Once through, we realized that Heathrow contains a malls worth of stores-including some Harrod's shops. Outside of a perfume store stood a woman with a bunch of individually wrapped roses; she handed them out to women passing by while wishing them a happy valentines day! Super sweet of them to do that. Well of course Megan, Caitlyn, and I wanted in on this whole getting flowers thing (Taylor was off getting her Costa Coffee fix-which you'll understand if you've ever experienced their carmellow drink which I don't actually remember the name of at the moment....).
So Megan nonchalantly walks by, accepts a flower from the kind lady, and continues on before making a loop back to where we were sitting. Caitlyn follows suit a minute or two later. Either this woman was distracted, had a policy of only offering to every other woman who passed by, or simply didn't feel that Caitlyn needed a rose, because when Caitlyn walked by (making eye contact and making her intentions about getting that flower known) Caitlyn was disregarded and had to continue on in a walk of shame reminiscent of a roseless woman on The Bachelor. Well I of course decide to try for the rose, despite the risk I see before me of rejection, so I try to play it cool and end up with a lovely red rose. (Roses are my favorite).
We board, fly through the air for about 45 minutes, and land in Paris, France!! We gather ourselves and our belongings, grab at least one of every free brochure we see in the airport, finally figure out the machines for buying a ticket into the city, and after a couple transfers on the metro end up at the correct stop as instructed by the hostel.
As we go up the elevator to join the world above ground once again, a woman and her dog take our notice-he was a very cute dog. After a mere glance at us, the woman switches to English (and when I say English I mean American) and introduces herself, explaining that she's originally from New York. This kind lady was not only the first especially friendly person we encountered (besides a couple other American study abroad students who we chatted with in the airport for a couple minutes after they heard our accents), and she helpfully explained a few things about Paris transit before parting ways.
Somehow, probably a result of our restricted view due to the umbrellas and the rain, we missed the turn for the street on which our hostel was located. We meandered down a street for quite a while, until we reached the end of it before a bridge and realized that the street we were on was not in fact the correct one. We proceeded to walk the opposite direction, again to no avail. Finally I asked for help in a pharmacy (I was kind f navigating and therefore this was primarily my fault I believe). Two of the girls working there knew some English, and a customer in the store, who did not speak English, knew where I was trying to go. She conversed with the ladies working the pharmacy and they translated the explanation to me, even taking the time to draw a little map since pronunciation of words threw me off some.
Taylor, Megan, Caitlyn, and I finally arrived at the hostel (we had walked by the correct street twice before...oops), glad to be able to put our bags down and take a breather.
Caitlyn, Megan, and I had booked our room together, so we fortunately got our own three person room! A nice surprise after signing up online for a six woman dorm and not completely sure what to expect. Taylor, who had booked her flight and hostel after deciding at a later date to join us, ended up in another room (which is no biggie, she's a great sport about it). The funny thing about our room is that we have to go down three flights of stairs to get to it (no, we're not that far underground. The hostel is located on the side of a hill). Back at our hostel in London, Caitlyn and I live on the top floor, which is three flights up the stairs. Needless to say, we're definitely getting our workouts in!!
After letting our families know that we made it to our hostel in Paris alive and un-Taken, we headed off to see the Eiffel Tower and grab something to eat. It was gorgeous and slightly surreal. We watched as the sun went down and the lights began to show up on the tower before grabbing some dinner and walking back over to capture some shots of the tower lit up against the dark sky. At 8, we were shocked. Taylor noticed it first, there were tons of lights on the tower all turning off and on, providing a magical shimmering effect on the tower and ending the evening perfectly.
Today I started off my day with a breakfast of croissants and orange juice. Yum!
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