Mia Avventura Italiana

We arrived in Paris at about 6 pm on Tuesday.   We quickly wanted to settle into our rooms and then get some dinner with the guides.  When we got to the hotel it was not at all like any of the other hostels we were staying at.  It was actually a hotel so you’d think it would be nicer?  Well, don’t let the names of things fool you.  This “hotel” was not as nice as any of the hostels I’ve stayed in.  Andrea, Elisandra, and I were staying in a room together which was only made for two people.  It had a queen size bed that was shoved up against the wall, and a cot next to the bed.  The bathroom consisted of a sink and a shower that had tiles missing.  The toilet was out in the main hallway.  We also had a communal shower/toilet combo right outside our door.  There was one working outlet in the entire room and it was meant for the mini fridge.  Moral of this part of the story:  don’t think that hotels are always going to be better than hostels.

After we freshened up, Bruno took all of us to a grocery store around the corner to buy dinner.  He bought baguettes, deli meats, cheese, and all the trimmings for everyone on the trip for dinner.  I personally bought cheese and crackers and Andrea and I split a bottle of champagne.  We then walked from the grocery store to the bus which was the next downer of the night.  We had about 50 American teenagers trying to all buy tickets for a bus with a driver who only speaks French.  He instantaneously got mad and started screaming at us in French.  We eventually realized it was because you could buy tickets from a machine around the corner.  Eventually Andrea and I were buying everyone’s tickets with Bruno’s card because he didn’t know how to work the machine.  We finally made it to our dinner destination:  The Eiffel Tower.  Yes, I had dinner at the Eiffel Tower.  It was absolutely amazing.   It looked so beautiful lit up, and every hour it would sparkle, or as my good friend Ryan would say, it would shimmer.

The next day we met for the walking tour at around 10 am, which was a welcomed change for once in comparison to the 8:30 and 9:00 am meetings we usually have.  But this was the start of a very very long day.  We walked to Notre Dame, and then to the Louvre.  At the Louvre, we went and sunbathed in the park across the street.  After a relaxing break, we continued on our trek to the Eiffel Tower in order to climb it.  Now I don’t remember if I had mentioned this before in another post, but I’m really really afraid of heights.  But I knew that if I didn’t go all the way to the top now I probably would never have the chance again and I would regret it.  So we decided to burn some calories and walk to the 2^nd level of the tower; all 700 steps.  Then we took a rather scary elevator to the top.  The view was absolutely amazing.  I never realized how huge Paris was until we were up there.  After leaving the tower, we walked to the Arch de Triumph and then headed back to the hotel.

Thursday, we took a trip outside of the city to Versailles.  The group that I was with got lunch, then walked to the palace.  It was so pretty, and extravagant.  And with extravagant things comes extravagant price tags so we decided not to go inside.  Instead we just wondered the city, went shopping, then headed back to Paris for a bit more shopping then to get ready for the overnight bus ride to our last stop:  Barcelona.