Its been about three days since I've blogged and Barcelona has been amazing! But I will write about my most recent experience which is now Paris. The most difficult part is not knowing any French whatsoever. Thank goodness Sarah and I have Jomi to take us around. It's not like Barcelona or Prague where you can get by speaking English, apparently people here don't like it if you don't try to speak French. Anyway, we got off the plane got our luggage and headed straight for the Orlybus that would take us straight into the city where we would meet Jomi. This proved to be more difficult than expected. We got to the stop perfectly fine, but buying the tickets...that was another story.
First we had to get it to English, that was a feat, then came the part where we had to pay. The thing only excepted coins or cards, why no bills, I have no clue. Since we were short on change, Sarah and I decided to pay with a card. This did not end well, and after a few tries we opted for cash. So we went back into the airport and bought some sliced apples. They were delicious by the way, and got some change to finally buy the tickets. Meanwhile, we sent some texts to Jomi that she never recieved because we don't know how to work our international phones. Finally we got to center city, and didn't end up meeting with Jomi but started to make our way to the hostel.
We are staying at St. Christophers Paris, and it seems to be the best of the last few locations. It's a bit far out but very accessible through the metro. On the way, we had to switch metro lines, and we must have gotten there during rush hour because man, we're people rushing. Running, and zigzagging all over the place. While Sarah and I are just trying to make our way through with our huge annoying bags. This time though we found our way perfectly fine, unlike Barcelona, which is another story in and of itself.
Since we had a few hours before meeting up with Jomi, Sarah and I decided to grab dinner because we hadn't had a proper meal all day. We walked down the street and I was excited to see an asian restaurant. But given Sarah's particular pallet I thought she might want to go for pizza or something. But since she left the decision to me, I decided to go for pho.
Now walking into a French restaurant, even if it's asian is scary. We didn't know the language, and I'm not sure what type of Asian dialect they speak, the worse would be mandarin. You should have seen us looking at the French and Chinese menu. Can you say confused? awkward?! Yeah, we'll it was, until they got us the English menu, and another man to come and help us. First, I wanted to make sure Sarah got something she could eat. So she got the pho with beef. Simple enough and filling. To my surprise she liked it! And she likes bean sprouts, which isn't at all too surprising because it's another version of crunchy water. Then I ordered a pho dac biet, Excuse my Vietnamese if it isn't correct. I did this part in viet. Then he asked if we wanted anything to drink. I got milk tea, and surprisingly ordered in cantonese. Thank goodness he spoke Cantonese. I found the common language! Anyway, the meal was good and we soon left to meet up with Jomi.
Our first stop and actually only stop for today was the Eiffel Tower. It so amazing to see it in person, Sarah and I will try to go to the top tomorrow morning. We took lots of pictures and at 9 the tower lights up like glitter, everyone goes ahhhhhh, and takes even more pictures than they were before. Jomi told us not to smile because they'll know we're from America, so we didn't?
I can't wait to try all the pastries and food that we've barely seen already. It's also really nice to have an insiders guide to France. Really looking forward to the next few days as I finish this last part of this amazing journey!
More to come :)
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