So, Friday morning, 5 of us ventured off to Pisa for our flight. After an incredibly quick hour and 45 minute flight, we landed in Paris! We bought our tickets to the metro, grabbed a map, and asked for some last minute directions to our hostel. We realized this trip was about to be an hour to our hostel, apparently a standard travel time from the airport. Things were smooth sailing as we oddly navigated our metro transfers perfectly. Then, as we were crammed more tightly than on a subway in NYC, we realized 2 men consistently starring at us for the duration of our last metro. As our stop approached, we quickly got our bags and jumped off....but so did they. We realized we were being followed and I realized how badly I needed Liam Neeson's skills; all the prior departure "Taken" jokes were becoming somewhat reality. Hiding our obvious panic, we went upstairs and managed to loose the men, thank god. It was very scary but the 5 of us stuck together more than ever and eventually got to our hostel. We were ready to explore the most romantic city in the world.
First stop? The Eiffel Tower of course. Let me just say the Eiffel tower at night time is unlike anything you've ever seen. It literally took our breath away. If you ever are there, the tower sparkles at every hour, so try and catch it! While we were too exhausted for our own good to do anything else Friday night, the rest of the weekend was filled with more mishaps and beautiful sights. Although our time in Paris was short, we got to squeeze in the Lurve, Notre Dame, the love lock bridge and the Eiffel tower round 2. Oh, and managed to get Nutella and banana crepes.......AMAZING. The amount of people pushing and shoving to see the miniature portoirt of Mona Lisa at the Lurve was unreal and it gave me anxiety, but we made our way through to see it. The love lock bridge was definitely my favorite part of Paris. On this bridge its tradition to buy a lock, write the name of whoever you love, keep one key and throw the other key in the water, symbolizing eternal love. The bridge is absolutely filled with these locks which was just incredible to see. Fun fact? putting these locks on is still very controversial despite how many there are. So buying the locks on the bridge from these sketchy men was interesting; if the police were in sight, they took off running with your money and the locks.....catch them if you can?
For me Paris was just one of those unfortunate trips where anything that could've gone wrong, went wrong. By the end of the weekend we had to just laugh. Between almost debuting in Taken 3 on day one, to my scarf getting caught in the metro and having 9 strangers ripping it off me, it was certainly an interesting weekend to say the least. BUT I would've been absolutely devastated if I did not get to see this city. It truly is beautiful and there is so much to see. If you're abroad, Paris is a must-see (so I really hope this post didn't scare you away). My advice: 1) stay somewhere close to the heart of the city!! Paris is tremendous and our hostel wound up being way outside the city in a very sketchy area. It was somewhat inconvenient for us to get to and from places. 2) give yourself enough time to see everything. Although I'd be lying if I said I wish we had more time there, it's impossible to see everything you want to see in a day and a half; give yourself a long weekend if possible.
Like I said before, going abroad is one of the biggest learning experiences I am sure I will ever have; Paris happened to be my first uneasy weekend in Europe, but we definitely had some lessons learned. And just as we start recovering from traveling, were off to Rome in the morning! Pray that the rainy forecast is just a joke because I can't imagine the 8 am tours of the Colosseum being enjoyable in the rain :(. BUT, either way I am excited!! Thanks for reading
xo Bria
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