As a side-note, I accidentally threw my passport in my camera case (with the camera) and in my half-awake haze, then put that in my suitcase. Not my carry-on.
So, we all go to the train station and are milling around for a bit. We were not given our tickets until right before getting on the train.
I was told to get on one car because that was the one my ticket was for, but a lady that worked there yelled at me to go onto another train because my luggage was too big. Then that line wasn't moving whatsoever but the line I had initially been in (and the one our tour director got on) had vanished, so I hopped onto that car and just wandered a little bit until I finally found our (now relatively frazzled looking) tour director. He helped me put my suitcase up to where no one could get it down easily and I went to my seat. (I did see him get lectured about suitcases being in incorrect places by someone who worked on the train and there was obvious miscommunication between them but I didn't say anything because I probably would have just made it worse.)
Car 18 was only people in our travel group. There were sixteen of us in it and honestly, I thought it was nice. We could sleep without too much concern for our stuff (at least after we fixed the safety hazard that was the suitcases blocking everyone's path in and out of the car).
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| Just a slight safety hazard (it did get fixed) |
There was a door between the two sections of the car (eight on one side, eight on the other), and I was curious if it actually closed, so I pulled it. It closed and slammed shut (whoops). Then when I went to open it back up, it didn't budge for a few moments and I was momentarily concerned that I just locked eight people in a very small area. Don't worry, I did get it reopened.
We reclosed it at some point, but then those on the other side asked to keep it open for air ventilation. Which I was cool with, but one of the girls in my little four people table area was not. And she kept telling me to close the door again because the others were being too loud. Although I figured they'd quiet down relatively soon, she was very adamant that I close it again, so eventually I did.
This was about when I realized I did not have my passport in my carry-on. It freaked me out for a bit until I realized where it was. And I remember praying that I didn't actually need it for any reason while on the train.
I wish I could say that we had a completely uneventful trip to Paris and slept the whole way there.
We did not.
Most of the car was asleep when the door into the car opened, waking me and one or two other people up. Random people in street clothes come storming into the car, the front couple of people's body language was very aggressive.
They opened the door to the back half of our car and start telling the other people in our group something. All I could hear was one of them saying "off the train." I looked around trying to figure out how many people there were trying to kick my friends off the train. We were approaching a stop and I couldn't think who had the authority to kick people off a train.
Apparently I looked very concerned, because one of the people still in the doorway flashes a badge at me and says "It's okay, we're customs."
None of us knew what the badge for customs looks like. They could have just been flashing a parking tag at us for all I knew and saying it was a customs badge.
At this point, the people who were being kicked out of their seats were moving (as most of them had been asleep, I assume). Our tour director noticed something was happening and came up and asked what the deal was. They talked for a bit about how they were customs and needed the car. He was like "Okay, guys let's get moving." And so half of the car left (and apparently were sent to the bar car, which no one particularly complained about). The customs people filed away into that part of the car, slammed the door, and suddenly all of the glass turned black.
When they came back out, they were in an actual uniform and went checking people and their passports.
I would have been very embarrassed had I been chosen, because as I mentioned before, my passport was in my suitcase two cars ahead and very difficult to get to.
Multiple people in our group were checked, but thankfully, I was not.
Eventually, we arrived in Paris. Nothing else exciting happened on the train ride, thankfully. And I managed to catch up on my sleep.
We speed through the train station as much as a group of 43 people can and load the bus. The trip to our hostel was fairly uneventful. We get to the hostel, get sent up the elevators to wait for the tour director to get all of our rooms figured out. Thankfully, I went from a room of six to a room of three. Ashleigh, Arlynn, and I got a room to ourselves. Technically.
From what I can tell, most of the groups were now either rooms of three or four, which was a very nice change from the small rooms with six people in them. From here were freshened up a bit and then went to the Eiffel Tower.
Our Tour Director bought us our first crepes and they were delicious (I bought a rose so I could approach people and quote Anastasia). At this point we weren't able to go up the Eiffel tour because we had to get to a cabaret show and getting onto the tower would have taken multiple hours.
When you're only in Paris for a select amount of time, with all there is to do especially when the weather is very hazy, you have to make choices as to what is worth and isn't worth your time. I decided that spending four hours in line to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower was NOT worth my time (this trip). Probably next trip.
From there, we were granted 30-45 minutes to wander around, so a small group of us wandered along the river banks to a river. We went across a pretty cool bridge.
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| "Welcome my friends to Paris. Here have a flower on me." |
I didn't know what to expect for the Cabaret show, but I can admit it was enjoyable. Yes, there were a lot of shirtless men and women. In fact, if I remember correctly, we even saw a few butts.
The food was okay, the drinks were pretty good (a welcome drink, wine, and champagne). I'm sure had we gone to the Moulin Rouge the food would have been better and one of the dancers wouldn't have noticeably forgotten all of his moves. But I enjoyed it.
I don't particularly remember what we did following this. I think we just went back to hostel, had a few drinks in the hostel bar, then went to someone's room (where one of the roommates was trying to sleep) and ate wings and fries, then went to bed. If this is the night I am thinking of, I wanted to explore like just the block around the hostel or go out and dance. No one in the group particularly wanted to and Alec and Danny (two of the guys staying in the hostel) gave me some creeper vibes and I was not going to go out with them. By the time I finally got a group that didn't creep me out willing to go, all of the places nearby were closed and preparing for New Years Eve.
I overslept the morning of December 31. It was the day we were going to do the bus tour through Paris and Arlynn wakes Ashleigh and me up asking if we were going because we had like ten or fifteen minutes to get ready.
Now, normally I don't do well rushing in the morning. This was no exception. I jumped out of bed, rushed around a bit, making no progress in getting ready, decide no I can't make it. Arlynn tells me I can, so I run around some more, finally start to make progress, decide makeup isn't necessary, sneeze a few times because I haven't taken allergy medicine in a few days and I'm pretty sure I was allergic to something in this hostel, sit back down , stand immediately back up, put on two different shoes, realize I have two different shoes on, fix it, finish brushing teeth and hair, and then run downstairs. Well, run to the elevator and then go downstairs because the stairs were difficult to find here.
I did make it in time. I didn't have coffee nor any breakfast. At this point, I knew it was going to be an interesting day. We did the whole tour thing and a couple interesting buildings (and a cafe where I got coffee and a chocolate croissant). I learned that a flagship store is the first store of a company, not actually the name of a street that the first HPB store just happens to be on.
After this tour, our EF group walked to the perfume museum. Nikki, Aidan, Kris, and I weren't particularly feeling going to a perfume museum so we get this idea to go get food and meet back up with the group after eating.
It was a Great Choice!
We walked around the corner and found a quaint little restaurant. When we order only water (at like noon), our waitress seemed a little bit confused, but rolled with it.
The menu was in french. Now, I did take french for YEARS in school. But apparently the only word that stuck with me was fromage. And that's mainly because I'm somewhat obsessed with cheese. So I ordered something that fromage seemed to be the main ingredient.
And let me tell you. It was wonderful. It looks like mozzarella sticks, but it wasn't. I don't know what kind of cheese it was but it was delicious. The whole salad was incredible.
We guzzled two more bottles of water between the four of us and downed our food. When we checked the time, we realized we had been there for more than the allotted 45 minutes, so we hurried out (without getting dessert or coffee which also confused our waitress) and rushed back to the perfume museum.
No one was there.
So we figure we missed them and would just meet up with them at the next stop, which we had been planning on doing anyway if we missed them.
We make our way down the block, across a couple of streets, and down a little ways more and end up in one of the larger malls I've ever seen. Then, we hop onto the escalator and go up. and up. and up.
When we reached the roof, we looked around a bit for anyone in our group and finally I decide to message someone I knew from home who was on the trip (Kevin M.) and he told me they were still at the perfume museum.
So, we took pictures on the roof and decided to go to the Ice Cube Bar on the roof, get a bottle of wine, and wait.
About the time we get our second bottle, the rest of the group is getting food somewhere and someone else who slept through the tour is trying to reach us (Larkin). Apparently he went to the Louvre (the next stop after this roof) and there were many places with the same name as the place we were in.
He eventually joined us for our third bottle.
Then I hear that the rest of the group is already done with food and have been at the Louvre. or were going to the Louvre.
So after a bathroom break, we all head that direction. In a very content, wine-tipsy state.
We did not go in the Louvre, because at this point we were starting to run out of time because we had only a couple of hours to get ready for the beginning of our New Years celebration.
Rather than try to figure out the metro system, we took an uber back to the hostel. It was another great choice.
At some point before the party after I showered and got mostly ready, there was still some time to kill, so I drank a bottle of wonderful raspberry wine that I got at the cheese and clog place in the Netherlands with Kris, Aidan, and Larkin. Nikki was taking a nap, I believe. Which I definitely should have, but if I napped there was the risk of not waking up for the party.
Food and drink were provided, but the food was only so-so (quite a bit of it was vegan) and they ran out of drinks before the end of the night. This was when we got the only pictures of the three of us that had been on the Belize trip that came.
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| Sadly, this was the best of the pictures on my phone of the three of us |
I did not sleep a lot this night either. But who can blame me? It was New Years!
Thankfully, we didn't have to do anything until noon the next day. That was when we went to Montmartre. And the Notre Dame (which we didn't go in because of a super long wait). And we wandered for quite a bit. I had some hot chocolate and a ham and cheese crepe (not at the same time).
Then we went on a river cruise on the Seine. I will admit, I slept through most of it. The guide's voice wasn't the most appealing. I was tired. But I did wake up in time to get some nice photos of the Eiffel Tower as we passed it.
And then I promptly fell back asleep.
That night, Ashleigh, Larkin, Kris, and I went out to the Bastille area. And I got a shot for the group and the bartender freaking set the entire bartop on fire. I don't remember what it was, I just remember him "spilling" something and suddenly there's fire in front of me. It went out promptly, but still it was cool.
After we finished at that bar, we went to one across the street that I think was called something similar to Shelby and it was noticeably a bit nerdy. There were pokemon and dragonball z things on the walls. We were the loudest group there.
BUT
Nate, the Canadian who is a Parisian chef that we met in Amsterdam joined us.
Our search for a Karaoke bar failed utterly.
Eventually we ubered back to the Hostel for the night.
The next day, we left Paris and were on our way to London.
Until Next Time,
Shelby
After we finished at that bar, we went to one across the street that I think was called something similar to Shelby and it was noticeably a bit nerdy. There were pokemon and dragonball z things on the walls. We were the loudest group there.
BUT
Nate, the Canadian who is a Parisian chef that we met in Amsterdam joined us.
Our search for a Karaoke bar failed utterly.
Eventually we ubered back to the Hostel for the night.
The next day, we left Paris and were on our way to London.
Until Next Time,
Shelby
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