Paris

Me and Olivia in Paris

     Last weekend we had our first extended travel weekend.  Two of my friends and I decided we wanted to go to Paris.  At the time of booking our trip, the whole thing sounded like a good idea.  It wasn't until a few days before we were supposed to leave that Bin Laden sent a message threatening Paris and therefore raising travel alerts.  In addition to the terrorist threats, the French government also decided to change the retirement age and riots broke out.  One of my friend's parents didn't want her to go and everyone else was pretty skeptical about the whole thing.  Luckily my parents told me it would be fine (they know I worry too much) and I made my dad promise that if he had any weird feelings about me going, he would say something.

On top of the Eiffel Tower

     So, even with the probability of our flight being cancelled, we headed to Treviso on Friday after classes.  We had to take a bus to the airport which ended up being an adventure in itself.  We basically got on a school bus with 30 kids who had assigned seats and a supervisor onboard.  The bus ride should have only been an hour but was actually 2 hours and 45 minutes long.  Luckily we had left ourselves plenty of time and got to the airport in time.  Flying to Paris was my first Ryanair experience.  Ryanair is the budget airline of Europe.  It is kind of like Southwest where there are no assigned seats but instead of having a number, it is a mad dash to the plane.  Once the plane takes off they turn the lights on really bright and advertise to you the entire time.  It was fine but you get what you pay for (I just booked a 6 Euro flight to Barcelona).  Once we got to Paris it was another hour and half bus ride into the city.  It was pretty late so we just found our hotel and crashed.
     On Saturday we got up and it was raining.  We grabbed some croissants at this little pastry shop and headed to the Arc de Triomphe.  It was really cool to see all the landmarks that are in so many movies.  I couldn't stop thinking about Madeline and the Mary-Kate and Ashley movie Passport to Paris (haha).  It started pouring so we decided shopping would be a good activity.  We walked down Champs-Elysees and went into all the stores.  Once again, we spent a ton of time at H & M and I had to get a coat, hat, and mittens because it was freezing!  After shopping we got some lunch at a little cafe.  Afterwards we went to Notre Dame and walked around for awhile.  It was really cool to see all the gargoyles.
     On Sunday we started out at the Lourve.  The outside is gorgeous.  I couldn't believe how big it was. We saw all the important paintings and sculptures like the Mona Lisa but it got a little overwhelming.  After the Lourve we went and saw the gardens and walked around some more.  It started raining again so we decided to go back to the hotel and rest up for the night.  That night we got dinner and then went to see the Eiffel Tower at night.  It was so beautiful.  We spent a lot of time taking pictures and stuff.  We tried to take a river boat cruise but ended up being too late.
     On Monday morning we went straight to the Eiffel Tower to try to beat the lines.  It wasn't too crowded so we decided to go all the way to the top.  When you look at the Eiffel Tower from far away it doesn't look that tall but the closer you get, the more gigantic it looks.  As you go up the elevator though, it feels even higher.  It reminded me a lot of going up the Empire State Building or something.  We got out at the midway point and it was so cold and windy.  We quickly took our pictures and got in line to go to the top.  When we got to the top it was amazing.  You could see so far and we really lucked out with the weather.    We took some more pictures, walked around, and then headed back down.  Because we had a flight to catch we quickly grabbed some lunch and did some shopping.  I'm really glad we got to go to one of the famous department stores because that was neat to see.  It was so packed but so beautifully decorated that can't imagine what it would be like during Christmas!  After shopping we went back to the hotel, grabbed our bags and made our way back to the airport.  Our trip home went smoothly but we were exhausted when we got back to Paderno.
     Paris is one of my favorite cities so far.  The only problem was that it is really, really expensive!  A mini bottle of water is 5 Euro.  We luckily didn't have any problems with terrorists or riots.  In fact, we didn't see or hear of a single riot while we were there.  The only real problem we had was that not one of us knew a single word of French but we figured it out.  What I really like about Paris was that it had the excitement of a big city like New York but it also felt small in some areas and there were gardens and trees everywhere which made it feel less city-like.  I can't wait to go back to Paris again someday.