The shoes that travel all over France
Trip Start
Apr 05, 2008
1
22
54
Trip End
Jun 05, 2008
Paris,
Île-de-France,
France
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Its a hard life and someone has to live it. I shower but as I am running late I miss breakfast with Cyril, I have one of Mel's protein shakes down at the train station and I am sick of Pain au chocolate or Pain au raison far too much of an instant sugar hit for my liking.
I say goodbye to Cyril and leave for the internet cafe before the train station. The luggage is weighing me down and my usual internet cafe is not open so I have to shuffle along the streets looking for one that is open. Its only 9am and most places open at 10am, so I grab a hot chocolate and then settle in for an hour or so before my train leaves.
Paris
My train for Paris is departing at 2pm so I grab a smoked salmon baguette and some Perrier for on the train as the prices on the train are highway robbery, or trainway robbery as the case may be. Earlier at the station I try to change my train trip from Paris to Marseille from Monday to Tuesday as I had received an email saying that my english QWERTY computer would not be available. No such luck, there is limited Eurail tickets and they are all allocated. On Thursday it is also May Day Holiday so much of France is closed so on Tuesday and Wednesday lots of people travel to have a 4 day weekend. But I have other plans so I will see how they go.
The trip is far too fast, I am just getting into the rhythm of the train and decide perhaps a snooze would be in order but alas I check the time and there is only 20 mins until I reach my destination, and no place to stay for the night, so no sleeping on the train for me!
I get into Paris Montparnasse station which is a HUGE railway station and notice that they have baggage lockers, so I decide to lighten the load of my luggage. At least my luggage will have accommodation for the night. At the train stations you pay the one rate for upto 72 hours so I decide that since I might find a couchsurfing host some time over the weekend to try my luck put the none essentials in the luggage storage and try and find a Youth Hostel to sleep the night. As I am reorganising my luggage I notice that my favourite walking shoes are missing, I check every bag and they are no where to be seen. I am wearing my Horseriding Blundstones as they are my heaviest shoes and take up the most room. I have almost down pat my travelling outfit, it consists of the bulkiest heaviest items I have so my backpack seems lighter.
I give Cyril a call on his mobile and it goes to message bank. 20 mins later he give me a call back, he has found my shoes under the beanbag and as luck would have it, he is spending the weekend in Paris so he is going to bring my shoes with him. Now thats couchsurfing dedication for you! Above and beyond the call of duty, although I can't imagine spening another 6 weeks in my blundstones as they are so uncomfortable. He says the easiest is to meet me at Paris Montparnasse at 6pm as thats when he will be getting in.
Five phone calls later and no luck everything seems to be booked out, Im anxious but not that worried, I had torn out some pages of the HIA Youth Hostel guide when I was in Nantes so I decide to call the one that has the most beds. My luck they have a place for me but they do not take bookings over the phone so I have to go there. With the heavy part of my luggage in storage I head over. The place in near the end of the line on the Metro, although not a dodgy area I have definitely seen better and the front of the youth hostel they have a building site. Its 21 Euro a nite or about $35 thats on the cheaper end of things in Paris. I decide to stay just the one night in case I manage to get a host.
I go to my room, which is sparce, ugly and not so clean. There are about 30 rooms on the floor and 5 toilets and showers, it will be interesting in the morning. I head out and find an internet cafe, a grocery store and the Tourist Information shop (which is closed). So I take a whole heap of hand outs so I decide to plan where I want to go.
I then meet Cyril at the Station and retrieve my shoes, there was also a top I left behind but I actually left it behind on purpose, oh well I will jettison it at my next youth Hostel. Its great to see a familiar face, he is in town for a games convention and meeting up with Friends.
Its about 9.30pm when I get back and I prepare some dinner in the kitchen at the Youth Hostel much cheaper than eating out, and then head off to bed. Thankfully there is no-one in my room for the night so I get a relatively peaceful nights sleep, well apart from the kids running up and down the corridor. My three must haves for any travel experience is a sleep mask, a pair of ear plugs and a blow up travel pillow.
Wish you were here - Penny
Saturday - Mademoiselle where would you like to have lunch?
I head out and the take the metro to where I have to pick up my laptop, it is not to far from the centre of town but far from where I am staying, but the metro is so quick and effiencent, trains leave every 2-5 minutes. I try to sweet-talk them into seeing if they can have my computer ready by Monday as that is when my train is booked for. They are nice guys who speak english quite well but explain that the computer is in a warehouse and will not be available until Tuesday, there is nothing they can do. So it will be 4 nights I will be in Paris.
