Saturday. Morning flight from Rome to Paris. We packed up and said goodbye to the room and the kitchen and Rome. Just in time, since the kitchen had run out of clean utensils! Train to the station and wee bit of drama later, a bus to the Airport far far away. We landed in a Paris with 70% chance of rain. I had booked one of those places where people rent out a room in their home. We got there after buses and trains and walking, only to discover the following:
- i hadnt informed the host about our time of arrival
- i didnt have his phone number
- we didnt have internet
- i didnt have the phone number of my friends in Paris who had Internet
So basically we were stuck outside his building with nowhere to go. I should have either died out of shame or been killed in anger, but neither happened. The dude (who had switched into the costume of Mr Cool) asked every person who entered the building if they knew the host. We lucked out, one person not only knew the fellow but had his phone number and immediately called him for us. After some conversation in French, in which i am sure my good name was cursed quite a bit, we came to know that the keys to the house were in the mailbox and we were to help ourselves to it. The fellow would only return at 10 in the night. So we did, while wondering how people can give their home to people they have not even met over the Internet. We got in and found a long letter from the host that described all the various ways in which he had tried to contact us. And, the wi-fi password. I went online and discovered that the host had indeed tried all things to contact us. More shame, but not enough to kill.
It had started to drizzle and we were tired and not really in the mood to do much. But since we had only one day in Paris, we wanted to make it count. After many rounds of come-on-get-ready-no-why-are-we-going, we decided to call up my friends (P and S) and let them know we had finally arrived. They convinced us to get off our butts and go see the Eiffel Tower. Which i had always pooh-poohed at, but we went anyway. It lights up every hour in the night and P assured us it was a sight worth seeing. S also insisted we take the Seine river cruise afterwords.
We took the train and got to Eiffel tower. What amazes me is the ease of travel in all these countries. All you need to find your way is a map! For a direction impaired person like me, it is so... empowering! We reached there a few minutes before 10 and got to see it light up. It was.certainly worth it.Then we decided to go up and hang around. We were there till 12, so in all, it lighted up 3 times for us :) Since it was so late we ditched the cruise and got back home. Where the host was presumably sleeping but we didnt see him.
Morning was when we met him and he was very sweet about my whole stupidity. He offered to get us breakfast, but we wanted to "eat in Paris", so we asked him for directions to a good cafe and the Louvre and got out. The cafe was awesome, i wish i wish i wish i had had a few more croissants! Then to Louvre, where the entrance is free every first Sunday of the month. And this was the first Sunday of the month. Free stuff! That meant a mammoth queue, which almost scared us off. But we had nowhere else to go so we went and stood in the line. Took us 2 hours to get in. The louvre? Is great! If only they could have posted descriptions to what we were seeing in English, we would have been there much longer.
We got out in a couple of hours and got back home and met up with my friends. P i had met on her brief bangalore visit a few months ago, but i hadnt seen S since their wedding. We sat in the same cafe and recounted our adventures and talked some about the good old days when the three of us used to work together.
Time to leave. We went back to our room, where the next guest had already settled in. Picked up all of our luggage and left. Took a long train to the airport. The dude had by this time got back to his usual self and was fretting about reaching on time dont ask me why. We got there with plenty of time for duty free shopping as well.
We got onto our flight which would take us to Delhi. It had so many moves i wanted to see! Why cant i ever book a day time flight where i can watch movies from the time they let me to the time they let me? I cant wait to go on a really long flight to a really far away place! Only, after this one, i think we will give foreign travel a break.
- i hadnt informed the host about our time of arrival
- i didnt have his phone number
- we didnt have internet
- i didnt have the phone number of my friends in Paris who had Internet
So basically we were stuck outside his building with nowhere to go. I should have either died out of shame or been killed in anger, but neither happened. The dude (who had switched into the costume of Mr Cool) asked every person who entered the building if they knew the host. We lucked out, one person not only knew the fellow but had his phone number and immediately called him for us. After some conversation in French, in which i am sure my good name was cursed quite a bit, we came to know that the keys to the house were in the mailbox and we were to help ourselves to it. The fellow would only return at 10 in the night. So we did, while wondering how people can give their home to people they have not even met over the Internet. We got in and found a long letter from the host that described all the various ways in which he had tried to contact us. And, the wi-fi password. I went online and discovered that the host had indeed tried all things to contact us. More shame, but not enough to kill.
It had started to drizzle and we were tired and not really in the mood to do much. But since we had only one day in Paris, we wanted to make it count. After many rounds of come-on-get-ready-no-why-are-we-going, we decided to call up my friends (P and S) and let them know we had finally arrived. They convinced us to get off our butts and go see the Eiffel Tower. Which i had always pooh-poohed at, but we went anyway. It lights up every hour in the night and P assured us it was a sight worth seeing. S also insisted we take the Seine river cruise afterwords.
We took the train and got to Eiffel tower. What amazes me is the ease of travel in all these countries. All you need to find your way is a map! For a direction impaired person like me, it is so... empowering! We reached there a few minutes before 10 and got to see it light up. It was.certainly worth it.Then we decided to go up and hang around. We were there till 12, so in all, it lighted up 3 times for us :) Since it was so late we ditched the cruise and got back home. Where the host was presumably sleeping but we didnt see him.
Morning was when we met him and he was very sweet about my whole stupidity. He offered to get us breakfast, but we wanted to "eat in Paris", so we asked him for directions to a good cafe and the Louvre and got out. The cafe was awesome, i wish i wish i wish i had had a few more croissants! Then to Louvre, where the entrance is free every first Sunday of the month. And this was the first Sunday of the month. Free stuff! That meant a mammoth queue, which almost scared us off. But we had nowhere else to go so we went and stood in the line. Took us 2 hours to get in. The louvre? Is great! If only they could have posted descriptions to what we were seeing in English, we would have been there much longer.
We got out in a couple of hours and got back home and met up with my friends. P i had met on her brief bangalore visit a few months ago, but i hadnt seen S since their wedding. We sat in the same cafe and recounted our adventures and talked some about the good old days when the three of us used to work together.
Time to leave. We went back to our room, where the next guest had already settled in. Picked up all of our luggage and left. Took a long train to the airport. The dude had by this time got back to his usual self and was fretting about reaching on time dont ask me why. We got there with plenty of time for duty free shopping as well.
We got onto our flight which would take us to Delhi. It had so many moves i wanted to see! Why cant i ever book a day time flight where i can watch movies from the time they let me to the time they let me? I cant wait to go on a really long flight to a really far away place! Only, after this one, i think we will give foreign travel a break.
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