France

Paris! The city of love! We almost made it there on National Single Awareness Day but we arrived the day after. This was an interesting trip. Courtney, Andrew, and I had purchased our tickets less than a week before we left. We got them off the internet site for a fabulous bargain. The night before we left, I went to go write down my confirmation number and I realized that the return date was wrong! These things don’t happen to me! I always triple check everything before I confirm it! I am still not entirely convinced that it was my error, but unfortunately there are no other possibilities. So I must take it for what it is. I was hoping that it would all get sorted out at the airport. The next morning, Monday, we set off on our journey. We make it to the airport where I find out that they cannot change it and if I booked a separate return flight it would be 600 Euros! Holey Moley! Plus the lady was not very friendly which torked me off even more. That was more than my roundtrip ticket to Germany! By this point I was annoyed, and to top it all off I dropped my purse which had my alarm clock in it and it busted! I was more angry about my alarm clock than I was about my ticket! But I had already decided that I was not going to let this ruin our trip or the atmosphere so I was determined to have a good attitude. When going to our terminal, we just happened to pass a gelato stand so we took a pit stop to eat some. We all know that ice cream solves all problems, and it worked its magic on me. We boarded the plane, and took off and got above the clouds and there was the sun! Sunshine is very precious in Regensburg because the clouds usually cover its rays. It was BEAUTILFUL! Sunshine always makes me smile so that was also a factor that contributed to my good mood. We landed in Paris where none of us spoke French or really knew how to do everything. But I am proud to say that I navigated us successfully to our hostel in downtown Pairs, which was mildly sketch. We dropped off our stuff and headed straight to the Eiffel Tower. For anybody to go to Paris, make sure you see this grandeur monument at night! It was amazing! We walked around for sometime and decided to wander back to our hostel, but we kinda, sorta got lost on our way. We knew the general direction but had no idea where our street was. Luckily, this elderly lady came to our rescue and whipped our her detailed map of Paris from her purse, which was quite strange because it was late at night. What in the world was she doing?? We made it back to our hostel where we scared the beejeebers outta the guy who was already sleeping. Whoopsie daisy!

The next morning we went straight to a bakery where we got the best croissants we’d ever tasted and I bought a baguette to have a fencing fight at the Eiffel Tower! We returned to the Eiffel Tower where we had to pose for the famous pictures that one is complied to do during their stay in Paris. Once we got those beautiful pictures snapped we made our way to the Arc de Triomphe and walked along the Champs de Elysees and along the Seine River. You wanna know why the French are so skinny and why they eat so many baguettes? Because they walk everywhere and need the carbs to stay alive! We continued along the road to make it to the Notre Dame. By this time, we were exhausted! We sat in the park with the sunlight on our faces for over and hour and a half!! I also fed the pigeons the remaining crumbs of my baguette which is always good entertainment. By this time, it was evening and we were exhausted so we headed back to our hostel. We got settled down and I began my quest for my return trip to Germany. I had to be back on Friday because we were leaving for Dresden on Saturday morning! It was frustrating because I was trying to find the cheapest way because I am a poor college student who is in Europe, chuckles. That night was unsuccessful so I headed back up to our room where I fell asleep the instant my head hit the pillow. We had always planned to wake up early and go to breakfast but this is never what happened. The sleep button IS our friend. Might I add that we never exactly knew the time in Paris. We were not sure if there was a time change and there were 2 different clocks in our hostel that said two different times. But we never really cared what time it was and didn’t pay much attention to it.

Wednesday we got ready and dedicated the day to hit the Louvre. I never had preset expectations of this museum but I was impressed. This place is gigantic! Unfortunately, every time I think of the Louvre I always think of the Da Vinci Code, sigh. But I can’t help it. We saw all the famous paintings, the Mona Lisa, Code of Hammurabi, Venus de Milo, The Raft of Medusa, ect. We had previously planned at separating and decided to meet at a specific staircase at 17:00. While walking to one of my exhibits, I ran into Courtney so we decided to go to the staircase a little early because our legs were killing us. So we get there and are standing there, 17:00 comes and goes. It soon becomes 17:15…. 17:30…. And by this point we were getting annoyed and almost mad. Blasted Andrew, hurry up! We were so close to leaving him. And to top it all off, these group of boys came and asked us if we spoke English and we were like mmmhmmm. Then they kept pushing this girl towards us and it was sooo strange. Then they came up beside me and started talking. Then one told me I had a beautiful face and my response was “thank you??” What exactly do you say to that? Then they kept going off and eventually they left which is relieving. Andrew is suppose to protect us from these things happening!! We hadn’t eaten anything all day and we were famished, which did not help our attitudes. I kept seeing all of these people with Starbucks and wanted some!! Finally we ventured off to find it and were successful. We got our beverages and returned to our worn spot on the staircase. The entire time, we did not know what time it was in France so I asked Courtney to look at the time on her receipt at it was 16:40! Ahhhh!! My watch was an hour ahead! Blasted time in France. We could no longer be mad at Andrew, which particularly made me more annoyed. Sigh. But we did seem to be able to catch sight of the humor within the situation. By Wednesday I had purchased a train ticket to get back to Regensburg. Unfortunately, the train station was on the opposite side of town but I wanted to go there and make sure that that everything was ok so it would go smoothly without any problems on Friday. Andrew and Courtney took off to the Opera House and I started on my journey to the train station. Longest walk of my life. Plus, I had to go to some sketch ghetto which portrayed a scene out of Barber Shop. It was exactly how it was! These barber shops filled with Black people doing each others hair and talking loudly. It was actually kind of cool, minus the thoughts of being kidnapped. But after many miles, I made it to the train station where everything was set. I retraced my steps and made it back to our hostel Now I only had one more dilemma, my train left at 9:00 and the walk from our hostel to the train station was a good 2-3 hours. I was ok with it but my madre was not. All of the hostels up north were way more expensive so we made a compromise. She would pay half my hostel. I was ok with that. I wasn’t stranded in Paris any longer!

Thursday was the day we dedicated to souvenir shopping. We walked to the Eiffel Tower again and there are about a million hagglers trying to sell you Eiffel Tower key chains. Every time you turn around they will approach you. Not only are these hagglers annoying but there are also a bagillion little Bosnian women who will come up to you and ask “Do you speak English?” If you say yes they will hand you this sheet of paper that has the same story: my brother died, we’re stranded, no home, blah blah blah. It would be more convincing if 50 people did not have the same sheet of paper. Then they’ll pull out their cup beginning for change. While returning from our shopping we went through the same part. Courtney came up with this game to entertain us. We were going to haggle the hagglers. Our goal was to see who could get the most key chains for 1 Euro. After we made this game up, Andrew also had a brilliant idea. Not only were we going to haggle the hagglers, we were going to beg the beggars. GAME ON. The moment we walked down the stairs we were approached by a haggler. The dude was like “You want keychains?” and Andrew was like actually yah! 3 for 1 Euro. Ummmm… I need 10! The look on this guy’s face was priceless. Then Andrew went into this extravagant story of how he only had 1 Euro left and he needed to get all his friends key chains. While transaction is going on, Courtney and I were laughing our buns off. Andrew finally agreed on 6 key chains for 1 Euro. Our new goal was 7. Right when Andrew turned around here comes a Bosnian woman. Andrew, “Oh what’s this?” By this time I lost it. I was laughing so hard I was crying. “Do you speak English?” …. Andrew’s response, “Do you speak Bosnian?? Actually, we’re hungry? Can we have some money? I just bought some key chains you want one?” It was one of the funniest things I have ever witnessed. For the next 2 hours our time consisted of seeing how many key chains we could get for 1 Euro. Safe to say that everybody is now going to get an Eiffel Tower key chain. Since Andrew and Courtney’s flight left early the next morning, they were going to spend the night in the airport and I wanted to get to my new hostel before dark. We went back to our original hostel and got our stuff. Andrew and Courtney really wanted me to ride a bus but I had previously decided that I was not going to press my luck any longer. As I was backing up I was like guys I’ll be fine, WHAM! I slam my head against the wall. Chuckles. Oopsie. No guys, for real, I’ll be okay!

So we split off. Once I left it started raining which was not very good because the ink on my map was beginning to bleed. And according to Andrew I was the perfect target, a female with a pink coat with a backpack and luggage. I really wanted to get there before dark but did not happen due to my minor detour I took. I wouldn’t say that I was lost, per se, because I knew where I was. It just took me longer. Went through the ghetto again and 3 hours later was finally on the street where my hostel was suppose to be. It was number 73. 70, 71, 72, 74, 75… what the crap! Where is 73? By this point I was not a happy camper. I was tired, wet, and annoyed. This guy must have seen my horrified facial expression and asked if he could help me. I asked him if he knew where the Vintage Hostel was and he pointed in the direction I had just come from. I just smiled and nodded but inside my head I was thinking “NO ITS NOT!” But I did not have any other choice so I started to retrace my steps. I finally decided to pop into this hotel to ask if they might know where it is and viola! This was my hostel! Thank the Lord. I got my room where I had some Australian roommates who were quite entertaining and slept soundly. The next morning I made my way to the train station where I boarded my train. Destination: Germany. At my stop in Munich, I almost missed my train to Regensburg so I was sprinting as fast as I could. I had to make it from track 4 to track 23 in 3 minutes! But I made it and made it back to Regensburg safe and sound. Now I had to unpack, do laundry, pack up my entire room and pack for our tour around Germany, which we left for the following morning. Over all it was very exhausting but still wonderful!!!