Wednesday, 4.2.08
So, Matt's final day at the show was this morning. I had initially planned on going with him to watch the awards ceremony, but my pounding headache thought otherwise.
I got ready very leisurely as I waited for Matt to return home around noon. We decided to head to the Eiffel Tower that day. We hopped on the Metro/RER and made our way over almost immediately upon Matt's return to the hotel.
Being that it was overcast and early April, we were lucky in that there were little to no lines to go up in the Eiffel Tower. While waiting in line, we were trying to determine which level to go up to (before getting in line, I hadn't realized there were options). Depending on the level, it was a different price. We settled on heading up to the 2nd level, since it was fairly close to the 1st & we'd be able to walk between the two. (In hindsight, I have no idea why I even considered going all the way to the top).
I'm very afraid of heights. Matt is somewhat afraid. Feeding off each other, it appeared that we were both very, very afraid once we started going up. Rewind - as we boarded the elevator that took us up one of the legs of the Tower, I immediately went toward the windowed side. Big mistake. As soon as we started going up, my stomach leapt into my chest.
We exited the elevator at the second level. Everyone else on the elevator seemed really excited to head directly to the edges. Not so much for me. I found myself holding onto the inner portions of the Tower, anything that helped me to feel as if I wouldn't be blown off.
Once I saw stairs to the first level, I immediately started walking down them. What an awful idea. Little did I know that we'd be walking down roughly 12-13 stories of stairs, all contained within the leg of the Tower. I couldn't let go of the railing and wouldn't look anywhere but down at my feet & the stairs as I walked down. Once we got to the first level, it was still a bit much for my fear of heights to take, so we didn't spend much time there.
Overall, I'm glad we went up in the Eiffel Tower, but getting back on solid ground was probably the best part of that visit. Sad, but true.
That evening, we had dinner with the American team than competed in the show. The back area of a restaurant was rented out for roughly 50-60 of us. The food was ok, and it was nice to meet some of the people Matt has been working with.
Whoa - REWIND -- before dinner, on our way back to the hotel, we figured we should look into purchasing our chunnel tickets (the chunnel is a 2-3 hour train that went from Paris to London under the English Channel). We probably should have looked into it further, but we didn't think we needed to purchase tickets prior to the trip. Boy, were we ever wrong. Chunnel tickets before we left for our trip were 90 euro (roughly $150-180) - we were ok paying that for the train ride. Checking ticket prices the night before, they were up to over 200 euro a piece. Matt called to ask if there were lower prices available. Good news! There were some for around 100 euro available, but not online. We headed to the train station, rushing to get there before it closed (and to get back in time to get ready for fast-approaching dinner plans). We arrive at the station, the agent cant find these lower prices. Awesome. Change in plans. We ended up heading back to the internet cafe and booking an early flight on EasyJet for around 130 euro. Not the best solution, but better than the cost of the chunnel.
After dinner, Matt and I decided to take one last trip to the store around the corner for some beers to drink as we packed up our stuff. Once we were packed, he and I sat on the bed, legs stretched out in front of us - thankful for the time we had just spent in Paris and eagerly looking forward to a few days in London.
Goofing around
(I was not really near the edge for this picture. Also, my right hand is tightly gripping the railing)
These are the stairs we took down from the second level to the first
