Paris

Paris is the most amazing city I´ve been to. I absolutely loved it. The city was so beautiful. I expected the French to be rude but it was the opposite. The only rude people I ran into were taxi drivers, and they weren´t even French. We were all a bit worried as Americans in Paris who, between the 10 of us, could not figure out how to say "Hello," "Goodbye," "Please," and "Thank you" in French. We were always responding in Spanish, trying our hardest to speak French. But all the Parisians spoke English and they didn´t seem bothered to have to do it. I was so impressed by their attitudes, it will be a long time before I say anything bad about the French again.

I had one day in Paris and when I left, I felt that I did not miss a thing. We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We had lunch in the Park beside the tower. We got on a double decker bus and rode around the city. We went to the Louvre, we did the Louvre, in 35 minutes. We got back on the bus and rode to Notre Dame. We didn´t go inside but they say the outside is much nicer anyway. We then got back on the bus riding around and just looking at the city. Everything was just so surreal. Our last stop was the Arc de Triomphe. While there, we made dinner reservations at a nice restaurant and then hoped back on the bus to the tower. From there we went back to the hotel and changed for dinner.

We rode the Metro back to the Arc, where we proceeded to run across the street to the center of the roundabout the Arc is on. Later we found out we are supposed to cross under a tunnel (no wonder we were honked at). From there we could see the tower sparkling in the night sky. Something that is more spectacular than I could have ever imagined. We went to dinner, which was much more expensive than we thought (we had looked at the lunch menu). 500 EUROS for dinner, between the group. It was some pretty good Salmon.

We took the Metro to the Eiffel Tower stop and the tower had already started sparkling for the last time that night (it sparkles every hour, on the hour, for 10 minutes, from 10pm to 1:10am. We saw it at 10 from the Arc). We ran 4 blocks and made it just in time to see the finale. It was something I would expect in a movie, but I got to live it.

Leaving Paris was sad. I had the time of my life. I now know why Sabrina Fairchild didn´t want to leave. It was hands down, my favorite city I have ever been to and I would return on a moments notice. I returned to Salamanca broke, and I do not regret anything about that. Maybe that I didn´t bring back a post card, but I have memories, much better than any postcard.


"Once upon a time, on the north shore of Long Island, not far from New York, there was a very, very large mansion, almost a castle. And on this very large estate lived a small girl. And life was pleasant there and very, very simple. But, then one day, the girl grew up and went beyond the walls of the grounds and found the world."
-Sabrina