We went to the subway station the night before and the machines didn’t take cash and we didn’t really know where we were going so we just decided to walk to his parents’ hotel. They gave us the wrong name of the hotel so we went to the wrong one but Nate has unlimited texting through AT&T so we were able to find them pretty quickly. Once we found them we chose to walk to the Eiffel Tower which wasn’t too bad of a walk and then we got there and it was huge. It was cold again but walking around keeps you warm. We decided to take the ride to the top and see the city, great choice. The line moved by much quicker than expected. Once we got in we took the 208 m summit and the elevator moves fast. We hung out at the top about an hour or more just taking it all in before deciding to come back down and keep exploring.

We were all hungry so we stopped at a little cafe on our way to go see the louvre and they had amazing fresh food and good beer and we hung out there another hour or so until we decided to keep moving. We passed the grand palace and the petit palace and something called the hotel that looked like a basilica. Then we found the louvre. A massive structure with a glass triangle for an entrance. It’s the biggest museum in the world and the current home of the Mona Lisa. It was 17:45 when we got there and it closed at 18:00 so we decided to spend the whole day there tomorrow since it was supposed to rain anyway.

We kept walking along the river and ended up at Notre Dame cathedral. An amazing structure with stunning doorways. We were allowed inside and there happened to be a sermon going on. Nate’s parents sat down and listened a while even though it was in French and Nate and I walked around and looked at the architecture and art inside and then stood towards the front and watched everyone get up and sing a song. After our time there we decided to walk back and maybe find a bar or something and we saw this little alley and it was extremely lit up so we checked it out and there were just hundreds of restaurants and sweets shops and knick knack stores. It was really pretty. We ended up choosing a little restaurant to grab some drinks and hung out there over some drinks for a couple hours.

We left and happened to run into some people from Tacoma which is so random but it was funny and we bought some sweets and some gelato and indulged before our long trek home. But first, a pit stop at the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up. We made it there and hung out another hour or so and it was really cool. Such a fun place to hangout. Would’ve been better if it wasn’t so cold but it was fun. We ended up walking a ton that day because walking is just fun but tomorrow we would figure out the metro for sure just because of the rain and cold and lack of rain gear I packed.

We made it back to Nate’s parents hotel and there happened to be a subway entrance right there so we said goodbye and went to go figure out the subway. The subway in Paris is the most complex we’ve seen so far. So many lines going all over, so many people, so many beware of pickpockets signs. We ended up figuring it out but it took like 45 minutes to get to our hostel which was a lot better than walking an hour or so in the cold. By the time we got back it was midnight and I couldn’t believe we’d been gone since 10:00. We both were exhausted and fell asleep to do it all over again tomorrow.