Paris (with a side of technical difficulties)

So, I haven't posted in this blog in about a month (maybe even more).  I promise I haven't been that lazy; my computer was out of commission for 2+ weeks.  It froze one afternoon and never really turned back on after that.  After many failed attempts at fixing it myself, I dropped it off at the Apple store here in Copenhagen (Eblehuset) and they fixed it within a week or so.  But even that was an adventure in itself.  I remember calling to see if they were open one weekend and getting an automated message with information.  In Danish.  Long story short - I was computerless for a very long two weeks filled with a lot of reading and early bedtimes, but now I'm back and ready to blog once again!

My only problem now is that I have been in Copenhagen for more than a month now and I'm still posting about our trip in August.  I think I'm therefore going to make the executive decision to breeze through our trip in Paris (sorry Mom) so that I can finally get caught up and finally start writing about my current Danish hometown.

If I remember correctly, last time I left you faithful readers of mine, my mom and I were (unsuccessfully) sleeping on a night train to Paris.  We survived the journey and couldn't wait to get to our spacious hotel room.  After asking the tourist booth about the easiest way to get to our hotel from the train station, we began our walk to the metro which would take us to our hotel.  Easy enough.  Just take the yellow line all the way to the Champs Elysees stop then walk down the street to your hotel.

Yeah, right.  We should've known how our trip to the hotel was going to go once we got stuck in the turnstiles just trying to get to the metro.  My body was on one side of the turnstile and my backpack (which was on my back) was stuck in the gate on the other side.  Luckily, a nice man came along behind me which opened the turnstile and freed my backpack.  But I still think it's safe to say that I was sufficiently traumatized.

Then came the stairs.  I have never been up so many stairs with so many pounds of luggage.  

This was the last thing we wanted to see with our four 50 pound suitcases and sleep deprived bodies.

After the night train and metro fiascoes, the Hotel Baltimore that we were staying at was a welcome sight.  

You could fit at least three train rooms into this one.

We checked in and spent a few hours just relaxing and planning out our next few days.  With the help of Rick Steves, we decided to buy the two day museum pass that would let us into as many museums as we could make it to within any two consecutive days.

Let me give you a little necessary background information.  My mom's favorite places to shop are Marshalls, TJ Maxx and outlet malls.  As her daughter, I have been trained to seek out deals and make the most of everything.  Show us a two day all inclusive museum pass and we will show you how to make that the most economical decision of your life.

Game on.

During those 48 hours we went to the Louvre twice,

This was our second trip there if you were wondering.

 saw Notre Dame,

climbed the towers of Notre Dame,

One of the highlights of Paris for me

 said hi to the hunchback (just kidding but we did see the bell),

Ah!  It's the hunchback of Notre Dame!

 walked around Saint Chapelle, 

Extremely high, beautiful stained glass windows

made a spontaneous stop at the Conciergerie, 

climbed the Arc de Triomphe twice,

The Louvre from the top of the Arc de Triomphe

And the Eiffel Tower at night from the Arc de Triomphe

 toured Versailles and its gardens 

and viewed the Eiffel Tower at all hours of the day.

I'm exhausted just remembering everything again.

All in all, this was hands down the best trip of my life, and I could very well still be saying that 60 years from now.  I saw things that I never thought I would see outside the pages of a textbook.  I stood in front of paintings that hands of geniuses had once touched and I walked down the halls of ancient kings.  I am incredibly blessed to have been able to experience all that I did.  

A final cheers to the best two weeks ever