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Published: April 30th 2008
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Gare du Nord
Inside one of the six train stations in Paris, where we bought our tickets to Brussels Well, unfortunately I cannot upload any pictures right now because all of the hostels that we've been to do not let you access their USB ports. That's fine, I'll probably go to an internet cafe one of these days. Also, I'm writing these entries kind of retroactively for the last couple of days.
So, pretty much, we left Edmonton at 8am and arrived in Paris at 9am... the next day... including some time zone action. We couldn't really sleep on the plane to Montreal because the seats wouldn't recline in our row since the emergency exit was right behind us. Dag. So I just watched episodes of Flight of the Conchordes, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and I watched There Will Be Blood. "Drainage, Eli! Drainage!" It's a bit of a downer. Oilmen kind of suck. Planes are awesome now.
We showed up in Montreal, and were immediately greeted in French. I don't know, but it seems like the poeple in Montreal are really laid back and friendly. Even the security guards cracked a couple of jokes... in French. They're all business in English.... Mitch actually met up with us at the airport and we ate a surprisingly reasonably priced lunch
Action Shot
Doesn't Neil look lively? at Casey's Bar and Grill. The beer was much more expensive. That's where they get you... well, got us. Oh well. It was great to see Mitch, and I/we hope to go back someday to visit him and see Montreal for real. (Neil says: "Hi Ian")
The flight to Paris was pretty smooth, but not as restful as we had hoped. So we were pretty messed up when we got to Paris. It kind of cancelled out any excitement we would have felt, and left us like zombies for pretty much the rest of the day. Customs was hilarious. They stamped our passports. No questions asked. It took 20 seconds. We both honeslty thought there was another customs zone after that, or something, where they would look through our bags for contraband, or something. Nope. I guess I swallowed all those coke balloons for nothing!
We spent 20 minutes trying to figure out how to buy a ticket to the city, and then we boarded the RER. Oh, and a stereotype played the accordian for money. We secretly enjoyed it, but avoided eye contact so as not to give him any money.... We're bastards.
We got off
Outside Gare du Nord
Old buildings, looks of scooters. the train at Gare du Nord, one of the main train stations, and reserved our seats to Brussles on the Thalys for the following day. Then we made our way on the metro to our hostel on the East end of the main part of the city. The subways are very easy to navigate. Neil and I were experts after 10 minutes. Trains come every 2 minutes.... so that pretty much rocks.
Our hostel was ok, but it was a bit noisy at night, and was full of eight year olds. I suppose one explains the other. It didn't matter, we were both so bagged that we passed out at 7pm local and slept until 5 or 6 am, but we were disturbed a couple of times. A rude frenchman stole Neil's bed and farted loudly. No joke... but there's a bit more to explain. He had a bad foot, so that explains why he wanted the bottom bunk, but I can't explain the farting.
We wandered the neighbourhood before we went to bed, and it was pretty amazing. But again, we were dead tired, so we didn't really absorb anything. Dinner at a local bistro? Not bad.
Near the hostel
Coblestone streets, and poles that mark the sidewalk (which can be dangerous...) Not bad at all.
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