Being a tourist at the Eiffel Tower

I know I said I wanted to do untouristy things whilst I was here (see last post) but yesterday, having spent hours reading (or trying to read) some awful long french article for one of my modules I thought "you know what, i'm in Paris, I'm going to go and take a selfie with the Eiffel Tower", and so I did. They say that as a foreigner in Paris, no matter how many times you see the Eiffel Tower it is never not exciting and breathtaking, and I have to say that's true (although i've only been here two weeks, we'll see at the end of the year). As I turned the corner at the top of the Jardins de Trocadero there it is, huge and looming straight ahead, and as impressive as ever. It's kind of weird how this effectively useless monument has become so hugely popular and so hugely iconic of Paris.

I could not believe the amount of people that were there, like me, to take photos of it, with it etc. People doing wedding photo shoots, popping champagne in their finest dresses for photos with the Eiffel Tower in the background. Selfie sticks left, right and centre, silly poses trying to pinch the top of it. It's such a bizarre thing to sit and watch people doing but then you can't judge people because we're all equally guilty of doing exactly the same thing and 5 minutes later it was me, on my own, posing for selfies with it in the background.

The size of it is hard to comprehend as well. It looms way above any of the surrounding buildings, so stood out from the rest of Paris. If you stand underneath it and look up it makes you feel dizzy, and i'm sure if you stand at the top and look down you feel even dizzier. On my list of things I want to do is go up to the observation deck of the Tour Montparnasse because I think you would get a great view of the Eiffel Tower and how it stands out against the Paris skyline. It's like when you go up the Empire State building in New York, you get a great view of New York, but not of the world-famous building itself because you're stood on it. Where as from the Rockefeller centre you get an amazing view of New York AND the Empire State building. So I think it would be cool to see the Eiffel Tower from a different view point than the ground.

I always forget what a weird light brown colour it is. Imagine if it was in gold or silver, or metallic pink, like the tiny little key rings sold underneath it, 5 for 1€.

A brief history of the Eiffel tower (as googled by me): 
- Designed by Gustave Eiffel, in 1889 to celebrate the 100-anniversary of the French Revolution.
- At the time it was completed it was the tallest building in the world at 381m. (The current tallest building, Burj Khalifa in Dubai stands at 828m, almost 3 times the height of the Tour Eiffel).
- It was only intended to be a temporary structure and was nearly torn down in 1909, but saved due to recognition for its usage as a radiotelegraph station (it is apparently not as useless as I thought).
- It is repainted every 7 years (maybe metallic pink is an option?) and receives more visitors yearly than any other monument in the world, over 7 million on average.
- You can have dinner on the Eiffel tower for 190€ per person, plus 95€ for wine. Anyone want to take me?

Sunset on the Seine

On Saturday evening, as the final activity of the welcome programme we did a Bateau Mouche along the Seine at sunset. It was a boat full of Sciences Po exchange students and lots of other tourists and it is about as touristy an attraction as it gets in Paris but you can't deny how unbelievably beautiful Paris is in that golden hour and for a sunset-lover like me it was great.



It's been so hot in Paris over the weekend and though I would rather be on a yacht on the ocean when it's this hot the Bateau Mouche was the next best thing. It was a bit annoying when you were trying to take a photo of the Eiffel Tower though and someones selfie stick pops up in the middle of your photo but that's tourist attractions for you. I know that I have been saying I want to live like a true Parisian and not a tourist but sometimes you just have to indulge yourself and join the masses because its not like I can afford to hire my own boat to sail down the Seine at sunset drinking rosé.



How stunning is the scenery though? Pretty sure if you go down the Thames on a boat it's not this beautiful but that's probably because it's always raining in London. You can imagine the delight when at 21:00 the Eiffel Tower begins glittering and Paris looks even more romantic and magical before.

I just want to instagram these and #sunset the whole time. As you may have noticed, I have magically managed to link my instagram so that now when I post on there it also posts to here so you can always be in the loop. I warn you, though, it will be mainly sunsets, scenery and food (and the odd selfie).  

Amsterdam - Part 4

Woke up on our last morning in Amsterdam to beautiful blue sky! We had a few hours to kill before heading to the airport so we went on a little wander, got some breakfast and enjoyed the sunshine. I thought Amsterdam was beautiful when it was raining but against the blue sky back drop it was even more 'woah'... I think the photos speak for themselves so here you go:

It wouldn't be a trip anywhere without a few obligatory selfies and I had to take advantage of the cool snapchat stickers at the airport!

So, until next time Amsterdam, I definitely hope we meet again, but maybe in the summer so that I can ride around on bikes and sit outside drinking until the sun sets...

Amsterdam - Part 2

When in Amsterdam one has to visit the Red Light District. Architecturally its as beautiful as the rest of Amsterdam but I was a little shocked to see the underwear clad women stood in windows in the middle of the day! I guess they must have good heating...

As it was December everything was lit up and christmassy once it got dark which was nice, especially given my un-christmassy christmas that was coming up (as you'll see soon in the blog). 

I wish that I had a better camera so that I could get a kind of focus on certain things and then a blur on the background (definitely not the technical terms, I know). But anyway you can still appreciate the beauty of the city in the photos I took. 

Spectacular sunset

This evening I decided to go for a run, which was a complete disaster because I can't run and after about 5 minutes I was sweaty and walking. But I  did get some absolutely beautiful photos of the sunset, all taken on my humble iphone 4s. 

I think they pretty much speak for themselves, and while being on a campus in the middle of nowhere is often really boring when you get to see stunning sunsets like this it is completely worth it.