Tuesday, October 18th. Day 52. London -> Paris

Today started way way way too early. In order to catch the bus to Paris at 8am, I had to be there to check in at 7am, which meant I had to leave the hostel at 6am, which meant waking up at 5am. Just...no...that was bad planning on my part. With much effort and struggling, I managed to make it to the bus station in plenty of time, seeing that we didn't end up leaving on-time anyway. All in all, while the bus trip was very long and not very interesting, it was far better than the trip from Amsterdam to London, on which we made several stops, the bus was packed, and we spent a lot of time at customs. This time, customs was a breeze, but traffic was pretty bad (coming into Paris during rush hour). We were about an hour late coming in, which threw off my scheduling, but thats ok.

After navigating the metro to my hostel, I found a good friend of mine from Redlands waiting for me. She was such an amazing host, it is unbelievable! But more on that later. Checking in at the Aloha Hostel (cool name, right?) in the 15th district, was cake, and the rooms were nice. Everything about the hostel was great except for the lack of interent. There was internet, but it rarely worked, at all. But that wasn't that important (except for updating this blog), since I was in Paris after all, it helped me get out of the hostel and enjoying the sights!

After checking into the hostel, my friend and I decided to find something to eat. As the local of the group, I just let her do the navigating. Little did I know, we were taking something of a detour. Upon emerging from the metro station, I saw the Notre Dame (yes, I know every church in France is called the Notre Dame, but this was THE Notre Dame). In all honesty, I had a hard time keeping it together while experiencing this amazing structure that I have heard and studied so much about (thank you art history!). It is nothing short of unbelievable that this was built so many hundreds of years ago, and still inspires awe like no other.

After walking around a bit more, we settled on a little hole-in-the-wall French restaurant, at which we were the only people (it was like 7pm after-all, which is very early for the locals to be sitting down to a meal). Being in Paris, my friend insisted that it was nothing short of obligatory that I eat escargot. I was not entirely enthused at the idea, but I muscled through it nonetheless. Truth be told, they weren't all that bad, when you managed to forget that you were eating snails, which wasn't that easy, as you had to manually extract them from their shells. I also had pan seared duck, which was devine! I am not sure I have ever had duck before, but that is something I will be sure to have again!

After dinner, my host had one more surprise up her sleeve. The most stereotypical Parisian surprise of them all: the Eiffel Tower. This structure is just magnificent, and not just because it is THE most recognizable fixture in THE most visited city on earth. Something about it, I don't know how to describe it. It just flows, it has character that few building do. And that's the other thing, it isn't even really a building at all! It is a tower, one that serves no real purpose (besides being later adapted as a radio antenna). Just a stunning structure, and a night that I will never forget!