Trina: First Day & Night in Paris!

So we arrived! I was dropped off at the Ottawa Airport by Erin and her husband en route to PARIS! After getting dropped off at the Ottawa airport, I started realizing this was really happening. It didn’t actually feel real until I had my tickets and through security. I only waited about an hour and a half before my flight to Chicago left so I just talked to some friends.

Chicago flight was great; not too much turbulence and the flight staff was really nice. When I arrived in Chicago, the airport was HUGE. I was walking down the hallway staring at my ticket and then realized that I had no idea where I was going… I found someone at the airport and asked them which thankfully was right down the hallway. Then I was off to PARIS!

On my flight to Paris, I sat beside a really nice gentleman that was from Paris who moved to Chicago 12 years ago. I got my full French and history lessons on my flight. I ended up sleeping the whole Atlantic Ocean part of the flight and woke up just as I was flying over Shannon, Ireland. I stayed awake since it was only an hour before landing and we were served some breakfast, which consisted of yogurt and a pastry. Since I had a window seat, I saw the France coast and all of the France countryside. It was absolutely breathtaking. I saw field of blue and houses had bright orange rooftops. It was amazing.

And then we landed. The man I was sitting beside guided me through the airport and eventually I met up with Erin, after paging each other twice. Once we met up with each other, we organized our bags and then we were off on the train into downtown Paris. When we arrived at the train station, Gare Du Nord, we looked around and found some maps of the city. While we were there, we saw some France guards walking around with machine guns! We then grabbed a cab outside of the train station and saw most of the shops and tourist spots of Paris. It was so much to take in that it still doesn’t even feel like we’re here…

Once we arrived at our hotel, Hilton Paris, we dropped off our bags and then headed out to see the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. On our walk, we ended up seeing so much of the city and the site where Princess Diana was killed. We both took a moment and just looked down at the tunnel and read all of the wonderful things people had written about her.

The Eiffel Tower was amazing…it was indescribable. It was basically everything that I expected it to be. I will post some pictures whenever I get home. The Louvre was just as amazing, if not more so. It was probably the largest building I have ever seen in my life. The pyramid in the middle of the courtyard was beautiful.

Well, that concludes our first day and night in Paris! Tomorrow we’re going to Brussels, Belgium and then who knows where!