Paris

Paris was pretty much what I expected. I heard from people who had already went that it was overrated and it was. The first time we saw the Eiffel Tower we weren't sure if it was the real one because it seemed so small. In its defence we were coming from tall buildings so it was a bad angle.  It did seem big when we went up the Arc de Triomphe to overlook the city. During the day it was cool to see it since it is so iconic but it wasn't as exciting as people think. It was very cool at night because it lights up and at 10 different lights come on and blink.  We also went to the Louvre which was boring. I had 5 seconds of excitement when I recognized paintings from the art class I had to take last semester. I can see how it would be cool for someone who appreciates art but I was ready to leave after 20 minutes. It took 2 hours and we didn't even see everything.

The first day we arrived at 7am and didn't stop until 7pm. 12 hours of walking (and about 10 miles) gave me pretty bad blisters on the bottom of my feet, so the second day we discovered the metro system. My feet were hurting so bad that I had to walk in circles until they got numb so I could walk  in public without limping. I went with the other Nicole and we are known to be the two who just follow everyone else because we're clueless about directions. We somehow didn't get lost at all.

One thing that made me not like the city was the people following you around running scams or trying to get you to buy things. We were sitting on the grass by the Eiffel Tower and people came by every 2 minutes trying to get us to buy wine, beer, and water. It was so annoying that people couldn't even enjoy the view. They especially prey on Americans because when we spoke German to them they went away much faster.

Overall, I'm glad I went since its such a popular place but I wouldn't go again and I wouldn't recommend for anyone to go if they had a chance to go somewhere else instead.

Munich

I loved Munich. If college doesn't work out I'm going to be homeless and live in Munich.

• Downside: I'll be homeless
• Upside: I'll be in Munich