I just finished all my travel for the quarter. I spent a week going to Amsterdam, Hamburg, and Munich. Then spent time in Geneva and Rome. Coming back to Paris I have found a huge appreciation for this city. Of all the cities that I have gone to, Paris is by far my favorite one. The history, the beauty, the culture, there’s always something to do and see, it never gets boring and you’re never hard pressed to fill your time. What I think I find most striking about Paris is how there are historical monuments everywhere. There was one day I decided to walk home from school instead of take the metro. It was one of my first weeks in Paris so I was not familiar with all the monuments and important buildings. On this walk, little did I know I would be passing many. I started this walk, and I was walking on what seemed like a normal Parisian street, when all of a sudden there was a beautiful bridge that I would walk over. It ended up being the Pont Alexander III Bridge, which is one of the most ornate bridges in the city.
Next, I came across this beautiful plaza with what seemed like the Washington monument in the middle of it. This ended up being Place de la Concorde and the “Washington Monument” is actually an obelisk donated by the Egyptian government to Paris to exalt the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II.
I then kept walking for a while and passed a beautiful building with a gorgeous decorations and being dancing on the stairs in front of it. This ended up being Palais Garnier, arguably the most famous opera house in the world because it was the setting of Phantom of the Opera.
It is times like this, when I accidentally stumble across something that people travel across oceans to see, that make me most appreciative of my opportunity to be here. There are so many things to see and places to go, I only have two weeks left and I am getting in that panic that I might not be able to finish everything that I wanted to do.