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Published: December 19th 2012
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After as tense moment at the airport in Tunis, they(Air France) finally let me go and fly to Paris after sorting out my itinerary, hurricane Sandy is wreaking havoc at airline schedules even if it did not hit Boston badly. Anyway they want to keep me in Tunis so they don't have to pay extravagant amount of money for my hotel in Paris, but I insisted I need to be in Paris as it connects better to America as there are direct flights, none from Tunis! So I will be staying at a hostel which I found last minute at the Tunis airport, called St. Christopher's. I printed the directions, confirmation code etc at the AirFrance office and rushed to make the next flight out.
It took only about 2 hours to get to Paris from Tunis, immigration was a breeze but customs was busy, then I heard the guard announcing, flights from Tel Aviv and Algiers to the right, everyone having their luggages x rayed before leaving customs, I went left and he looked at my ticket and waived me through, no x ray. Now took euros from ATM and set about finding the metro station, the hard part
for me is understanding what sort of ticket to buy, only 2 days in Paris should I buy multiple tickets or get the discounted thing, I decided to sort that out later and maybe ask the hostel for advice, but first I need to get the hell out of there, I bought a ticket which I thought was good enough and it wont go through as I insert it on the turnstile, wtf?? I knew I bought the wrong type of ticket, but then I remembered the ticket given to me at random by one lady as I was going down the escalator, she was going up towards the departure area, she gave it to me cause she is leaving Paris already, good thing I took it as it saved my butt, I used it and it went through, phew!!
The hostel is very easy to find and they have a bed ready for me when I checked in, the place is huge with a bar at street level, the dorm rooms are big and busy, it's a very popular place. I decided to just chill after I repack my backpack, the spices, especially the harissa from my friend's
mom spilled in the bag and it smelled the whole dorm room! I cleaned it up and hopefully it will make the last trip home. Had a few beers at the bar and went for a brief walk around the vicinity of the hostel which is next to a river canal. Then went to bed only to be disturbed and woken up by noisy American girls who have no regard for their roommates, late at night talking at the top of their voice, good thing they left to go to a bar.
Waking up to a sunny day, I got the free breakfast and got ready for the free walking tour of Paris, meeting up at the reception area, there were a few of us from the hostel, the guide took us to the metro and took us to the meeting place at St. Michael's fountain, we waited about an hour for the tour to start. They sorted us out by languages spoken, then registering your name, and all that, while waiting in the queue, this dude from Canada started chatting with me, Aaron, nice chap, we ended up hanging out the rest of the day after the tour,
as I can't be bothered walking around on my own, I have only one full day to see Paris, so anyway we were taken to all the highlights, the Louvre, this and that, and surprisingly enough though it was a cold gloomy day, I quite enjoyed it, Paris is beautiful, our guide is an American dude that settled in Paris, he is very animated, and told us get away from the people trying to chat with us to do a survey orsomething, they said they are thiefs, pointing at them within earshot of those guys for them to hear it, and they give him a dirty look but stayed away from us. I gave him a generous tip at the end of the tour. Then we had lunch at a nearby restaurant then Aaron and I walked to the Arc de Triomphe and visited a few more places then back to the hostel.
We asked the receptionist where we can have some fine dining but cheap, and directed us to this small busy restaurant near the canal, it was delicious food and good service, that is why it's packed, I had some veal thing and aaron had duck, wonderful!
Then back to hostel, a few beers and sad goodbyes and I am ready to bed, only there is no bed for me! I went back up to my room and all my belongings are gone! My roommates told me reception dude took it down at the front desk, so I stormed my way there and asked for explanation, apparently I was supposed to change rooms for my 2nd night, no one told me and all they can do is apologize, the other guy screwed up he claims, so he went up with me and made my bed constantly apologizing, i was ticked off but nothing I can do now, just want to go to bed. Then later on I realized in the process of moving, I somehow lost my eyeglasses, I went back to the other room, not there, so I went to bed pissed! The snoring Italian dude above me didn't help matters for me. Got up around 5am, took a shower, gathered my things and left. No breakfast, as the hostel serve it around 8am. I walked my way to the metro, and made it to CDG. To my horror, the check in counter area for Air
France is a mess! Took me awhile to get my bearings and figure out where I need to go, it's automated, so you are supposed to check yourself in using any of the machines provided then print out your boarding pass and stickers and proceed to the counter to drop of your luggage, then that's when problem began, 2 long lines form and I cant figure out which is mine and the annying French dude behind me keeps pushing me to move forward, I finally lost it and told him to f**k off and wait his turn, then to my dismay when it was my turn I was told I was on the wrong line! You have priority seating sir go to that line.. Huh? priority seat?? Only then I looked at my ticket, it seems the ground crew in Tunis upgraded me for my flight home, i did not notice, score!
The line was quicker of course on the priority check in, even the customs line we have the advantage! So there I go excited to go home and have a seat a tad bit better than economy, I am to be seated at premium you
know...then realized it was not a big deal, seats not a big deal different and service still sucks oh well, I made it to Atlanta and conncted to Boston from there, home sweet home and Boston was intact, Sandy chose to hit NYC instead.
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