I landed right before 7am New York time, and my Dad and sister had landed about half an hour before that. They met me at my gate, and we were off to see New York City! We had a 12 hour lay over, so we might as well have done some stuff while we were there! Angela had never been before, and I absolutely LOVE New York City. So it was perfect. We rode the subway to Time's Square first, and we were out and about by about 9 looking at all the cool stuff. We went to the Time's Square Museum, the Disney Store, the M&M Factory, the Hershey's Store, the busiest McDonald's in the world for breakfast, and took our picture on Broadway. After Time's Square we headed to Rockefeller Center and saw Radio City on the way. At Rockefeller Center we took our picture with the Prometheus statue and where 30 Rock takes place! After that we headed to Central Park where we walked through the majority of it. We got hot dogs at a hot dog cart, and took pictures at the statue that is in the movie Enchanted. We heard amazing street musicians, and it was so fun being back there and living the life of a big city! After Central Park we headed to The Museum of Natural History to take our picture outside of it. Then we headed to Julliard, and right across the street from that is the Manhattan temple. It was about 2 by that point, and we had done pretty much everything we really wanted to do. So we decided to head back to the airport and wait for our flight to Paris!
At the airport we had some time to wait. So Angela and I found a place to get french manicures, you know, since we were about to go to France! After that it became more apparent how tired we really were, so we found a corner near our gate and we all tried to take a short nap. When it was time to board our flight, we found out we had seats in first class. (I'm spoiled, I know). It was nice because they always have really fancy meals for international flights. The kind where it has 3 courses. So it was good to eat good food. But the flight was only seven hours, so you basically had to choose between eating and sleeping. Since it was a 3 course meal and they brought the courses out one after the other, it took a while to eat dinner. By the time I was done, I only had like 3 hours to sleep. I sound completely spoiled, I know. I didn't sleep very well on that flight either. And by the time the flight attendants were serving breakfast, my stomach was kind of hurting. I knew it was my body telling me it was not happy with me. Trying to mess with what the heck time I'm suppose to sleep and eating at way different times than it was used to. I only ate some of the breakfast.
We landed in Paris at about 7 in the morning Paris time, and we wasted no time. We were off to see the sights! We started by going to Notre Dame. It was amazing. So much detail! And so huge! Since it was Sunday, they were having mass. But we were still able to go inside and walk around the outsides of the pews. It was kind of a weird feeling. I likened it to if there were a bunch of tourists walking around our chapel during Sacrament Meeting. It was still fun though. I'm glad they still let us go inside. And it was cool to listen to the Father/Priest conduct the mass in French.
After Notre Dame we headed to the Louvre, and saw some cool things along the way. The Louvre was very cool too. There was so much to see! After a couple hours in there we were really just running through each room to see the important things and just to kind of get it done. My feet started hurting! Angela and even my Dad are more into paintings and museum kind of stuff than I am. I still thought it was all pretty cool. But the main thing I really wanted to see was the Mona Lisa. After that I was pretty much done haha. Neat experience though. I love Europeans! They are so talented.
After the Louvre we headed north and went to La Basilique du Sacre Coeur de Montmartre. It was beautiful! And the view of Paris up on that hill was breath taking. They had a lot of cute shops and things up on Montmartre too. We ate lunch up there. Our waitress was kind of rude. I'm not sure if it was just her being French, or maybe she didn't like serving Americans. At least you aren't expected to give a tip in France! Because I would not have given her one anyway.
After Montmartre, we walked around for a while to try to find Moulin Rouge. We finally found it, and it was everything I had hoped for. That place was so cool. I couldn't believe I was standing right in front of it.
After everything on that hill, we headed back down to the city of Paris and went to the Eiffel Tower. Finally! That was the main reason I wanted to go to Paris! That definitely didn't disappoint either. I loved the Eiffel Tower so much. It was more incredible than any expectations I had of it. We got there right around the time it was getting dark, and they close the very top when it gets dark. So the highest we were able to was was right smack in the middle of tower. But that was still pretty high, and totally worth it. I loved every minute of it!
While we were waiting in line to get tickets to go in the elevator to the middle platform, there was a guy dressed up as a pilot, and he had a clown nose. He was entertaining the people waiting in line, and wanted money. At first I thought he was kind of creepy, but as soon as I got used to it, he was actually pretty funny. And we were waiting in line for about two hours, so it was nice to have some sort of entertainment. He wasn't there the whole time though. Which was kind of good because he didn't actually have that many things that were funny. He did a lot of the same stuff over and over. But it was still an interesting experience.
After the Eiffel Tower we went to the Arc de Triomphe. It was gorgeous. And a lot bigger than I was expecting. Under the arc is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and that was very neat to see too. The whole experience there was really fun, and kind of spiritual at the same time. That arc just means so much. And it was a cool feeling to experience that.
We finally felt like we had done what we came to Paris to do, so we went to this really cool burger place to eat. They had Star Wars burgers, how could we say no? We were there forever! Not only were the burgers cool, but it felt so good to sit down and not be on our feet! Around 11:30 we headed back to the subway, and got on the last train back to our hotel. Luckily we left the burger place when we did. We didn't know there was a last train, so it must've been the spirit telling us we needed to get a move on! Or else we'd be sleeping on the streets of Paris. The hotel was like 30 miles from the city of Paris, so it would not be fun to walk all that. We got back to our hotel right before 1 in the morning, all of us took showers, and then I got the best nights sleep I think I have ever gotten. As soon as I hit the pillow I was completely out of it until my Dad turned on the lights around 7 in the morning. We packed up and got on the train back to the
airport. And waited there for a long time. Then we got on our flight to Salt Lake City. We got to ride first class again, and it was great this time because since we were going like 4 hours longer than New York City, there was enough time to eat and sleep! Plus, my tv screen was broken, so I didn't even have that temptation. I got a lot of sleep on that flight! And ate some awesome food!
Landing in Salt Lake, we all went through customs together, and then we parted ways. Angela went back to Provo to go to school, and my Dad had a training in Salt Lake, so he went to his hotel. I got on a flight back to Portland, and then went back down to Corvallis, right where I had been 3 days earlier. It was like nothing had happened. I got right back into the swing of things and went right back to school and work, and didn't even skip a beat.
That trip was amazing. It was just what I needed. Even though it was a short break, it was big enough of one, and an amazing enough of one that I started genuinely feeling happy again. This whole school year has been so many different emotions. And not just basic ones. They've been very deep and life changing emotions that have made me have different perspectives on things. My senior year has definitely been full of lots of surprises, good and bad. But New York and Paris, that was a good surprise.
I love spontaneous trips like that, and I love that my Dad works for Delta and we're able to do things like that so easily. Heavenly Father definitely knew which family would be best for me. I found out Wednesday that I was going to Paris. Four da
ys later I was there, and five days later I was back in Corvallis. All in less than a week. Pretty amazing.
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