Vacation Day 1: Getting there

We booked a Lyft to take us to the airport since parking would be too expensive for how long we were going to be gone. And traffic was horrendous. We ended up getting routed through all of these backroads. And spoiler, this ended up being the only travel the entire trip that didn't go smooth as can be. Somehow we spent two weeks taking planes, trains, taxis, and walking without anything going wrong. 

Neat!

We packed a lot. Being gone for almost two weeks, dealing with rain, snow, nice dinners, cold, warmth, it's a lot to prepare for. 

You desperately want to sleep as much as you can on a plane. So on top of all the clothes, you have a neck pillow, eat plugs, eye mask. We hadn't been to Europe since 2015, but it is always harder to get over the jetlag going east for me than going west. My strategy this time was to just knock myself out with medicine. 

My suitcase ended up weighing 43lbs. My backpack another 12 or so. That's a lot of weight to haul around with you.

I took inventory of what I was bringing so that I would have a good idea of what to pack next time we do a long trip to Europe.  

• 4 t-shirts
• 2 dress shirts
• 5 button downs
• 2 flannels
• 1 rain coat
• 1 jacket
• 1 hoody
• 1 suit jacket
• 1 coat
• 5 undershirts
• 9 underwear (in case I poop myself like 4 times during the trip)
• 11 socks
• 7 pants 
• 2 sneakers (in case one got soaked by rain)
• 1 dress shoe (for fancy dinner)
• 2 sock hats
• 1 normal hat
• 1 sweat pants 
• Medicine
• Chapstick
• Outlet converter
• Passport
• Wallet
• Ear buds
• Steam deck
• Kindle
• Typing machine
• 3 vacuum bags
• 2 belts
• Face wash
• Beard shampoo
• Body wash
• Shampoo
• Deodorant
• Sunglasses
• Eye mask
• Battery x 2
• Wired headphones
• Relief band
• Ear plugs 
• Trtl travel pillow 
• Shaving cream x 3
• Razor
• Nose trimmer
• Mouthwash
• Toothbrush
• Toothpaste

We dropped our suitcases with the airline (praying that it would be waiting for us in Europe). We planned things almost perfectly, we barely had to wait to get on the plane. An hour later, we landed in Detroit, had a nice Falafel salad and beer to kick the trip off. 

Then it was time to hop on our prison for the next 8 hours.

The moment... and I mean the moment, I sat in the seat, I took a melatonin. 

This was an international flight. Historically when I've gone to Europe or Japan, the plane is very large, the seats have a little more room, and there's plenty of overhead space. 

The plane was very large, but it seems the wonderful people at Delta decided to cram more seats into the plane because the seats had very little leg or elbow room. 

We had strategically chosen seats right next to the bathrooms thinking we would want the proximity. But turns out, sitting next to the bathroom makes sleep was hard to come by. Every 90 seconds, you'd hear someone slam the bathroom door (even with ear plugs in), and your legs were cramping because there's no space. I managed to "snooze" for 6 of the 8 hours and felt relatively good when we got to Paris. 

My Fitbit said I got about 49 minutes of sleep. Sal got zero. Our plan, white knuckle it and try to be fueled by excitement and red wine until at least 9 pm. You have to get over jetlag as quickly as possible and this is the best way to do it. 

We got to Paris. Customs is all digital now. You step into a little booth, insert your passport, and get a picture taken. Then you walk to the table, get your stamp, and off you go. 10 years ago when we went to Europe, we stood in a long line, waited to talk to someone who then asked us a bunch of questions (how long are you staying, where are you staying, why are you here). I like the new system. 

We took the train to our hotel. Our stop spat us right out with a view of Notre Dame. What a welcome. 

Unfortunately, this also required us to navigate about 15 minutes of the city with all of our luggage. We got in at 8:50 am, got to our hotel by 10:30 am.

The hotel was great. In a very convenient part of town. It was clean, with a somewhat large bed. They had a water machine where you could get plain, bubbly, hot, or cold water. 

The very first thing we did was eat at a place called Lulu. It was listed as an Australian restaurant, (I'm still not sure why) but I had a fantastic egg benedict, mimosa, and latte. There was some sort of skateboard theme, but I was having a hard time figuring it all out. Cool place, gave us fuel to keep going. 

We then went back to the hotel where we found out our door was broken. So we showered and napped, all while waiting for a couple guys to hang, re-hang, and shave the door down. 

Next up, the Eiffel Tower. We walked roughly 30 minutes from our hotel to the Eiffel Tower, desperate to not sit down anytime soon. 

For the most part, monuments don't do it for me. You usually show up and any of the magic is ruined by the other people there. Tourists... and I know this is ironic coming from a tourist... are the worst people to deal with. They don't know where they are going, tend to both bunch up and take a ton of space, love to hop right into your view of beauty with their phones or iPad to take a picture. 

The Eiffel tower has all of that magic in person. The tourists can't ruin it. Everything from the approach with the beautiful park, the smell of fresh bread, the sound of European sirens in the background all put you into a movie.

The elevator climbs horizontally to the second story, a fine view on it's own. But it's the second elevator that brings you through the center of the tower to the top. Looking down at all throws even the most even balanced person into a vertigo-induced, dizziness.

The wind blows at a constant pace as you exit the doors. Half the people leave the elevator and immediately fall to the ground and try to back away from the ledge completely. I found the view mesmerizing. Walked up to the edge, looking down on the park below, a weirdly familiar spot that I looked down upon many times playing Twisted Metal 2 with my brothers.

We paid for a champagne toast at the top of the Eiffel Tower, which seemed a little touristy? Lame? IDK, I had reservations. Come on? Is there anymore more tourist than a Champagne toast at the top of the Eiffel Tower? Paying premiums like that? Come one? But yes, I did buy and partake in the toast and it was worth it.

We attempted to go to a bar called Home after the Eiffel Tower. Google lead us astray. Once we got there, there was a little popup on maps that was like, "We think this bar closed down, can you confirm?" We had already walked 25 minutes out of our way. We were getting tired and in desperate need of some energy. 

We ended up at Bar Signature, a hotel bar. One that had cocktails, which is somewhat unusual in Paris. (They have only recently started becoming a cocktail city) It was a hotel bar, so very overpriced, but we just needed a little go-go juice before dinner. 

Meal time was something that was difficult to get used to. Typical Parisian lunch time is noon-2 and dinner 8-10. This is on top of my brain thinking I'm 7 hours in the past. Our first dinner was scheduled for 8 pm at a place called Les Duex Maggots. I had picked this place out specifically because it's a spot that's been around for a long time and the likes of Ernest Hemmingway and James Joyce listened to jazz, smoked cigars, drank, and became inspired for their famous works. This was my nerdy dinner. 

I had a nice steak, Sal the scallops. And with a full belly, we went back to our hotel and passed out hard.