considering it's so easy to just fly a few short hours to any country in Europe. We drank a few beers on the plane, you know the usual, trying to get as much free alcohol as we could. We arrived around 4 P.M. Took a taxi to our hotel, which was hella expensive, dropped our stuff and headed to the Champs Elysees, the most famous Street in Paris. It is a huge long street with restaurants and all the fancy shops and stores. We walked around for a little bit then found a Lebanese Restaurant to eat some good food. Then we walked around looking for a bar, which was pretty much impossible, it was all little cafes and low key places. We just wanted a simple bar with some music and beer. We found an Arabic Restaurant and got a few drinks there. and WOW, drinks in Paris are flippen expensive, I about shit my pants. For a glass of orange juice and vodka, 15 Euros! We finished a few drinks there and walked around until we found another bar/restaurant. We were sitting next to a few ladies and Fahad noticed they were speaking Arabic, turns out they spoke english, french, and arabic. So we talked to the for a while and they told us a few places we could go. We had a feeling they were hookers, from the things they were talking about, but still really nice. We got a taxi back to the hotel and passed out. We were up bright and early the next day and ready to go by noon, ha, not so early, but better than nothing!
The weather was amazing, it was a little chilly, but so sunny! We first walked the whole 7 minutes to the Eiffel Tower, so close :). Took a bunch of pictures and began to walk up it. We made it to the first level, then decided to walk up to the second level. Well that was a little harder, we got tired about half way up and called it quits. Then walked back down. Good workout, I was about to have a heart attack. We then made our way back to the Champs Elysees. We walked all the way to the end where the other tourist attractions were. Such as the Ferris wheel, Arc De Triomphe, and the Louvre Museum. We went inside the Louvre to check out the museum but it was closing in 5 minutes, so unfortunately we didn't get to explore it. We then later that night tried finding a Bar, didn't happen, only expensive cafes. We had a few drinks then headed home. We woke up the next morning at 6, we had an early flight back to Germany. Barely any people spoke english in Paris, but luckily many spoke arabic, so Fahad was a big help there :)
We got to Frankfurt and took the train back to Heidelberg. Got to my place showered and got ready. We went and ate the arabic restaurant Sahara then I showed him some of the touristy sites of Heidelberg. Went up to the Castle, to the Old Bridge and walked around the "Alt Stadt" (old city). Then went back to mine and a few friends came over and we started pre-gaming. It was Tuesday, so that meant Student night at one of the local bars "Brass Monkey". That always a fun time and good way to see all the other Erasmus students you know. The next day Fahad had to head back to Frankfurt to catch a flight to Saudi Arabia. I rode with him to Mannheim, which is about 12 minutes, then put him on a train that went directly to the airport. Where he managed to get there on time and get his flight home. It was nice seeing someone from "back home".