Paris and Train Problems

Next up after Barcelona was Paris. Our original plan was to get in to Paris at around 5pm and meet up with Hannah, a friend we had met in Nice and who had offered a place to stay in Paris. Well, this didn't exactly work out. From Barcelona, we needed to get a connection to Paris at Montpellier. When we got there, we learned that all trains to Paris (and there are about 10 a day) were booked until the following evening, at which point the only open spots were first class at around 100 euro per person. At this point, we were really scrambling for ideas of what to do. After a little while and after the train we were supposed to be on had already left, we talked to the ticket people once more. One of them mentioned that it might be possible for us to hitch a ride standing up on one of the trains if we talked to the conductor when it arrived. And this is exactly what we did. Crisis averted. However, we had no real way to effectively communicate with Hannah other than email and this resulted in us having to book a hostel before we eventually got in contact with her.

I'm very glad we did because we were able to meet up with all our Nice friends, plus a few more additions. Hannah took us to what was apparently a bridge party. We brought a couple of bottles of wine and took a seat on this bridge with the Eiffel tower glistening in the background. Right as we got there, an impromptu hip-hop party broke out. Someone setup a boom box, a circle formed, and the French entertained us with their dance moves. Some of them were quite good. My favorite was this guy juggling a basketball with his feet in time to the music.





This is where me and Josie decided to split up. Philip, her boyfriend, had just arrived in a town on the border of the Netherlands and Belgium and she was going to take a train to meet up with him early in the morning. I had never been to Paris before so I decided to stay for another day and take a night train to Berlin, where we would meet up the following morning. I can't speak as to what Josie did the next day, but I picnic'd with our friends in the gorgeous Luxumberg Gardens and then went allllll the way up to the top of Eiffel. Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera, but I got a few mental images for myself.

Upon arriving at our hostel in Berlin the following day, I learned that Josie had again encountered some train problems and wouldn't be making it to Berlin. So now, we're just rolling with what comes our way and the new plan is to meet tomorrow in Amsterdam. Until then, I'm burning daylight writing this post until my train at midnight. The oldest beer garden is now calling my name, so I gotta go.