Lost in Paris: Michael

We left London around 11:32 and made it to Paris safely around 15:00 in time to see a group of anarchists in the train station playing loud music and yelling about no borders. At least that is what the British Newspaper told me. Anyways, we were in the train station for about an hour. The first 20 min. we were looking for where to buy metro passes (Paris's subway) and the next 40 min. in line to buy our tickets to Madrid. After finishing this we got onto the metro to go to our hostel. This is where the day started to get tricky.

First of all the only map that we had was a tiny one that probably did not even have all of the big streets of Paris on it. So we walked one way and then the other and then back again only to find ourselves completely lost. About 15 min. of wandering around lost we decided to ask for help and discovered that no one around could speak English. Luckily for us Mr. Rick, a wine store owner who is American, saw us looking completely lost and showed us a better map to get where we needed to go. It turned out that our hostel was just a short 3 min. walk from the metro station in the completely opposite direction then the way we decided to take.

After dropping our stuff off at the hostel at 17:45 we decided to head for the Louvre.



It is difficult being amid the city of romance with all of this beautiful art for me and Tim because both of our girlfriends are back home. But it was at the Louvre that Matt was finally able to find the woman of his dreams.



Her name is Venus de Milo and he made us visit her no less than 3 times within the span of 45 minutes. Doesn't she look like a handful. Anyways Tim and I were able to see some of the thins we wanted like The Winged Victory of Samothrace, The Dying Slave by Michelangelo, and of course the Mona Lisa. After wandering the overwhelming halls of the Louvre for a while we left to visit the Eiffel Tower.

We managed to get to the Eiffel Tower with only a 15 min. detour due to misdirections but eventually we were able to climb the stairs to the second story for 3.5 euro a piece. The line to take the elevator to the top was well over a two hour wait at would cost an extra 11 euro. We got to the second level around 21:23 and decided to wait for the breathtaking sunset that took place at 22:05 just after the Tower's lights sparkled at the hour.



We then came down the tower and saw a somewhat tear jerking sight.It was that of on of Ratatouille's relatives been killed by a cat. Tim's comment was at least it gets to die in such a beautiful place. After watching the cat play with the mouse for a while we sat down in the park watching the Eiffel Tower for another half an hour before it lit up the sky with its twinkling lights at 23:00. We called it a night and went back to the hostel to sleep.

Our first day in Paris was an eventful one in both good and bad ways. The thing I enjoy about Paris is the antiquity and grandeur that is around every corner and I look forward to seeing more of the city and its magnificent places.