Advertisement
Published: December 20th 2008
Nice
Shot from Eiffel TowerParis
I have to say, In my opinion Paris is a bit over rated. Our experience here was nothing in comparison to the experience of going to Amsterdam, and it’s not because of the smoking laws. I simply find French people a bit rude, and arrogant. In fact, I haven’t been annoyed as much as I was in Paris, in a long time. However, I wont get into details about the specific instances that annoyed me. Have to be as positive as possible. Also, if French people are reading this in disgust and disagreement, I dont give a shit. In fact, I’m kind of sugar coating it for the sake of actually demonstrating my true feelings about you people, so chill out. Plus, my ancestors are French, so I have the right to voice my opinion.
Anyway, another four hour train ride from Amsterdam, and we were in Paris. The city itself was beautiful. Old architecture, crepe stands, and french bakery’s were filling the avenues. The Eiffel Tower was the one attraction that has always been of great interest to me. The only problem we faced, was that we got on our train in Amsterdam somewhere around 6pm. So,
we didn’t make it to Paris until after 10 o’clock at night. We didn’t have any plans to stay in a hostel, or hotel. At first, the idea of hanging out in a dark city all night seemed fun and exciting. But, we were sadly mistaken. Another mistake that we made was that we underestimated the size of this city. We got a small map that I kept in my back pocket for direction. The problem is, obviously the city is on a much larger scale. It’s hard to tell how big a city is by looking at a map. So, when we consulted the map, I suggested walking to the Eiffel Tower to see it at night. I figured that it wouldn’t be that far of a walk. Well, anyone who has been there before knows that it’s a long freakin walk. Too long. So long that I could barely walk by the time we made it there. Also, I was carrying my heavy bag, so that didn’t help matters any.
When we got there we layed out on the grass underneath on a blanket that we had brought for this very reason. I have to say, at
Me
In Paris with a Heineken first it was quite nice. The Tower was right there. I mean, we weren’t literally right under it, but close enough. After laying for about an hour, it got quite cold, and we figured we’d walk some more to heat our bodies up. Long story short, we ended up walking all the way back to the other end of the city.
After walking the city for pretty much the entire evening, morning eventually came. We found a nice little breakfast cafe and got some coffee, and croissants. Thoughout our time in Paris, ordering was a little more difficult than in other countries. I think less people speak English, or just refuse to do it. Either way, being native speakers of English and German made communication in French a No-Go. But, we dealt with it, and got by.
Once the morning came along, and it warmed up a bit, we hopped a bus to get back to the Eiffel Tower. We wanted to go as high up as we could and snap off some pictures. When we got there, we had the choice of going up in a little elevator thing, or walking up how ever many flights of
stairs it was. For some reason, and I have no idea why, we chose to walk. This was a bad idea, because for the rest of the day my feet were in bad shape. However, the view from the second level of the Tower was spectacular.
Once we made our way back down, we chilled out for a few minutes, and then got back on a bus to see if there were any other spots we wanted to see. At this point we were extremely tired. I mean, we hadn’t gone to bed the night before, and had basically been walking through cities for 2 days straight. My legs and feet were in rough shape. We were so tired that we both fell asleep on the bus. It wasn’t until I woke up and noticed when I looked out the window, that we had already traveled by this particular section of town on this bus. God knows how long we had been on it. Anyway, we got off in front of a crepe stand, and got some crepes. Sandra got Banana and Chocolate, and I got a Mushroom and Cheese.
Not long after this, we were so tired
Me
Wearing Amsterdam Shirt that we decided to go to the train station, and wait for the train back to Germany. We still had a couple hours left in Paris, but it wasn’t worth walking around anymore. We were cranky, tired, and sore. While waiting for the train I fell asleep and awoke many times. The funny thing is, I assumed that once I hit my seat on the train I would sleep until our stop in Germany. But, for some reason, I couldn’t. I was tired. But there’s something about sleeping on a bus, or train, or plane that I just cant grip. I guess maybe it’s too uncomfortable.
Eventually, we were home, and on the couch watching King Of Queens. I love traveling to cities, but this particular trip was a bit much. I suppose sleeping is an important factor when you are walking around for two days straight. Hey, I guess I’ll know for next time.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.061s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0304s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
brian
non-member comment
Even the French think Parisians are rude
when you add a lack of sleep and the inability to speak French, this has all the makings of a really bad trip. if you did not like Paris, try Lyon, it is a smaller city, but still a big city, it lacks a lot of the monuments of Paris and it has a much more southern France/Italy feel. The wife and I really liked it. If you give Paris another try, check out the Arc de Triomphe. I think the view is better than from the Eiffel Tower.