Home Safe from Paris

Saturday: May 8th.

Started off grabbing a late free breakfast at the hostel. We planned on leaving at ten, and Rob and I went early to pick up phil some medicine at the pharmacy (he may have strep throat). It was closed, and we waited until 1025 for the gange at the metro station. We were trying to make an 11:00 AM bike tour, which is why I planned on leaving at about 10:05. Rob and I decided to leave at 10:25 so that we wouldn't miss the tour. Well, the gang took a better metro route and beat us there, leaving a couple minutes after us.

I haven't appreciated the Eiffel tower beauty just yet. The tour meeting point was the eiffel tower, in which afterwords a guide walked you about a mile to the bike tour office. We got off the final metro stop near the eiffel and SPRINTED to the tower, found Armando waving for us to catch up. The gang was smart by forming a line, all within site of each other, so that we could catch up with the tour group that was probably about half a mile away still. Whew. We made it.

The bike tour: It was AWESOME. We left at about 11:30 and returned at 3:00. We caught a view of the Eiffel tower, on the other side their military school where Napolean was educated in the artillery half, not the calvary. (ALL of his paintings he is on horseback: could be for his love for horses, could be because he was so short, could be because he's mad about not being admitted to calvary school.) Also, this church we saw, where he was buried, according to his SPECIFIC direction, he wanted to be buried below ground so people have to bow to see his burial. Or, you can take stairs down and look up at his body. So, you bow or look up at him haha. At the church of Napolean's body, Hitler came to visit him during the war. He asked that none of his guards or anyone join him. He had GREAT respect for Napolean and wanted time alone. No one knows what went on, but he was in there for four hours. What was discovered later, is that there were French anti-Hitler fighters in the attic. They didn't realize Hitler was inside. Hmmm how history could have played out differently… We also went through some awesome, huge circles where we were actually on the roads. In fact, one circle (around Arc of Triumph) is one road where you're NOT insured if you get in a crash. We went there at night, it's crazy and dangerous. (I have a video). Back to the tour, we then stopped at a nearby café for a break, then went to the Louvre. Facts: It's on 40 acres of land. There's small orange dots on a few windows here and there. If there's a fire or emergency, the crew know which windows they can crash in. It's 8 miles of walking to go through everything. If you spent ONE MINUTE at every piece of artwork inside, you'd be inside for over two years. We also went to see a cool obelisk, a plaza/circle where many have been beheaded in the city that invented the guillotine. I was also able to talk to our guide Emma a bit and converse about the positives and negatives of being a tour guide. 26 Euros.

After stopping at a grocery store and having lunch in a grass patch with views of the Eiffel Tower we took the Metro to Notre Dame (Fair Lady I think). It was beautiful both inside and out. I love having the opportunity to see and pray in the most beautiful and grand churches in the world. Praise God. I was able to have some good conversations with Brayden and Lauren about their Catholic upbringing afterwards. We then wandered throgh some streets and eventually went to the bottom of the hill going up to Arc of Triumph via Metro. There's some nice shops on the way including a great Disney store and Adidas. From about 5 onwards for the rest of the night it rained. The arc was pretty impressive, with a gigantic flag hanging from the top of the arch.

I've been having a very sore back and neck. I think it's a combo of being on my feet all day, having old shoes, not sleeping great in my homestay bed (I know this because I always sleep like a rock in hostels).

Bedtime, love Paris.

Austin

Sunday, May 9th:
What a wonderful day in Paris! We left the hostel and checked out after a nice breakfast of bread, cereal and orange juice on a patio overlooking the water which reminded me of Venice. We stopped off at the farmer's market - I got apples which were big, ripe and delicious. We then made the Eiffel Tower our first priority. When you get off the metro coming up the stairs, you can't see it until you turn the corner and BOOM, it's there. It's just so beautiful (even through many french didn't think so for such a long time).

Note on street venders: It's worse at the eiffel tower than anywhere else in Europe that I've seen. They ALL sell the same products: a minitaure eiffel tower of varying sizes. They carry around hundreds of them on a big metal ring and shake them like keys trying to get you to buy. There were also many gypsies that would approach you and say "do you speak english? They would then hand you a card and it would tell you all the reasons to give them money. There's not much diversification, methods are copied by everyone.

What I love about the eiffel tower is that you can walk to it and under it with ease. With a normal famous building, it's super crowded because you can only walk around it or enter. Hard to explain, but its nice.

We waited in line to climb the stairs to the first and second levels for 3.50. After about 20 minutes of waiting and 5 minutes of stair climbing, we made it to the first floor. Breathtaking. Second floor: more breathtaking. We then took an elavator (Aaron I remember your video) to the very top of the eiffel tower which was amazing!! Not really much to say, but Paris is beautiful.

After 2-3 hours doing Eiffel tower stuff we headed over to find some food and then the Louvre. We entered the Louvre at 5:26. It closed at 5:30. I didn't see one painting. No I didn't see the Mona Lisa. I should note that I really had no interest in seeing another art museum, my body ached and I was exhausted, but I would have liked to at least enter one of the galleries. Next time ;)

Next, we went to a sit down restaurant where I had my most expensive meal in Europ: 14 euros. I had a beef stake with french fries and beans. Delicious.

Homeless man: I saw a man digging through the trash and eating what was in there. I've never seen someone actually independently working to provie for themselves, normally it's begging for money on a sidewalk. I walked up to him and offered him my 2 liter orange juice. He laughed at me and said "Orange juice haha" and didn't want it and walked away. I don't know.

After dinner we went back to the hostel, where our bags were locked up and we grabbed those, looked up a couple things on the internet and then went back to the eiffel tower. We made it to the tower at about 10:50 pm. It is sooooo beautiful at night. City of love and city of lights. Every hour (we saw it at 11 and 12), it sparkles for about 2 minutes. It's always lit up, but the sparkling is just something extra. We walked underneath the tower to the other side and laid in the park just staring at the tower for about 40 minutes. This will probably be the most memorable image I have from the Europe trip.

We then caught some trains until we fell about 5 miles short of the Orly Airport because the metro and train stations closed at 1 AM. We took a taxi to the airport (our flight was at 6:30 AM) and slept for a few hours. I slept all right, probably almost 3 hours of sleep and I was finally able to use my sleeping bag and pillow. I woke up freezing, as does everyone when sleeping on a tile floor. I'm now on the plane as I write to you. Everyone else is sleeping as I write this - I have two powerpoint presentations today so I'm chugging along. Armando has a test today - he's asleep, sitting up, book open, pencil in hand. We're all exhausted. Now we're on the HOME stretch. Pun.

I heard that the French are overly proud of their language and culture and don't like English-speaking Americans. I didn't get that vibe. All Europeans have thus far been very kind and helpful for the most part.

The weather really worked out for us. It only rained one evening for us and besides that was fairly warm and sunny.

Metros were pretty dirty. One car was filled with vomit - the man responsible still folded over in his chair, clearly not feeling well. Rob and Armando opted to sing in most metros at a somewhat loud voice in which all passengers could here. I have mixed feelings about the ordeal. Good for them, their passion is music and some people smiled as they sang. I feel like we're known for being loud as Americans and just didn't want to take part.

Time to rest or study. Hasta luego.

Aust