Gay Paree' - Bonjour!!
I find myself sitting here in a Paris internet cafe and I cant believe it. Only yesterday, I was scaling the Swiss Alps, and today, I am in the city of love. Interlaken hit bad weather yesterday so I figured it was better to move on early than to sit and wait for the rain to go. Rainy weather was predicted for the next two days so I decided to book my ticket to Paris two days early.
After saying goodbye to my new found friends in Interlaken, I boarded a TGV train bound for Paris. Unfortunately, it didnt go straight to Paris. It went via Lausanne and Geneva and half of the other major cities in Europe!! So it took about six hours, rather than the advertised three hours. Given that I was on one of the high speed trains, I would have hated to have done the same trip on a regional train.
I arrived at Paris de Lyon, the major train station at about 11pm. Armed with some very dodgy directions via text from mum to a hotel they stayed in when they were in Paris in June, I begun my journey into central Paris. I managed to work out the metro easily enough, but those who know me well will know I am not all that good at reading maps. After coming out of the metro at what I thought was the closest metro station to the hotel, I wandered around with a 20kg backpack on my back, Lonely Planet in one hand, and mobile phone with the text messages from mum. I waddled up and down every street I thought would take me to "Hotel Opera Madrid" for at least an hour, before I decided to test a Parisian's hospitality (or lack thereof, as they are notoriously known). "Escusimoi, poly vou Englay?" I say in bad French (I memorised that saying only an hour prior from the Euroupe language guide). The young Parisian girl seemed eager enough to help, so she reviewed my map, looked at my text message with the address, looked at my map once more, and pointed down the steet. "Merci boucooo" I say and trod off down the street. I didnt find it (and in hindsight, she managed to get me more lost, by pointing in the opposite direction). I thought I would attempt fate and ask another Parisian, so this time I tried a youngish male. "Escusimoi, poly vou Englay???" He shakes his head but points to another girl with him. I sigh with relief as she takes the reigns, and begins to decifer my puzzle of instructions.
One and a half hours later, one phone call to the hotel, three kilometres of walking, and a cry for help to a Parisian taxi driver, we finally came across Hotel Opera Madrid - the street beside the one I was standing by when I asked the first girl back about two hours ago.
By the time I said goodbye to my new found Parisian friends (who'd spent one and a half hours helping me!), tried to pay them 20 euro (which they refused) and tried to offer them Swiss Chocolate I had bought at the supermarket back in Interlaken, I went in and checked into the room.
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY EUROS? How does that work? I'm on my own, its 1am in the morning, and I have to check out at 11am?? "Expensiff?" The hotel attendant says, as he shrugs carelessly. "Perhaps, wie. But I giff you a big rooooom, and breakfast, for the price offf the single." I say to Jean-Marie (I cant remember his name - it was late) that "its okay, I just want a bed, wie?". He smiles and hands me the card for Room 10.
After cramming myself and my 20 kg backpack into the lift (which I am sure was built for the purposes of carrying one child-size person at a time), I dragged my stuff into Room 10.
Well.
I recieved 130 euros worth of hotel room. The place looked dodgy outside, but I went into the room and found that it was actually an apartment - with two tvs, a huge bath tub, lounge room, hallway, heater, two basins, huge king size bed. I have a feeling that Jean Marie took pity on me and gave me the best room in the hotel. Of course, he knew I'd only be using the room for about ten hours.
I used my 130 euros worth of room. Until about 2.30am, I busily did all of my washing, recharged all of my electronic gadgets with their power supply, spread by bags across all four rooms and sorted what was junk and what wasnt. I even managed to catch some late night/early morning French talk show.
So here I am in Paris, and it is sprinkling rain. I dont mind though. A little rain in Paris is a lot better than a little rain in Interlaken. Due to the canyoning disaster in 1999 (22 people died in a canyoning accident), the operators in Interlaken are now ultra-safety cautious, and all activities more or less stop the minute rain is in sight. They havent canyoned or rafted since the floods last month, which was a shame because I was all ready to go and jump into some waterfalls.
Today was free museum day! Every first Sunday of each month, Paris opens up all of their museams for free for one day. So I took advantage of this (and the fact that it was a little rainy) to go and see the Lourve. Wow. After spending an hour and a half in a queue (which is actually not that bad, for the Lourve!), I spent nearly four hours in there and I did not even touch the surface of what lies within that amazing place. I managed to squeeze my way through all of the other cheap-skates that were using the free day to their advantage, and was able to see the Mona Lisa (what is the fascination with that girl?), the Venus Di Milo and many other masterpieces.
This afternoon, I dragged my bags from Hotel Opera Madrid to the backpackers hostel (what a change in scenery that was!) which is located in probably the dingiest, smelliest area of town, right near the Moulin Rouge. Dont panic, Mum, the place is well lit and there are heaps of people around. The hostel, while not exactly the Ritz Carlton (or Madrid!), it is very clean, friendly, and warm. I cannot ask for more. I will be spending the next four days only sleeping there, nothing else. And Paris is expensive so I need to save as many euros as I can!
Anyway, this is me signing off. I have bought myself a royal blue beret which I plan to where around to give me an authentic Parisian look (?!) and I have to now head back to the hostel and practice my "Weee Monsiour" and "Bonjour, J'Mappelle Kathryn".
Au Reviour!
K
P.S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO the mighty Tigers!!! They won the Grand Final today! GO YOU GOOD THING!
P.P.S On a serious note, my thoughts and prayers to those in Bali right now. Its times like these which put things in perspective, and make me want to be home with my family and friends....
After saying goodbye to my new found friends in Interlaken, I boarded a TGV train bound for Paris. Unfortunately, it didnt go straight to Paris. It went via Lausanne and Geneva and half of the other major cities in Europe!! So it took about six hours, rather than the advertised three hours. Given that I was on one of the high speed trains, I would have hated to have done the same trip on a regional train.
I arrived at Paris de Lyon, the major train station at about 11pm. Armed with some very dodgy directions via text from mum to a hotel they stayed in when they were in Paris in June, I begun my journey into central Paris. I managed to work out the metro easily enough, but those who know me well will know I am not all that good at reading maps. After coming out of the metro at what I thought was the closest metro station to the hotel, I wandered around with a 20kg backpack on my back, Lonely Planet in one hand, and mobile phone with the text messages from mum. I waddled up and down every street I thought would take me to "Hotel Opera Madrid" for at least an hour, before I decided to test a Parisian's hospitality (or lack thereof, as they are notoriously known). "Escusimoi, poly vou Englay?" I say in bad French (I memorised that saying only an hour prior from the Euroupe language guide). The young Parisian girl seemed eager enough to help, so she reviewed my map, looked at my text message with the address, looked at my map once more, and pointed down the steet. "Merci boucooo" I say and trod off down the street. I didnt find it (and in hindsight, she managed to get me more lost, by pointing in the opposite direction). I thought I would attempt fate and ask another Parisian, so this time I tried a youngish male. "Escusimoi, poly vou Englay???" He shakes his head but points to another girl with him. I sigh with relief as she takes the reigns, and begins to decifer my puzzle of instructions.
One and a half hours later, one phone call to the hotel, three kilometres of walking, and a cry for help to a Parisian taxi driver, we finally came across Hotel Opera Madrid - the street beside the one I was standing by when I asked the first girl back about two hours ago.
By the time I said goodbye to my new found Parisian friends (who'd spent one and a half hours helping me!), tried to pay them 20 euro (which they refused) and tried to offer them Swiss Chocolate I had bought at the supermarket back in Interlaken, I went in and checked into the room.
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY EUROS? How does that work? I'm on my own, its 1am in the morning, and I have to check out at 11am?? "Expensiff?" The hotel attendant says, as he shrugs carelessly. "Perhaps, wie. But I giff you a big rooooom, and breakfast, for the price offf the single." I say to Jean-Marie (I cant remember his name - it was late) that "its okay, I just want a bed, wie?". He smiles and hands me the card for Room 10.
After cramming myself and my 20 kg backpack into the lift (which I am sure was built for the purposes of carrying one child-size person at a time), I dragged my stuff into Room 10.
Well.
I recieved 130 euros worth of hotel room. The place looked dodgy outside, but I went into the room and found that it was actually an apartment - with two tvs, a huge bath tub, lounge room, hallway, heater, two basins, huge king size bed. I have a feeling that Jean Marie took pity on me and gave me the best room in the hotel. Of course, he knew I'd only be using the room for about ten hours.
I used my 130 euros worth of room. Until about 2.30am, I busily did all of my washing, recharged all of my electronic gadgets with their power supply, spread by bags across all four rooms and sorted what was junk and what wasnt. I even managed to catch some late night/early morning French talk show.
So here I am in Paris, and it is sprinkling rain. I dont mind though. A little rain in Paris is a lot better than a little rain in Interlaken. Due to the canyoning disaster in 1999 (22 people died in a canyoning accident), the operators in Interlaken are now ultra-safety cautious, and all activities more or less stop the minute rain is in sight. They havent canyoned or rafted since the floods last month, which was a shame because I was all ready to go and jump into some waterfalls.
Today was free museum day! Every first Sunday of each month, Paris opens up all of their museams for free for one day. So I took advantage of this (and the fact that it was a little rainy) to go and see the Lourve. Wow. After spending an hour and a half in a queue (which is actually not that bad, for the Lourve!), I spent nearly four hours in there and I did not even touch the surface of what lies within that amazing place. I managed to squeeze my way through all of the other cheap-skates that were using the free day to their advantage, and was able to see the Mona Lisa (what is the fascination with that girl?), the Venus Di Milo and many other masterpieces.
This afternoon, I dragged my bags from Hotel Opera Madrid to the backpackers hostel (what a change in scenery that was!) which is located in probably the dingiest, smelliest area of town, right near the Moulin Rouge. Dont panic, Mum, the place is well lit and there are heaps of people around. The hostel, while not exactly the Ritz Carlton (or Madrid!), it is very clean, friendly, and warm. I cannot ask for more. I will be spending the next four days only sleeping there, nothing else. And Paris is expensive so I need to save as many euros as I can!
Anyway, this is me signing off. I have bought myself a royal blue beret which I plan to where around to give me an authentic Parisian look (?!) and I have to now head back to the hostel and practice my "Weee Monsiour" and "Bonjour, J'Mappelle Kathryn".
Au Reviour!
K
P.S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO the mighty Tigers!!! They won the Grand Final today! GO YOU GOOD THING!
P.P.S On a serious note, my thoughts and prayers to those in Bali right now. Its times like these which put things in perspective, and make me want to be home with my family and friends....
posted by KateOnTheGo at
8:15 PM
1 Comments:
Tiger,
Sounds like you are having an awesome time!
Work just isn't the same with out you there...no one to have chats with! Im missing doing the "signing off whistle at the end of the day!!" hehe
Any way enough of my rambling on, get back to seeing the world girl!
Have Fun!
Jaime
P.s photo's???
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home