Paris, Paris, Paris…

On Friday, my dear friend Ella and I ventured alone to Paris, France!  We figured we were doing well with the train systems in Germany so we could also handle them in Paris.  Well, my friends, read on to hear whether this was true or not…

After school, Ella and I left for Stuttgart to catch our train to Paris. This train trip was only 4 hours!  So cool.  I wish we could travel to other countries in only 4 hours in America too.  Before we left Schorndorf, we grabbed some food: I grabbed a salad to go from a place called Hoagie’s.  Once we were on the train, we were ready to go.  SO EXCITED!!  We kept saying to each other “We’re going to be in Paris in less than four hours!!”  I mean, come on, what’s not exciting about that?  Our plans were to get to Paris, and purchase some train tickets to Orleans (where my friend Emily lives) and then wander around Paris until it was time for our train.  Well, little did we know French is NOT the same language as German.  Hmm.  Also, the people in the train station spoke very little english, so it was difficult, but we managed. The latest train to Orleans left only about an hour later, so we didn’t have time to wander the train station, which was fine b/c we were panicked about making our train.  Also, when we were purchasing our tickets, the guy spoke barely any english, and what he spoke was difficult to understand.  But we did understand that it took 30 minutes to get to the train to Orleans!!  I think I can speak for both Ella and myself when I say what I though: “What?!?!?  We have to walk for thirty minutes??  Our train leaves in an hour!  And we’re probably going to get lost!”  So we strapped up our suitcases, purses and backpacks and were ready to venture out in the world of Paris, but then it dawned on us that it was probably a 30 min. train ride to the station we had to leave from.  Sure enough, it was.  (thank heavens!) So we made it to Gar d’lest, the train station and made our train to Orleans in time.  I cannot emphasize enough how big of a relief it was to see my friend Emily at the station.  Because I definitely did not know what I was doing in France!

That evening, we just hung out in Emily’s apartment with a bunch of her friends and enjoyed Racklet, a typical French dinner with LOTS OF CHEESE! (I love cheese) And we just talked, ate and drank wine until about 1am.  Time flew – I had no idea it was so late.

Saturday morning, we woke up pretty early so we could catch the train from Orleans to Paris (it’s about an hour train-ride).  Ella and I had a big list of things we wanted to see, but were completely unaware as to how big that city actually is.  Before we saw anything, we stopped for coffe and a little food.  Ella and I shared this cheese thing, which I can’t remember what it’s called, which was cheese, but yogurty… very French.  And very delicious!  Then we made our way to Notre Dame (can you believe I saw Notre Dame?!?!?)  It was beautiful, and this year was an anniversary of the building, so they had a huge viewing thing set up so more people can see it from higher up and such.  We did not go inside, because the line was so long and we wanted to see other things., but the outside was stunning – it is just amazing to me that ‘a bunch of guys with hand tools could build all this.’ (name that movie)  The stonework was just all so intricate!

After Notre Dame, we attempted to find a GF bakery I found online – no go.  We couldn’t find it.  HOWEVER, we did find a really beautiful area that Emily didn’t even know about before.  It was definitely off the beat-and-track, as it was quiet and there were not nearly as many people around – I’m definitely glad we found it.  We also found a Mexican restaurant: we ate there – it was yummy!

After that, we made our way to the one and only Eiffel Tower!  I still can’t believe I saw that either!!  It was a lot smaller than I thought, but it was still HUGE when you’re standing directly underneath.  We also didn’t go up there because we didn’t have enough time, but that’s okay by me – next time I go to Paris, I know Joel will probably make me go up with him 😉

We made our way back to Orleans that evening and went to the grocery store to get some food to make before we went out for the night.  First, we napped a little though, because we walked a LOT and were pretty pooped.  After napping, we made some dinner and enjoyed it all together.  Then we got ready to go out.  HOWEVER, it took a while for us to actually get out the door.  In fact, we didn’t leave Emily’s apartment until 1:00am because we were all too busy socializing!  First we went to a bar and met some more of Emily’s friends there and I was able to enjoy my first hard-apple cider in Europe (can’t seem to find them in Germany).  We hung out there for a while and then headed to a dance club.  I really wish I had taken pictures, because this club was underground in caverns!  Ancient caverns!  HOW COOL!!  We danced and danced and danced – I even “learned” to salsa dance (I wasn’t very good.)  We kept dancing, and all of a sudden, it was 5am – no joke!  We were just having so much fun, we didn’t even realize how late it had gotten.  Finally, we decided to go back to Emily’s apartment, because one of her roommates that was with us had to be at work only 3 hours later.  (still not sure how he made it!)

On Sunday, we woke up a little later and wandered around Orleans.  I’m gonna be honest: I thought Orleans was way prettier and cooler than Paris.  Don’t get me wrong, Paris was amazing, but Orleans was more me.  It was seriously a stunning city.  And it was a little bit quieter and there were less tourists.  Orleans’s clame to fame is that Joan of Arc was in their city.  For 3 days… ha!  They have a huge statue to her and in the church, the biggest painting was of her – not Jesus or Mary, which was funny.  The house that she stayed in those three nights also still stands, so it’s a tribute to her and was pretty cool.  The church in Orleans was  a beautiful gothic-style church and, quite honestly, is the prettiest church I’ve seen thus far.  After going wandering the city some, we enjoyed some coffee before we headed back to Emily’s apartment to pack our stuff and go.

Now for the ‘funny’ part of the story (it might be funny to me in a few years). Ella and I were both a little bit nervous about getting from the first station the train from Orleans took us to the station we needed to leave to Germany from.  When we got to the station in Orleans, the train we needed to take was cancelled!!  The train-workers are always striking in France, so apparently this is a common happening.  And also something that stressed the heck out of me!!  We were really nervous about making the train that we paid 130 Euros for, but Emily assured us it would be okay.  SO, we got to the next station w/o issue and then had to find the metro to ride to the main station, Gar d’Lyon.  Or so we though…. funny thing is is that French sounds all the same to Ella and I, so when we heard Gar d’Lyon, we thought we were golden.  However, we needed the state Gar d’Lest!  AHHH!!!  So we ended up being 30 minutes away from the correct station and had about 30 minutes until our train.  When we finally arrived to Gar d’Lest, our train had left 3 minutes prior.  CRAP!  I definitely began to cry, because if the first train from Orleans hadn’t been cancelled, we would have been fine!  We calmed down a bit and then went to the ticket counter to exchange our tickets, because they do that here.  Welp, not that day apparently.  The lady working said we would have to pay for a new, full-price ticket.  Super thing abou that was that both Ella’s and my cards were not letting us withdraw money!!  AND our phones were drained because we were roaming in France, so we had no money, no tickets, and no means of communication.  And God forbid the people in the ticket office let you use their phones… ugh.  All that being said, we had to take the next next train, which was an 8 hour train instead of a 4 hour one because it was cheaper and we only had so much money.  We got our tickets and then attempted to use the pay-phones, but, knowing no French, we couldn’t understand them – they were fancy ones.  So we asked for help at the information place and one of the guys was actually nice enough to come with us and help.  I was FINALLY able to get ahold of Tanja and explain to her what had happened.  Then Ella and I went to a cafe in the train station to hang out until our train left.  Once it was time to go, we walked to our platform and were SO relieved to see a German train, because we knew we were finally going to be able to understand people!!

When the first announcement came on on the train, Ella and I both broke into tears!  We had definitely ‘lost our marbles’ at that point.  We were literally crying.  And then we started laughing and crying at the same time because we were laughing at the fact that we were crying over hearing German.  (tears of happiness, of course!)  The weekend filled with a foreign language that we literally understood NONE of was more overwhelming than I had imagined it would be.  It was pretty comical.  And I’m pretty sure the other guy in our car didn’t think so… 😉

At about 4:30am, we finally rolled into the Stuttgart main train station.  OMG was I relieved.  I can’t explain how good it felt to be somewhere familiar.  the jot I felt when we got their also made me realize just how much I’m going to miss this place when I’m gone.

Well, friends, tomorrow we leave for Munich.  And my Joel come on Sunday!!  Couldn’t be happier. 😀
Until next time…