Paris: First Impressions

Okay, there's wireless in our hotel and it's free, so I brought my laptop. Hooray for staying connected.

After spending about 7 hours traveling/waiting to travel, we arrived in PARIS! The Gare du Nord station is a very busy and crazy train station. We found our way to tourist information and bought our museum passes (they only accept credit cards; I am glad I did not leave mine at home!) and also a 5 day pass for the metro/train/bus. Vendy just gave me the cash, so it was ok. Now I just have to remember to pay my bill; whew, got a lot on that thing now. Since our pass for the metro is only good for 5 days, we didn't want to use it right away, since even though it was already 4pm, today would still count as 1 day. We bought regular tickets for the Metro which, in comparison to Berlin, were cheap (2,10 vs. 1,50). Here, there is absolutely no honor system for the Metro whatsoever. You have to pass through these metal gates that only open after you insert your ticket. It was scary, lol. There's no way to even get down to the Metro station where the trains are without a ticket. Absolutely no way to sneak on.

Anyway, Vendy and I are speaking German on the Metro on the way to the hotel, and the announcer said something and we didn't know what it was, and the lady next to us told us, in German, what he said. I said "thanks, that's very nice of you!" And then she continued to ask us in German where we were from in Germany, and we both told her that we weren't actually German. Well, she found out I was an American and started speaking English and was just thrilled that she could use her English and German in one single ride on the Metro! We got off the train and after a bit of wandering around, we found our hotel. Well, it calls itself a hotel, which is true, but it also has dorm-style rooms with 2 bunks in them. So far, we don't have any roomies...

The hotel is okay. We only got one hand towel a piece, and I asked for another towel and was given two large bath towels... why didn't I get those in the first place? Dunno. The blanket, well, I'm going to stay away from it. The sheets are crisp and clean, which is all I really care about, honestly. The bathroom is about the size of a bath tub... and is not ventilated AT ALL... so when you go in to take a shower, the whole place just steams up and water gets everywhere. I thankfully remembered to pack my flip-flops... there is mildew on the ceiling, in the grout on the tiling, and the shower curtain, too, not to mention it (the curtain) is several different colors. I think its supposed to be white... the guy at the front desk is really nice, too! Had no problems speaking English and also had a grand time practicing the bit of German he knows, and asking me how to say hotel things like "the room is ready", ha ha.

We got our stuff in the room and headed back out into the city. Our hotel is in the Belleview/Bastille district, which is mainly residential but has a few attractions, just nothing too major. I bought myself a panini from a little Stube on the street; it was just so yummy! I bought the mexican version, which had tomatoes, cheese, a chili sauce, and chicken. It was huuuge and cost only 4 Euro. I remember buying a tiny piece of bread with cheese on it in Amsterdam for the same price...felt very ripped off, lol. The lady at the Stube was also a very nice French person who also had no problems speaking English. She somehow knew to speak English with me, too! She even told me I had beautiful eyes...I thought the French were supposed to be stuck up? While she was making my sandwich we chatted a bit and I told her I was from Florida and was now a student in Germany. She was amazed that I'd only paid 50 Euro for my round trip ticket to and from Paris all the way from Germany. She mentioned she pays 250! That seems a little too much...

We walked to the Place de la Bastille and all around the neighborhoods there. The map we have is really good; it has all the streets listed in the back and so we just find the street, look for it on the grid, and voila! We almost got locked inside a park, and I paid 1 Euro (currently $1.53) for a can of juice at a grocery store. What a rip off, ha ha... Anyway, after a while of walking around, we decided to go back to the hotel and get cleaned up and not be out all night so we could hit the road early in the morning. We also wanted to do a little planning for tomorrow. The original plan was to go to Versailles, but after discovering that our train ticket didn't include the zone to get to Versailles, we'd save it for Monday or something, and look around the city first. There are definitely a lot of neat museums in Paris, and I'm hoping to get to take advantage of at least the most famous ones, well, and to make this museum pass we got worth it. I suppose if we went to the Louvre every day, it'd be worth it, since it costs about 11-13 Euro to get in, depending on which collections you want to see.


Okay, tired of writing, hope you two enjoyed it. I'll try to post a bit this week and report on what we do so I don't do a short post when I come home that leaves out the good details. We're hoping the weather'll be good tomorrow.

Caitlin