The City of Love

Paris was amazing!  I had little hope with this city because all I heard was negative things about it.  I heard it was a huge disappointment and how dirty it was.  So going into this trip I really didn't care much and had zero expectations other than to see the Eiffel Tower.  However, my stay there changed my view.  Paris is nowhere near dirty and it is gorgeous.  I will rank it below Rome because Rome has a lot more things to see.  BUT if you want to take a trip with your significant other Paris is the place to go!  Couples were everywhere and all everyone said to me at school was how it is the city of love and that I better watch out haha well they were right it definitely is a city of love, we learned that by all of the people showing a lot of affection to their significant other to put it nicely.
When we arrived at the airport we bought tickets for a bus to take us close to downtown.  It was an hour ride!  We were exhausted since our plane left at 6AM and we arrived at 8ish and we had little sleep from the airport.  Anyway we made our way to the metro after the bus ride and arrived at our hostel Aloha.  It was a nice place to stay!  You could actually see the Eiffel Tower!  We left our things in the luggage room since we were not able to get into our room until later.  We then went back to the metro to find where we needed to go for our Free Tour that I booked. 
The Free Tour took us to 15 places I think.  We went to Notre Dam, Louvre, the smallest street in Paris, the love bridge, statues, the garden, Arch De Triumph, the cursed steps (in the Divinci Code), and other places that I cannot think of right now- it is really later here.  I will show pictures though.  On the trip I did learn some things.  If you look at a statue and there is someone on a horse you can actually tell how the person died.  Now, don't take me word for word because I did not right this info down but I THINK that if the horse is on two legs then the person died in battle, one leg is he got stabbed or shot (I think I just made this up), and if no legs are up he died of old age.  Also, teh river that flows through Paris I think it is the Sina River, well for a long long long time nothing could survive in the water.  It was dirty and gross, our guide even said if we were to get in we would get really sick.  Anyway, someone wanted to prove to the city that he changed the river and fish could survive there so he let a fish go in the river, well the fish ended up dying soon after.  Now, only 300 fish live in there so it is gradually getting better.  Also, by the cursed steps, there are engravings of people's faces.  These faces were actually people who attended a party back in the day!!  Crazy! Also, the eternal flame actually went out a couple of times!  The first time was because these backpackers were hungry and roasted marshmellows or hotdogs in the flame, they couldn't make a fire and they saw this one, well these intelligent backpackers thought you roasted hot dogs on a string!  Well the hotdog fell off into the fire and put it out.  They got taken to jail and told to never return to France again.  Then another time a man got mad about some sporting event where his team lost to France and he ended up putting it out and he went to jail and was told to never return.
When we went to the Arch, we did not know how to cross over to go under neath of it, well, my stupidity, I just thought you ran across the street.  Now, this road has a ton of traffic so it is kind of like playing Frogger.  Once I thought there was a break in the traffic I told the girls to run like a mad man!  Let's just say we came close to some cars driving right at us!  When we got over we saw the stairs we were supposed to take underground to get from side to side...whoops. 
We tried going to eat dinner at a place our tour guide said was good and cheap, but the line was forever long!!!  I wish I could remember the name of it because obviously it is known for their food!  But after we ate at an Indiana place, we went to the Eiffel Tower to see it at night.  When we were on teh metro we actually ran into Elvis! haha he was singing in one of the metro stations.  But once we got to where we needed to be, the Eiffel Tower was gorgeous!  At one point it actually starting to glitter.  Lights were flashing all around it! People were out in the lawn eating pizza and drinking wine.  It was amazing. 
Sunday morning we woke up early to go back to the Eiffel Tower and actually go up to the top! I posted a video on Facebook if you want to see. We didn't wait in line hardly at all only 30 minutes once it opened. When we got to the top it was breath taking! We could see all of the places we visited on Saturday and the entire city! Once we got down to the ground we took some pictures in the grass area and our picture actually ended up on Study Abroad's Facebook page! For lunch we went to the Latin neighborhood again and ate at a restaurant that was very good! I had lasagna and we got a bottle of wine. It was the best lasagna that I have had... Sorry mom. Afterwards we went to notre dam and wanted to go in this time but it was too long of a wait. We didn't have time because of our flight back home.
Instead we went to get dessert! On the way to get dessert we went to the love bridge. there are 2 different ones. one bridge the government removes all of the locks every 6 months because the locks are so heavy that the bridge may fall according to what our tour guide told us. originally you were supposed to put a lock on the bridge and throw the key away in the river. On the lock you decorate it putting you and your "lovers" name on there. The love bridge we went to supposedly the government doesn't remove the locks because it is a sturdy bridge- again according to our tour guide. Well I ended up putting a combination lock on the bridge for Ben and I! It was last minute and I had one with me for the hostels so I thought, why not?! On my way trying to find a spot I found a lock where a boy proposed on the lock!! It gave me goose bumps! Haha her answer was on there too! Also on the bridge newlyweds were throwing their key in the river.
Now it was time to get dessert And let me tell you this place was yummy! We saw a lot of people eating waffles and crepes in a black box so we were on a mission to find the place and we did! Abby an I got a waffle that had melted chocolate drizzled on top with whipped cream and a little bit of powdered sugar. Tayler waited in a long line for some ice cream. It was so good!
Now it was time to go back to the airport! We were so tired that we slept the whole way there! We got to the airport around 6:30 and our flight didn't leave until 9:05. It took awhile to get through security and get our passports checked because we went to the wrong terminal and then the Ryanair lady was so rude to us! She wouldn't let me take my purse out of my backpack when going through security she kind of yelled at me and so I put it back in and then got it out without her seeing! It's not like we were boarding the plane yet!
Any way we got some snacks until it was time to board. When we got to the Barcelona airport we had to hurry to the train and pray that the metro wouldn't shut down since they closed at midnight. By the time we got on and off of all the metros we made it just in time! Our last metro we needed to get on was shutting down after they took us to our stop thank goodness! I got home around 12:30AM but didn't go to sleep until 2! Gah school was so tiring and being sick didn't help much either!