Last week was busy. Tuesday I decided to go to the ATM to withdraw some cash (I was really low), and to my surprise, the ATM told me that the transaction could not be placed! I tried cash advancing my credit card to no avail, then decided to try the debit card again. I tried it over and over, and then, while the card was still in the machine, I remembered that I forgot to pay my credit card bill! I had to do this now, because it was the last day to pay, and if I didn’t remember, there would be late f– Clunk. The machine withdrew my card, and went back to a blank screen. I couldn’t get my debit card back!
Thus began the long and tiring process where I would ask the ATM people who was responsible, and they direct me to the building staff, who would then direct me to the front desk, who would then direct me to the bank people, who would redirect me to the ATM people. All in German! Thankfully, I was able to get my card back by Thursday, the day that I left for Paris.
I was going to ride the bus for 9 hours, but when the website didn’t take my payment, I relied on the trains to get me there. Special price was 89€, which was a little pricey, but I would only take 4 hours, and I would have a little more room to move around, which my knees appreciated. I boarded my connecting train from Darmstadt to Frankfurt, and was really excited to go to Paris!
Turns out, the connecting train was 10 minutes late, and the high-speed train that was traveling from Frankfurt to Paris was scheduled to leave 10 minutes after the the connecting train. This translated to me missing the last train to Paris on Thursday night. Fortunately, the nice people at Deutsche Bahn scheduled me another trip to Paris on Friday morning! They even paid for my hotel, all free of charge. My favorite part of the hotel: free American-style all-you-can-eat breakfast. I swear I ate them out of house and home.
The trip was rather pleasant. I brought a book, and while I’m typically not the reading type, I’m actually pretty interested in it. Oh, I also met a Marine stationed in the Paris area, and it was nice to talk to an American for a while. I got to Paris, and began the process of finding where my friend lived.
The tram system in Paris is much like the rest of Europe, so I felt pretty comfortable with navigation. The next obstacle to my journey was that the person I was staying with had to work that day, so she could only meet up after 5pm! I got there at 2PM, so I decided to get some pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower, and take in a lot of the culture of Paris. I was staying in an area known as Ecole Militaire, which means something along the lines of Military School. One thing that I noticed about the Eiffel Tower is how many merchants are trying to sell worthless junk. And also pickpockets, TONS of pickpockets. They like to ask you to sign some petition, then someone gets close behind you to take your wallet. There was a guy that decided to wrap a piece of yarn around my wrist and try to ask for 10€ for it. I pretty much laughed at that, and he got the message.
During my time in Paris, I saw a ton of historic landmarks and sights. I went up in the Eiffel Tower (I climbed all the stairs), I saw Notre Dame, toured a couple churches, and also paid a visit to the catacombs. This was probably my favorite part of Paris, and I’m so glad I was able to see them. I actually got in line to see the catacombs sometime around 9:00 in the morning, and actually entered the catacombs sometime around 1:30. So that’s 4.5 hours of waiting? Sounds about right. The time went by pretty quickly though, as I met some guys from Luisiana studying culinary arts at a renowned university in Lyon.
The overall vibe of going down underneath the ground, with the musty wet rock walls, and seeing skeleton after skeleton and bone after bone of corpses was breathtaking. I would have loved to stayed down there all day, but unfortunately, here again, I had scheduled a ride at 3:00 at the Paris train station. I ended up only spending an hour in the catacombs, which put me at 2:30, and bought a souvenir, which put me at 2:40. Since my tram ride was so long that I would be late, my friend was kind enough to meet me at the train station with my bag, and off I went.
I used something called BlaBlaCar to get home. I think it operates similarly to Uber, although I’ve never used Uber before. It’s a website of people going from point A to point B, that want a little help paying for gas money. Not exactly like hitchhiking, Mom! But kinda 😉 Anyway, it was much cheaper than paying for a train back (<100€), and my other options were really slim. And I also wasn’t alone; there was another guy going to Frankfurt just like me.
All in all, I had a ton of fun getting to see Paris and the French countryside. I can say that there are a lot of differences between France and Germany. The first is food. German food is typically heavy, and most Germans eat quickly and efficiently. Food is for sustenance, while in France, meals are meant for enjoyment and pleasure. French food is typically served in much smaller portions than I am used to, and the meal lasts longer than I’m used to. I guess that’s so they can savor every bite. The language was different, German public transportation is better, and French people are a little more friendly than Germans at first (maybe they knew I was a tourist), but all in all, it was lotsa fun!
I’m planning a trip to Cologne this weekend. However, because I’ll be gone earlier in the week next weekend for the intern conference in Heidelberg, I didn’t want to take off Friday of this week. I’ll keep you posted on that trip. Not really sure what’s there, but it’s close and cheap to travel!
Au Revoir!
Tom Ziebro