Bonjour!

9/27/2009

Today we took the train from Frankfurt to Paris. We got up early, got showered, packed and went down for another free breakfast. I’m telling you, free breakfasts are the way to go. We had made a reservation for seats on the 9:30 train and we couldn’t miss our train because we had paid for it and then it would have just been a waste of money. Our walk to the train station was very pleasant. They don’t do day light savings over here and it makes a difference. During our walk at 8 ish the sun was still on the rise. We got on the train and in our seats and realized that we were surrounded by a bunch of teenagers and had two little boys who liked to sing songs and kick the back of our seats. The teenagers acted like typical teenagers flirting with one another, which just goes to show that how you are at age 17 is pretty universal.

The boys behind us and the teenagers all around us simmered down as the train started moving and all in all it was a pretty enjoyable ride. We slept, read, caught up on typing, and enjoyed our market lunch of cheese, salami, bread, pesto, and tomato. Being a person who completely identifies with food, this meal totally put me in the best mood. Just the fact that the food came from an awesome market and was cost efficient made me happy. Plus we had some leftovers that we enjoyed later on. We got into Paris around 12 and had to figure out how to get from the train station to our hotel, which was more than a healthy walk away. We also had to book our reservation for seats on the train from Paris to Brussels that we are going to take in two days time. France has the funky train system so in addition to having our Eurail pass, we also had to pay 26 Euro for our reservation. I think that’s kinda lame and not really surprised that the French would be that way about their trains, but whatever. The guy who was helping us with these reservations was very nice in helping us figure out how to get to the hotel via the subway.

So we get on the subway. Entering a new subway for the first time is always a stressful situation because you have to figure out how each particular subway works and everyone is different in their own way. We thought we followed the directions the train guy gave us and got out at a place that we thought was neat the hotel, but since we didn’t have a street map, we couldn’t tell for sure. We then asked an information person, who was not very nice to us we are assuming because we didn’t speak French and realized we had some more traveling to do and would then have to buy another ticket because we had already come out of the underground portion. So we decided to just bag it and take a taxi the rest of the way to the hotel, which didn’t end up being that much money and the driver was really nice. We were afraid that being obviously American and not knowing where we were going a taxi driver might take advantage of us and drive around randomly to raise the taxi fare. He didn’t do that and we were greatly appreciative.

When we got to the hotel, we were very pleased because the decorations gave off a very good first impression. The ladies in line in front of us at the front desk were in an argument with the concierge because online it said the hotel included free breakfast and it did not, a bit misleading. We also fell into this misleading assumption and were kinda bummed out that we weren’t going to get a free breakfast. We got into our first room and it is teeny tiny. I went to go to the bathroom and whoever used the toilet last forgot to flush or something because there was a turd sitting in the bottom of the bowl. Katherine called down and they were very apologetic and moved us to a different and bigger room. The hotel was claiming that the toilet issue has something to do with a plumbing problem and it was not a fault of the cleaning crew. We didn’t really care wither way, we just wanted to be in a clean, plumbing problem free room, so moving us fixed that problem.

After getting settled in, we started off on a walk to the Louvre. It was a beautiful day in Paris and it was a very enjoyable walk. It took us a while to walk down the gardens and get into the museum, but then we walked around the museum for the rest of the afternoon. Saw the Mona Lisa and lots of other paintings. We decided we like looking at paintings the most of art related things. While we felt like the Louvre was a must to see, it really didn’t have that many paintings in it that we recognized. Turns out Museum Orsay picks up with all of the ones that we would recognize and it is closed on Mondays (tomorrow). Oh well, that will have to be for a different trip. I had a great time walking around the museum making my own commentary on the art. I really don’t like taking art seriously and with a lot of these paintings you couldn’t. The babies in some of the paintings were absolutely ridiculously looking. I had a lot of fun making the serious paintings entertaining.

We walked back to the hotel to chill out for a while, catch up on things, book a hostel for Brussels, figure out our plans for the night, and freshen up a bit. Walking around Paris is great because people are everywhere and the little stores and cafes that you pass are interesting to look into. Elise you would be happy to hear that I did spot many rollerbladers. It really was just a nice fall day. When we got back to the hotel we were craving some coca cola light, so we ordered two from the hotel bar. Our bill total…11 euro, which is absolutely ridiculous for two bottles of coke. We decided to suck it up because we had already ordered them and didn’t want to cause a scene in addition to really wanting the cold beverage. So we sat down in the lounge to wait and have the bartender bring them over to us so we could enjoy them in a classy environment. When he did bring them over, he also brought some chips, sweetly coated, roasted peanuts, nd some little caprese skewers. We were so surprised by this and everything was so delicious that we decided maybe the 11 euro was a little more justified.

For our night activities we decided to go to a cabaret show, which was located on the Champs de Elysees. I was very excited about this. Originally we wanted to go to the Moulin Rouge, but it was sold out, so the show we ended up going to was Lido. The lady at the front desk helped me with making the reservation, which was really nice because she would call the theaters up and speak to the m in French so I am sure that expedited the process. I thought it was hilarious that while she was on the phone she would actually use phrases like “oooh lala” and “es superb”. So French, I loved it. We were told that it was on par and even better than the Moulin Rouge.

We walked to the show and got dinner at a café around the theater. Our tickets for the show were on the expensive side, but each ticket came with a half bottle of champagne, meaning that Katherine and I split a full bottle. It was good champagne too. Not too dry, but the real test will be to see how I feel the next morning. I loved the show. The singing and dancing and costumes are my favorite. Some of the acts were kinda strange like this one guy who got way too into his talent of yo-yoing this weird object on a string that was attached to the end of two stick that he held. He had put so much gel into his long hair that it looked like he had just dunked his head in water. The highlight of the show was an act done by these two extremely strong men. I had seen these guys on you tube before. They use each other to do all of these difficult lifts and acrobatics, while this serious roman music plays in the backgroung. While it s cool on you tube, it was even more impressive to see in real life. The show got out around 2, so we took a taxi (which happened to be a Mercedes) back to the hotel. By the way the hotel’s name is (K&K, which is so appropriate for Kaitlyn and Katherine). We decided not to set an alarm, sleep in in the morning, and wake up naturally, which will be a nice change of pace.