The beginning of a great adventure

I am here in Paris, France, and it all feels like a dream still. Although, perhaps that’s because of the little amount of sleep I’ve had the past couple of days. It’s definitely worth it though!

June 5^th –

The dreaded day of flying. It was an extremely long day with very little sleep, but I must admit that I was a bit spoiled because I got to fly First/Business Class for the very first time in my life. Anyone who knows me well can tell you just how much I hate flying, but I have never been more comfortable on a plane than I was the other day. Excluding the bumpy turbulence when taking off and landing, the plane ride went very smoothly, and before I knew it we were getting ready to land in Paris!

An interesting story that occurred  for the plane ride from San Francisco to Minneapolis:

Soon after we boarded the plane, I look behind me to see several police officers standing around and talking to the two people who were sitting behind Will’s dad. The man seems upset by whatever just happened, and after the passengers grab their carry-on bags, I hear the officer say into his radio, “Two passengers are exiting the aircraft. Alert the FBI.” How crazy is that? I’m not sure exactly what the story behind it was, but I do know it set our take off time back by an hour. Don’t worry, though. I overheard some conversations, and it wasn’t a serious safety threat or anything like that.

June 6^th –

Around 6:00 am local time, we landed in Paris. We found our bags, and took a taxi over to our hotel. Since it was so early, the rooms were of course not ready yet, so we decided to take a walk down the famous street, Rue Champs-Elysées. Our hotel is situated very close to this street, which also means I got to see the Arc de Triomphe. We decided to come back to that after we took a little walk.

After walking a ways down the street, we decided to turn around and head back. By this time, it was starting to get pretty cloudy. Will says to me, “Let’s walk under the trees” to which I reply, “Will it keep us safe?” Will answers, jokingly, “Only if it doesn’t start to pour”, and can you guess what happened next? Within five seconds of Will’s response, it starts to rain cats and dogs on us! We are still in the clothes we wore on the plane, so of course none of us were dressed for the rain, and we had no umbrella. There was an underground train station near us, so we quickly ran down there to keep from getting drenched.

We waited there for a while, realizing that the rain wasn’t going to stop soon, so we made the decision to go find a café. We found one, and had some really delicious croissants, and I also had some hot tea. We sat there enjoying our snacks for a while, and I had fun watching the people that passed by, trying to guess where they were from.

Next we made our way back to the Arc de Triumphe. We hiked up all the stairs to the top, and the view up there was so beautiful! I got really excited when I spotted the Eiffel Tower in the distance. It was finally starting to sink in the fact that I really was in Paris, and this was no dream of mine.

We went back to the hotel to check into our rooms, and after taking a much needed nap, we were off to find some dinner. We went to one that Will and his dad have been to before, and they ordered a seafood platter. However, this was definitely not seafood I was used to. I tried some clams and oysters, which were raw, mind you, and I must say that they were a bit difficult for me to get used to. Eating the oyster tasted like I had just swallowed a large mouthful of ocean water, and it really wasn’t my favorite taste. The clams were a little easier to eat because they weren’t as salty, but it still took some time getting used to. I was happy when I finally got to eat a familiar taste – shrimp. There was also a crab, which I have had before, but this was the first time eating it where I had to crack it open and pull out the meat.­­_­

Now to talk a bit about my drinks with the meal. First, there was sparkling water, which again is not my favorite taste. However, I definitely preferred it to the first alcoholic drink I’ve ever had in my life – red wine. Before taking my first sip, I thought to myself, “How bad could it be? People seem to love this stuff.” Then came a burning sensation in my throat, and the only thought that went through my head was, “How on earth do people enjoy this???” I’ve always been told that red wine is an acquired taste, but dang! It was a lot harder to stomach than I thought it would be. That being the case, I only drank a total of six tiny sips during the meal, and that was almost too much to handle. Will says I will get used to the taste eventually, but as for now I’m skeptical about that idea. He thinks I will be better off with some white wine or dessert wines, so we’ll see how I do with those.

That pretty much sums up the first two days. I’ll post the pictures later when I have more time. There’s so much to see and experience, and I’m so excited for what the rest of this trip will bring me!

By the way - It is so nice traveling with people who speak French! :)