If you know me at all you know that sleep is incredibly important to me. A good nights sleep in Sacred and anything less than 7 hours is not good enough. Heading to Paris on only 4 hours of sleep should have been my first sign that the day was not going to go well. Let’s start at the beginning: Heathrow. Let me tell you, not a good airport. First we arrived 2 hours early, as told, and the airport wasn’t even open! We could wait inside but check-in and security were closed and there was no staff in the building! After a frustrating hour and a half they finally let us in about 30 minutes before boarding. After a very short flight, and a very long customs line, we finally make it to the metro, where we promptly get lost. We made it to the right stop, but didn’t realize how massive the station by our apartment was! There were 17 different exits! We of course got off the wrong one and wandered around the district tired and hot for nearly a half an hour until we found our place. After 5 flights of stairs we finally made it to our Airbnb and things started looking up. After a quick shower we headed off to the Louvre to start our Paris adventure. We all had different interests and very quickly separated once we got inside the museum. I wandered around the Ancient Middle East for a bit and then moved towards some French Sculptures. Here in the sculpture room is where our adventure really begins.

As I sat down to admire a French sculpture the 4 hours of sleep caught up to me and I quickly fell asleep. Waking, what I imagine to be 15 minutes later, though I really have no idea how long I was asleep, I decided it was probably time for me to go home. I wandered helplessly for about 45 minutes looking for my friends who had the apartment key. After finally finding them, and then spending another 20 minutes looking for the exit I finally find myself outside of the pyramid and I look down and see I only have 13% battery and no idea how to get home. Nervous about being in the city alone for the first time I decide to call an Uber. 10 minutes pass and my Uber has circled the Louvre 3 times. Aapparently lost, he cancels. I decide to try again and request a new Uber. Again they can’t get to me and cancel. Now at 6% battery I decide it’s time to attempt the Metro, if my battery dies out here I have no way to contact my friends, my luck would be better trying to find home on my own. Anxiously I circle the Louvre (which is about a mile in and of itself) only to discover the stop was right across the street from me the whole time. I walk down the stairs. Finally underground I hop on the B line and ride the metro the 1 stop to my station. As I said earlier this station is huge with 17 exits and I still did not know the right one. My battery is now on 2% and I dare not pull it out until I’m on the street, just in case there is an emergency. I decide to take a random guess and leave out the nearest exit, only to enter into a huge shopping mall. I’m talking 3 blocks work of storefronts. I again wander around anxiously with no idea of where I’m going until I finally find the courage to tentatively ask someone in my terrible French “ou est La Rue de Saint Denis?” only for him to tell me I’ve been walking in the wrong direction. Nearly 2 hours after I left the Louvre I finally find my apartment. I want to take a moment here and let you in on some information, the Louvre is about ½ a mile from my apartment. How I got so lost I can’t tell you, in Paris though, it is very easy to do. Dizzy with exhaustion I fall on the couch and pass out.

My nap did not last long however because 1 hour later I had to leave to meet up with my friends. I decide to try an Uber once again, and once again the driver got lost. After several tries I was finally able to get and Uber driver who knew the area and was able to pick me up. Still mind-numbingly tired I stumble out of the Uber down a couple of streets and into the line at the Eiffel Tower where suddenly all my exhaustion and frustration faded away. My life long dream was there staring me in the face, and no it wasn’t what I expected and in some ways it didn’t live up to the expectations I had built up in my head but on the second floor, sitting alone (I was to scared to go to the top) I found my moment of peace. I was no longer scared of being alone in Paris. I realized I had been able to speak enough French throughout the day to get myself out of the incredibly dangerous situation I had put my self in. Looking out over all of Paris I felt very centered, all of my frustrations and anxieties from this trip felt very small. All around me families gathered with little children running everywhere and suddenly traveling didn’t feel nearly as scary.