January 25th, 2016 | Uncategorized
Sarah and I split off from our other travel companions to spend a couple days exploring the beautiful city of Paris. Upon arrival, we searched unsuccessfully for a map and instead decided to “wing it” in typical Sarah-and-Katie fashion.
We wandered our way over to the Eiffel Tower, where we were amazed and awed by the structure, and where I was also scammed into buying a selfie-stick that didn’t actually work (silly tourist!). Nonetheless, Sarah and I fell in love with the Eiffel Tower, and vowed to get up extra early the next day to line up to go to the top of it. But before we tackled our fear of heights, we decided to tackle our fear of the slimy, otherwise known as the French delicacy, escargot.
At dinner on our first night in France, we were determined to try snails. They came out in their shells, soaked in a deep green sauce. They were accompanied with two small silver tools, which Sarah and I had to Google how to use. One served as a clamp for holding the shell, while the other was a tool to scrape the snail out. Sarah managed to swallow a whole snail, but I could only bring myself to try a small nibble of one. I really didn’t like the chewy texture, and couldn’t get over the fact that I was eating a snail, bleh! When I returned back to Ireland, my French teammate Marie was shocked I didn’t like snails because, “They are so good!” So maybe don’t take my word for it!
The next morning Sarah and I were up before sunrise and among the first to line up for the Eiffel Tower. It was a good thing we were because by the time the Tower actually opened, there were hundreds of people waiting behind us in a line that wound around and around the base of the tower. We were in one of the first groups to go up. We forgot to mentally prepare ourselves to take on the extreme height, so the elevator rides up—there were three!—were pretty unsettling. Sarah actually has a pretty serious fear of elevators, so she had a minor freak out on the way up, but once we made it to the top we had a good laugh about it. The view was definitely worth the wait, and worth the semi-terrifying elevator experience. Seeing Paris from the pinnacle of the Eiffel Tower is something that I will remember for the rest of my life.
I could go on about my time in France forever, but for fear of boring my readers, I’ll wrap it up with a short summary of the other things Sarah and I saw on our Parisian adventure. During the remainder of that day, we visited the Palace of Versailles, Sacre-Coeur Basilica, Notre Dame, Champs Elysees, the Arch De Triomphe, the Louvre (where we posed with Mona Lisa), the Pantheon, the vestiges of the Bastille, and more.
Needless to say, we were exhausted at the close of our trip, but we were also exalted at the amazing experience we were fortunate enough to have.
Victory Scholar: Katie Fox
Present University: Waterford IT
US League: NEC
Club/Community Partner: Waterford Wildcats
Alma Mater: St. Francis College
Sponsored by: Teamwear Ireland
