MaitaPN-2

Maita
November 3rd, 2016

The Eiffel Up Close
Paris, France 2016

It was late evening, and the vibrant colors of pink and orange splashed together.
Our Uber driver pulls up in the lot across from the Eiffel Tower.
I look up and stare at the magnificent sight in awe.
“Wow,” said Yaamini. “It’s brilliant.”
“I doubt that you even know what

brilliant means,” I tease.
“Hey!” she snaps.
Soon, we hear the screeching of tires

pulling in next to us. I walk closer to the cab,
and peek through the window, checking if my
cousins were there. Sure enough, they were.
My uncle was tipping the driver, while Meher and Ishaan popped out of the car.

“We had a pretty weird cab driver,” Ishaan states.
“I can tell. Your dad and the driver are having a pretty long argument.” I
reply.
I’m not sure if they are actually having an argument. I can’t make out what
they’re saying because of the man’s strange French accent.
Finally he pays the driver and gets out of the car.
“It’s beautiful, right?” I ask my uncle.
“Yes, it is amazing,” he said, “Now come on, we need to get up on that
massive tower before the line gets crazy.”

The line looks crazy long. I quickly ask my mother, “How long do you
predict the line will be?”

“To me it seems like half an hour to forty-five minutes.” she replies.
The line moved rapidly. It was quite short compared to a lot of other lines.
It only lasted ten minutes!
We were about to board the elevator, until Yaamini felt a little sick.

“Mama, I’m not feeling well!” she quietly says.
“Nooooooooo” the three of us say all at once.
“Just kidding!” she says.

Ohh man, that was a close one!​ I say to myself.
When we finally boarded the elevator, my dad
told us a really ridiculous story.
“When I was your age, we went to ski in
Pittsburgh all the time,” he continues. “ Once when I went to ski, forty people
were packed into one huge gondola, kinda’ like this. There was this really chubby
kid who wasn’t feeling so well, and he yelled,​ ‘Brace yourself’ a​ nd everyone
pressed themselves against the wall since the kid was in the middle. He threw up
everywhere in the middle of the gondola!”
After that everyone in the elevator guffawed like orangutans!
Once we reached the top, Yaamini and
Meher ran to the nearest telescope.
“Please, Please, Please can we have a
Euro to look down from here!” they begged.
“Girls,” I said,
“Yeah, girls” Ishaan repeats.
We hop on the second elevator. Man, it
smelled bad. ​Did a rat die in here? I​ ask

myself. We skip this elevator, and hop on the next available elevator. Luckily, it
didn’t smell as nearly as bad.

Once we reach the top I gaze
down at the magical city spellbound.
I see the ​Arc de Triomphe, Notre
Dame, The Louvre, and Musée
d’Orsay.

The radiant colors of the
sunset, and the beautiful view of
Paris beneath me. It’s hard to
believe that I’m experiencing this
amazing view. It’s also hard to imagine being this high.

On the way down, we stop by the gift store. I buy a mini Eiffel Tower to
remember this special moment.