Paris - The Radial City
Trip Start
Dec 27, 2001
1
4
Trip End
Jan 03, 2002
Paris, France
Thursday, December 27, 2001
We arrived in Paris at about 8:30 a.m from Bilbao. We took the metro with two tickets cause we made a mistake on the first one. no big deal, only a few bucks lost. We found our hotel, but we got split up because we were all searching for it at the same time. Let me tell you something, it's easy to get lost in this city because it is built on a radial grid. I'm used to being able to the grid system where If I take 3 lefts or rights, i'll be back where i was. However, you can do that here and it won't work. maybe i'm trippin, but my sense of direction here really sucks. Finally we found the hotel to drop off our luggage. We then needed to get some lunch and again get the new currency in this country. We went to a american express to exchange our travellers checks. Don't ever do this, travellers checks are not accepted at most places in europe and if you want to wait in long ass lines to exchange them, they just don't make sense. WE ended up waiting in line for quite a while and wasted valuable time in the city. Plus, customer service in europe isn't as fast as the states, they tend to put the minimal amount of help for customers.
anyways, we got our money and took off to see the triumphant arch and the Eiffel Tower. The scale of these two monuments are pretty awesome, talk about statements. They really represent the history and give a good visual for all visitor to remember paris by. The Eiffel Tower was particularly interesting because it took two elevators to get to the tope. The view from the top of the Tower is breathtaking. I was thinking about taking the stairs up to the top, but i don't think they are going to let you do that. Nonetheless, you won't get a better view of the city and it's layout than the view at the top of the Eiffel Tower.
To cap off our first day in Paris we had some Escargo and it was really good. I thought it was going to be gross, but I'd eat it again if it were on a menu.
