Read about Day 1 here.

Day2 of our 2017 Eurotrip found us in Paris, France and it started out extremely early; around four in the morning local time because of the jetlag. It also happened to be my 30^th birthday and I don’t think I can covey through words how frakkin’ excited I was to be spending it in Paris! Again, I’m so, so, so super thankful to my Mama and Papa for being able to do this.

 

A and I booked an extremely early (read: 10AM) free walking tour of the city courtesy of Sandemans so we just had the 6Euro breakfast at the hostel (baguette, ham and eggs). We made our way through the metro and ended up at the meeting up point a few minutes before the tour started. We had a fun tour guide named Onno, a Hollander who had a really rad American accent (apparently in Amsterdam they watch as much American TV as much as the Philippines). Our tour consisted of about twelve people but surprisingly we weren’t the only Filipinos in the tour! There was a Filipino dude who was in Paris with his girlfriend they were both living in the USA.

Onno took us from the Place de Saint-Michel to the Court Building to the Notre Dame to the Locks Bridge to the Arts Building to the Louve to the Tulip Gardens to the Champ de Elysses. I know that that sounds like a lot but we managed to cover everything in two and a half hours. This was the first walking tour I’ve ever joined and I’m a huge fan. Not only is it cost-effective (it’s free but you’re supposed to give tips to the guides depending on your level of satisfaction of the tour), but you also get to learn a lot about a place because the guides are locals who know a lot about the area. In our case, Onno was extremely knowledgeable and I had a lot of fun listening to him nerd out about the French revolution. He was very animated and he showed us a couple of photography tricks because you know, social media is life.

Here are some snaps.

 

Major props to Ono for managing a big number of people through the crowded streets, while keeping an eye out for the group’s safety. There were a LOT of gypsies (at least that’s what the term Onno used) at the attractions we stopped by and apparently they pull a lot of scams on unsuspecting tourists. Whenever they got too near to our group, Onno was quick to pull our group away from the area.

All in all, it was a fun tour if a soured a little bit by the scammers. I’d definitely recommend it to anybody who has a short time in Paris and hopefully you’d get Onno as your guide as well.

After ending our tour, A and I walked around the gardens and stopped over a nice looking restaurant for lunch. My 30^th birthday lunch consisted of this delicious roasted duck and apple tarte tatin. Yum!

The tour we booked with Topdeck wasn’t expected to arrive Paris (they came from London) until five in the afternoon so A and I pretty much had the afternoon free. We didn’t feel like navigating through the metro and getting lost so we Googled the nearest museum to our location and found that it was the Musee d’ Orsay. The entrance fee was around 12Euros (I think) and we spent most of the afternoon just gazing out at the art. Lucky for us, there was a Van Gogh exhibit and I was so happy to have seen this particular painting in real life. I don’t know what it’s called but if you’re a Doctor Who fan like me, you know why I’m excited.

We decided to make our way back to Generator Hostel at around four in the afternoon and we met up with our Topdeck tour group that was headed by a Croatian girl named Lana and an English driver named Matt. After giving our insurance details to Lana and checking in to our new room(A and I roomed with two girls from South Africa who were very nice and very liberated with their bodies), the whole group of thirty-one people got on the Topdeck bus for a rolling tour of the city that ended on one side of the infamous Eiffel tower for a picnic dinner. I think Paris is one Topdeck’s main stops so they booked local caterers for these sorts of things. We saw other Topdeck groups who had their own picnic tables as well. It was a pretty sweet spread and it was kind of surreal to have my 30^th birthday dinner with the close up view of the Eiffel Tower.

When the sun went down, the group got back on the bus and back to the hostel. I thought that that was the end of my day but apparently the extremely sweet Topdeck crew had another surprise. I thought that it was kind of weird that Matt and Lana only opened the back door for people to get out of but it turns out there was a reason for that! When I got out of the bus, there was a surprise slice of birthday cake for me! With candles and everything! I didn’t even plan on sharing with anybody that it was my birthday, but that was super cool of them to do that. I even got a birthday badge!

Stay tuned for Day 3.