J'Adore Paris! (Part Deux: Versaille and the Eiffel Tower)
Tuesday, March 30, 2010: On Tuesday, we went on a tour of the Palace of Versailles, where King Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette lived. It was a little bit on the outskirts of Paris, because Versailles was actually it's own village at one time, but if I remember correctly now it's considered part of Paris. Or still it's own. I don't know haha. But anyway, we were on the train for about 40 minutes. The palace was amazing! It was so big and so beautiful with beautiful gardens and magnificent fountains and statues. King Louis was way in to Greek mythology so, a vast majority of the fountains were of Greek gods like Dionysus the God of Wine and Apollo the sun God, who was his absolute favorite. The tour itself was basically walking around outside the palace and through the gardens but we were given the option of staying after and going inside if we wanted to. It rained quite a bit on the tour, but it was still really cool. Katie and I ended up going inside. I would have loved to travel back in time and been there when people actually lived in it. Here's a fun, yet somewhat not so fun fact that I learned: in the entire time that Louis lived in the palace, which was many many years, he only took 42 baths! Alex said that equaled about 1 bath every six months! Gross!

inside the palace

Katie and I took the train back to Paris and met up with Abbey back at the hostel. We ate dinner in the restaurant down there and got cocktails (It was ladies night!) Then we headed out to THE EIFFEL TOWER!! We took about 100 pictures of it when we first got there, trying to get the right lighting and what not since it was at night. I got a couple of pretty good ones--others turned out a little blurry. Then we headed closer and decided to take the stairs to the 2nd floor. We were pretty high off the ground from the get go, and I was definitely getting my Fear of Heights Panic feeling. I took it slow though, and before I knew it we were at the first floor. It really wasnt that bad once we were on the actual platforms. I felt very safe on it, and not like on the edge of anything, so that definitely put me at ease. Then, we started going to the 2nd floor, and I went soooo slow and watched every step because I didn't want to trip. I'm glad we went at night so there wasn't a huge crowd. When we finally got the 2nd floor, I had such an adrenaline rush I seriously almost thought I was going to throw up. Haha, I'm such a weirdo. But seriously, this is the girl who gets scared going up to the top of waterslides at WI Dells. The Eiffel Tower itself is 1000 feet in the air. I'm not sure how high up the 2nd floor is, but it's HIGH. Alex suggested we only go to the 2nd floor because it is still an amazing view and the top is pretty much the same only just way farther away, and it's a lot cheaper to just go to the 2nd floor. So even though I can't say I've been all the way to the top of the Eiffel Tower, it was still an amazing view and who am I kidding--I probably would have hyperventilated at the very top. Conquering the 2nd floor was good enough for me. I called my mom when I got to the 2nd floor because I wanted to share this experience with her. It was definitely a moment where I felt 100% alive and free and belonging to the world and a feeling I will never ever forget! And going back down, I took it VERY Slow.

Ok...who am I kidding? I am leaving this post as is for now and will try to take care of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in a 3rd post but knowing me how I write way too much may end up having like 2 or 3 more posts :) Hope you guys find this interesting enough.