Ahhhh, gay Pari, how we've missed you!

As I went to brush my teeth and get dressed I walked out and came across the horrible lady from yesterday who stood in the passage way taking up the entire room as if to say “you can’t pass here” I waited and waited.. Until I finally just shoved past her. This woman has no understanding of manners or train etiquette! Our cabin just felt too small for 6 people so Chris and I went and got ‘breakfast’ in the food carriage who could only offer pear or grapefruit juice for your breakfast options. Not so impressed. We killed time here, desperate not to go back to our dodgy little carriage but eventually needing to get our passports back made our way back to the carriage where we asked a passing conductor for our passports to be returned, it was almost as if he slapped his forehead as he said “oh, of course! Will go get them now” and then disappeared for a further half an hour… We then got into Paris one hour late and we leapt off thankful to finally be in Paris and off the train from hell!!

We made our way to the hostel only to find that they have a ‘lock out’ from 11am until 4pm. This was ridiculous! Chris and I had been in the same sweaty clothes for over 24 hours now and were sweaty, tired and in desperate need of a shower (we smelt, I mean really, we smelt!) The lady on reception said that we could ‘dump’ our bags in the baggage room that was the size of a small pantry and then go do something. So, we put our bags in ‘storage’ and went to have breakfast. When we saw the price of a cup of coffee we very quickly decided that we weren’t actually hungry and instead just sipped very slowly our 4 Euro drinks… its incredible how much they can charge for simple things like coffee or water for that matter!

We took a small walk around the area discovering what is near by, found a bakery and brought a large baguette to share for breakfast/lunch. After this we stumbled into a near by cinema where we asked in very broken English if they were showing any English movies and then settled on watching “Public Enemies” that the older woman on the counter assured us (in way of charades) was in English. After this it was almost 4pm so we dragged ourselves to the hostel where we checked in and SHOWERED!!! Oooh, it was glorious! No longer did we smell, no longer were we wearing hideously sweaty, dirty clothes… it was so great!

We were so buggered after all this but made the effort of dragging ourselves up and out for a cheap dinner of Crepes that we noticed was mentioned in our trusty “Lonely Planet” guidebook. The crepes were huge and delicious, so it was worth the fact that we had had to hurl ourselves up a steepish hill for them. We then very slowly strolled the surrounding streets of the Latin Quarter and came across both the pythanon and then the Luxembourg gardens, both of which were lovely. We sat in the gardens for a time relaxing and taking in the sites and sounds that were happening around us before then dragging ourselves back to the hostel for a well deserved, much needed good nights sleep!!

written by  Chris and Emily on July 29, 2009 from Paris, France
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
Send a Compliment

comment on this...