We left Barcelona this morning at 3:30. We got to the bus station and thought we might not be able to get a bus ticket because the actual vending section of the station was closed. We saw a bunch of people standing outside waiting for the buses so we figured they must have been able to buy their tickets somewhere; we searched and found a little ticket stand on the second floor. We got our tickets and got on a bus to the airport.. Ryan made it on the second bus but it was full so the rest of us went on the third bus.
It's nice to be on the bus when some guy about ten rows up pukes all over the place and urinates himself... I hope everything is going better for sick guy.
THE KILOGRAM CHALLENGERyanAir is the big airline here in Europe and they have this silly weight rule that only allows passengers to bring on 15kgs stow away and 10kgs carry on. If you are over these limits they charge you a ridiculous 15euros/kg over... obviously we were all overweight. Everyone else was able to bring their excess stow away weight with them in their carry on however I was already overweight. Thankfully I had the least pleasant woman in the world weighing my bags so she kept telling me "oh, you are overweight, you need to move some weight to your carry on... oh now your carry on is overweight". C'mon lady, I'm fucking backpacking, as if I'm going to pay your absurd overweight charges, especially when the last time we flew RyanAir the nice man checking our bags let us get away with it. So whatever, I was sneaky about it and took some stuff out of my bag, hid it behind the weight counter, weighed my shit again, got weight approved by the asshole and then got out of there. I also gave some gear to Brandice and Ryan, they saved the day. However, after pulling a shitload of gear out of our packs we looked like huge asses with all of our shit hanging off of everything. I had a camera bag, Ipod case, lens case, two pairs of pants, a hoodie and a bunch of other random heavy things hanging off of my little carry on backpack which had a laptop, a camera, a hoodie and two books already inside of it. Silly, if anything, RyanAir is putting everyone at rick by making us do such ridiculous things... at least their flights are cheap. After we shared some unpleasant words about the kilogram challenge, we went through security and made our way off to Paris.
Besides RyanAir being silly, the flight was the best I've ever experienced. We were in the air for the most beautiful sunrise possibly of all time; the shades of red and orange were like nothing I'd ever seen before... ..k, except maybe that one night with PT, DPS and JB.
We landed is Paris and it was raining, but I didn't care, I was so happy to be somewhere where I can speak the language and actually communicate with people. I'd like to take the time right now to thank my parents for putting me through french immersion schooling. I can't imagine not knowing French, it's such an awesome language and it's so rad to hear everyone around me speaking it. We didn't quite land in Paris; we were about 45 minutes out of the city so we had to take a bus. When we finally arrived in Paris we were supposed to call the landlord to our new apartment an hour before we wanted to meet her, however we couldn't figure out how to use the payphones. We gave gave up on the phones and went to the nearest metro station thanks to a kind man who gave us directions. Life is so easy when there are metros. We passed by the metro stop at the Louvre on our way to our apartment, even the metro stop is decorated with art... beautiful. We found our apartment fairly easily however we still hadn't figured out the payphones, so Brandice and I left Sheen and Ryan on a corner with our gear and we headed out in search of... something or someway to use the phones..? After we were disrespected by some pharmacy owner and sent in the wrong direction by some other man we eventually found a kind woman working at some sort of bank who told us that we had to purchase some sort of card from the tobacco shops... so we did that. One more catch, the phone numbers are so messed here... we had a phone number but we didn't know that you had to put a zero in front of the number; we eventually figured it out and got a hold of Mueva, the landlord.
Brandice and Ryan went to get possession of our new home while Sheen and I chilled out at MacDo because technically there are only two people staying in the apartment... I guess for saftey reasons? Safety would probably make the most sense because to have more than two people in this place would be absurd, thankfully there will be four of us here for three months.. we're going to go mad. Take the interior of a mini-van and multiply it by four... that's the size of our room. Yes! The elevator is interesting also, it's an actual two person and if there are two people in it, they will be touching for sure... fat people couldn't hack it. As for the stairs, completely out of the question... it's just a giant spiral staircase with tiny steps.
Once you're inside the apartment and you accept the miniscule-ness of everything then it isn't actually that bad; the shower and sink are in separate rooms and the kitchen is equipped with basically everything we need but a stove. Fortunately this place came with everything we need to live; we're got cleaning supplies, towels, assorted teas, futon, table and chairs, toilet paper, TV and a wicked fluorescent blue light. As for the view from the apartment, I won't even go into detail; I will only say la Tour Eiffel and Le Basilique du Sacre-Coeur... We unpacked a bit and organized a little before taking turns power napping. I woke up from my power nap and witnessed the Eiffel Tower lit up with 335 giant white strobe lights and 4 high power search lights on top, it was pure insanity. Apparently the Eiffel Tower glitters like that for the first 10 minutes of every hour until 2am in the summer and until 1am in the winter... I cannot wait to see it up close.
I guess that is it, I really wish my french keyboard worked... can someone help me?
bonsoir
these guys are takin over my desktop
Notre Dame
illin along the Seine
window shot
our magical futon
Once you're inside the apartment and you accept the miniscule-ness of everything then it isn't actually that bad; the shower and sink are in separate rooms and the kitchen is equipped with basically everything we need but a stove. Fortunately this place came with everything we need to live; we're got cleaning supplies, towels, assorted teas, futon, table and chairs, toilet paper, TV and a wicked fluorescent blue light. As for the view from the apartment, I won't even go into detail; I will only say la Tour Eiffel and Le Basilique du Sacre-Coeur... We unpacked a bit and organized a little before taking turns power napping. I woke up from my power nap and witnessed the Eiffel Tower lit up with 335 giant white strobe lights and 4 high power search lights on top, it was pure insanity. Apparently the Eiffel Tower glitters like that for the first 10 minutes of every hour until 2am in the summer and until 1am in the winter... I cannot wait to see it up close.