Ssshhhhhhhhhh

You have 36 hours in Paris. Ready, set, go! We arrived late Friday night around 11pm, made our way through several subway stations, around the city nightlife, past the Moulin Rouge and around the corner and ended up at our hotel. To prevent wasting any time, we decided to go out that night to a couple of local bars but not for long because the plan for Saturday was crash course Paris.

The meeting time in the hotel lobby: 8am sharp! The morning started with crepes, which were interesting. Most of the group decided to get a choice of meat and an entire bag of shredded cheese but I opted for Nutella and banana and was definitely pleased. We then made our way to The Louvre. Amazing but more than overwhelming. We gave ourselves 2 hours to get through as much as possible so, the main attractions were up first. The Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, The Winged Victory of Samothrace, The code of Hammurabi, and then everything else. I decided I would venture away from the group because I had so many other pieces on my checklist and little time to see them. I made my way through the ancient greek collection first. Then to the egyptian art, oriental, and french renaissance. I felt like I was running through the museum just to see 1/100th of it all. As the day grew so did the crowd and it became even more difficult to make it through the museum. I would love to go back and spend an entire day, if not more, there. I will.

Our next stop was Notre Dame Cathedral. Granted, Coral, Matt, and I got sidetracked and ended up at the shops for a while but we made it. The cathedral was pretty and I found the front of it to be more interesting than any others I have seen because of the sculptures and the decor engraved in the arcades. Once we made our way inside, there were stained glass windows, pews, and arcade ceilings but not everything was quite so typical. All of the sudden a loud shhh sound boomed through the cathedral followed by "silence, remember you are in a church." It was actually somewhat intimidating.

Our next stop was The Arc de Triomphe and to get there we walked down Champs Elysee. They were both very nice. And last but not least was the wonderful Eiffel Tower. It was grand! I screamed a little when I saw it for the first time. I was so excited and ready to climb every step it possessed and as we walked towards it, I took too many pictures from too many angles only to realize that my camera battery was dying. We found a grassy knoll under the tower, laid there a while, and decided to continue our journey. Out of money, without a camera, and with little energy left, I made it to the first level, bought a 4 euro bottle of water and a mini Eiffel Tower, and made my way back down. But we did return later that evening to see it light up/sparkle. It was beautiful!

All in all, Paris was worth it. We were exhausted the entire time but we made it. Now I am sobbing over it being my last night in Bonn but am looking forward to Berlin. I just do not want it to be over yet.

Brittany