Last night we arrived in Paris around 9:30 and we were informed that a shuttle from our hotel would come to pick us up. But it took us a while to actually find the terminal where we would be picked up- the language barrier immediately became a struggle for us lol but we eventually found it, got on the bus and checked into our hotel (which turned out to be right by the airport, and not right by the city like I hoped! lol) Since we didn't get to our hotel til after 1030, it was a little too late to do much of anything, so we just found a little random pub to eat down the street since we were starving.
Today we woke semi-early to get a headstart on the day, since we wanted to see everything! We took the shuttle back to the airport and got on the metro (Paris's version of the tube) which cost 30 euros for a 2-day pass (about $50 U.S. dollars). Then, we finally made it to the Eiffel Tower! It was soooo surreal to actually see it for the first time and be right next to it! It was a lot wider than I was expecting it to be, it stretched out pretty far on both sides, leaving a large open walking space underneath. Unfortunately the wait to go up to the top was 3 hours! So we decided to wait and come back to it. Side story to that was when we went up to some of the workers to ask them how long the wait would be, and they snickered something in French, laughed at us, and then yelled at us telling us that it was polite to say "Hello" first before shouting at someone (meanwhile we weren't shouting, and we asked politely)- that was definitely a wakeup call for us about the culture and how French people really are.
After that we got some French crepes (which was our breakfast at 1pm!) and they were DELICIOUS! Ah! That's definitely one thing that the French are good at. I got one with strawberries, chocolate and ice cream on top! It was amazing!
We decided to go on this boat cruise tour that took you to all the main attractions of Paris (Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, The Louvre etc.) and it only cost us 9 euros since we were students! It turned out to be such a great idea, and we made our way around to all the things we wanted to see! Notre Dame was absolutely beautiful! It was breath-taking almost. We shopped and ate a little cafe near Notre Dame afterwards where I tried my first French Ham 'n Cheese sandwich! (I was recommended to try it since it was a traditional dish) It definitely was different because the cheese was on the outside of the sandwich, melted on top. But it was still very good.
Another thing we reeeeally wanted to do was find this one restaurant a friend referred to me that served wine in baby bottles and had cheese fondue! Its located in Montmarte, a cute little area just outside Paris. We actually managed to find the place pretty easily after figuring how which metro stops to get off/transfer at. We were the happiest/most relieved people ever once we found it! It was truly the best ending to our day, and the highlight of our trip! It was just a cute little mom and pop restaurant and the people were very friendly! The fondue was delicious and we got a kick out of drinking from baby bottles. We also signed the wall/ceiling after we finished because the place was covered in signatures from people all over the world (there was actually even another "PITT" signature written) but we wrote "Hail To Pitt" and our initials, and then I signed it separately. The whole experience was sooo much fun and so neat! However, the experience home was not so fun!
We wanted to go to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up at night, so we made it back all the way there and then were very disappointed when we saw it wasn't lit up, and that it was pouring down rain! In addition, the metro stops at midnight so we had to catch a cab back to our hotel which cost us 50 euros and our taxi driver was of course not very friendly as usual.
Although we had some ups and downs today, it was still pretty successful and fun since we got to see and do so many things! (not to mention we were pretty proud of ourselves that we could manage everything on our own, without guided help from planned tours n such!)
:)
No comments:
Post a Comment