*Nick in Paris*
Jane and I are sitting at a McDonald's in Paris because they have free wifi and French keyboards at the internet cafe are terribly confusing. The 'A' and the 'Q' are flipped, for example. So, we are feeding the beast and feeding ourselves McFlurrys as I write this.
The trip to Paris was, as could be expected, much more stressful that we thought it would be. The first part was actually quite nice. We got on a night train from Vienna at 10:40 with Mason. For the first hour we actually had a car to ourselves which was great. After that a lady got on who was very afraid of Mason so he had to wear his muzzle for five hours which made him quite upset. The main problem was that we arrived at Stuttgart 40 minutes late, so we missed our connection to Paris. Seriously, how does a train arrive that late? Did the driver make a wrong turn?
In Stuttgart we found out that all the trains for the day to Paris were booked solid and had no room. Luckily, someone told us we could talk to the conductors of the trains and maybe someone would find room for us. Jane worked some magic and after a couple hours we did in fact make it on a train. Jane had a seat and I stood by the bathroom with Mason - which was not very fun, but at least we were on a train. After a couple hours some people got off so I was able to sit next to Jane with Mason for the last few hours and finally sleep a little bit.
Oh well, we finally made it and only one suitcase broke along the way (sorry Jesse...).
I thought it might be fun to keep a running tally of various things along the way, so here goes:
Intercity train rides:
Jane - 2
Nick - 2
Mason - 2
Missed connections - 1
Suitcases broken - 2
Suitcases fixed - 1 (sorry again Jesse, I'll see what I can do - it was the big green duffel. One of the wheels ripped through a good chunk of plastic and now won't move).
Escalator's ridden by Mason - 1, which will be the last...he did not do well.
In other news, things have gotten much better now that we are mostly settled in Paris. Jane's apartment is in a very fun area and we saw the Eiffel Tower today (new to me). We'll write more about that later, but this McDonald's is about to close.
Hey guys--glad to hear you're getting settled, slowly but surely. And glad to hear Jane's apartment is cool. I saw mom and dad today, as they came up with the Gelners to watch the Chiefs game. You should be glad that you got out of the country for the Chiefs season--oh wow they're terrible.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm also writing to say: congratulations Nick on winning the fantasy baseball championship. You finally got over the hump. Strong work, sir.