Stop 1 - Paris

Day 1

So after catching the 4am train to London, and the 5:40am Euston train to Paris, there we were in France ready for our adventure to start. We'd barely been able to sleep on the train, we were tired and hungry, but first we had to reserve a seat on our upcoming night train to Barcelona the following day. Like zombies we stumbled around Gare Du Nord station trying to find someone to help us, and when we finally did, we discovered there was a train strike throughout France and Spain so the train we were going to take had been cancelled.

Welcome to Paris we thought. 

It was a bumpy start, but like everything if you throw money at the problem it usually gets solved. Reluctantly we booked an extra night in Paris and paid for reservations on a high speed train direct to Barcelona for Wednesday morning. We could only hope we wouldn't face the same troubles as we tried to leave Barcelona on Friday!

With the nightmare over we hopped on a metro train using tickets I'd been able to purchase on the Eurostar train. The metro was luckily very easy to navigate and not dissimilar to London's tube system, and so within 20 minutes we found our hostel. The reception/lounge area seemed small, but for what size it lacked in width it made up for in height. Five floors up we found our room and we weren't the top floor. This is significant because of the spiral staircase and the lift that was non-existent. We were able to store our luggage until our later check in time, and so once we regrouped we set off for the Arc de Triomphe. 

When we emerged from the station the direction was not clear, and I was reluctant to get my iPad out for the directions I'd saved. Instead we overheard some Americans chatting and I outright asked them. They were nice and pointed us up the right street. As we set off we quickly discovered the road has no rules, and just because the green man says it's safe to cross, it doesn't mean cars won't be driving at you. 

As we reached the Arc De Triomphe we both were finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. We'd made it to Paris in one piece, and no one had approached us about sharing a taxi and thus beginning the opening scenes of Taken. The Arc De Triomphe is of course famously surrounded by the most unorganised roundabout know to civilisation, and so as we attempted to make it to the Champs Élysées we were sure to cross the roads with caution. The Champs Élysées was much shorter than I remembered, but perhaps that's because we didn't care to enter any of the expensive shops. Except the Adidas store of of course, we wanted to see how round the World Cup footballs really were. 

We ate our prepacked lunch that had travelled with us from London and headed to the Louvre. Our intention was to go in at some point during our stay, and when we discovered it was closed on Tuesdays (the following day) we didn't have much choice but to get in line. The queue was short, although once inside it was incredibly busy. We didn't waste any time and headed straight for the Mona Lisa. It was disappointing to see so many people simply taking photos of everything and not taking any time to actually look. The Mona Lisa had a mosh pit of tourists attempting to take the best photos, and of course, selfies. That was another interesting thing, couples taking their own individual selfies of the same thing rather than having a photo together. Another mosh pit was found at the Venus De Milo, something I know very little about except what I learned from that one Simpsons episode. We made an effort to look at most of the exhibits the museum map told us were important and then had to get out of there. Far to busy for us. 

We walked to Notre Dame and on our way crossed the "love bridge" or Pont Des Arts. You might know it from the end of that recent magician film? From what I understand, people come to the bridge with a padlock, lock it to the bridge, and throw the key in the river Seine. It seemed like such a sweet idea, and when we arrived it was clear many many people agreed. The bridge fences were covered in thousands of padlocks. Padlocks locked to other padlocks. On most of the fences you could no longer see the wire of the fence except for two panels that were very recently replaced. Megan explained that the news recently reported the bridge was beginning to strain under all the weight and so must have replaced the panels to ease the weight. That hadn't stopped people though, and the clear panels were filling up fast. While we both had an interest in doing our own padlock for fun we were reluctant to get ripped off by the men illegally selling padlocks on and around the bridge. We decided to look out for a cheaper padlock elsewhere. 

We eventually made it to Notre Dame, probably my favourite stop in Paris. We didn't go in and instead we sat in front of it and enjoyed the view. The bell rang for 4:30pm and we knew that that was the signal for dinner. We had planned for French crepes, and so we walked the streets to find the best place. We discovered small narrow streets in the surrounding area hiding many food stalls and restaurants with a huge variety. We soon found what we were looking for and shared one cheese and ham crepe, followed by one Nutella filled crepe. It was perfect. 

Although it was early it was time to get back. We'd been up since 3am. When we arrived back at the hostel we discovered our room wasn't a shared dorm but a private for 2 with a bunk bed. This was possibly the best moment of the day to be honest, discovering we didn't have to share with strangers. We unpacked everything, making use of every inch of the tiny room. I lay down and fell asleep in seconds. We woke again at around 8 and watched an episode of Band of Brothers on my iPad, and straight after we went to bed for real and we both slept through until 7am. 

Day 2 

The next day we had our buffet breakfast in our hostel: cereal, croissants, and baguettes. We stole a few baguettes to have for lunch too, and then moved to our next hostel. When we arrived we knew we'd been spoilt at our previous hostel. While the new place was clean and the people were nice, it was echoey and old. That night we would hear every sound in the building, including the mechanical workings of some kind of elevator next door. We should have slept in the train station to be honest. 

I've missed out the details of the day though. The Eiffel Tower was our first stop, and I was quickly reminded of Megan's fear of heights. We climbed the stairs to the 2nd level but that was high enough. The views were great and we used a map to try and work out what everything was. When we were too cold we headed back down and ate our baguettes on a bench with a view of the river. 

At this point we had no plan, and so we walked to the Musee d'Orsay which is famous for having Monet paintings. By the time we got there though the queue was far too long (probably because it was Tuesday and the Louvre was closed) and so we headed for the Luxembourg gardens instead. The sun was finally out and so we sat at the edge of a pond in the gardens deciding what to do next. At this point we were just trying to work out what else was famous so that we could go there. We ended up at the Bastille and walked around trying to read French and understand the history. 

Eventually we called it a day and headed back to our hostel. Since our new hostel was so close to the Louvre we grabbed more crepes for dinner and sat at the pyramid to the sound of a Cello playing: it was very French. The "love bridge" was nearby and we walked over it once more. We watched a few groups do their padlocks and took a few pictures. Suddenly the padlock sellers started sprinting across the bridge, and as we looked back we saw why; police. As one of them ran he dropped a padlock. I looked around, no one went to grab it, so I did. We had a purple padlock and a set of 3 keys for free, and so we found one of the empty sections of fence and did our own. 

It had been a crazy two days, and now that we finally felt settled we were heading off somewhere new in the morning. We could only hope it would all run smoothly!  

-Evie

Since Evie is clearly the writer of us two, I let her explain the big stuff. But since this trip has already doubled the amount of total countries I have visited, I figured I should add some things that I noticed.

1) France has a lot of castles and palaces. Too many for people to even care about or remember anymore. Palaces have been turned into places and castles have been left alone to just sit on top of a hill. Coming from a place with little visible history of anything before 1800, it's strange to see so much of history already forgotten. Just goes to show that oblivion is inevitable (tfios quote).

2)France is expensive. It's a good thing we are tiny people who are not fussed about where we end up eating, because if we were, we would probably already be out of money.

3) Everyone in America needs to learn to make crepes. 

4) People who were excited about the Louvre just to see the Mona Lisa missed out. 

5) Luckily, most everyone in Paris speaks English, which is great for us (though Evie's high school French can usually get us where we need to go -like the train station or the bathroom).

6)We have decided that good travel buddies are hard to find. The more people we meet/observe, the more we've realised that a) this whole trip is a seriously ridiculous idea and b) we are probably the perfect people to do this trip together. We are definitely not scared to tell each other we're going in the wrong direction, or drag each other to random places we want to see. We can share meals and be completely content sitting silently and admiring the things around us.

6) I am definitely still afraid of heights.

Paris is lovely, but I think if you want to really experience it as the most romantic city in the world, you need lots and lots of money.

7)Not paying tax on things is really cool. 

 8) Running into friends from Pacific is never out of the question, even in a train station in Paris.

- Meg