Travel Day!

So If I was smart, I would have blogged after the end of each day that I miss in Paris…but I didn’t so I guess I will go by memory.

My flight went well and I sat next to a nice lady from Philly to France and we talked for a little bit. The best part is that she was small unlike my last ride to France when I had a chubbier guy next to me and was sort of in my seat because he was bigger. So that was a good start. The main reason why the plane ride went well was because I slept the vast majority of the flight! It was great! My movie monitor didn’t work but that didn’t bother me one bit, I didn’t have time to get bored because I was sleeping.

So when I arrived in Paris I was a lot calmer than the previous time. I also realized that I STILL suck at reading French signs and following directions. There arrows confuse me…so in America if you want someone to go straight- you have an arrow. In France if you want someone to go straight- you have a down arrow. So, the dumb American who has been to France before goes down the escalator instead because I thought they wanted me to go down! After going up and down and finally turning on my brain and disregarding my blond hair, I figured that out…although the reading sign issue didn’t stop there. So next problem was that the last time I was in France other people were directing me because I was too concerned with my heavy luggage. SO, this time I was all by my lonesome and didn’t know where to go. Granted I had directions where I had to go, but I struggle with maps and following directions. After staring at a map of the airport for let’s say…10 minutes. I figured out where to go and my battle with signs/following directions continued. So I figured out I had to get on a shuttle (which obviously took the dumb-blondsky a while to do) and conquered that with no problems. So then I knew I had to get on some train called the RER so I waited in a 10 minute line to buy tickets at an automated machine. After the wait I realized that I only had euro cash (and not coins) and that the machine didn’t take my American credit card (it only takes European cards that have a chip in them). So, to get change I went into a small store and bought a water to get change. Then I stood in line again and got to the machine bought a booklet of tickets because I knew I would need them to navigate the French metro system. So I got the tickets and tried to go through the gates and it told me that it doesn’t accept those tickets. So, I am out of change again and went to the store and bought cookies to get change. Now I get back in line for the machines to buy a ticket and I finally gave in and decided to ask someone what ticket I needed to buy. Luckily, the man spoke English and told me what to buy and this time I didn’t have enough change. It cost 12 Euros and I only had 3 Euros in change. So he told me to go wait in this other line and I could buy tickets (from humans) there. After 20 minutes of waiting (that’s France for you) I had the ticket I needed. Now the battle with directions was over but then it became a battle against my luggage. I had one train ride and one metro (Paris underground train system). Let me tell you, getting on and off trains with heavy luggage is not easy. But with the help of 2 gracious men who saw me struggling at different times, I prevailed.  One guy carried my luggage up two flights of stairs when I got off the metro. Thank God for him. So by the time I was at my hostel, let’s just say that I was officially sweating!