Paris for Christmas!!

Saturday before Christmas we had a little get together with my host family and exchanged gifts. My host mom made this huge dinner so Keith could experience real Spanish cooking - translation: Keith was like "what the hell are we eating" and didn't really eat much at all. I had to explain to my host mom that he is very picky just like my little host brother and not to be offended ;)

Sunday morning we left for Paris to spend Christmas. We also rented an apartment there which was really nice. We spent Sunday night exploring Champs de Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. We learned that neither of us can speak any French and that the French people are actually much nicer than the Spanish.

Monday Keith got his first Christmas present - I booked a professional photographer to take pictures of us around the city because I knew it would be difficult to ask random people to take our picture all the time. So we went to the Eiffel Tower, Ponts des Arts, and The Louve. We took 2 locks and locked them to Ponts des Arts and threw the keys into the river as we made our wishes. Monday (Christmas Eve) we walked over the Notre Dame and went to the Christmas Mass. We took communion and sat through the mass (all in French) with about a million other people because it was the 850th anniversary celebration as well.

Tuesday we had a lazy Christmas morning and opened cards and presents from our families. We spent the day walking around taking pictures that we hadn't gotten the time to take earlier. Headed over by Moulin Rouge for breakfast then made a pizza for lunch. We both got dressed up later that night and walked down to the Eiffel Tower to have a special Christmas Dinner at the Restaurant 58 on top of the Eiffel Tower. (Keith didn't like that food either)

Wednesday we got packed up and just headed back to Madrid. Getting to the airport from the train station was hell. We had to buy a special airport train ticket (~28 euro) but the machines only accepted change. Who carries around 28 euro in change? And of course every change station and help desk was closed in the entire station. We ended up taking 40 euro and going to a store and buying a 1 euro stick of gum. Then I took 20, he took 20 and we bought 2 more packs of gum. Then we each had a 5 and 10 and bought 6 more packs. Yes, it was a pain in the ass. But we did it!