Day 51:
Cher and I had to split from Stella on this day due to different flight times. :( Despite the fact that we had only gone to bed a couple hours before having to wake up for our flight to Paris, we managed to get up, make food, pack up, and finish writing postcards. How, may you ask? I honestly don't know. This trip was always about packing in as much as possible, and booking it to the next stop. So we booked it to the metro and caught our train to the airport. Yeah, we were on the right train. But we were still unfamiliar with Madrid's system that we completely missed our transfer stop (we had to transfer twice..) by a long ways. We decided to get off finally, and ran to catch a taxi so we wouldn't miss our flight. Of course, 'booking it', once again. Embarrassing..but at least we got to a last glimpse of the city before departing Spain!
On the plane, I was extremely exhausted from lack of sleep. But I felt anxious. Nervous. For Paris. My first non-Spanish speaking trip of the summer. I was always intimidated by the French. I was scared and didn't want to leave Spain yet. I was in my comfort zone of friendly Spaniards and I was about to enter a realm of what I have heard to be rude, inconsiderate, French people. So I panicked. I felt so silly, just sitting on this plane full of Europeans with my useless Frommer's guidebook open to the 'vocabulary and phrases' section. Qui? Quoi? Où? Pourquoi? Quand? Parlez-vous l'anglais? Je ne parle pas français. Suddenly, I opened my eyes and we had arrived. I still didn't know any French.
It took a while to get accustomed to it, but Cher and I somehow made it through the day. It took forever to figure out how to get from Charles de Gaulle Airport to Paris via tram, train, metro, etc. Confusing. We were smashed onto a train full of talkative Frenchies, and I was disappointed that I couldn't even make conversation if I wanted to.
Nonetheless, we eventually checked into our quaint little hotel room in Gare d'Austerlitz. The hotel wasn't anywhere close to any huge landmarks, but our street was surprisingly decent. We had a metro station right across the street, and tons of little restaurants and marts. After a tiring morning, Cher and I decided to just webcam with friends at home and catch up with our own personal lives. Stella wasn't arriving for a few more hours, so we just rested. Later on we went out to eat a cheap Chinese meal next-door to our hotel. So good at the moment, ha! Stella eventually arrived, and we all just rested for the night.
Taken the next morning:
Balcony of our room :)
Our view. ...heh?
Pretty much our daily morning routine in Paris (music, facebook, eating snacks, and getting ready for an extremely long day out)
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