Today was uber struggs. Note to selves: overnight bus ride is not synonymous with sleep. We caught a few minutes of shut eye here and there while crammed into our barely reclining bus seats, but we didn't mind because we had snacks and chats and Jenny saw an awesome windmill while Kelly wasn't paying attention. Anyway, we were post all nighter delirious when our scary bus driver yelled at us that it was time to get off somewhere on the outskirts of Paris. It was 5am and still pitch dark out. We hauled our lives back onto our backs and were ready to "make Paris our bitch" in the words of Kel Puckett. No one asked us any questions or searched our bags or made us show passports, which made us speculate about all the illegal stuff we could be hauling in our huge bags...don't worry parents, just speculating, Amsterdam hasn't transformed us into international drug lords or anything.
Arriving here we realized just how much we had learned since our first day of traveling. If we had been dropped in a random spot with no clue where we were going, carrying everything we owned on our backs with no one in sight to ask a question and not a word of English anywhere after a night of no sleep....well, we would have panicked to say the least. After all of our traveling experiences, both good and bad, relaxing and stressful, planned and spur of the moment, we noticed that we were not the slightest bit phased by our current situation. Actually, quite the opposite, we were cracking each other up until tears streamed down our faces for the
majority of the day. We managed to decipher enough French to buy 2 tickets to where we thought we were going.
We got to our hostel, St. Christopher Inn (which is so awesome, if you are in Paris on a budget, stay here!) at 6:30amish and couldn't check in until 2pm - we ate breakfast and decided to go on the 10am free Paris walking tour offered at our hostel as a time killer. Turns out this was no casual tour a we followed tourguide, Tyler, from one great sight to the next for 4 hours!! We had a long conversation about body piercings with a group of Australians who were friends from home. Pretty sure Kel fell asleep with her eyes open during this part as she later asked where they were from and how they knew each other. Our tired delirium gave us both a serious case of ADD and the giggles - great combination for us but maybe not Tyler's favorite, although he seemed to like us alright. Well, until it all hit us at once. You know that feeling you get in sophomore year of high school in your first class of the day when mrs whoever is droning on and on about photosynthesis and you are wishing you had toothpicks to prop your eyelids open with? Well maybe you don't, but as frequent class snoozers we certainly do. Tyler made the terrible mistake of letting everyone sit down on some steps as he gave a history overview. 2 seconds in and we were both head in hands passed out for who knows how long....in our defense we were both pretty sure the other one had enough stamina to stick it out and stay alert, guess we both dropped the ball on that one. Sorry Tyler, you were actually a great tour guide despite our constant distraction followed by lengthy much-needed nap - we appreciated the snooze more than you know. (Side note: Jenny's snooze was way more justifiable as she had just been on a family vacay to this fine city in the summer of 2011. Miss Puckett hasn't been since she was 8 so she could have at least paid a little bit of attention.) Since we have both been here before you may ask why we are in Paris in the first place. Well, it was on the way from Amsterdam to Spain and seemed worth doing again. We only plan about 1 day in advance, well 1 hour sometimes recently, so we just decided to stay until we wanted to leave.
That night we went out to enjoy Paris, the city of love...which turned out to be more like the city of sleeze balls. We headed down by the Moulin Rouge per the recommendation of the bartender at the hostel. Talk about a recommendation....this was a terrible choice. After some cheesy and necessary Moulin Rouge pics, we walked around in our jeans, sweaters, coats, heels and scarves all bundled up and in search of a fun spot to meet some friends and enjoy some cocktails. A few guys leaned out of a car and started yelling at us in French...maybe a cultural difference we thought? We chatted amongst ourselves and ignored them as they came to a full stop and continued yelling until the honking line of cars they were holding up move them along. We were a little weirded out by how aggressive that encounter had been and as we talked about it the same thing happened with a second passing car full of men. Then two younger french guys walked along side us as we continued our loop around the square, getting uncomfortably close to us and asking question after question in French. We were polite for a moment until they became more and more abrasive with their questions at which point we just ignored them...apparently in France this is the part of the conversation when the guys yell rudely at you for several minutes and throw money at you. We don't speak French so we can't be certain what they were asking for...but we can guess. In the 7 more minutes that we walked around in search of the happening spots we had been promised by our bartender, we were harassed by 8 other men walking and 4 other car fulls who stopped and shouted. We understand cultural differences, men, sketchy areas etc. and have encountered our fair share but this was different. We were leered at, stared at and followed as we made our way back to the subway we had just gotten off. We are not easily creeped out but this was a whole new level of sketch and we were both pretty certain that Paris was a city that we could enjoy in the daylight. We still aren't sure what to make of this situation but our proximity to the Moulin Rouge makes us presume this area is still known for one thing.
Arriving here we realized just how much we had learned since our first day of traveling. If we had been dropped in a random spot with no clue where we were going, carrying everything we owned on our backs with no one in sight to ask a question and not a word of English anywhere after a night of no sleep....well, we would have panicked to say the least. After all of our traveling experiences, both good and bad, relaxing and stressful, planned and spur of the moment, we noticed that we were not the slightest bit phased by our current situation. Actually, quite the opposite, we were cracking each other up until tears streamed down our faces for the
majority of the day. We managed to decipher enough French to buy 2 tickets to where we thought we were going.
We got to our hostel, St. Christopher Inn (which is so awesome, if you are in Paris on a budget, stay here!) at 6:30amish and couldn't check in until 2pm - we ate breakfast and decided to go on the 10am free Paris walking tour offered at our hostel as a time killer. Turns out this was no casual tour a we followed tourguide, Tyler, from one great sight to the next for 4 hours!! We had a long conversation about body piercings with a group of Australians who were friends from home. Pretty sure Kel fell asleep with her eyes open during this part as she later asked where they were from and how they knew each other. Our tired delirium gave us both a serious case of ADD and the giggles - great combination for us but maybe not Tyler's favorite, although he seemed to like us alright. Well, until it all hit us at once. You know that feeling you get in sophomore year of high school in your first class of the day when mrs whoever is droning on and on about photosynthesis and you are wishing you had toothpicks to prop your eyelids open with? Well maybe you don't, but as frequent class snoozers we certainly do. Tyler made the terrible mistake of letting everyone sit down on some steps as he gave a history overview. 2 seconds in and we were both head in hands passed out for who knows how long....in our defense we were both pretty sure the other one had enough stamina to stick it out and stay alert, guess we both dropped the ball on that one. Sorry Tyler, you were actually a great tour guide despite our constant distraction followed by lengthy much-needed nap - we appreciated the snooze more than you know. (Side note: Jenny's snooze was way more justifiable as she had just been on a family vacay to this fine city in the summer of 2011. Miss Puckett hasn't been since she was 8 so she could have at least paid a little bit of attention.) Since we have both been here before you may ask why we are in Paris in the first place. Well, it was on the way from Amsterdam to Spain and seemed worth doing again. We only plan about 1 day in advance, well 1 hour sometimes recently, so we just decided to stay until we wanted to leave.
That night we went out to enjoy Paris, the city of love...which turned out to be more like the city of sleeze balls. We headed down by the Moulin Rouge per the recommendation of the bartender at the hostel. Talk about a recommendation....this was a terrible choice. After some cheesy and necessary Moulin Rouge pics, we walked around in our jeans, sweaters, coats, heels and scarves all bundled up and in search of a fun spot to meet some friends and enjoy some cocktails. A few guys leaned out of a car and started yelling at us in French...maybe a cultural difference we thought? We chatted amongst ourselves and ignored them as they came to a full stop and continued yelling until the honking line of cars they were holding up move them along. We were a little weirded out by how aggressive that encounter had been and as we talked about it the same thing happened with a second passing car full of men. Then two younger french guys walked along side us as we continued our loop around the square, getting uncomfortably close to us and asking question after question in French. We were polite for a moment until they became more and more abrasive with their questions at which point we just ignored them...apparently in France this is the part of the conversation when the guys yell rudely at you for several minutes and throw money at you. We don't speak French so we can't be certain what they were asking for...but we can guess. In the 7 more minutes that we walked around in search of the happening spots we had been promised by our bartender, we were harassed by 8 other men walking and 4 other car fulls who stopped and shouted. We understand cultural differences, men, sketchy areas etc. and have encountered our fair share but this was different. We were leered at, stared at and followed as we made our way back to the subway we had just gotten off. We are not easily creeped out but this was a whole new level of sketch and we were both pretty certain that Paris was a city that we could enjoy in the daylight. We still aren't sure what to make of this situation but our proximity to the Moulin Rouge makes us presume this area is still known for one thing.
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