A paris!

A lot happened since we last wrote to you, oh boy! Ok, well as we mentioned, our next desitnation was camping in Amsterdam. Well we went to the train station bright and early, around nine oclock, and asked them how we can get to Amsterdam without any reservations (which cost money). The lady looked and looked and couldn't come up with a single thing. So we were like, ok, how about cheap reservations? She looked and looked again and said nope, unless a cheap reservation is the €150 fare from Paris to Amsterdam, then it is not possible to get to Amsterdam today. Laura and I were like...ok...interesting turn of events. We bought 4 oclock tickets to Paris (€3 reservation) , but we decided that we wanted internet, so that we could figure out if there was a bus, or some other option after that. (Don't worry, the instant Laura said hitchhike I said NO) So we walked, with our bags, mind you a reasonable ish ten minute walk to an internet cafe. But oh no! Its Sunday, its not open. Well darn, we know theres another one near the Cathedral, and its bigger, so we think, well its more likely to be open! So we walk the less reasonable 30 minute walk with our bags over in that direction. Oh, how lovely, as were getting closer the big metal gate closing it is getting shinier and shinier. Just great! We rest our feetsies of course, and go back to the train station, about a 25 minute walk. We go to the counter, and it is BUSY. We stand in line, but the English speaking one isn't availiable, so we slowly walk up to the counter. Through broken English and French we were able to tell him that we wanted to get to Amsterdam, from Paris, tomorrow. I told him we were already going to be sleeping in Paris tonight, so tomorrow we would need one to Amsterdam. Sadly, he didn't realize that we already HAD these tickets to be in Paris, and we paid an extra (non refundable) €3 each, not much, but we're on a tight budget! We also paid €13 to reserve our spot on the other train. Lovely! But at least we're getting there.

This is about when we would want to call our hostel for the night and tell them that we can't get in. But remember, no internet, that means no phone number! That means we just wait and hope that they don't cancel our reservation and rebook the room! We met a couple of girls from Florida while waiting, they were doing a 6 wk Law School exchange program at Oxford. They said they lived on a budget, but the place they offered us for the night in paris (very nice of them by the way) was ONLY 60 dollars a night, per person. We said thank you, but no thank you.

The train to Paris was rather uneventful, and we were able to arrive in the beautiful city at 5pm. We were at a different station then the one that our train left from in the morning, so we looked at a map (a few times) and figured out how to walk to the other, luckily only 10 minutes away. Once we got there, we asked the service desk if there ever so possibly could be a baggage storage. And guess what! THERE WAS. So we went down there, put our bag in a €7, 48 hr storage locker and went on our way. And the direction of our way was the Eiffel Tower of course! We got a one way ticket for the metro, and luckily when we were leaving, there was a herd of people going through the disabled door, skipping the thing that takes zour ticket away! So we joined them of course, and didn't have to give up our ticket. Yes, we like to save money, even 1.50 euro for a ticket. Shush.

We walked, looking for the sky, figuring it would show us where to go! I mean, we got off at the Tour d'Eiffel exit afterall. We just couldn't see it, so we followed the crowd. Suddenly there was a parting in the trees and we were RIGHT next to it. It was pretty awesome. We took some pictures, and bought some bread and cheese (how appropriate) and went to sit on the lawn and listen to music. The weather was nice, we had food and a place to sit, the fact that we had no where to stay that night was beside the point! We opened the cheese and OMG it stunk. We ate this cheese before in Germany, but apparently its made different in France. It was unbearable, EVEN FOR LAURA. That was a waste of €3, but luckily we still had jam from before and were able to enjoy the bread. We sat here, got up to get some delicious crepes to warm up (recommended by those girls from Florida) and continued to sit. We stayed for the 10 o'clock then 11 o'clock shows (lighting and sparkling)

DO you want to know what SUCKS? We arrived the DAY before Bastille day, meaning the day before big parties, major celebration at the Eiffel Tower and FREE ADMITTANCE INTO NATIONAL MUSEUMS, INCLUDING THE LOUVRE. Yea, and we had a 9am train out the next morning. It was upsetting, but we knew that we would want to see that with Rachel in a month (to the day) and that it would be less fun for her if we'd just seen it. EVEN if it was free...

We headed back to the train station (our planned hotel) and were able to use our one way tickets, which were actually not checked either getting onto the metro NOR leaving it. Faulty system, I'd say. We made ourselves a little bed on the floor of the station, and we were playing some cards when a man who worked there said, 'You know this closes in an hour, right?' (but in french) and we were like UHOH nopes! We were like...ok well theres a park like 10 minutes from here...we'll stay here for the hour, then go there for three, then come back when it opens at 4! During that hour, a group of Britains came and sat near us, as did two other college age people down the way. We heard people being shooed out down stairs, and the Britain asked us if we had to go, and we said...yes, in like 20 minutes. So he went up and asked a man if there was anyway we could sleep inside (otherwise they would join us in the park, safety in numbers!). The man started leading us, telling us to follow. We were worried he would lead us to the door (where the dog was barking at people), but instead, he led us to a train! And he told us that we had to be out by 5 and said goodbye. It was amazing! We had a warm place to sleep! We were all ecstatic!

We had a long boring wait til the train, filled with a little grumpiness (it turned colder as the night went on, and Laura didn't sleep very well). We got some food and got onto our train, and had a very nice 5 hr venture to Amsterdam.

I hopefully will continue to update, right about now!