Paris was amazing yesterday. I wouldn't recommend spending just one day there though. The first half of the day was actually pretty torturous. We got up super-early in Dublin and our flight was delayed to Paris. Once we got there we spent over an hour trying to figure out where we were going. Last post I was all excited about just figuring things out as we went/not having a plan but that proved to not be a great strategy. We wanted to stay close to the Eiffel tower so we took 3 different trains to get across Paris. One thing we learned = Paris is the city o'stairs. I have a new appreciation for the escalator and elevator. Inventions of pure genious. We hauled our 50 lb. suitcases up and down at least 20 flights of stairs that day. Each train station had 3 or 4--first you'd go up then you'd go around a corner and go down. Then you'd have to squeeze through a turnstyle with a door right after it. You'd think you were almost there only to find you had one or two more flights of stairs to go up or down. And we did this three times. Definitely not suitcase-friendly. When we got to the hostel we wanted to check into they were booked but the guy there was super-friendly and helped us check into a hotel 4 blocks down the street. This is it:
My room was the middle one on the 4th floor under the overhang. Very simple but I loved the large window:
The amazing view from the window:
The cute but atrocious stairs we had to lug our suitcases up four floors of to get to the simple room with a view:
Needless to say, I got my exercise. After all the hard work and a shower, we were ready for some food. We sat at an outdoor cafe and got water "with no gas."
While sitting there it just started pouring rain while the sun continued to shine. A little overhang protracted to cover us and it was fun to people-watch in the gorgeous weather. Loved it.
After lunch we headed out towards the Eiffel Tower--our one goal for the night. We passed a bunch of these bikes everywhere. I guess the city owns them and has lock systems everywhere around the city. People can pay to use them. I thought it was a great idea.
After lunch we headed out towards the Eiffel Tower--our one goal for the night. We passed a bunch of these bikes everywhere. I guess the city owns them and has lock systems everywhere around the city. People can pay to use them. I thought it was a great idea.
Parisian postcards:
The buildings were amazing.
Our destination:
It was so much bigger and wider at the base than I imagined from the photos.
I was able to get ahold of my friend Claire who lives in Paris. She lived with my family as a foreign exchange student for one summer in high school and we've kept in touch over the years. She's visited twice more since then but this was my first time coming her way. I was SO excited that she was able to meet up with us for the evening. It was a relief to be able to step away from the map and just follow her around. Plus, being a Parisian she was able to show us the good spots.
A photo with Claire to prove I was there:
I was able to get ahold of my friend Claire who lives in Paris. She lived with my family as a foreign exchange student for one summer in high school and we've kept in touch over the years. She's visited twice more since then but this was my first time coming her way. I was SO excited that she was able to meet up with us for the evening. It was a relief to be able to step away from the map and just follow her around. Plus, being a Parisian she was able to show us the good spots.
A photo with Claire to prove I was there:
A few more photos from our evening seeing the sites:
I loved walking through the St. Michel de Notre Dame area of the city:
Notre Dame--amazing!
A cute shot of Claire at a little cafe we sat outside at to get dessert:
For the second time in one day--while sitting at a cafe--it started down pouring. Very cool.
I got up at 6am that morning and my head finally hit the pillow at 12:30am that night. Only to get up again this morning at 4:15. I'm now in Rome. We've pretty much just spent time settling in and napping. But tomorrow we head out to see the sites. More to come soon from beautiful Europe!
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