PARIS

We arrived in Paris on a beautiful early Friday afternoon. We flew with RyanAir, an European airline that has unbelievably cheap flights-- and we quickly found out why--the RyanAir airport was an hour outside the city. We took a bus into the city, then a metro to check in to our hostel.

The first thing I did upon arriving to the hostel, and putting my bags in the dungeon-like storage room downstairs (our hostel was incredibly awful) was call Elly's teacher, Madame Delange to find out where they were. Turns out they were standing in line for the eiffel tower. So my travel buddy Alyssa and I jetted across the town once again on the metro.

Seeing the Eiffel tower for the first time felt like a dream. It looked exactly like I had always pictured it. I had visions of Passport to Paris (Mary-Kate and Ashley movie that Elly and I watched hundreds of times growing up) and quotes and songs from the movie played through my head. I took a million pictures.

Elly was already up on the tower when we arrived, so we stood in line, then began the ascent up the staircase (stairs are cheaper than elevator.) When we reached the first platform I scanned the crowds for her, then finally found her class sitting at a little table in front of a small cafe. She spotted me at the same time and we ran towards each other like something out of a movie. Meeting on the Eiffel tower-- how perfect. How picturesque.

Sisterly reunion on top of the Eiffel tower. When Elly saw me she started to cry


Elly, me, Alyssa


First glance

When I saw the tower's peak for the first time I grabbed Alyssa's arm in excitement and squealed


Alyssa had to lie on the ground to get this photo


The long ascent up

Just as soon as we were reunited, Elly and I were torn apart again; her class had already climbed the tower, but Alyssa and I just go there! Elly headed to the Louvre museum while Alyssa and I decided to pay the extra 3 euros to go all the way to the very top of the tower!

At the very top!! Incredible!



Coming down, via a long, long elevator ride


Alyssa laughed at me because as we were walking away, I stopped every few steps to turn around and snap a picture. But I couldn't help it, the tower was so beautiful!

After we hiked the Eiffel tower and stopped for a speed-dinner we again took the metro to the Louvre. On Friday nights the Louvre is open later than usual. We took advantage of our free student entry, and decided to see the Mona Lisa while there were less crowds, and come back the next day to see the rest of the museum.

In front of the pyramid, entry to the Louvre

Mona was much smaller than I thought she would be. She is kept behind a thick glass case and during the day there is a huge crowd surrounding her. We luckily got to get up close

Me trying to mimic the mysterious Mona Lisa smile. I think she does it better

We ended up not meeting back up with Elly, so Alyssa and I were on our own for the night. We walked around trying to find a pastry shop for a long time (we'd assumed there would be pastry shops everywhere, but they were more difficult to find than we thought) and finally made do buying chocolate, strawberries, cookies, croissants and cheap wine at a grocery store. We took our picnic to botellon in front of the Eiffel tower.

There were a ton of students from all nationalities gathered on the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower when we got there. Some were playing frisbee, but most of them were just sitting on the lawn drinking and talking. What a place to spend your Friday night! We laid out our picnic and reflected in the amazing fact that we were actually in Paris!

Every hour on the hour at night, the tower sparkles. It was magical



Our picnic