*Paris: Chapter Two*

Alright, everyone, we're on Tuesday. Because I was missing two days of practice with TDR in Paris, I had to run twice on my own there, each time for an hour. Of course, anyone could figure out that sending me for an hour long run by myself in Paris was not a good idea. Erik had brought his roller blades with him though, so at 8:00 on Tuesday morning we went out in Paris; him with his roller blades and me with my running shoes. Just running through the streets of the city at that time of the morning was fun, because it was like the city was just waking up. There were all these moms dragging their little kids to school, people walking in business suits, and street sweepers. The street was busy, but it still was somehow quiet everywhere. We first ran in one direction along the Seine, and then after half an hour turned and ran in the other direction. But, since I'm me, nothing works out the way it supposed to (not that things don't work out, they do, just not usually the way they're supposed to). Right at the beginning of the run when we got to the river we decided to go down so that we could run right next to it. I didn't even think of it, and left poor Erik way behind trying to make his way down the completely rough cobblestones on his rollerblades. After about five minutes I realized that there was no way he could rollerblade there, and that was probably why he wasn't with me anymore. I turned around and ran back the way I had come but... surprise, he wasn't there anymore. I ran back and forth for about five minutes and finally found him again at the end. There were definitely a few minutes though were I thought to myself, "Okay, so I'm in the middle of Paris, alone." That didn't last long though, and the rest of the run was so beautiful. On the way there the Eiffel Tower was in front of me, and on the way back the sun was rising over the city and all the bridges on the river.
Tuesday morning, and every morning after that, we met for breakfast around 9:30 in the downstairs apartment. Every morning someone would by regular croissants and then croissants with pieces of chocolate inside. We were in France, eating croissants and drinking coffee with the Louvre right outside our door. Besides the coffee drinking and croissant eating, there was also quite a bit of discussing what we were going to do that day. When the discussing was finished it ended up decided that we were going to see Notre Dame in the morning.
We walked (prepare yourselves, I'm going to say "we walked" a lot in this novel about Paris) to the church and went inside, of course it was incredibly beautiful. I was a little bit disappointed by the outside because I was expecting there to be huge gargoyles all around like in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" but you could hardly see the gargoyles, they were so high up. Inside was absolutely beautiful though, walking into a church like that makes me understand why the churches were able to hold so much power over people back in those days. If you're living in a time with no machinery and technology, but you sit and listen to a preacher in a building like Notre Dame every week, then I think it's impossible not to believe in a higher power.

After Notre Dame we went shopping, though there really is not much to tell about that, because I learned a Dutch saying about shopping. The saying is, "kijka, kijka, niet kopa." That means, "look, look, don't buy." Generally, I wouldn't really agree with that, I'm definitely the buying type of girl. But new money comes at the beginning of the month, and it is the end of the October...

What's the first thing you think of when you think of Paris? The Eiffel Tower (for me at least). On Tuesday night we went to the Eiffel Tower after dinner. It was just starting to get dark when we got there, and there were lots of people everywhere. In front of the tower are tons of immigrants with these cheap metal Eiffel Tower keychains that they're trying to sell to everyone. These guys would seriously come up to you and grab your arm, or call your name if they heard someone else saying it. And they're so desperate just to sell something that when people bargain with them they sell their things for almost nothing. Anyway, we waited in line for a super long time. I was so scared, because I thought we were going to have to walk up the stairs inside of it... I hate walking up high places with open stairs. Instead though, we went in the elevator first to the second level, and then all the way up to the top. Which, the eleveator was also incredibly scary, but I survived. Looking down from the top of the Eiffel Tower you could see so much of Paris, and all these lights from the city everywhere. If you stood outside it was pretty scary because there was a lot of wind and you felt like you were swaying, so mostly I stayed inside and looked out from the glass. And, fun fact, there's a bathroom at the top of the Eiffel Tower for people like me who always have to pee in impossible places. But isn't that crazy? I used the bathroom at the top of the Eiffel Tower!

Look forward to the following chapter of my Paris novel!