Paris!

Aah, Paris...

Where to start?  Well, there was some rough weather in Paris the day Becca, Marie, and I were supposed to fly there and meet up.  In fact, when I took off from Milan, the ground was covered in slush, it was sleet/snowing, and there was a murky sort of pre-dawn haze.  When I landed outside of Paris, I looked out the window and it looked almost exactly the same!  Since Marie was flying into a different airport than Becca and I were, we decided to all meet at Becca's and my airport and then head off to our hostel together.  Well, the weather wasn't so great, as I said.  I was the first to fly in, and I made it just fine.  Marie's flight was delayed several hours, and she had quite an adventure navigating her way to the airport where I was waiting.  Becca called to say her flight had been cancelled and she would fly in the following morning.  Marie finally made it, we joyfully hugged, and then left the airport to catch the hour and a half long busride to the center of Paris.  Where she had just come from.  Funny--the airport was very small and not very well heated, so I sat there for over 12 hours wearing several layers of clothes along with my hat and coat, and fairly frequently went to stand in the bathroom for a little while because it was the only warm place I could find! 

When I got on the bus, the driver stopped me and told me I had to put my bag underneath.  I did, and then got back on the bus and he tore my ticket.  Marie tried to follow, but he said the bus was full and she had to take the other bus.  Oh, no!  We're finally reunited after months of being apart and a very long day just waiting and struggling to meet up with each other, and now we have to ride on separate buses and hope we meet up all right on the other end?  We didn't know how soon the second bus was going to leave or anything, so I rushed back down, and we stammered that we were traveling together and had to ride the same bus.  The driver looked at me and handed me back the other half of a torn ticket.  I hoped it would work but wasn't sure if it would.  I didn't want to have to buy another expensive bus ticket.  It worked, and it wasn't until I got off the bus in Paris and went to pick up my bag that I remembered I had left it on the other bus.  Shoot!  We went to the little ticket stand to ask about it, and the man said to return the next morning.  At least I had my toothbrush and toothpaste in my purse and had layered on the comfy clothes I was going to wear as pajamas on top of my regular clothes while--get ready--"chilling" in the airport all day.  That's right.  Wordplay.

Marie and I found our way to our hostel, which was really cool. I think it was two really old buildings built right up against each other which had been connected and then turned into a hostel.  Cool atmosphere.  Also, breakfast was supposed to be 5.50 euro extra, but the guy at the counter said it was included in our surprisingly low room cost!  It was a dorm-style room, which I had never stayed in before, so Marie and I shared a room with two other girls, and during the night found out how the hostel keeps costs so low: they don't heat the rooms very much.  But not all the beds were being used, so I grabbed a lonely blanket and made it through the night just fine.  That was Thursday.

I will write more, but that's all for this post.  The internet at my apartment is broken, again, so I am using a friend's computer at her apartment.  It's very generous of her, and I don't want to wear out my welcome, so to speak.

Au revoir!