Hello lovelies! Thanks for coming back to my travel diary/blogs! This one is about the one, ONE, day we spent in the most romantic city in the world, Paris France. Wow, can I just start off by saying that we messed up big time, by only allotting one day for the city of Paris. I mean I really wanted to visit Paris to see the great Eiffel Tower, but there is so much to see and do, and it's probably the biggest regret of the trip. The main reason that we decided to only do one day in Paris is because it is so expensive!
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We were on a pretty tight budget, and Paris hotels/air bnb etc, were outrageously expensive. We stayed miles and miles away from the Eiffel Tower, but we still spent over $100 for one night! In visiting France other than the Eiffel Tower, I wanted to see the Palace of Versailles, so we stayed in Versailles for two nights, and I decided to make that it's own blog, so stay tuned for that blog as well!
We flew into Paris from Pisa in the early morning. We planned with our friends Shane and Dani to meet up with them, because it worked out that they could join us there! We arrived first, and waited about an hour or so for them. We then all met up and rode a charter bus into the city of Paris. I think we slept most of the ride.
I suppose at this point of the story I should mention that I was deathly sick. Remember my last couple posts, mentioning sore throat? Well when we landed in Paris, I was so so so sick. I must have gotten the flu, and it was one of the sickest I'ev honestly ever felt in my life! When traveling around you are exposed to so many people, not only just locals but others who visit the countries as well. My tip?
Bring some meds with you. I don't know about you guys, but when I visit a place I typically take my entire medicine cabinet with me. I figured I wouldn't need to over pack my meds, because when you're packing a carry-on backpack to Europe for 30 days you try to pack as lightly as possible! So I did not end up packing extra meds. You really should bring with you cold and flu medicine when you visit Europe, because they do not sell what you are use to in other countries.
After we made it to our Air BNB the first thing we did was to look for a drug store. They are abundant they have the bright green first aid cross above them. Luckily for me there was one across the street from where we were staying. I was able to talk with a clerk and she helped me pick out some medicine. It sort of worked. It was the same price as you would pay in the US.
I would recommend bringing enough for a week per person, because if it is sickness you have never been exposed to before, which is reasonable when traveling abroad, you may not be the only one that gets sick (Jeff also got the horrible sickness). So what can you do in Paris only in one day, and you're extremely sick? Well here's what I did:
We left the Air Bnb in the afternoon and we walked to find some food places near by. Jeff and I got bag-get sandwiches from a cute little shop. They were perfect to snack on for the entire day! We then began the long and treacherous walk to the Eiffel Tower. We mapped it out and it said we were only about 3 miles away, but It took a good two or so hours to get there. As we were walking we stumbled upon beautiful buildings.
It was so dark and ominous, it had rained everyday we were in Europe so far.
This was a small plaza area and there was a carasoual. Paris is everything and more than what you imagin, it is just as romantic, with something on every corner to be in awe about. We saw signs for Norte Damn, and decided to make a little detour to see it. It was so beautiful in person!
Notre Dam is next to a beautiful river, we walked along the edge towards the Eiffel Tower.
The Eiffel Tower, was the main thing I wanted to see when visiting Europe, a childhood dream come true. We walked about 5 or more miles to get there, but it was well worth it! I was pretty sick, so I lagged behind, barely able to walk, I worried if I was even going to be able to make it to the top of the Eiffel tower.
It was the Euro-cup while we were in Paris, and Paris was hosting that year, so most of the park that the Tower is in was blocked off. It put a bit of a damper on for us, but that was okay. When we got to the tower, the elevators were closed. I was so upset because there was just going to be no way I could climb the stairs with how sick I was. Then suddenly they decided to open an elevator, and the line was super short! Jeff and I got in line and got student tickets for $22 dollars a person, there was a sign posted that they would not sell tickets if you did not have an I.D but they let us get through! So my advice is to just try and see even if you forget a student I.D.
The money was well worth it! Going to the top of the Eiffel Tower was amazing. It was a surreal moment for us, It makes you feel like the world is such a vast place, and the views are unbelievable. When you go up, they drop you off about half way, and you can walk around and see the sites. The views from below is a white blur of buildings, traffic, and the green grass below. We could also see the Euro-cup playing.
You get to stand in line to ride another elevator to go even higher up, and wow, you kind of start to feel a little queesy and you're knees are a little stiff. It is so high up, (duh!). Getting to the top is the easy part. Here we are at the very tip-top of the Eiffel Tower.
After we spent some time at the Eiffel Tower, we went to the Lourve Museum, home of the Mona Lisa. It was so much more beautiful then what I expected, as much of Paris was. We decided to not go into the museum as it was pretty expensive and we decided to pay to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. But going to the outside is just as beautiful. You can go inside, and they have free bathroom, which in Europe is amazing, and see a few things for free, so we did that!
We ended the night at a really expensive restaurant that I spent like $7 dollars for a Coke because I was so sick and need the carbonation. The next morning we started off for Versailles!
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Thanks for reading!