Paris

The journey continues... After arriving in Linz, we quickly realized that we were in the middle of an industrial city. Leave it up to me to navigate my way out of the cranes and cement to the shopping district. We got into Linz at about 2, and our bus didn't depart until 9:45... so we had a good chunk of time to kill. Being the prepared travelers that we are (since the incident at the airport on V-Day), we arrived with our packs about 20 minutes early to the bus stop. Thankfully there was another woman waiting at the station, which more or less assured us that we were in the right place. Her English was a bit broken and clearly some things were lost in translation. She had traveled on this bus before, and told us that one time it didn't come until 11:00 (which we thought she was referring to 10:00 and she just had trouble with English numbers). Well her bus came and left, and the coach driver assured us that the bus to Paris would arrive in "5 minutes." That was at 9:40. At 10:45... our coach FINALLY came... long after the fear, frostbite, runny nose and need for a toilet set in. So- we got on and were on our way just before 11:00pm. Sometime during the the 14 hour journey through the night, we passed through Germany and customs officials came onto our bus for a random search. I was so disorientated from being woken up in a strange place that I was totally clueless as to what was going on, but I was on super search mode for my passport. The officer passed by our seat, not even opening the cover of my passport- which was relieving, but I didn't take a breath for about 4 minutes while he walked up and down the length of the bus. Sometime in the morning, we stopped for a 10 minute break in rural Paris at a truck stop. The police officer at the gas station tried to strike a conversation with me because I was eating a ice cream bar and it was freezing outside... but my limited french vocabulary from high school left me with nothing cohesive to say... so I just shoved it in my mouth to avoid saying something I would regret. :) We finally got into Paris at about 2:00 the next afternoon. I was exhausted, tired, cranky, and smelly. We checked into our "hotel" (this building was a joke... but cheap) and just stretched out on the bed for the first time in 2 days. At dusk we headed out to explore some french sites by night. We went up the Eiffel Tower while it was lit up, then headed back to ground level and over to the Moulin Rouge. We enjoyed the spinning windmill with chocolate crepes in hand... That's French for you! Friday we woke up early and headed out by foot to explore the city. We saw Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre...among others. Friday night, admission to the Louvre was free for students, so we spent some time strolling through the hundreds of galleries in the museum. I got a quick glimpse at the Mona Lisa through the crowds... she's smaller than I expected. Yesterday we bummed around Paris for a bit longer, checking out some local art fairs and local tea/coffee shops. Exhausted, we got to the airport in Paris for our 9:45 flight back to the UK. I am happy to be back in a country in which I can fluently speak its language. Tomorrow I will be taking another night bus up to Scotland to start my job search.

The Moulin Rouge...


This man was playing some beautiful music in front of Norte Dame on Friday. Saturday we went back, and he was playing again... but he had a toupe on! Nonetheless... his music was great.