eurodisney.

whoops, did i say eurodisney? i meant, "disneyland paris"

recently, i had been complaining to romain that all we do is sit around my appartement. i have not been venturing out in paris as i should be. instead, i stay inside with friends, just drinking and knitting. which isnt all bad cause its what ive been enjoying doing. but i am in paris, and i need to be active! so today, romain contacted a friend who works at disneyland. she was able to get us in the park for free, and we spent the day at disneyland, completely freezing but still laughing like small children.

before and after:

 

during:

 

it is socially acceptable to smoke inside disneyland paris. it's not "allowed", but no one looks twice at you. everyone over the age of fifteen seems to be smoking. that kind of thing would only happen in france!


i had looked up the weather a few days ago, and it had promised a warmer, rainy day. so when the alarm went off this morning, i donned my bomber jacket and a hoodie, my only waterproof apparel. the weather report was sadly mistaken. the sky was blue, full of white clouds with sunshine peeking through. however, the sun’s rays did nothing: the air was biting, and it was one of the coldest days i have seen yet. this was my first experience going to an amusement park during a legitimate winter. disneyland was well worth enduring the cold, however.

i felt like i was in america. the parks were set up in similar ways, and i spent the whole of the park with a perpetual feeling of déjà vu. i would turn a corner, think instantly “oh i remember this!” i had to constantly remind myself that no, i did not. the rides, however, were very different than the ones in america. the indiana jones ride was severely disappointing. severely. but the space mountain ride was breath-taking and a little better. i loved it.

i did enjoy the pirates of the carribean ride. i had never been able to ride it all the way through, without stopping, before. every single time i had gone to disneyland in california, the ride had broken down. sometimes half way through, and i would either have to wait for an hour or disembark mid-ride. other times, the ride broke down while i was still in the queue. but every single time, something had gone wrong. it had never occurred to me that the curse would follow me to not only another country, but to another continent. it did.

romain and i were faire-ing la queue, as the frenchies like to say, when the attendant came out and announced that the ride had broken down. romain started laughing instantly, but it took me a second to translate what had been said. upon realizing, i seriously wanted to cry. i was shocked! we checked back almost every hour, but to no avail. the ride stayed broken down. my spirits increasingly sank each time, despite all the popcorn and cotton candy romain used to try to bribe me. eventually, hours later, we decided to leave the park. he convinced me to check one last time, just in case they had fixed the problem.

and they had!! we got there right when they opened the line, and we barely had to queue. i was extremely excited, and really enjoyed the ride! i was a bit disappointed though, just because nothing could ever live to the expectations that had been built around so many failures. not to say i didnt love it. drunken, animatronic pirates yelling in french is always enjoyable.