First Day in Paris

We took an Uber from our Vienna AirBnB to the train station which took us to the plane going to Paris. I was pretty nervous that we would miss our flight, but we made it there three hours in advance; it's a good thing too because my bag was too heavy! A majority the weight could be blamed on my skincare and the books I've acquired from travelling. The lady was really nice and let me go through my bag to get rid of the weight. 

The flight was through RyanAir. The only airlines I was used to were US airlines and those always have TVs to watch movies. This did not. Luckily it was only a two hour (or so) flight and I had plenty of books to keep me entertained. 

RyanAir flew us into the town of Beauvais, which is about a half hour or forty-five minutes out of Paris. We took a bus to get into the city and from there we tried to hail an Uber. It took about three tries before we finally got an Uber to show up. It was so difficult, we almost took a taxi, which would have been about 60 euro; an Uber was only 17 euro. 

We got dropped off at our AirBnb, which turned out to be in a part of town that Was Not GoodTM. There was garbage everywhere. Another Uber driver we took another time told us that it wasn't a good part of town due to the poverty levels and stuff. I'm pretty sure that there was an abandoned asylum right by the AirBnB and it was SpookyTM.

We met up with friends Krosbi and Catie at the apartment, which turned out to look okay but wasn't okay at all. There were damp towels in the washing machine which smelled sour as if it had been sitting for several days. I would have moved them into the dryer but there wasn't one. I think it's a European thing; they had a drying rod that you'd have to hang your clothes but the towels and sheets were too big to fit on it. We texted the owner of the AirBnb and they said they'd fix it but they never did. Womp womp.

We took the subway into the heart of the city. Right when we walked out we saw the great Arc de Triomphe. It is one of the most famous monuments in Paris, located right at the Champs Elysees. It was initially commissioned by Napoleon but it was never completed in his life time. Just like the great arches of Rome, it was intended to be an arch that soldiers would march through for battle. Unfortunately, the French armies have never had the opportunity to march through it; instead the allied forces marched through it during one of the World Wars (all of this is knowledge from my Napoleon seminar).

We walked around it for a second before we realized just How HungryTM we were. Krosbi really wanted Indian food so we headed to one courtesy to the ratings it received online. Unfortunately, it was closed for business permanently so we had to settle for sushi. This was another confirmation that fish does not make me sick! Good thing too because I need a variety in protein.

We rented electric scooters and headed to the Eiffel Tower. It was so cool to be able to see it twinkle and shine. I've always wanted to see it. The Eiffel Tower was built for a World's Fair; when things are built for the World's Fair, they are intended to be very temporary. However, this was such a spectacle they couldn't take it down (knowledge courtesy of my 19th Century Art & Architecture class).

Fun fact! It is technically illegal to take a picture of the Eiffel Tower at night due to copyright laws. Though the copyright on the tower itself ended a long time ago, the copyright on the lights is still kicking and screaming.

Copyrights will last the length of the creator's life plus 70 years. The guy that designed the fun light show that happens after 9 every hour, on the hour made it in the late 1900's. Obviously they don't do anything regarding the copyright; just imagine what an annoying fight that would be, anyway.

 On our way home from the subway, we saw this really creepy figure that is meant to show where the cross walk is. Seems like a Cursed ImageTM to me.