First half of day one :)

Five hours into my trip, and my mind is already blown. I am in awe of the countryside, the city, the people. Everything is marvelous and wonderful and I’m discovering it all by myself. I was nervous as my plane landed, but almost immediately, an American woman traveling by herself asked if we could walk together to customs, and shortly after two other college students who heard us talking, walked with me while we navigated the airport. I decided to go off on my own. They wanted to take naps, but I had other plans. I locked myself in a family-size airport bathroom, washed my hair in the sink, did my make-up, painted my toenails and tried on several dresses, trying to decide what was Tour de Eiffel worthy. I have to tell you, traveling with two huge suitcases strapped to one another is not easy. Forget yoga or the elliptical – today I worked out. There are levels and cases of stairs at every corner, but people are really nice. At one point, I was walking near an Asian couple who I had the feeling did not speak English, but also had the feeling were equally lost as I. lol We were exiting the subway at Champs du Mars and I had deposited my ticket to exit the subway and pulled myself through the bars, but my luggage and not come with me because I guess I took too long to drag It through, so I pulled my luggage under the bars, but by then, the gate you have to go through was locked. Thank God, the sweet couple who had already turned the corner came back and said to me in broken English “we come back for you” lol. The man deposited his all day pass (I couldn’t put my ticket through again because it was a single pass) so that the bars and gate would open again. It was so nice. I would probably still be standing there stuck between the bars and the gate if it weren’t for those nice people. They walked away as I shouted “Merci! Thank you! “Idon’t know any language from their part of the world, but I had the feeling they understood. As I emerged the subway with the Eifel Tower in view, I saw two American girls who had also clearly dressed up for the Eiffel Tower and still had their heavy luggage with them. As we crossed paths I shouted “You make me feel not so silly” and one of them was like, “OMG we are all look like such tourists!!!” and we kept walking, but we all laughed. I finally made it to the Eiffel Tower and dodged the 3,000 French men selling souvenirs and made it to an area where it was easy to take pictures. A girl from Germany in a pretty dress came up to me and asked to take my picture. She was traveling by herself also and was just sitting in the park enjoying the view. She made my day. I knew I had to walk back to catch my train to London, but decided I must do anything and everything to avoid the tacky tourist areas I had walked through to get there. So as I wandered down cobble stone roads, I found little parks, and locals enjoying themselves, and the most perfect street I have ever seen with rows of cafes and locals drinking coffee and wine outside. It was heaven. I stopped a nice Austrian couple for the time (my phone says 6:33 am Jan 6, 1980 – and I didn’t bring a watch) and they took a picture of me that I absolutely love. The Eiffel Tower and pretty trees are behind me. It is wonderful. As I headed Gard du Nord (think Grand Central Station) I couldn’t help but I feel we all spoke the same language. Whether it was the I’m-in-a-foreign-coutry-and-I-like-to-wear-pretty-dresses-please-be-my-friend-thing that the German girl and I had or the hey we are both travelers less chat and not feel lonely – I felt like the world was good. As I navigated my way from the RER to the Metro to the Eurostar stations, I felt good. I successfully pulled my luggage up to into subway cars without help, pulled it down the stars without it toppling over, and when I had to do the metal bar and gate thing, I would use my left hand to push the gate open while I pulled my luggage with my right hand before I grabbed the ticket and exited. I say all in all, a successful day. However, I am about an hour away from having to figure out how to find my hotel in London. Journey on. . . Wish me luck!