April 27 - May 1, 2016
Paris, France
I finally made it to the city I've dreamt of visiting ever since I sat in my French class as a 9 year old and learnt the letters of the French alphabet, numbers 1 through 10, and the primary colours. I was over the moon when we landed-- the promise of seeing the beautiful city leading me through the giant Charles de Gaulle airport enabling me to practice speaking my very first French words in about 5 years (to one of the attendants, asking if they spoke English and hoping they did, haha). OH boy did Paris deliver on that promise!
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On our very first day there, I believe I had a personal goal to take as many pictures of the Tour Eiffel as possible, with different backgrounds and natural lighting. We did exactly that after dropping off our luggage at Trency Hostel and planning our day. Rachel and I wanted to have a full 3 course French dinner (I guess a traditional French dinner has 5 courses, but who's counting) and went to La Fontaine de Mars on Rue Saint-Dominique. After an absolutely wonderful dinner, we set out to see the Eiffel Tower at night, take a stroll and take in the city by night, and then we headed back to our Trendy (but more like Homely) hostel.
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Day 2 in Paris started early, with us trying to beat the off-peak weekend crowd at the Louvre. Breakfast was nothing exciting, just some Nutella on toast and orange juice. Trandy Hostel wasn't so trendy after all, they didn't even offer us croissants!
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After spending a couple of hours at the Louvre, seeing the Mona Lisa up close, and pretending we were refined enough to appreciate all the art that the museum had to offer, we set out to explore the mall, thankful for the free WiFi that we mooched off of outside the Apple store. We were starving at that point, and after a quick lunch, set off to the Notre Dame.
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After walking around the castle, we headed back to Pest to Vörösmarty Square to begin our Communism Walk around the city. Our tour guide highlighted different aspects of lifestyle like healthcare, religion, and transportation during Soviet rule and Communism. It was super interesting to learn from a Hungarian about what life was like for her and her parents and friends!
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