DAY 37: PARIS!!!!!

Friday I woke up at 5:25 to my roommates knocking on my door, asking if I was ready to go. Still a slightly inebriated from Thursday night’s celebration, I grabbed my backpack and started shoving things into it. I grabbed all of my toiletries, a few shirts, I even made sure to grab extra batteries because my camera died on the pub crawl the night before. I did all of this while brushing my teeth, getting dressed, and washing my face. Unfortunately, there was no helping my hair…

My roommates had already left to be sure they’d make in to the station on time. I ran out the door about 5 minutes after I woke up. I ran to the bus stop, then again from the bus stop to the train station (Which is thankfully pretty close). Once I found the girls I felt a little less panicked, but I was pretty freaked out that I forgot something. While we were waiting in line to check in I checked my bag to make sure I had everything and sure enough, I forgot my camera OF ALL THINGS!!

I slept the whole train ride to Paris.  When we got there we met our tour guide for the day and got on the bus that would be taking us around. We had an hour tour of the city; unfortunately, I slept through most of that too. The first thing on our agenda was a cruise on the River Seine. The tour started on the river, right in front of the Eiffel Tower. I’m pretty sure my heart stopped the first time I saw it, and maybe even the second and third time. We cruised under 22 bridges, passing by the gorgeous architecture of Paris.

After the river tour we went to the Eiffel Tower to eat lunch. The restaurant on the first level of the tower served us champagne and a two course meal. I had a tomato, mozzarella and basil salad, and chicken and mixed vegetables, served, of course, with delicious French bread. Eating lunch and being inside the Eiffel Tower made me feel much better. After we ate, Cassidy, Emily and I walked up the 20 billion steps to get to the second level. The whole way up I just kept saying “I’m in the Eiffel Tower right now! In Paris! You know- Paris, France. That’s in Europe…” I just couldn’t believe I was actually there. The view was gorgeous. You could see the whole city for miles. We didn’t have a whole lot of time there after lunch because we had to stay on our schedule, so we quickly took the 400 billion stairs all the way to the bottom and headed back to the bus. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture with the tower.

After lunch we had another short tour, passing the Arch de Triumph and Champs de Elysse before arriving at the Louvre. Again, we had a very tight schedule so we did the essentials, led by our guide. We saw the Inverted pyramids, the Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace (one of my favorites), some of Da Vinci’s work including Madonna of the Rocks and obviously the Mona Lisa. It was really cool to see those iconic pieces, especially Samothrace. The Mona Lisa was smaller than I expected and you can’t get very close to really look at it, but she’s beautiful.

After the Louvre we were taken to our hotel to check in and rest. We all got ready for about 30 minutes and met in the lobby to go dinner. We ate at a little sidewalk restaurant right by our hotel.  From dinner we caught a bus back to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up. It was absolutely amazing. The girls wanted to see the Moulin Rouge so we went by there before heading back to the hotel. I was completely exhausted and slept like a baby. 
(That was the most condensed summary of the trip ever)

Pictures Coming Soon!!!!
Technical Difficulties