We didn't have to get up too early for our bus today, since it's the second stop on this leg for Busabout - we just needed to be ready by 11:30 for the bus. We had a guide that we've had before, so the trip was nice, with hardly anybody on the bus. Brett and I once again each had a row to ourselves.
We got stuck in some truly horrendous traffic at a checkpoint 40 km from Paris, but hardly any traffic coming in, so we were only an hour late. Brett and I had researched our metro needs to get to our hostel before we left, so we found our metro station and our hostel and were all checked in by 11:30.
As we drove into the city we passed the famous rose window at Notre Dame, and I swear I've never been so affected by something famous in person in my life. I was so excited!! Then we saw a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower! It was just getting dark as we came in around 10:30 or 11, and the Eiffel tower is all lit up starting at 8pm every night, and every hour for 10 minutes it GLITTERS. Yes folks, it glitters. and it just so happened that right as we passed between buildings and could see it, it GLITTERED!! I'm normally a skeptic about gasps of awe, but I must admit one escaped my mouth in unison with everyone else's.
The first thing we did once we were checked in was buy 3 Heineken tallboys and 2 bottles of pink wine with twist tops and marched over to the Eiffel Tower, a longer walk from the hostel than advertised. It started glittering for the midnight glitter when we were about 5 minutes away, but we got there at the base in plenty of time to gape at it for quite some time before it stopped. It was truly amazing. I thought Notre Dame affected me, but the Eiffel Tower just froze me in place. I knew it was big but it's impossibly huge and enormous and crazy in person. My favorite thing was staring at the glittering lights until I could shut my eyes and see the tower in after-images on my eyelids. There was also this crazy optical illusion when you look at just the bottom level where it seems like the lights are all speeding up.
It was midnight and really cold and windy, and I was just wearing capris and a tank top, so we tried to hide from the wind and the men selling light-up eiffel towers but it was impossible so while we waited for the 1 am glitter I drank to keep warm. It seemed to work because by the time 1am rolled around I wasn't nearly so cold! At 1am they turn off the other lights on the tower and it's only lit by the glittering ones, which is really cool.
After that Brett and I stumbled back after getting a bit lost and needing to ask for directions in french.
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