Whew! It's been a long time! I guess I was super busy the whole time Kristen was here, and then I've had class every day this week, except yesterday when I went to Oktorberfest for the second time. A lot has happened, so maybe I will talk about Paris is this post, and then Munich, and then Vienna, then you'll be caught up :)
So, Paris. We arrived by train in Paris around 10:30pm. We searched and searched for our hostel until 1am. At this point, we decided to just go to a hotel. On the way to a hotel, we stumbled upon our hostel. Awesome. So, our hostel turned out to be the Hotel Rocroy, which sounds real fancy, but it's not. It was perfect though. Good price, we had our own room and bathroom, and it was close to the Gard du Nord, which is pretty central. We got settled in, and went out to find some food. The closest thing that was actually open was a really funny "American" restaurant. We shared some french fries, drank a beer, and realized just how expensive Paris was going to be. Not as expensive as Zurich, but it gets close. It's easier in Paris to go to a bakery and get a cheap croissant or something, but eating at any restaurant will put you back at least 15 euros, without a drink. And we went to the cheap ones. Cocktails are around 10 euros, and cappuccinos are around four.
Day one, we started with a little cafe. Crêpes and cappuccinos, and trying to figure out why it takes three hours to eat out. Moving on to Notre Dame, we ran into bird-men outside who invited us to feed the birds. Interesting fact about Paris: three things not always in the bathroom, 1. Toilet paper 2. Soap 3. Toilet seats. After feeding the birds, we went to a free bathroom (that was exciting) where there was no soap, so hot water, and no paper towels. That's ok, I just have pigeon on me...
Notre Dame was beautiful. You can never see enough beautiful churches, or scary gargoyles :)
After looking around the church, we headed out to the garden to walk around and write post cards. We stumbled upon a fake wedding photo shoot, so that was fun. This is Paris, fake wedding photo shoots happen all the time.
We started walking no where in particular, just along the Seine. Stumbled onto a little street fair featuring cuisine from another region in France. We bought a cute little bottle of wine, and some cheese bread, and sat on the river to eat. A curious French guy came and sat down and talked to us for probably two hours. He was really funny. Hey Jeremy! Over the course of our conversation, we learned that Jeremy doesn't work, because he doesn't want to live to work. So he "finds money on the street," whatever that means. Eventually we learn Jeremy is a writer, and when asked what he writes, he reply "my name." What's that Jeremy? You write your name? Turns out he does graffiti. How you make money from that, I am not sure. But Jeremy does. He can do anything.
Finally, we headed back to our hotel to get ready for our Parisian night on the town. Our night started with pizza at a little cafe, which was pretty inexpensive! Pizza is always a good choice in Europe, I have found. It's cheap, from six euros in Friedrichshafen, to 10 in Paris. Then we searched around for a good disco-tech. Found one that was not much fun, then found another that was fun! Going out in Paris at night is expensive. Cocktails are around 10 euros each. Beer is around nine. We decided one night out was enough.
Day two, we slept in, and started our day with pizza at a cafe! Pizza and cappuccinos: breakfast of champions. We then headed to the Louvre. I was so stoked to see the Mona Lisa :p Luckily, I had been warned many times how anticlimactic that can be. Outside the Louvre, we found a little band with an inflatable couch, so we listened to them for a bit. They were singing about cereal and speeding tickets, but it was in French, so it was beautiful.
In the Louvre, we only had about two and a half hours, and it's huge. We picked what we knew we wanted to see and got started. Saw some naked statues, and a mote, and then the Mona Lisa! There were a lot of Asians. We headed outside and found a little kiosk cafe, and saw a double rainbow.
We left the Louvre to head for the Eiffel Tower. The plan was to climb the stairs to the top. We decided to walk there, because we could see it. We figured we would just follow it. That was a long walk. We walked for an hour or hour and a half in the chilly sprinkle rain, but it was fun. We saw some cute dogs, and some weird statues, and lots of pretty flowers. Finally got to the Eiffel Tower around seven, to find out the stairs close at six. The elevator was nine euros, and we were tired of spending money, so we just walked around and took a lot of pictures. The Eiffel Tower is just as beautiful from the ground. We watched the sunset, and then watched the lights on the tower come on. It was really beautiful.
Next, we looked for some dinner. We went to a little cafe, where the waiter was really rude to us because we were American, but we were in Paris, so you have to get that at least once. Got confused about how to order wine in Paris and ended up with a pretty large quantity for the two of us. We made friends with our Canadian table mates, and then headed back to the hotel. The plan was to leave the next morning and be back to Friedrichshafen by that night.
Day three, the train station was packed. We couldn't figure out how to get reservations from the ticket kiosk machine, so we decided we had to stand in the forever long line to talk to a real person. The real person was very nice, and told us there was no train until the night train at 8:20. That was a real bummer. We spent some time being upset about it, and then realized we had no choice. We reserved for that, and then went to take our bags back to the hotel. We had an extra day in Paris, and we would make the most of it. Kristen got to go to H&M and I got to go to Tiffany's. Tiffany's didn't like us, but H&M did. We found a little panini place that didn't set us back to much, so that was good, since the main reason for wanting to leave Paris was how expensive it was. Afterwards, we found a little park to sit in, and we watched some kids play soccer. We then headed back to the hotel, got our bags, and then went to the train station.
Train ride from hell: The screen said our track number would be announced at least 20 minutes before boarding, and at five minutes till, I knew something wasn't right. Then, our train time changed from 8:20 to 8:40. Uh oh... then it changed to 9:00. Finally, at ten to nine, we had a track number, and our train had arrived. We got on, and got going. We ended up in a compartment on the train with four other people and seats that didn't recline. It was also a train heading right for Munich, and Oktoberfest is happening, so it was the party train. Not a very good sleeping situation... About two hours into the ride, the train stopped. After about half an hour, we decided to investigate. People were outside hanging out, drinking beer. We were told a train in front of us had been involved in an incident with a person. This is train code for a train hit someone, so we will be here a while. We were in Champagne, France for three hours in the middle of the night. We were there long enough for the train to be first drained of beer, then of wine, then of liquor, then of champaign. Finally, we get going again. Two hours later, we stop again. This time, an announcement is made for any doctors on board to please come to car 220. Two hours later, we get going again. An announcement is made about being careful of something, but we couldn't here what we were supposed to be careful of. So, now we are six hours behind. We finally get to sleep, and wake up right before our stop in Ulm.
We made grabbed some breakfast, and hopped on the next train to Friedrichshafen. Finally home, we get a few hour sleep, and then headed to my university to try to get some homework done.
Nächste halt: Oktoberfest!
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Here are all of the pictures from Paris:
Paris!
So I got a crazy idea to visit Dresden this weekend, but I didn't want to spend tons of time there, and I knew I had five days, so I should find somewhere close by, and spend a couple of days there. So after a lot of thought, I picked Prague. I had no idea what to expect by Czech Republic, but I wanted to know what it was about. So last Tuesday, I booked a hostel in Prague, and a hostel in Dresden. I did my laundry, and then packed my new backpack! Wednesday morning, I went to class, then ran back to my flat, grabbed my backpack, and caught the next bus to the train station.
I got off at the right stop this time, and walked around for a bit unable to find the silly castle. I stopped at a little cafe for a crepe and cappuccino, and used their wifi to find it. Wandered around the wrong way for a bit, then found some crazy stairs. This must be it. I walked up and up and up some stairs until I arrived at the castle. It was huge. I spent the entire day at the castle and did not see everything.
I went to almost every part, but got kicked out of the royal gardens at 6pm. I started to head back to the hostel, and stopped for supper at some resaurant. The food was great, but the service wasn't so good and I way over tipped, because I couldn't translate the currency in my head with the waitress standing there staring at me. Oh well. It was cold and dark, and I was tired, so I went back to the hostel. It was free crepe night. I had three.
