Saturday, October 15, 2011

Interrailing in Europe summer 2010 PARIS part1

We woke up around 4am and started to walk towards the St Pancras international train station. We were a bit surprised how popular that Eurostar train actually was! It was full on people at 5.20am! There were also security check which was also a bit weird. We found our seats, we are sitting our backs towards the way we were going. I couln't sleep so I just watched the people running and taking their seats and finding their places. Across the aisle came to sit this normal looking businessman with a suit on. Suddenly he started roll up his sleeves and took some black leather strings from his suitcase.. He started putting that leather strings around his wrist and arm?! When he got to his upper arm he tied some small box to his arm (I was absolutely sure it was a bomb!) then he continued and also tied similar box to his head (another bomb..!). I was totally freaking out and Saija too but she tried to stay calm! I couldn't even watch that guy 'cause I was so afraid! I told Saija: "OMG, we haven't even started our trip properly and now we are dying in a bomb explosion! What are the chances that the bomb guy is sitting in our train, in our carriage almost next to us?!" When I once in a while had the courage to look at that man he had started reading and mumble aloud Koran. I don't have a glue how long that lasted 30-60 minutes but he finally stopped reading and took off all the leather things, put them into his suitcase and rolled down his sleeves and started sitting like nothing had happened. And I could finally breath again.

My friend Lotta had been interrailing also and when they had been in Paris they had stayed in Lotta's former glassmate who was currently living in Paris. We had emailed to him about if me and Saija could also stay at his place but it didn't work out. So he suggested one of his friend who is a french and living near Paris. So we contacted him via facebook and he was a really nice guy and eager to meet us! :) At the point he was still living with his parents so we ended up staying there for 4 nights.

We arrived to Gare Du Noord train station and GuiGui came to pick us up. He spoke very good english and he was easy to talk to and had a great sense of humour! His family welcomed us warmly to their home! We had our own room with towels and all put up for us!

It was only 12am when we arrived to our "home". So we decided to go to Paris just to look around a bit and to get something to eat. We got a ride to train station (it took a while to walk there). We stayed on a zone 3. Zones 1 and 2 were Paris. Our train stop was called Bourg la-Reine. But it didn't take that long to get to the city, only like 20-25 minutes. :)


We found our way to Paris and my friend in Finland had recommended to eat at the Latin block if we can find it. We did find it and it was really cheap to eat there, it only cost 10€ for salad, main food and dessert. :) We got to see a glimbse of Notre Dame too. We did some shopping and filmed the best and funniest video ever! At least we had fun..! :D

Click it open below. Here is a short translation: First check out the old granny across the street walking her back at 90 degrees angle. In the video we are just stating that the granma isn't moving at all and that she is never going to cross the bridge. Then check out the clothes and umbrellas that people are wearing and compare my out fit. Those were the warmest clothes I had with me, it was summer after all.. In half way of the video I notice that Saija is actually filming.. :D

 


In the evening our host family left to watch opera and we were left to our host mom's brother who came to look after us and we ate lasagne with him and got great tips what to see in Paris. :) For the first time we went to sleep early!  The next day we were planning to spend in Paris! :)

1 comment:

  1. enemmän videoita irtsu! :D varsinki niit saijan luontodokumentteja kiitos :D

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