Break #1: Part 4

Sunday:

Checked out of the hostel, got more Starbucks, bought some nasty seaweed crackers at an Asian grocery store because I didn’t know that they were seaweedy because I don’t read Chinese… anyway. We went to a mini street fair for a few minutes, then got on the metro and headed right back to the airport. Flight was short again (Europeans have it so easy… cheap airfare, short flights…) and we arrived in Paris in the mid afternoon.

I find it funny that Paris doesn’t even faze me anymore. I’ve been there 4 times, and it’s already just “oh. Paris. Oh…look, there’s the Eiffel Tower. There’s the Louvre. There’s the Arc de Triomphe. No big deal.” I wouldn’t say by any means that I’ve seen the whole city, but I can get myself around.

Anyway, so we kill some time in Paris and meet up with a friend and her boyfriend by Notre Dame (oh, look, there’s Notre Dame) before our train ride back.

Now see, it’d been a long break. We’d traveled by bus, metro, plane, train, taxi, horse (no, not really), and had been lugging our bags with us everywhere. We were tired (happy, but tired) and just wanted to get home. Our train fortunately arrived at the station in Paris on time, at like 10ish, and we thought that we’d get back in time to make our last bus of the night (1235ish). If we missed it, that’d mean two really expensive cab rides.

However. The train in front of us (Paris -> Rennes @ 9) hit a cow. Or, as they said on the loudspeaker “une bete sauvage“ (“a savage beast”). I don’t know if the conductor was trying to be funny or if the French people’s use of the words “savage” and “beast’ are different from ours. No one was hurt, fortunately (except the cow, I’m assuming…), but everyone from the first train had to get off and wait for our train to come. Once we pulled up to their station (about 1 hour outside of Rennes), they all pilled onto our train. Between the two stops, this added about an hour to our trip… aka, there was no chance at all of me making my bus.

Everyone was grumbling and tired and there is really nothing worse than a train full of unhappy campers. Especially when they’re French. I would’ve been more worried, but my host dad told me that he’d pick me up at the train station. So it was all goooood.

Anyway, yeah! That was my spring break. 3 countries, 3 flights, 4 new stamps in my passport (out of Paris, in/out of Morocco, into Madrid), countless pain au chocolats and Diet Cokes consumed… it was good times though. A bit stressful, but I had a really good time. Sorry this took me like 85904353 years to write and post. My next break is in a week- my Mom is coming to visit and we’re going to hit up Paris and Belgium. Expect an entry about that in mid-August, probably...

Link to photo albums on Facebook: one & two.