#100

First I would like to congratulate myself on 100 posts. Woot. Now onto the show.

Day 3 - March 11
The wakeup call came early. 3:15 so we could be ready when our taxi got there at 4:00 so we could make it to the airport for our 6:30ish flight. Wow, what a whorl-wind adventure it has been and we haven't even made it to France yet. We get up and get everything in order. Make it down stairs and the taxi is their waiting for us. We load up and tell him we have to stop off at a bank/ATM to get the money we need to pay him. He drove us away from the airport and toward the ATM. When we got there they were not going to let The Princess use her card. I then tried mine and also got shot down. Well, all we have is Euros so now we are in a delima. Luckily our taxi guy was real great and called the hotel to ask what the exchange rate was and how much in Euros it would be for the ride. The guy calls back and tells him and we are on our way to the Heathrow airport to fly to Paris. I did a little math in my head to make sure it at least sounded about right and we were set. We entered the airport, check-ed on the kiosk and waited for a person to show up to take our bags. Not so stresfull this time, because there was no one there to take anyones bags so we all just waited in queue until people showed up and then we headed deeper into the airport where we found a bastion of American Style Sanity: Starbucks. Again, all the numbers look the same as in America, you just have to multiply it by 2.5 to see if it is really worth it. We ended up with regular coffe and begals. The flight loaded up and we were off. No extra events to hold us down. Oh yeah, to add this real quick, I saw about 20 guys in our 24 hrs here that reminded me of Mr. Bean, they are everywhere over here. hehehe. When we landed in Paris they made an announcment reminding everyone that there was DEFINITLY NO SMOKING in the airport. The rules had recently changed and the made sure everyone knew that there was no smoking. Our arrival in Paris was relativly un-eventful-We landed, we got our luggage, we walked down to the RER B(the train into Paris) and got our tickets to head on out. Well, the tickets don't like Americans and when you say you want 2 tickets the machines all think you want a 2-way ticket. So, after The Princess entered the train terminal I couldn't run the ticket through to get in. I had to go back to the desk and get them to exchange my left over 1-way ticket for another one that would work for me. Hurray. Now we are on our way. As we were nearing Paris, two men entered our train car. The first was a nice looking man who carried an accordian and started to play. Shortly after, another man comes running in with a full bass and starts strumming along. It was actually very good and I wanted to film it for YouTube or something, but I also had just spent a ridicullous amount of money to get here and was being stingy with what we had left. So, we did not tip them or video tape them. I felt a little guilty for this, but not for to long. In Gard d'Nor(the North Train Station) we figured out the direction we needed to take to make it to Gard l'Est(East Train Station) and headed out. The first sight we got to see inside the city limits of Paris was a Sex Booth place with Private booths for 1euro=1video. Well, there you go I guess. From there(the train station not the sex shop) we headed south and east and made our way just fine. Our trip was a little slow, but we were carring several bags and had not really had a nights sleep for several days. Once we arrived there the office for buying tickets was closed. Closed on Sundays read a sign. Well, what now. We sat for minute to gain our composure and then went to the local ticket box. He told us we had to go around and outside to find the other ticket spot and we were able to find it eventually. Now that we had tickets we wanted to take a quick look at the area we were in and just walk around a little bit. So, we asked about lockers for our luggage. Oh yes, the lady says, they are at Gare d'Nor. So, back up the hill to the train station we started at to drop of our luggage so we can enjoy the 3 hours we have before our train leaves. Back at the North Train Station, a girl is standing there looking dishevled and she just keeps saying Speak English. So, I say yeah sure to wich she holds up a sign that basicly says, I am from hungaria my mother is here for two months, blah blah blah, give me money. I told her no(again, we did not have a lot to spare) and start to walk she follows, please please. I answer no sorry. At this she says I'm pregnant. Well, that is probly not good for your child, but I'm sorry no. She turns away. During our trip I see this girl atleast 5 more times and she is doing the same thing the whole time. You might think the is cruel of me, but you will soon learn why I didn't give money to any of the beggers there. Then we headed down to this little river in that district and it was really really nice. All the Frenchies out walking around for a Sunday stroll. Kids everywhere very relaxing and nice. I have some pictures that I will post of this, there was a little tent city down by the river. So, back to the North Train station to pickup our stuff and then on to the East Train station to catch our ride. We get on and there is plenty of room and it is a very nice train for riding 4 hours in. Very nice. After a while the ticket guys come by. Everyone else seems to have a single ticket for everyone in their group, not us, we only have one ticket for the both of us. It does have both of our names on it so I am only a little worried. When the guy gets to us he asks us if we live in France. No. So he explains that we were suppose to Validate the ticket in Paris and that usually it is a 10euro fine for each person. Just like the taxi, this guy is really nice and he doesn't charge us. Now we are finally in Strausbourg. Except we don't have anyway to contact our friends there because the phones don't take money. Thats right, the phones in France don't take money you have to have a special calling card to use for it. Well, we didn't know that at the time so we wandered around like crazies trying to figure things out. Finally got a card, made the call and our friend came to pick us up. While we waited we headed over to a McDonalds. I only mention this because they have these nifty little ham&cheese stars for the kiddies. The word for ham is jambon and the word for cheese is fromage, so natuarlly the stars are called Jambon et Cheese. Of course? A short car ride and we are home, where we eat a fantastic dinner and spend quite a good amount of time catching up on things. One of the things I learned in this conversation is that France is Socialist. Part of what this means is that the homeless people get paid more then minimum wage for being homless. This is why we no longer felt that twinge of guilt for not giving them our money. This is also why all the homeless people have tents. Tents everywhere, on the sidewalk in the park, all over the place. Crazy tents.

Well, we have successfully made it to France and are in Strausbourg about to go to sleep so I am going to divert from the rest of the story and work on taxes. I'll be back shortly to continue this ramble of our adventures.