A Day in Paris

Originally I had planned for my one day alone in Paris to be filled with a trip to the Lourve, the Eiffel tower and then wandering around the city looking at the architecture and eating crêpes. But unfortunately, although I got to my hotel early (another freebee only using my dad's frequent buy points at the Hilton this time...score!) I passed out the minute I hit the bed! After an hour or two, I kept trying to motivate myself to get up and go see Paris since I was only there one day, but I couldn't help but continue to sleep as I listened to the voices of Modern Family in French.

My personalize welcome sign ;) Premium members get two free water bottles per night! Oh wow! Haha

Eventually I had rested enough (6 weeks going non-stop in Europe was finally catching up to me) and I decided that I only had time to go to the Eiffel tower before it got too dark. This may have been a good thing because traveling in Paris...well EVERYTHING in Paris was literally 10 times more expensive! I usually paid 3€ round trip for multiple metro rides and round trip on the train was almost 19€.  I couldn't even believe it, and I thought the lady at the ticket window misunderstood what I wanted to do...but nope! Paris is just a price gouging kind of place!

My very expensive train! I could have ridden the train all over Spain for this price! Nonsense...

The two guys sitting in front of me heard the electricity on top of the train when we were going through the tunnel and started panicking because their window was open. So they got up and ran away. I don't know why they came back 2 minutes later, but they did. I guess they had to embarrass themselves even more or something :p

Train yard

I wasn't really sure where I was going, so I figured I would just walk around until I saw a 1200ft building somewhere. And sure enough, I look to my left and behind the trees was the Eiffel tower!! Even bigger than I imagined. I couldn't stop starring at is as I walked towards it! I kept thinking to myself "you're at the Eiffel tower right now? WHAAAT?!"

I walked around the area and the gardens surrounding the Eiffel tower for a while, trying to kill some time and take some pictures. And then I finally convinced myself I had to spend the money to go INTO the Eiffel tower as well! The line to take the elevator up was at least a half mile long, plus the ticket to use the stairs was  8€ cheaper and not a soul was waiting to use that, so I took the stairs! And it wasn't even that bad! I would've chosen the stairs any day over being in an elevator crammed with smelly tourists anyway! Plus the views were way better!

The stairs going up the tower

The original stairs in the tower

They had a movie theater inside the middle level of the tower that taught about the history and making of the tower and famous events that have occurred in it since then

When I finally made it to the top, I was 281 meters off the ground! In the top level, they had a mural of all the other tall buildings in the world in any given country, and not too many stood up against the Eiffel tower. Originally, it was only suppose to be able to stand a couple years and it has made it all the way until now! It went from being a hated and ugly building to one of the most commonly visited attractions in the world.

View of Paris from the top

Afterwards, I still had a couple hours until it was going to get dark so I went around and looked at the shops and walked along the board walk along the river.

I had almost the whole train to myself for a 30 minute ride home :)

I went home to pack up my things and get ready for my flight early in the morning to my connecting flight London and then finally onto my last leg to LAX!

The next morning, I woke up before the sun rose...like usual...to catch the shuttle to the airport. It was so weird to me that I was finally going home! I did miss home, but I knew I was going to miss my freedom and adventure that I had in Europe. And I couldn't wait to go back! Going home to San Diego meant I got to start my favorite summer activities, but it also meant that it was back to reality. I had to start to work again to pay off the debt I had gathered up during my adventures, and within the week I was back, I would finally know my destiny of whether or not I would be accepted to nursing school! :o EEEEP!

When I was at my layover in London, I saw one of the carts drop this luggage...and no one came by to pick it up for the entire 45 minutes I sat there. Everyone just kept driving around it. I wonder how many times this has happened to my luggage and claimed "it got transferred to the wrong plane".

double decker airplane!

Fancy first class seats I wish I could have! They layout into beds...that would have been delightful because I didn't sleep one wink on the way home! I watched 5 movies: Steve Who Lives at Home, Safe House, On a Ledge, The Vow, and another movie I can't ever remember  AND 4 episodes of Modern Family. I forgot how hilarious that show was...

My Dad was at the airport to pick us up and it was SO WEIRD that I was in California again! I kept thinking like I was in Spain, just a new part or something :) But it definitely felt good to be home!!