Mark's Travels

10 years of travel blogging from 35+ countries around the world

Holiday in Paris 24th May 2003 in Paris, France


April 30th - Hannover to Paris

I woke up, got my bags I had packed that I had packed the night before and headed to work. My thinking was that I would work half the day so I can save as much vacation time as possible. I worked until about 12ish and then my co-worker Marco gave me a ride to the airport.

I checked my bags in there and then I went and ate at a nice restaurant. I sat at the window where you could see the planes taking off and landing. It was a really fancy restaurant. The food was a bit expensive but I wanted to enjoy myself while I was on holidays. Eventually I finished up my desert, cleared my tab and got on board the aircraft.

It was a small plane, it held 50 people but the amount of space they gave me was huge. I had 2 seats to myself so it was like I had half of a sofa to myself. The ride was bumpy but in 55 minutes I had landed at Roissy Charles de Gaulle. I stepped off the plane on to the run way and walked into the terminal. It was kinda like I had chartered my own aircraft and it felt really posh walking around the airport. They had some really neat architecture and the escalators were surrounded by clear plastic and you could see other elevators, it was kinda like the jetsons.

I eventually got my bags and headed into the city. I took the RER to get to the Gare du Nord and while I was on this train this accordin player came into our car and played for about 8 minutes. It was really nice looking out at Paris with the French style music playing and of course, when he came to me for a tip I gave him NOTHING!!!!

Eventually I got to the train station and headed to my hostel. Paris felt familiar but different in some way. I dropped my stuff off and began walking around the city. At one point it began to rain really hard so I stood underneath a pytheon, one side was a park and the other side was a roundabout. It was nice to watch Paris go about life while it rained for 20 minutes. Eventually It stopped and I began to walk again, I ended up walking through an antiques market. Eventually I made it to the Arc du Triumph. It was absolutely amazing to look at. I then walked to the Eifel tower, it looked ugly. I walked to a park just past it before I headed back to Champs Elysees.

It"s hard to find English books in Germany and there are a lot of books that are only published in English. One series that is hard to come across is lonely planet guides. I was finally able to find one on the South Pacific Islands at the Virgin Megastore in Paris. I also walked around nfac, a huge electronics store. They had one of those 24" Apple LCD"s showing the new Matrix trailer in full screen, it was really neat to watch.

I got a little lost on the way back, I was walking in circles for about an hour and a half before I realized that the sun should be to my left if I"m heading north. I ended up walking through some really shady streets full of African Hookers and Pimp, I think one of the streets was called Rue St. Denis. It seemed like everyone was trying to rob me for 20 minutes.

At one point I walked by a guy trying to distract people while someone else pickpockets them. He came up to me and said "Speak English? English??" and I just stared him down and kept walking and as I went by he said "Where are you from? Poland?".

When I got back to the hostel I sat down in the communal room with my lonely planet and began to read it. Some hostels have a really good atmosphere so it doesn"t take long to meet people. This hostel is one of those hostels. I was digging through my book when I heard an Australian voice "Planning out your day for tomorrow?". I said that I was planning a trip for the end of the year. The voice ended up being Carolyn from Perth. I had a really nice time chatting with her. The whole atmosphere of the place was relaxing, there was some really nice music, lots of young travelers hanging out, people playing fossball, ect...

The next morning I woke up and went down to the breakfast table. I chatted with a few people while I ate. The I got ready and headed out for the day. I wasn"t quite sure what to expect. Today was May day, a national holiday in France and also a day that people traditionally protest what is on their minds. When I first walked from Montmartre to the Arc de Triomphe is was really quite, it was as if I had Paris to myself but when I made my way down to the Academie Nationale de Musique the streets were crowded to capacity with protesters. They had huge signs saying something about France on the building, dramatic music playing and some man shouting over the speaker system in a passionate voice. It was a bit over dramatic but I"m not going to question what the French do on their days off.

Nothing was really open but it was still nice to walk around and look at everything. When I got back to the hostel I met 2 Americans whom were Programmers prior to coming out to Europe. They had done outsourced work for Microsoft and had loads of other experiences so it was interesting to talk to them. They told me how they started out at about $65,000 US doing Flash animations. I felt a bit cheated because the work I do is far more sophisticated and I don"t make nearly as much. When they brought it into perspective and I realized they were living pay cheque to pay cheque with all their bills it didn"t seem so bad.We eventually went out for dinner just down the street from the Hostel and had some really good rants about work. After that I came back to the hostel and began chatting with Carolyn and a few others.

Later on that evening when everyone got tired and headed to bed, I headed up stairs and ran into the 2 Americans. They told me that they headed out to a strip club. They said that it cost ?10 to get in and they got a free drink. Then a bunch of UGLY slappers from Senegal began to sit around them and ask if they wanted to buy them a drink. One guy refused, finished his drink and was about to head for the door when one of the strippers said to him "I"ve been here 2 months and no one has bought me a drink, so I guess I should just quit my job!" and the man nodded his head. But the other guy said yes to buying one girl a drink. The drink cost him ?250, about $400 Canadian. The ?250 bought him a short conversation with a really disgusting woman and nothing more. I told him I could meet a girl here in the hostel, wine and dine her around Paris for days and fly her back to Germany on a return ticket for less.

The next day I woke up and as usual, met loads of people at breakfast. Afterword I headed down to fnac on Avenue des Champs Elysees. I got a 128MB memory card for my camera since my 16MB card was already full. I then walked around Paris for about 90 minutes snapping photos before I realized the card was corrupted. I was so fucking angry I had a spazz attack in the middle of some bridge over the Seine. While this was going on another one of those pick pocket distractor guys came up to me and said: "My friend, do you speak English?" and I was like "FUCK OFF I"M NOT YOUR FRIEND!". I eventually calmed down and made my way to the Parc de Luxemborg. I deleted one image off of my 16MB card and took a photo of what had to be the most beautiful and tropical thing I"ve seen probably since Australia or maybe Barcelona.

Everyday in Paris I get back to the hostel around 3 ~ 3:30 and sleep until 5. It"s really relaxing. It"s warm, you can here people going about their lives out the window, the warm breeze, the beautiful architecture which seems to come for free when you visit Paris. It"s the one time I don"t worry about anything.

That evening I went out for dinner with Gemma, an English girl from Brighton that had been working as a teacher in France for some time. We went to the same restaurant that I went to with the American guys. There was a nice waiter there, the food was a good price and the atmosphere was laid back. We ended up having a really nice conversation. We eventually spent the rest of the night talking in the communal room over a few drinks at the Hostel. It was nice to talk to someone from England whom I could relate too again.

The next morning I woke up and headed down for breakfast. I was having a really nice chat with a German girl before Gemma came down and told me that 2 Austrian girls in her room had their credit cards stolen from their bags while they were sleeping. The girls called the police but the police said they wouldn"t show up. It was a bit worrying that something like that could happen.

After breakfast I went back to fnac to exchange my memory card. I though that it might be possible that my camera doesn"t support a card that big so I wanted to downgrade to a 32MB. When I got there I went to the exchange counter. People were just jumping the line thinking they were more important or something. Thats when I wish I was in England, for sure they would of gotten a stomping. Eventually I talked to the rep and she told me to go to the camera department.

When I got there I heard one of the reps say "Alles Klar, Tschüss" so I assumed he spoke German. I went up to him and explained in German that my card was fucked and I wanted my money. He just looked at me puzzled. I them realized that he might of just spoke 3 German words that he knew to some customer and didn"t understand anything more. Then I said "Sprechen Sie Englisch? Parley vous Angleise" (yeah I know I misspelt both of those) and he said yes. I told him my card was fucked in English and he told me to talk to another rep. I then went to that rep and he decided to test the card. I"m not sure why, I wasn"t leaving without a refund and a new card.

While I was watching this ass hole fuck around and try and blame my camera some Eastern European man burst in the room and spoke extremely loudly "I need a card for my camera". The clerk was like "It is ?73 for 128MB". The man then said "Anything smaller" and the clerk said "?36 for 32MB" and the guy said "OK, how much was the 128MB again?" and the clerk said "I just told you what it was", "how much was it?", "you tell me, I just told you". Thats when I intervened and said "It"s ?73" just to keep the clerk from being slaughtered by an enraged Slovakian before I got my refund. Eventually he printed out the receipt. I went down stairs to the cash til but they pointed me to the exchange counter, then I went to the cash til then I went to where they dispense the memory cards. The Eastern European guy was having a hard time understanding why he has to go through 8 people to get a memory card and pay for it. The cashier tried to explain it to him but he didn"t understand, then I explained it and he understood. I got a thank you and the cashier got a dirty look. I think I remember something like that happening at CompuSmart once or twice.

After that I walked back to the hostel got my Camera and continued my journey around Paris re-taking all the photos I"d lost before. While I was taking photos I took the opportunity to buy some artwork of Paris. I bought 3 paintings of Paris while it"s raining. They are now hanging beautifully on a wall here in my home in Germany.

That evening I chatted with Gemma, Carolyn and a girl named Sarah from Sydney Australia. It was interesting hearing the difference in Accents between Carolyn and Sarah. Both had lovely voices but Sarah had a much more suddle accent than Carolyn.

Eventually we all went out for a pint. Funny enough it was Saturday night in Paris and there was hardly anything open. It must of been the neighborhood we were in or something. We eventually found one place. The waiter made us order in French and there was a guy playing really bad loud music on a synthesizer. We drank our pints and began walking around Montmartre looking for another one. We never came across one we liked but we did get a chance to see the Eifel tower at night. It looked really nice all lit up. I"ll have to make a note to check these places out at night sometime.

Eventually we found ourselves (after getting a bit lost) back at the hostel where we drank a few beers, took a few photos and chatted for the rest of the night. That night, while everyone was sleeping, a Malaysian guy fell out of the top bunk while sleeping. He was OK. Kinda scary to wake up to a huge bang on the floor.

The next morning I talked with the girls and an American guy. He had met a guy from Munich that talked like it was the best place in the world. I hope it is, I"m going there soon. After breakfast I headed out on the town and found myself in the Virgin Mega Store on Champs Elysees. The store used to be a bank, it"s absolutely huge and the basement where the vault was there is now a book store. It was neat to look at all of the French books they had and walk through the vault door which had been exposed so you could see just how thick it was. After that I went to the Erotic museum which was the biggest waste of ?7. They had a bunch of DVD"s for sales around there which were like ?57 each.

One thing I have to say about shopping in Paris. It was nice to go into a store which had so many cool things and then to come out to a warm, humid and busy street with loads of people walking everywhere. I got the feeling that this is where I should be right now. I was really content with how things were in my life.

As well, to wake up in the morning and see the beautiful architecture on my windows and beyond, perfect weather, wonderful culture and relative safety was really nice. It made the trip really worth while. This time it didn"t cost very much. It"s nice to have enjoyment in life without breaking the bank, you don"t have to be rich to enjoy the truly wonderful things in life.

That evening I talked with a load of people in the hostel, it was all pretty laid back. But eventually it was time to exchange e-mail addresses and call it a night. The next morning I woke up bright and early and caught a train up to the airport. I watch 40 people jump the stalls and nearly trample me, they obviously didn"t pay the ?7.50 to get to the airport. I watched planes take off and land, including a Concorde. This airport is where they had the Concorde disaster a few years ago where it ended up crashing and killing everyone on board. They only recently started flying them again and they"re going to be grounded for good in August, so it was nice to see it for the short time that is it flying, too bad I didn"t have my camera.

I eventually got on my plane. Enjoyed 2 sandwiches and 2 cokes. Eurowings is a discount carrier but they still feed you and treat you really nice which is a far cry from some other carriers. Eventually I landed in Hannover, caught the train to work and went back to normality. It felt weird being back, I loved Paris so much, the weather was so nice outside I could hardly concentrate but I do the job that I choose, the one I wanted more than anything else since I was 12 years old and like visiting Paris, that"s something that few will get to enjoy.


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