My Eiffel Tower visit

So, here's my story:

Jenny, Courtney (the leader's daughter) and I decided to go up the Eiffel tower after we got back from Versailles. So we left at 5:30. Jenny and I had day passes to the Metro, and Courtney bought a ticket. I went through the turnstile and Courtney came through too. Then Jenny tried. Her ticket worked, but the machine has a turnstile and a door right after it. So she went through the turnstile but the door wouldn't let her through... So she was stuck between the turnstile and the door. Which would have been bad enough, but then this French lady came, put her ticket through and began to go through the turnstile. So she got about halfway through, far enough so that they were both stuck. So the French lady yelled something into the ticket office, then pulled Jenny back a bit and the door swung open. Then we got onto the Metro. At one stop, we heard a big commotion to our left-apparantly 1 person from a group got on the train and the others didn't, so they were banging on the door. The train started, and suddenly there was this little old lady in my lap. She had fallen over onto me, so a couple of men and I picked her up and I offered her my seat. She sat, then turned to me and started to talk to me in French-the only word I understood was "Merci". So I said "I don't speak French" (In French, of course). So she just smiled at me.

Then everything was all right until we tried to go from the 2nd to 3rd level. The elevator was full...and Jenny and Courtney were on and I wasn't! So I kind of shoved my way into the elevator and almost got shut in the door. And on the way up I happened to look up and say "Oh look, a glass ceiling!" Apparantly, everyone in the elevator spoke English, because they all started laughing at me and one lady commented, "Oh, so you're thinking about 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'?" But we got to see the sun set from the Eiffel tower....

Then we needed to go back down. So we were waiting in line, and there was another turnstile. I was about to go through, and Jenny, as a joke pushed back on it. And we broke it. It turned forward with little clicks, so finally I got through, and as soon as I got out of it, it started turning backwards. And then we missed the elevator and couldn't get into another one for about 5 more minutes because everyone was pushing and shoving everyone else. We got the rest of the way down with no incidents, but on the ground, because of all the riots, there are a lot of military guys around...with 2 foot long guns... and they were watching us as we left.

As we were walking back to the Metro, the cafes were closing. There was a cafe with plants on little wheeled carts outside of it. They were bringing the plants inside for the night, so we tured the corner and all of the sudden this plant started moving towards us. The guy was crouched on the other side pushing it, but it was great fun getting attacked by the plant. We got to the Metro station and the ticket office was closed. So we couldn't buy Courtney a ticket. There were 2 turnstiles open. I went through in one, and Courtney used my ticket to get through on another. And then Jenny couldn't get it to accept her ticket. The train came, and the driver leaned out the window and saw what was happening and told her to just jump the turnstile. So she did, and we ran to get on the train. Courtney and I got on fine, but as Jenny was getting on, the doors began to close, so SHE nearly got caught in the doors. And then Courtney nearly took a header down the stairs at the station. We got home at 9:50.

So that's my Eiffel Tower story...just a lot of funny things happening in one night. More to come later, and I'll post pics as soon as I get back to Chippewa.

Love to everyone!!