Paris!

Well I made it to Paris! This Spring Break trip across Europe should definitely be interesting! I got out of class at 12 on Friday, finished packing up some little things, then jumped on a train out to the airport and flew into Paris. We have 2 weeks to travel across Europe, hitting Brussels, Amsterdam, Munich, Interlaken (Switzerland), Geneva, Nice (France), Florence, Pisa, Rome, and Venice. Saturday night we're flying back into London. We'll be too late to catch the midnight train, so we have a hostel in London, then we're spending all of Sunday in London before catching an overnight bus back to Glasgow. We'll get back Monday morning at 7:15 haha. So pretty much every second of Spring Break will be used during this trip. But it should be a lot of fun! I'm so excited to begin this trip.
Well we thought our flight was going to be a little delayed, but we ended up leaving on time. We got into Beauvais (outside of Paris...it's the small airport RyanAir flies into). We had to wait on a friend who was joining us from Spain where she is studying abroad this semester. Her flight was actually delayed 2 1/2 hours, so we didn't actually get into Paris until close to 11:00. We got off our bus then had the nice task of finding our way around the city. I honestly was not expecting much. I've had so many people tell me that Paris was a dirty city, the people were unfriendly and rude, and it was just an overall bad experience. However, we got off the bus and walked to an intersection. We started looking at this city map when a couple walked up to us and asked if we needed help with anything. We told them that we were looking for our hostel, showed them the name and address, and they tried to help us find it. When we couldn't find it on the map the man actually pulled out his phone, called the hostel, and got us step by step directions to the hostel. He told us exactly how to get through the subway system, and exactly which stops to take and where to change trains. He then explained exactly how to get to where we needed to go. So right away I am very impressed with the people of Paris. Others may prove otherwise, but that man left a great impression on me, and I am so thankful he stopped to help.
Our hostel isn't the greatest, but what do you expect? Haha it's a youth hostel called Woodstock Hostel, and it isn't in the greatest part of town. But it's a bed, and it's cheap, and it serves all our needs. Tomorrow we are heading to Versailles and hopefully the Eiffel Tower late that afternoon. I'm excited to see that part of the city and I can't wait to see Paris in daylight. So we'll see what tomorrow has in store, especially since we have a guide coming with us who knows what he's doing. Lauren's cousin James is here in Paris studying French. He's coming with us all weekend and showing us around. So we'll not only have someone who knows the city, but also someone who speaks the language. So far it hasn't been to hard and we've managed. But I'm excited about tomorrow and I can't wait to see what all we get to do!