Travel story alert!

Welcome to Paris.

Here’s my story of Paris. I got off the plane at CDG airport and proceeded to the train stop. I asked some American kids in line behind me if I was in the right line. They said yes. So far so good.

I got on the train, and proceeded to the Gare du Nord (North station.) According to my directions from the hotel, my hotel was “close by” the Gare du Nord. I started walking. I saw signs that directed me toward my destination. It was 11:15pm. I walked, and walked and after about 30 minutes of pulling my wheeley case up the cobble stone walk ways, and around the construction and through the dirt, I decided that although I knew I was going the right way and I knew I must be close, that my hotel was in fact not “close by” Gare du Nord.

It was nearly midnight and I had not found my place. I was beginning to worry that I had taken a wrong turn and I would never find my way in the maze of no straight angles, only radiating circles. I found a cab. I told him my destination. He said, “This is very close.”
I said, “I know.”
He said, “This is very close.”
I threw my bags in the back and said, “I know!”
He said, “D’accord.” (okay)

Exactly two minutes and five euros later I was at my hotel. I would have never found it.
I walked into the lobby and found it dark, the reception locked and no bell, buzzer or phone for me to find someone to talk to.

Fantastic.

Just as I had decided that I would be spending my night in the lobby with the sad little Christmas tree, I heard someone approaching. Lo and hark! It was two Australian girls.

I pounced on them. (not literally) “Do you know how to get a hold of the reception?!”
They said, “No, no, they are gone.”
“Gone?”
“Yeah, gone. Gone for the night. Did you just get here?”
I said, “Yeah.”
They said, “The same thing happened to us.”
I just looked at them- all forlorn.

They jumped into their story about being lost in Paris, how there is another street with the same name, how they had finally found the place, but had to spend their fist night in another hotel.

That wasn’t helping.
Then the said, “We’re leaving early in the morning, but you can come stay in our room tonight, we have an extra bed. We are a little drunk and we still have to pack and we are leaving (some really cute little Aussie slang word meaning really) early, but come on, stay with us.”
I said, “Okay.”
I’d been in town less than an hour, I’d met these girls less than 5 minutes ago, and I was going to go share a room with them. I suppose stranger things happen to people on vacation.

We went to their room and they chatted about everything as they packed, they had just graduated from High school. One was going to Uni, the other hadn’t decided what she would do yet. They were on a several weeks long trip, including Germany, Paris, London, and Hong Kong.

They graciously guessed my age at 25. (HA!) They showed me their maps of the city, told me about the Metro, gave me a pharse book and a “fiver” in Aussie money to “remember them.” They were just really too cute. They warned me to be careful with the hotel manager and pointed out the bottle of whisky they would not be packing.
Eventually we turned out the lights and went to sleep.

They left early, hope they made their train. I went down to the reception the next morning and checked in. It was a half English half French conversation/argument about when I was supposed to check in (the day before) and who I was and why I was checking in at that time (a day late.)

Tune in next time for day 1 in Paris (it gets better.)