Paris: The City that Sleeps

First off!!!! I must say HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BEST SISTERS!!! Michele and Jen are avid Readers of the blog so it is only appropriate to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Michele's Birthday is today and Jen's is in 2 days!!!! (at the rate we are posting blogs I will tell you HAPPY BIRTHDAY NOW JEN!!!)

Getting to Paris:

From London to Paris we traveled on an overnight bus. This bus had to go through the Eurotunnel and was kind of a cool experience. Since the trip itself was interesting we didn’t get much sleep that night. Well… I did, noone else really did though. In order to go through the chunnel connecting France to the UK the entire bus had to board a cargo train. This was a glorified cargo train, but still it was kinda cool. I was extremely tired because apparently I get a little stressed trying to make sure everyone has everything and we are all set to travel. Its really hard with five people. Especially with five people who all I sware have ADD or something. Since we were safely on the bus/train I felt it was ok to relax. However, when the bus is in an enclosed space like this its not safe to keep it running. This meant NO AIRCONDITIONING!!!! It was so fricken hot and disgusting!!!! Tina and Kup decided to go on an adventure and skip through the train cars. I think they were looking for “the beverage” car, but they didn’t find one.

When we arrived in Paris it was 7 am.we bullshitted in an enormous park then made our way to the hotel. IT WAS A LONG ASS WALK!!! The subway system here is simple to maneuver. You want to know why its simple? Imagine, if you will, a big ass whole dug in the ground. Now the size of this whole that you are imagining, times that by five!!! Put about 6 levels spaced out at about 15’ from one another. Now put random as tunnels going in all directions. There you have it… it’s the Paris Metro!!!! We saw the sign to get to our train (which was on the RER {a little different then the metro}). And walked for 45 min to get to our line. All in this underground hole that I am telling you about. We went up … we went down… we went right… we went left… this fricken hole/tunnel was never ending. Needless to say… I am sure you guessed it. The tunnel did end and we got to our train. We made it to our hotel and then all just crashed.

(Noone was in a great mood when we get to the Hotel, but it sure was an experience and def. leaves me with a few words of advice for future backpackers… “only take what you can carry!!!”)

Our Room in Paris: Yea it only took us 5 min to trash and Kup Broke his Bed.

Top Memerable Moments of Paris:

Culture Shock!

- Every country that we have hit so far has been very Americanized. They even speak our language. Now I a will be the first one to admit that though some people say they are speaking English… ummm… yeah … I don’t think so. Man some accents were thick, but don’t worry I did the Christina thing. When I couldn’t understand what they were saying. I just smiled, nodded, and said yeah.

In France when someone spoke and I couldn’t understand, I must admit I would do the same thing, but something tells me that though its not words the gestures do not translate. At the end of there statements they would just smile and nod and would keep looking at me to respond. Apparently a “yeah” wasn’t good enough.

Speaking the Language:

Now not everyone on our trip took French in High school (only I did), but I am not going to mention any names, but the funniest part of the trip is hearing people try to speak French that do not have the slightest clue. Now speaking English louder and putting a nasaly o or e at the end of a word does NOT necessarily make that word French.

Now imagine all of what I said with a person trying to order a cheeseburger with no onions at McDonalds. Now like I said I wont mention any names.. Cough… cough… t… cougf..ina…But Onnnun… loud and with a slight accent still does not translate to onion. Now imagine this with gesturing no onions. Put it all together and you have 5 dumb ass Americans ordering a cheeseburger with no onions.

The City that Sleeps (but not us)

With the language being different here, it does take us about twice as long to get around. We all have to stand in front of a map and decipher what it says.

For instance… we all stand around a sign to decided when the last train runs from Paris city center to our hotel. Now we all must have gotten this one wrong, because we could swear that they sign said 1:15, however when we got to the train at 1:10 it was already closed up. So… we walked to a park where we slept. It was a hot day that day, but at night… man .. At night it gets cold. Cher and I kept each other warm. Tina had a drunkin stroke of brilliance. She put a newspaper over us for warmth. I was shocked it worked. I guess now I understand why homeless people use them.

Don’t worry at 5:00 am we caught the train back. …

We slept till 3:30 the next day!

Cher and I sleeping in the Park (or atleast trying to, we couldn't fall asleep)

Authentic Lunch in Paris:

Cher and I separated from everyone to do our own adventure to see where my father worked while he studied culinary in France. I was so excited to do this and was all that I looked forward to doing in france. However, France I don’t think wanted us too. The way the trains ran and the cost of the tickct, didn’t make it feasible for Cher and I to go. I cannot tell you how upset I am about this!!! I have to say it is my one regret on this trip. It was the one thing I wanted to do. After Cher and I figured out we cuoldn;t go to Chartres, we went to a fle market and to a little sandwich shop. Cher and I were the only ones eating at this place and I was very proud to order my sandwich all in French. I think the owner liked us because he came out to the patio to say Hi. He spoke very little English, but we could understand him enough to know if he asked us if we were sisters. When we replied that we were twins he became so happy and whipped out pictures of his daughters who happened to be twins as well. He was really happy to see how close Cher and I are. He ended up not charging us for half our meal and made me really like Parisians.

Notre Dame Cathedral:

Beautiful… Gorgeous.. And is one of the oldest buildings that we have seen so far. The cathedral we wanted to see in Chartres was the sister cathedral of Notre Dame. The stain glass windows, the gargoyles, the towers…. They were all really cool.

(oh if you go.. Don’t pay to go into the treasury… its kinda a waste)

K guys … hold on to your chairs…. This is kind of exciting!!!

WE FOUND THE WALMART OF FRANCE!!!!

The place that we were staying at was right next to a mall that housed a store called Carrefour. This was three levels of cheap ass stuff. Cher and I got a shirt, food, shampoo. We could have gotten whatever else we needed as well, but really… you can only carry so much.
Now… I know I am trying to keep these blogs informative, but short. So sorry if it is wordy.
Remember guys "voulez vous chez avec moi se soir” Yeah … still the only phrase I know in French!!!

Au revoir !!!

Chris