There is a chill in the air as the sun begins to rise behind the buildings in the distance. The streets are vacant except for the reminisce of last night´s parties that the cleaning crew are eliminating. The air is still and the fog sits perfectly over the calmness of the river as I walk briskly through the streets I now call home. I have one small backpack slung over my right shoulder and as many layers of clothing as I could manage on my person while still allowing my extremities to move freely. The word necessities encompasses a whole new meaning when I´m only allowed to pack for three days in a backpack not even big enough to hold all of my school books last semester. The winter lows Paris is currently experiencing simple added another level of difficulty to the packing experience. According to weather.com, the current temperature in Paris is -6 degrees Celsius, perfect. The long strides and fast pace of my movement makes me uncomfortably warm under all of my layers as I reach the bus stop, the first of four modes of transportation I will be using today. Five hours later I am stepping off of a bus in the outskirts of the city of Paris.

I take in the moment as my foot touches down on the grounds of Paris for the first time in my life. I pause, as if I am Neil Armstrong returning from the moon for the first time, waiting for someone to trace my very first footsteps. Needless to say, it didn´t happen and my moment was crushed by the line of irritated travelers behind me.  Having handwritten the mapquest directions to our hostel, my friend begins to read aloud the first line, “Head southwest on…” she looks at me, “Do you happen to have a compass?”Oh this is going to turn out well, I begin to think as I have a “light bulb” moment. “I do have a compass!” I express excitedly as I pull out my iPhone and open the compass app that had been preprogrammed and yet to be used. I´ve never been more excited to know which way was North before in my life.

We begin our journey through the streets of Paris, my heart pounding in excitement, using my new camera to document the ENTIRE journey. I am taking pictures of cafés, signs, streets, people, anything I feel is Paris. I turn off my camera and look up in time to see a young boy walking with his mother, ripping off pieces from a baguette. In that moment it had been decided, our first piece of business in Paris was to find a freshly baked baguette. Peering through every glass window we pass, our search begins. Three blocks later we see another woman step out of a store, loaf of bread in her hand. My eyes widen as a smile emerges on my face. As we enter the bakery the realization that I lack knowledge of the French language hits me. “How do you say I want a loaf of bread, or even just bread in French?” I hopefully ask my friend. Having no response and being more than slightly intimidated, I contemplate my options, deciding I have no choice but to simply point out my request. As I approach the counter I see the sign, baguette 0,80 €. Of course it´s just called a baguette; I had to over think that one. Finally, I exit the store, full baguette in hand. I begin to devour it as if I had been without food for an entire week. We continue walking while eating, seeing as it appeared socially acceptable here. Two and a half hours later, with no bread left and frozen toes, we reach the entrance of our hostel.

The slightly creepy, but relatively nice, English speaking man behind the desk hands us the key to our room. I grasp hold of its keychain and ambivalently begin my journey into our first hostel. The windy halls are dark, with nothing but faded white paint on the walls. 14. We reached our room. I’m not sure what I was expecting but this experience was sure to be more similar to environmental camp than anything else. The room consists of two sets of bunk beds, a makeshift unenclosed closet, and a sink. After becoming slightly adjusted to my surroundings, I begin to change for my first night in Paris.

Our first stop: The Latin Quarter

The streets are slightly narrow, full of people entering and exiting the various restaurants on both sides of the street. There is every type of restaurant from Italian to Greek and Crepes to french fries to accommodate everyone’s hunger needs. We stop at an Italian restaurant for pizza and pasta, then for nutella and banana crepes, which are to die for. The sweetness of the chocolate blends perfectly with the ripe banana and soft crepe. Needless to say, I had more than one throughout my stay in Paris.

Next, we made the journey, via metro, to see the Eiffel Tower at night. As I turn the corner for the first time, I am blown away by its beauty, breathtaking. My body stops mid motion to allow my eyes to capture the sight. I can’t believe I am in Paris, looking at the Eiffel Tower. The pictures I have seen of this structure have been absolutely gorgeous, but from this spot, in this moment, they don’t do it justice. I could sit here for hours admiring one of my top five favorite sights in the World.

The following day we walk the entire city, along the water, through the streets, past the Louvre, and back to the Eiffel Tower to see it sparkle in the sun’s light and climb to the top to see the incredible view of the city.

At night we decide to return to the Louvre to capture the beauty of the glass pyramid. Playing around with the settings on my new camera, we try black and white and sport mode. This is what came about:

According to the Louvre’s website, the museum will open at 9am this morning. In order to reach our bus, which leaves at 10:15 am and is on the other side of the city, we must exit the Louvre by 10 of to head for the metro. Arriving early, we are the 13^th and 14^th people in line, sandwiched between a group of Asian tourists speaking another language we failed to interpret. 9:05 am: Really, you have to be running late today; we’re on a schedule here. 9:15 am: I’m guessing the time was wrong. A line begins to stretch around the pyramid and out of sight as tourists eagerly wait for entrance into the museum. 9:30 am: The museum employees begin to open the doors. I look towards by friend and say, “I guess we really will be seeing the Louvre in 20 minutes.” We make a game plan, head straight for the Mona Lisa. We enter the revolving doors and are spit out into a speed walk, heading for the ticket counter and then towards the room where the Mona Lisa is held. The hallways are close to empty, except for scattered security guards, and the walls are filled with pieces of art whose beauty we are passing by with ease. We reach the masterpiece, and although small, as we were told, it is definitely a sight to see. Her eyes moved with me, looking perfectly into my camera for every picture. We capture its beauty on film and take in the sight of the painting. Looking at the time, we have to go, our weekend in Paris has come to an end as we begin to run for the metro.

Location: Paris, France