An Unexpected Trip to Paris.

My trip to Paris is something I will not ever forget- for multiple reasons.

To begin the story, I must start by mentioning the fact that we had zero internet access all week, so finally on Thursday, my roommates and I decided to go to an internet café to start planning our weekend trip… which would be starting the following night. This was our first of many problems.

After hours of researching, we finally got our plans set: train tickets, hostel, Eiffel Tower tickets, and information on a bus tour. Getting home from the café, we all stayed up packing, showering, and getting our stuff ready to go!

Work on Friday went by pretty well. Due to the holiday, the soldiers received a four-day weekend, or “training weekend,” which meant that a lot of kids from our CDC weren’t there, or left early. Sydney and I were able to switch rooms pretty frequently, and spent the majority of our time in the kitchen, helping our cook prepare the food, helping out with dishes, and eating the extras.

Once we got back to our apartment, we threw our last minute stuff together, called a taxi, and waited for our confirmation emails from both the hostel and train tickets. The emails never came.

Our taxi lady dropped us off at Pressath- a train station just outside of Graf. When she drove away, we realized that the train station was completely vacant. Nobody was around; nobody was in the building, vacant. Waiting for a while for any sign of life, we ended up calling Randy to ask him for advice. Randy ended up driving out to the train station to help us translate the German, and wait with us until the train arrived. He’s such a nice guy. Before long, another lady, probably around my age, showed up to take the train, and to our advantage, she spoke a little English. With her and Randy’s help, we were able to get on the train, and make it to Nuremberg!

Going to the ticket counter in Nuremberg, we explained that our situation in that our confirmation email never came, and that we needed to get to Paris. He was extremely helpful and suggested we take the upcoming train to Frankfurt, as we had missed our original overnight train.

Jumping on the Nuremberg train, we arrived in Frankfurt around 12.30 in the morning. Checking the machines for the 0600 train to Paris, we found that it was full… as was the next several trains. Deciding to wait until 6:00 to talk to the train conductor, we decided to drop our luggage off in the lockers, and kill time outside of the train station. Another bad decision. We quickly learned that the first street outside of the train station was the Red Light District. Walking as quick as we could through there, the owners of the different bars, clubs, and hotels were literally pulling the guys by their clothes to try and get them to come inside. Sketch. Making our way back to the train station, I was almost grabbed by some crazy-eyed man, and with that, we decided to get inside as fast as we could.

Realizing our train didn’t come for almost four hours, we decided to try and get some sleep in the train station. Another bad, and FREEZING decision. We all tried to curve our bodies around the benches that annoyingly had metal armrests. Probably one of the most uncomfortable few hours of sleep I have ever had.

Finally at 6.00, we got up and talked to one of the ladies who worked on the train. We explained our situation in how our reservation email never arrived. She said it would be okay, as long as we didn’t take another person’s seat. With that, we were all thankful to get on the warm train. Making it problem free all the way to Saarbrucken, I was awoken from a nap by an old man hitting me in the head, yelling at me in German. Thankfully the man in front of us was able to speak to him and let us know we were in his spot. This meant that for the remaining two hours, we had to stand.

Have I mentioned that this is all within the first twenty-four hours of the trip!?

Needless-to-say, as soon as that train arrived in Paris, we were the first ones off. Finding the information booth, the man was able to reserve a spot for us at a nearby hotel, as well as get us passes to the bus tour we had planned to go on. With lots of maps, the information man said it would be a ten-minute walk to our hotel. It wasn’t.

About an hour and a half later, we finally made it to our hotel. It was the smallest room I have ever seen- two twin beds, one double bed, and a bathroom. It ended up working out perfectly for us, and we were definitely thankful to have somewhere clean to sleep. Taking a quick shower, we got dressed and made our way out into Paris!

Finding a location that the bus would pick us up at, we were able to enjoy the sightseeing from the open roof of a double-decker bus. We were able to see: Trocadero, Eiffel Tower, Champ de Mars, Musee du Louvre, Notre Dame, Musee D’Orsay, Champs Elysees Etoile, and Grand Palais. The best part of it was that the buses ran every six minutes, so we were able to get on and off the bus as frequently as we would like, which allowed us to take photos.

Once we had completed the tour, we walked down The Avenue des Champs-Élysées to do some shopping. Obviously not my idea, but it was cool to see the differences from their stuff to ours. Taking the metro back, we got caught in the middle of a storm and had to take shelter in a McDonalds. When the rain cleared, we wandered around trying to find our hotel until an older French couple kindly gave us directions.

We all went to bed as soon as we got home.

Sunday we woke up super early, and made our way over to Musee du Louvre. As it was the first Sunday of the month, we were allowed free admission, which was great. The place was HUGE. It would take months to go through and really look at everything. My favorite was seeing the Mona Lisa!

After the Louvre, we took the metro over to the Palace of Versailles, which was beautiful. We didn’t end up paying the money to take the tour of the inside and of the gardens, although we all wanted to.

Heading back to the hotel afterwards, we changed, and headed back out to the Eiffel Tower. Walking around, watching street performers, and eating some crepes (I had two bites…) it was finally time for us to go up the Tower. Piling into this tiny elevator, we quickly made it up and the view was unbelievable. I could have stayed up there for days.

We ended up getting back to the hotel after midnight, packed our bags, and headed to bed.

Messing up our metro tickets, losing one of our roommates, and not being familiar with the train station in Paris, we almost missed our train back to Frankfurt. We made it on with two minutes to spare. Literally.

The four of us managed to sit across the aisle from two guys who looked pretty cool. We ended up talking to them and found out they lived in Vilseck. Since reservations aren’t needed from Frankfurt to Nuremberg, and Nuremberg back home, we decided to tag along with them since they knew what they were doing. We finnnnaly made it to Vilseck after spending the entire day of the train. The guys were nice enough to offer to drive us home so we didn’t have to spend any money on a taxi, and we were all beyond grateful. Once we got back to Graf, we ended up getting their numbers, and hope to travel again with them soon!

Overall, it was an unforgettable trip. Paris was as beautiful as I had pictured it, and I truly hope I’ll be able to make it back there sometime in my life. Until then, my roommates and I will start working on our traveling skills.