Claire, Laura, and I planned on meeting at 3:30 am, and when Laura emerged from the elevator on crutches I knew it was going to be a grand time in Paris. It was the beginning of the realization that we never do anything regular when we travel, we always have our own flare. Laura had hurt her foot in Prague, which was magnified by hiking in Wicklow Mountains, and she went to the doctor to find out she had acquired a stress fracture on her left foot. But she wasn't going to let that stop her, so she got crutches and one heck of a determined mindset and we set out for Paris. I rolled her bag for her since I was carrying my backpack, and despite the rollers, it managed to tip over a lot. But we made it to the bus stop, after avoiding the "rogue" (in Claire's words) cab drivers who offered to take us to the Airport. The AirCoach finally came at 4 am, and we headed to the airport. For 4:30 in the morning, the Dublin International Airport was really busy. (All those early RyanAir flights). Now RyanAir makes you check online (or pay a 40 euro fee) but you are still required to check in at the desk (pointless, yes) to check your passport. The line was ridiculously long, because ofcourse there is only 2 counters open. My favorite part was that the woman wanted to charge Laura 5 euro to bring her crutches on board. She "waived the fee" out of the kindness of her heart. We headed to security and the silver lining of the crutches became apparent. We got to skip the line and head to the front. Score. We flew through security, like pros, and headed towards the gate. We stopped at one of the stores on the way to get some free samples of Burberry perfume (reminded me of Katie) and some face lotion. Ah when you are a poor college traveler things get pretty desperate.
We made our way to gate 112, Laura dominating the crutches, me dominating the misbehaving suitcase. Ofcourse the gate was at the end of the line. We stopped get some snacks...a few Special K granola bars, gummy worms, and a bottle of water. We couldn't find seats and Laura's foot was already hurting so we found a nice piece of floor to get settled on. Now RyanAir is first come first serve seating so it's basically like a mob action to line up to board. Ridiculousness. I decided to go ahead of Claire & Laura to score some seats for us. We ended up waiting in the staircase to go out on the tarmac, only to be stuck behind a man with ginger hair that was longer than mine and Claire's combined. He was a little smelly and I was glad when I finally got moving. Claire and Laura at this point had taken the elevator down and were boarding the plane. We got priority seating in the 2nd row due to Laura's injury and the extra leg room was much appreciated. The only problem was that we were near the front so the intercom was really loud and the awkward ginger flight attendant was right in front of us. He must have been a rookie because he wasn't smooth in his exit pointing and he wore the life vest down the aisle as he checked us for our seat belts. I napped a little on the flight, which was only about an hour and a half and soon we were on the ground in Paris Beauvois. It was a bit of a struggle to get the crutches down, as I climbed on the seats and tried to avoid taking out some of the people in the aisle as I got them down from the overhead compartment.
Another perk of flying RyanAir is that the airport is actually like 90 minutes away from Paris which means we have to take a bus to the city. We thought we'd have to find the right one, well Beauvois is about the world's smallest airport so there's only one bus. And basically they have a monopoly so they are able to charge 28 euro roundtrip. We got on the packed bus and slept a little more until we arrived in Paris. We got off and found the metro, and using Laura's French skills we bought 3 day Metro Passes (for 20 euro) and made our way to the platform to meet Stacy who had arrived in Paris the day before. We hopped on the M1 and transferred to the M7 and headed to the end of the line to find our hostel. We had had some reservations about this hostel since it was run by Koreans and in response to our email booking the place they had written "if you make the name Stacy Curry felt, all will straighten". Stacy had taken the reins and gotten directions to the hostel from the metro so after a little team effort we managed to navigate ourselves to the hostel.
We took the Rue de Jean and then turned the corner to the street the hostel was supposed to be on. We found #67 and the house was #23 so we kept walking until we found a rundown looking house that had the name of our hostel on the stone wall outside.
Sketchy but whatever. The "Dynamic Korea" sign was also inviting...ahh okay. So Stacy rang the bell. Nothing. Hmm this could be problematic. We rang it again. Still nothing. Well, what to do now. We searched through the emails Stacy had printed for some type of phone number. Nothing. In my head I was trying to figure out what we would do next. We knew that everything was booked because of the Easter Holiday hence why we were staying at Little Korea in the first place. We had no real options. I started banging on the door. Then aggressively ringing the doorbell. It must have worked because a little Korean woman poked her head out the window. She spoke to us in Korean, which we obviously did not understand, but we heard the door buzz so we opened it. And into what looked like someone's garage/a junk yard. A random fridge, an old microwave, one single lightbulb.
We waited in the entry way, and I looked in one of the doors and found bunkbeds, hmm at least we know this is a hostel. The little Korean woman came down and spoke to us (in korean) and we followed her to the back of the building, into a courtyard, and up cement spiral steps (great for Laura on crutches). She took off her shoes before going in, and indicated us to do the same. Ahh it only gets better. We followed her up another set of stairs and she talked to us (in Korean). She pointed to a piece of paper with the amount owed and we collect our funds and handed it to her. She didn't know how to really count it or how to indicate whether we had paid too much or too little. Then she indicated that Laura would have to sleep in the other room and directed Claire to come with her. All in Korean. Claire followed her downstairs, where she pointed to the clock, to the 8 and made a signal with her hands for sleeping. Then she went back around the clock to 8 and made another signal for eating. Okay, sleep at 8, breakfast at 8. We were in a hurry to make it to the 1 o'clock walking tour and it was like already 12 so we tried to hurry out of there. As we were leaving, another woman arrived. She spoke French. Success. Laura was able to communicate with her. We figured out the situation and then headed out. Laura powered through on her crutches and we made it to the metro, up and down stairs, on to one train, transfered to another. It was obvious that we wouldn't make it to the 1 o'clock departure spot so we texted Stevie who had plans to go. She told us where they were headed so we got off the metro and tried to navigate our way there. We found a street called the Rue de Seine and we figured it would lead us to the river. Ofcourse in the process, it began to rain. Thankful I was rocking my DZ rain jacket and that I had my umbrella in my backpack, the rain was just plain annoying. I was the only one who had proper rain gear and it was pretty much miserable. We found the river (success) and crossed over it.
The fence on the bridge had locks on it like the ones we saw in Budapest, ah so romantic. Not surprising for the city of love. The rain made it impossible to enjoy and we headed under the arches of the Louvre waiting for the group. They arrived and we tried to get into the tour, but Arno (Arlo, what was his name?) was a quiet speaker and it was hard to hear him over the other crowds and the wind and the rain. I was not much into the tour or the rain, but Paris' beauty shown through the rain. Even when the rain was pouring down (which we were told it doesn't do in Paris...lies) the architecture was beautiful. We kept losing one another and it was just frustrating and rainy and miserable. I was happy when it was time for the lunch break. We found an ATM (the hostel and transport had emptied my cash stash) and then headed to the closest restaurant we could find to seek shelter...McDonald's. I was cold, wet and hungry so McDonald's was grand. I got some chicken strips and potato wedges, gave my best MERCI and found a place to sit which was difficult since it was PACKED.
The Louvre
We headed back into the rain and through the Queen's Park. Laura almost face planted into a puddle and the wind almost took my umbrella. My shoes were wet. Fantastic. We walked towards the Arch de Triumph and down the Champs-Elysees.
Notice the state of Nisha's umbrella in the left
We finally saw the Eiffel Tower in the distance and it was explained that the Eiffel Tower was built for the Worlds' Fair and that it was initially only supposed to be up for 20 years because the Parisians didn't like it. Now its in the top 3 most recognized structures in the world...in special company with the Statue of Liberty. Turns out Sir Eiffel designed both. What a baller. We also went by the Concorde which was originally Egyptian but Napoleon stole it and each year the Egyptians write letters asking for it back. At least that's what I think the story was. It's supposedly a symbol of peace on the former site of the French Guillotine that killed so many, but I'm not sure how peaceful it is if the obelisk doesn't even belong to the French. But what do I know?
The tour ended and I decided I wanted to head to the Eiffel Tower. My reasoning was that if God should strike than I want to say I at least made it to the Eiffel Tower. I wasn't say the world was going to end, but given our travel luck I just wanted to make sure I could cross it off the list. We headed towards the Eiffel, leaving Claire & Laura at a coffee shop to rest. She had just done a 3 hour walking tour on crutches. The Eiffel Tower was a bit farther than I thought (large building, depth perception thing) but as soon as it came into view, the clouds parted and the sun came out. It was magical. I've never been a huge Eiffel fan before, but it was so majestic, I fell in love with it instantly. It hast that simplistic beauty to it (and functionality--it's also a radio tower).
The Tour Eiffel is definitely touristy, and it is surrounded by thousands of men selling Eiffel souvenirs. All for just ONE EURO. If I heard one man come up to me selling a keychain for 1 euro, I was going to take them out. (The French riled me up). Me and Stacy found an ice cream booth and got a chonilla cone. A chonilla cone in Paris under the Eiffel Tower with a blue blue sky, life wasn't too bad after all. Actually it was quite perfect.
Chonilla Cone & The Eiffel Tower
We wandered and took about 393 photos of the Eiffel Tower. We said goodbye to Stevie, Nisha, and their friend and went to meet up with Laura & Claire who had ventured towards la Tour. We enjoyed the spring day and then headed to the Champs Elysée. The metro station had this full out orchestra playing amazingly. I love live music. It was brilliant.
We weren't really sure what we wanted to do so we wandered to find a restaurant. All the restaurant on the Champs Elysée were overpriced so we ventured to Chatelet and found a local restaurant. And by the local restaurant, more like a French dive. There was literally one table. Which we occupied. I ordered a steak and potatoes and a glass of wine and some bread. We enjoyed our meal, and then Stacy and Laura had dessert.
We headed back to Little Korea. We missed the Korean dinner served, but the signs on the wall warned us about the meat so we weren't really sure we were missing anything. After a little chat, I passed out.
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