Paris! Part 1

Paris was incredible! The weather was perfect, warm but not too warm, clear blue sky…just gorgeous.

Getting to the London Victoria Coach Station was itself a challenge with the 17 of us traveling via bus. With so many people everything gets complicated because people don’t like staying together well. We checked in (with our 17 passports) and went to find our bus.  After a couple minutes we could go on. The English part of the drive was okay, we were in London for awhile and then I fell asleep on and off to customs. Customs and the Chunnel just did not go well. Customs went fine, though I didn’t get a stamp L. To get through the Chunnel was a pain. For those (like me) who didn’t know, you don’t drive through the Chunnel, you get put on what is essentially a covered flatbed truck and then it starts moving eventually. It was really boring. And it took us forever to get on, we were constantly waiting. After the Chunnel started moving I just went to sleep. I slept the whole Chunnel rise which was nice. Once across the channel it was still boring Chunnel stuff, so I slept more on and off until I started seeing some light. At one point I got up and it was very nice. There was a heavy fog, and little light, but there was field after field or crops and grass and it was very nice. I went to napping again while we moved towards Paris, and eventually we got off the bus at the Gallieni bus terminal.

Once off the bus we began our adventure in Paris, France! We began with finding the Metro stop within the station, and found it, then got 2 day passes for zones 1-3. We were smart to get these because they paid for themselves very quickly. They were so little though so I was a bit afraid of using it. We eventually got on where we needed, transferred, and ended up at the right stop, the Gare De Lyon. While some people went to take money, one of the other people and I who happen to be good with finding places went on a quick adventure to find the hostel, which with a stroke of luck we found! It was a little sketchy, but it was very cheap. We eventually figured out how we could check in (the person who booked it traveled separately and we couldn’t contact him) and found out we could between 3 and 5 PM. Some people dropped their stuff off (I kept all of mine with me) and we went and got our French breakfast! We stopped at a little place, and I got a chocolate crescent and fresh orange juice (au pain du chocolate et jus d’orange). It was very good and a very good start to my Paris adventure.

Me with my delicious breakfast!

Yummy!

Once we had our French breakfast we took the Metro to the Eiffel Tower (Tour Eiffel) and took some pictures before splitting the group up. I decided I wanted to climb it. We got our tickets and began the 670 step journey to the 2^nd floor of the tower.

 After about 270 steps though, we got a well deserved break at the first floor.  Even from the first floor it was an amazing site. 

  After spending some time on the first floor we continued our journey to the 2^nd, where we decided to continue going up with the lift to the top (no stairs to get there). After a shirt line we got into the little lift and went to the top floor. Me with my lovely fear of heights did surprisingly well, only panicking internally a tiny bit. But we got up there and got out, and it was incredible! I couldn’t imagine a better view of the city. I could see the Louvre and the glass pyramid, the Arc De Triomphe, and there was even a hot air balloon! It was an absolutely amazing view. Eventually we head back down the lift to the second floor, checked out the souvenir shops, then climbed down the stairs to the bottom. It was exhausting, but 100% worth it.

Once down we got some food, I had a margarita pizza, and it was delicious. It was a pizza (duh!) with cheese (maybe mozzarella?) with oregano and 4 olives. It was so good though. When finished eating we took the Metro to the Arc de Triomphe, where after taking some pictures from far away we went under the street and go to go right up to it. It was very beautiful, a very beautifully built and very intricate.

After the Arc we took the Metro to the hostel for a well deserved nap. The hostel, again, was a bit sketchy, not one I would necessarily ever go to again, but it had a bed which was the main thing we needed. Pretty much everyone took a nap, and we hung out in our rooms and just relaxed and slept. After waking up we had dinner, mine not too exciting (I had chicken with fries), but good. After dinner I talked to a couple people about what they wanted to do in the evening and a group of 6 of us travelled the sights at night. My original plan was Eiffel Tour -> Arc ->Champs Elysee -> Louvre/Glass Pyramid -> Notre Dame. But we ended up mixing it up and doing Louvre to Arc to Eiffel Tower. It was a good call. We began with the Glass Pyramid, and it was really cool. There were fountains and pool things, but they were off so the pools were very still and peaceful. After some picture taking we traveled to the Arc, where we took some pictures from far away, then continued on to the Eiffel Tower.

A little pyramid

The glass pyramid

Arc De Triomphe

Seeing the Eiffel Tower was just the perfect end to a great day in Paris. I had wanted to go to Paris for years so it was an amazing trip. The Eiffel Tower was amazing. It was impressive during the day, but breathtaking at night. It’s just so beautiful. We got there at about 10:45 PM, and sat on the grass to take it in, then at 11 the strobe lights on it were going off and it sparkled! It was so cool and just an amazing end to the day. We left soon after and made it back to the hostel to sleep.

Glittery Eiffel Tower!

Also glittery Eiffel Tower!