On Saturday, I planned to meet my friends Younghee, Eunhee, and Sam at the Louvre pyramid at 4pm for Bastille day. I thought I would take the 10:40 direct train, get to Paris at 12:08, and check in to my hotel with plenty of time. Naturally, by the time I arrived at the train station at 10:00, all the trains were booked until 2:40, meaning I could not make it to Paris before 4:08. Oh well, this was the best I could do, so I sent an email saying I’d be late and started the long wait.
At 2:30, there was a train at the station, but I couldn’t figure out if it was mine or not, because the number on the side didn’t match my ticket. I decided to ask someone official standing near the door. He said no, pointed down the track, and told me that my train was 10 minutes behind this one. Although I was a little upset at the delay, what could I do but wait?
A few minutes later, the doors closed, and the train started to leave. Four or five cars went by, then two connected engines, and more cars. I suddenly realized that the cars on this part of the train all had the right number… The man didn’t mean my train was late, he meant it was literally behind the first one! How could I be so stupid?! I spent the next twenty minutes kicking and berating myself over how dumb I must be to arrive five hours early, then miss my train by standing next to it and watching it leave. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb!
So now, I had to wait another hour to get the next train. I thought about asking if my ticket was still valid, but decided it would be better to get on the train adn sort it out there; at least then I’d be on my way for sure…
The next train was on time, but again, every seat was reserved, so I sat on a folding chair in the luggage compartment between two cars. When the ticket inspector came by, he looked at my ticket (and me) disapprovingly, but didn’t say anything, so I figured I was alright. Still, I would now be arriving in Paris at 5:08, so I resolved to get a taxi straight to the Louvre and not try to find my hotel first.
Actually, this worked out well. The taxi ride was pretty short and only cost 7 Euro. After being dropped off, I ran to the pyramid and started to walk around it because there were so many people and I didn’t see my friends right away. Soon, Sam yelled my name and joined me. He said he was about to leave, when he saw me running in. We continued to walk around the other side of the pyramid together, and I felt someone grab my hand. Turning around, it was Younghee! She hadn’t gotten my email about being late, but stuck around anyway for an hour and a half. I introduced everyone quickly, but because I still needed to check in, we agreed to meet at the Arc de Triumph at 7:00.
Checkin was find; I had a booked a single room for two nights because everything else was full. The only problem came when I realized that there were only two toilette seats for the entire six-floor hotel, so I had to climb to the fourth floor and wait to go to the bathroom. I met Sam at the Metro at 6:45 and we were a few minutes late to the Arc.
A few minutes soon turned into half an hour, though, when I realized that the Arc is in the middle of the biggest and busiest traffic rotary we’d ever seen. There seemed to be no way across, either, even though many people were standing under the Arc. Sam and I felt really bad to be late again, especially when we realized that the tunnel to the Arc was right next to the exit where we came out of the subway…
After finding our Korean friends, we all decided to get dinner before watching fireworks. Dinner was tasty, though the steak was a little underdone. After dinner, we tried to find a good view of the Eiffel tower, but everywhere seemed to be blocked off by buildings or police barricades. Once the fireworks started, we realized that it was because that section of the city is where they were launching everything. So, we ended up on the wrong side of a very long fireworks show in a huge crowd. I could tell that everyone sort of wanted it to be over, because whenever there was a slight pause, the crowd would cheer and one or two people would start to leave… But it kept going and going and going…
