Paris Round One

Walking into the airport, Rachel pointed to the planes and random objects out the window saying "France". Everything was France. We were in FRANCE. The airport is far outside of the city center, so our first instinct was to leave and go to the city. We bought a metro ticket and got on  line 6. We figured we could get breakfast, walk around, and find a hostel. Like it was that easy. We decided to get off at Notre Dame. We might as well see a huge landmark right away. After we looked at the outside of the Cathedral, we decided we should probably find a hostel.

We walked around the area for an hour or so.
All we found were a few hotels with huge price tags. We were a few streets away from the commercial part of the Notre Dame area, but we didn't know that then. Feeling defeated, we went into a Starbucks to use wifi. It wad painstakingly slow. In fact, my iphone never truly connected to it. Rachel's worked fine, but hostel websites wouldn't let us pay on a phone very well. So, with all of our stuff on a large wooden table in the middle of the coffee shop, we began to unpack my backpack to get to my laptop. We looked rough with our plane hair and we hadn't slept all night (considering that it was the morning in Paris). My laptop was a huge help. The wifi still crept along slower than a turtle, but we found some good options for the nights we would be in Paris. We weren't going to be homeless! We found a pretty cheap hostel called St. Christopher's. It had amazing reviews. So we got back on the metro, got off on the right stop and wandered around the area for another hour. We were on the right street, but after walking up and down it for a while I worried that we would still be homeless, not being able to use wifi to find a new place. We had already paid, so we looked harder. Once we went to the end of the street and kept going, we found Belushi's Bar. St. Christopher's was right above it. Success!

As soon as I entered, I knew we were in the right place. There were plenty of other young travelers and all of the people running the hostel were American or British with a few French speakers. The people were so nice and the rooms had everything we needed. We were in a mixed dorm every night, but we had to switch rooms since we were making our reservations so late. That first night, we ate downstairs in the bar/restaurant. I ate the most American meal my first night in Paris: Burger and Beer. Oh well, I had two months to get some real French food in. Once I got to the room, I locked my stuff up in the lockers under the bunk beds and fell right asleep. I didn't wake up until morning.
The first real day went spent in Paris was mainly made up of a free walking tour that St. Christopher's recommended. We went with a bunch of other people at the hostel. We all rode the metro to the St. Michael fountain where the free tour began. We had a really awesome tour guide who showed us all around Pairs. We saw the Louvre, French Gardens, and the start of the Champs Elysee. After the tour, we went on further. We walked the entire Champs Elysee and made it to the Arc de Triomphe.

Arc de Triomphe Day 2 in Paris

Then, after miles and miles of walking, we headed back to our hostel. After checking back into the hostel and retrieving our luggage from the lockers in the basement, we left our stuff in our new room and headed back out again! This time we went closer to the Siene River and bought a boat tour through Paris. Our hostel gave us a good deal on it and it was worth every Euro. Before we boarded the boat, we bought chicken and cheese paninis and I also got a strawberry and Nutella crepe. The boat was very nice and the weather was perfect. I ate dinner as we passed the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, and the most beautiful bridges I had ever seen. The lights from the city reflected over the water and made the atmosphere so beautiful. Seeing Paris from the river (as well as finally being able to sit down) was extraordinary. We left around 9 pm (21:00) when the sun was low in the sky.

When our boat turned around just before arriving at the modern buildings of Paris, the sky lit up.

The Eiffel Tower at night seen from the boat tour at the end of Day 2

Every color was visible in the sky thanks to the ever-present clouds over Paris, and the Eiffel Tower had just begun to sparkle (every hour or so, extra lights lit up the tower for people to enjoy at night). The tower also had a rotating light at the top that mimicked a lighthouse.

I suggested grabbing a bottle of wine and sitting in front of the Eiffel Tower to watch the lights up close. The field in front of the tower was full of Parisians and tourists who had the exact same idea. Everything was perfect that night expect for the street "merchants" who came up to everyone on the lawn trying to sell beer, wine, or champagne. This would have been tolerable if they weren't so frequent, persistent, and loud! Overall, though, the Eiffel Tower at night was a great experience. The next morning we were off to the Catacombs.