| Paris, Full Of Surprises |
As our high speed train from Brussels decelerated from its cruising speed of 186 miles per hour into Gare de Nord, one of Paris' train stations, it began to pour. After departing the train, we were immediately accosted by in-your-face gypsies asking for money. As we exited the station, we were unsure of which direction to walk, and the rain was picking up. Between the three of us, we had one small umbrella, and we were getting soaked as we walked through the loud, dirty neighborhood towards our hostel, Le Village.
It's difficult to get excited about a new city when you feel lost and out of place, not to mention very, very wet. Such is the nature of our trip though. In spite of being hungry, tired, or totally lost, we have to do our best to remain ridiculously positive. And it works. We made it to our lodgings without a single wrong turn, and before long, were inside making our beds and planning our first adventure.
Since we arrived yesterday afternoon, it feels like we've done so much. After getting ourselves settled, we walked up the hill from our hostel, through the Montmartre neighborhood, to the Sacré Cœur, a huge catholic church at the top of an enormously exhausting set of stairs. I was impressed by just how out of breath I was by the top. You might think I'm just out of shape, but the stairs are actually so long that beside them, there is a fernicular, a kind of outdoor elevator that runs on rails and carries lazy people up the really big hill, which happens to have a gorgeous view of Paris from the top. The church is visible from all around, due to its height and easily recognizable domes. When we got there, we walked around for a while and then met up with a friend who is studying abroad at the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris. We wandered around together for an hour or so, before meeting another friend and sitting down for coffee.
Coffee actually turned into cocktails, which then turned into shots. I will spare you the details, since our fun was probably more of the "you had to be there" variety, but I will say that we had an amazingly fun time conversing with several young French students who, surprisingly to us, were some of the most friendly and outgoing people we have met in all of Europe. This completely relieved our fears that the French were arrogant and unkind toward Americans. Just the opposite is the truth, according to the friends we made, who said they enjoyed getting to practice their English skills on foreigners. One girl told me about how she loved Barack Obama and had cried when he was elected only a few short decades after African-American people won their fight for civil rights.
Rather than head back to the hostel after drinks, we made a spur of the moment decision to go back to the Université with our friend and see what fun could be had there. I would have to say that this turned out to be a good choice. On our way there, we picked up two pizzas and three bottles of extremely cheap but delicious French wine, and we ended up having a tremendous amount of fun with a bunch of other study abroad students from Yale. Many hours later, after all the wine was gone, the Yale kids were kind enough to host us for the night on the floor in a couple of their dorms.
After our unexpectedly fun start in Paris, we had all but forgotten about the pouring rain that had greeted us the day before. As we rode the pleasantly crowded Paris Metro back to our hostel in the early afternoon, it was decided that we were in dire need of some baguettes and some French wine and cheese. We toured our neighborhood in search of these items, and ended up with a really nice assortment of French delicacies. I decided that a tasty Bordeaux and some creamy Camembert from Normandie was in order. Alex, Marc, and I, satisfied with our very French meal items, walked back through a sunny Paris afternoon to chow down out on the terrace at our hostel. I was extremely satisfied with my choices, and even more delighted by how cheap all the fancy French food was, compared to when it's imported to the United States.
My only regret is that we don't have even more time to spend here in this gorgeous and bustling city full of fun and surprisingly friendly people. We have so much to see over the next three days, and just from looking at our map of Paris, I could not be more excited. |
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| 4 Comments: |
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that first picture looks prettttty familiar... :)
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P.S. It seems like you are doing a lot of eating! lol
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oh yeah!! the first picture is from your kitchen!
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that first picture looks prettttty familiar... :)