The Louvre, Eiffel Tower, and the Romanian Robber

 

Out of all of the blog posts I ever write, this is the one that you NEED to read. Trust me. It will beworth your time.

About to go into the Louvre!!!

I had to fight for this picture. I hope you all appreciate it.

We woke up nice and early to visit the Louvre! Got in, saw all of the main pieces that we had done research for, and had written down as our "must-sees". We had a pretty extensive list because we spend about 5 hours there. And yet I still feel like we only saw a fraction of what they had. But I felt pretty good about our time there. It was breathtaking! I want to go back and just spend a day there. Perhaps one day in the future when I'm less broke....

Curse this monkey man...

Our next stop was at the EIFFEL TOWER! We stopped at a cafe near the base and purchased macaroons and panini's, and just enjoyed the view. As we were standing in line to get tickets to the top, I was walking by and noticed that a BUNCH of people were staring at me... I had no idea why! Did I have something on my face?? Toilet paper on my shoe?? (All things that are quite plausible...) But then I turned to my left. AND SCREAMED SO SO LOUD! There was this man in a monkey suit that had been following me! Everyone cracked up and started pointing, laughing, even some had been filming my reaction. I was so glad I could be entertainment for hundreds of people! I was super embarrassed though and ran back to where I had been standing in line. It was a pretty funny moment. I won't lie!

The lovely view!!!

I was so excited I was jumping for joy!!! (PS I worked really hard for this pic, enjoy it.)

669 steps later, and one short elevator ride. I was at the very top. What a spectacular view!!! You could see the whole city; it was perfectly clear, and a great moment. It was also a great way to orient myself around the city. While we were up there, Janie made a goal for herself that she was going to kiss the hottest guy there. And well. Mission accomplished! She had been flirting with this guy in the line, and when we all got to the top she had him take our picture. They got talking, and then she said: "Hey it's always been on my bucket list to kiss someone on top of the Eiffel Tower. So.... wanna help me out?" The line totally worked too. Boom. She kissed him. I was laughing sooo hard! It was hilarious! I was pretty proud of her. We walked down to the field, took some awesome pictures and then ran into 3 of the girls from our BYU group! They had been staying at a hostel outside of town. We all headed to get some ice cream at Berthillion (more on that later) and... I'm sad to admit.... more crepes. 2 of the girls left to go to do something else. But Katie stayed with us. Katie is the daughter of our directors friends. That was very confusing. But anyways. She is 16 years old and loving her time here!

Soooo high up... AH!

After awhile of hanging out, we were at the metro station getting ready to meet the other 2 girls at the Eiffel Tower. We all got caught up in talking, and little did we realize that Katie had put her handbag on the ground by her feet. When we got ready to get on the metro, we realized her purse was gone and freaked out! She had her whole life in there practically (i.e. Passport, ID, iPhone, money, credit cards, etc)!!!

QUE the ROMANIAN ROBBER. As we frantically started searching amongst us, and looking around, I ran ahead a bit further down the metro. I saw this woman hunched over sitting on a bench, facing the other way, going through something. I ran up to her, saw that it was Katie's handbag and ripped it out of her hands. The woman (in her mid to late 20's) started to run away. But I just had this hunch that she had probably hidden some of Katie's valuables on her. I (being stupid and aggressive) ran after the woman and cornered her, pushing her up against the wall, then started to yell (and I mean really YELL) at her and have her empty out all of her pockets.

Now you are probably thinking this story is fake because it is just THAT crazy!
It's not. Let me continue.

I cornered her and started yelling at her. She kept saying that she didn't understand and started to cry (yeah, I made a Romanian woman cry) but I just kept emptying out her pockets. I couldn't find Katie's iPhone though! I saw a bulge in her jacket and asked her to show me the phone and give it back. She wouldn't do it. I wanted to go and just reach down and grab it, but something was stopping me. Right as I was about to go and snatch the phone, a man came and intervened. He took her and started running away fast. We couldn't catch them and just decided to let them go after awhile of running. Luckily all we lost was the iPhone and none of the important documents. As we were making the report to the police later that night, they said it was a good thing that I didn't go and reach for the phone because in situations like these there have been many stabbings, and that the man was probably her boss or... pimp (I randomly hate that word)!!! Yeah. See why I'm glad I didn't reach in and grab the phone?? We all got separated for a little while due to some mix ups with police stations, but we all met up at the hotel at around 3 in the morning. And fell fast asleep.

Yeah. It was a crazy, crazy, crazy day. I guess the police officer from my self-defense class last semester was right! I "fight dirty and have a lot of pent up aggression!" :) Look out robbers. Here I come.