Euro Adventure 2005

Rain!!!

Love it or hate it, the thundering pelt of water on the roof was a clear indication we were going to have to cope with this one way or another! I don’t use the word “thundering” here lightly either, this was rain that seemed to be pretty angry with the world around it! One step out the front door would have been enough to drown you from head to toe in a split second so staying indoors seemed like a pretty sensible option as they come!

The boat trip (as I’d expected was cancelled) although I was in the situation of having to assume this for most of the day as Alan finally got in contact to confirm my beliefs at 5pm. “I had a bit of a lay in” – You don’t say mate!!! This of course meant a change of plan (or at least a change of action seeing as there was no plan b for the day!).

The hostel common room was proof enough that there were plenty others in the same boat (not the one I was….oh forget it!). As busy as I’d ever seen the place, it proved a great backdrop to getting to know some of my fellow travellers and generally chilling and chatting (and playing the odd game of poker as well!). It actually made for quite a refreshing change to really sit down and do very little and in a lot of ways it was equally as productive. Had it not been for the rain, I might not have gotten to know so many people here and built a good friendship with them. I was pretty glad it DID rain in the end!!

With the downpour turning into light showers and looking like it was going to be gone completely by the start of the evening, we made plans to join in the fun on the hostel organized pub crawl. Feeling like this was all part of my “younger years” and had experienced the good old pub crawl many times in the past (and the consequences the next morning!) I decided I’d go with it and see how it went!

Free beer!!!!!!…….

Well, not quite. €16 gave us basically free beer or sangria for the first hour and then a free shot in each of the 4 bars thereafter. We also had entry into the club at the end of all that thrown in. Maybe experience told a little (you wouldn’t have thought so in Paris) as I was pretty careful not to go for the jugular early on! All the beer you can drink for an hour is a pretty neat thought only it seemed some of those on the crawl had managed to finish themselves off almost before they started!

We were joined on the crawl by travellers at 2 other hostels and what appeared to be a few hangers on that had somehow found there way into the group! I got chatting to a rather lovely looking Finnish girl in the 2nd bar but was put off somewhat by her brother standing just a couple of feet away! She was very flirtatious but it felt pretty weird having her brother there I have to say! Maybe she picked up that vibe because as soon as we left the bar she was on the arm of another guy and pretty much blanking me! Oh well, some you win, some you lose, and some you’d just feel awkward winning!!!

We darted in and out of another couple of bars, downing our shots as we went before ending up somewhere near the beach and entering the nightclub. Vouchers were pushed into my hand before entering, seemingly offering a buy one get one free drinks coupon (bargainous!) and we filed into the club before almost immediately losing sight of those with us. I lasted about 10 minutes before there was no one around who looked vaguely familiar!

At €5 a pop for a beer it was a pretty good job I had those flyers! The beer helped drown out the sorry state of music that was playing. I ask you…Cotton Eye Joe???????? Seriously! They played it! In that instant I felt old and regressed 10 years to days when Oasis and Blur were battling it out to kings of Britpop and the damned song they were playing had somehow topped the UK charts. It sent a shiver down my spine!

I did eventually catch up with a few faces I seemed to recognise but feeling pretty shattered and the beer not really going down at a rate faster than a mouthful every half hour, I decided that heading home was the best option for me. It was already 3.30am and I guessed the club was going till 5 or 6am and knew I wouldn’t have lasted that long!

My problem from here was getting home! Now, in the light I might just have gone, “that looks familiar, I think it must be that way” but in the dark, somewhere by the beach and a mysteriously appearing indoor shopping centre that I had to go through in order to leave the complex (I’m pretty sure I didn’t come through any indoor shopping centre coming into the club!) I was, to the best of my knowledge, completely and totally lost!

Unsure which way to proceed I figured waiting for a taxi would be worth it! Worth the money it may have been but that is something I’ll never know as after waiting a good 15 minutes and barely seeing 1 car let alone a cab, I opted for the “ask people and hope for the best” option. Suddenly it seemed nobody spoke a word of English and it was only when a couple of Belgian guys found themselves in the same boat as me did we make any progress!

Upon passing a crepe van, however, it was obvious that they were utterly clueless as to where they were going and I had to find alternative means of finding my way back! One strawberry crepe (I wasn’t even hungry and I’m at a total loss to explain the strawberry filling!) later I was ready to immerse myself in Barcelona again, hoping somewhere just one person would at least be able to direct me to the Ramblas!

I did better than 1 when I got talking to 3 Portuguese guys who said they knew the way and would show me. We got chatting as we walked and apparently (considering my general state at the time, I’m still unsure if any part of this is true) they had just one €6M on the Euromillions! I’d probably been taken in hook line and sinker but as they declared our arrival at the bottom of the Ramblas, I found myself wanting to believe their story more and more!

Eventually then, some time well after 4am, I dropped, almost literally into bed!

Plans for this morning had been put into place last night during our poker/drinking time. Feeling like we were lacking somewhat in the culture department during our time in Barcelona, I’d arranged with Ned (an English guy staying in the hostel) to go see the Picasso museum. Apart from everything Gaudi, the Picasso was supposed to be a cultural highlight of this Catalunyan City!

Winding our way through the Barra Gotic we eventually found this rather hidden treasure! The €6 entry fee would have been worth it alone just to have seen the building! Inside, the works of the world renound artistic genius were focussed on the earlier stages of his life and thus the most famous works of his can be found elsewhere. However it is perhaps the earlier work that I favour. Never being particularly taken by anything cubist, his purer paintings of his formative years are not only the most eye catching but also the most revealing about his life. A big Picasso fan I may still not be but I certainly came out feeling more educated!

AS if to undermine the culture experienced this morning, an altogether alternative approach was passed fit for our afternoon! The Beach! I met up with the 2 Scottish guys and Francis and we headed, towels at the ready for an afternoon of mindless sunbathing!

Our afternoon was disrupted somewhat by, what can only be described as, a madman! We deduced that this guy was speaking German and that everyone he had been talking to (if “talking” is indeed the correct word) he really didn’t know! He would seemingly pick a person and go annoy them for 15 minutes before picking on someone else! When the guy started doing some weird looking martial arts on the sand and then jumping into the sea fully clothed (glasses and all), doing a handstand in the water and running back out again, we and all those around, could be seen to physical move away from this rather bizarre being!

I thought I might have had something going with one of a group of girls sat not far from us but its not exactly easy getting that eye contact thing working when you’re wearing sunglasses! The moment passed and we were up and leaving before I could really do anything about trying my luck!

My evening was pretty much arranged for me when Alan phoned to say meet him at the Hospital Clinic metro station and we’d go for food and plentiful supplies of alcohol! Sounded pretty good to me! He was also going to be bringing his girlfriend and her sister who had come to visit.

Alan had picked out a Mexican restaurant that had been excellent last time they were there. His only problem now, it seemed, was finding the damn place! The two girls seemed pretty reluctant to walk virtually anywhere and with Alan swearing every 5 minutes that he thought it was just around the corner only to find, actually, no, it wasn’t, caused tensions to flare a little! We did eventually find the place and took up residence on the outside seats.

The four of us seemed to get on pretty well and his girlfriend’s Sister seemed good to talk to (being able to speak 4 languages as good as fluently helps) and the evening was going along nicely. There had been talk of going to a club tonight but as the evening progressed I don’t think anyone’s heart was really in it so we just sat back, and supped our Coronitas! The evening took a slight turn for the worse when a friend of Alan’s turned up. Now, 4 people (especially when 2 of them are a couple) is easy enough, you just hope you get on with the other person. With 5 of us now and another French speaker at the table, I wound up feeling a little lost. I certainly wasn’t feeling comfortable! The mood was sweetened slightly towards the end of the evening when I got chatting again with the sister (names are escaping me at the moment!) but it all ended pretty abruptly when it was clear we were leaving. We did however arrange to meet tomorrow as they were going on a boat cruise and asked me to join them…It seemed like a good plan to me!

Getting back to the hostel around 2am I headed for the common room to grab some juice and just chill for half an hour before heading off to bed!

I woke determined to get out and see more of Barcelona today! Yesterday was just lovely but as much as I loved letting the hours drift by in the sun on the beach (damn, that makes me wonder why I didn’t go back!!) I knew it was time to get out and see some of the other sights Barcelona has to offer.

I came to Barcelona when I was about 11 or 12 with my Dad whilst on a holiday elsewhere in Spain. On that occasion I’d come in to see the Nou Camp and the Olympic stadium (this was just before the Barcelona Olympics in 1992). I had remembered quite vividly my day in this city and the trip around the magnificent home to Barcelona football club. It was for that reason that I decided, despite my love for football, that I’d endeavour to see other sights this time round.

Wondering aimlessly can sometimes be a great way to see things you would never have thought about, it can also be a terrific way to get hopelessly lost! Actually I didn’t really get all that lost but there were definitely times when I had no idea where I was and just kept walking in hopes of finding a helpful landmark or road that sounded slightly familiar.

My wandering feet took me through the Barra Gotic area which had been recommended to me by several people. It’s the old side of Barcelona and a fantastic array of little side street, shops, cafes, churches and other assorted goodies. I stopped for a caffeine boost at one of the cafes tucked away from the crowds before heading (rather hopefully than anything else) back in the direction of the Ramblas.

Once I’d passed Placa De Catalunya I was really just following anything that looked interesting. I did have my guide book with me although it being in Dutch didn’t help me too greatly! So seeing there were one or 2 things of interest near by I just carried on walking in the hope of finding them.

Something I hadn’t really expected to see came upon me in the form of the Casa Battlo, the rather impressive looking Gaudi house. Now, when I was talking to Shari the day I arrived, I got the feeling that everything in this city had something to do with Antoni Gaudi, Barcelona’s famous architect. Here I was then, at one of the famous Gaudi sites and, despite the rather expensive entrance fee (€12 for what I guessed was the main attraction – It was €16 for the full entrance fee!), I decided to go take a look.

I’m not entirely convinced it’s worth the money to go and do, but the roof terrace is quite intriguingly different. The array of colours and general design is like nothing I’d ever seen before and you’d probably have to do a lot of arm twisting to persuade me to have anything like that on my roof!! The other notable room had just a little enclosed fountain inside with one light. The impact of this was only really seen with the door fully closed, as when the room was darkened, the effect of water all around you could be seen! Quite a spectacular effect from something so basic!

From here I noticed on my map, another Gaudi building, the Segrada Familia which seemed to be the other side of a small park. I took myself off in that direction, taking little detours on the way if I saw anything that looked the slightest bit interesting! Most of them were just ordinary buildings which had a rather unique look to them or little statues commemorating people I had never heard of!

Walking through the park, I caught a glimpse at some rather steep spires, which I took to be the Segrada Familia and worked my way towards them. Wow!!! The place looks incredible from the outside even as they continue to work on this still unfinished building! I had no hesitation paying the €8 entry fee to go take a look inside! Not really knowing too much about the place I opted to take the stairs rather than the lift up, this was a fatal mistake!!! Not being a great one for heights I realized my mistake pretty quickly but once you’ve started to go up, there’s no coming down!!!

At least, not for some time. The slimline spiral staircase winds its way up one of these towers and with barely room for one person per step and no wall on one side most of the way up it rather freaked me out. I can do heights, don’t get me wrong. I had no problem whatsoever with the Empire State Building a couple of years ago. This however was different. I’ve never liked spiral staircases and with nothing on one side of me, I started to clam up and get a bit shaky. Trying to keep my bottle of water in one hand whilst taking the odd photo through slits in the wall with the other was like balancing on a tightrope for me! It’s been a good few years since I’ve felt quite a scared as that for seemingly no real reason!!

I made it about half way up, took a couple of photos and with the option appearing to cross over and take a different set of stairs back down, I gladly took it! I really don’t think it would have been a clever idea to put my body through that again only twice as high up!!

With that said, I’m glad I did it. The views (even from as far as I got) were spectacular to say the least. A great overview of this amazing city and a small feeling of accomplishment that despite my fears I had at least given it a go and got a reasonable way up!

I celebrated by knocking #1 off my not to do list by munching down a McDonalds before making my way back to the hostel. It was only on this walk back that I realized just how far I had actually come!!

In the evening I did go back and revisit one of things I’d seen as a kid! The all singing, all dancing fountains! A group of about 10 of us had decided to go down and see what the whole “fountain thing” was all about and were pretty please we did! I remembered very little from my younger years apart from there being some really nice fountains I’d seen. These it seemed were them!

Through the summer, around 3 or 4 times a week, the fountains are set free to basicallyt dance to music played over a loud speaker. Sounds a bit cheesy right? Maybe it is, but the combination of music, lights and water jumping around just worked and were unquestionably worh the little trek it had taken us to get there!

The fountains are supposed to go for half an hour and take a break for the same time befor egoing off again. Realizing we needed to get back to the hostel in order to get some beers in for the rest of the evening, we headed back via the supermarket. The remainder of the night was spent drinking our freshly purchased (and chap as chips) beer and playing a good bit of poker!!! Matchsticks as it turned out worked just perfectly as our replacement money and those that hadn’t played it before caught on pretty quickly! It seemed like the pefect way to end a fun packed day!

The sun, the sand, the sea! Now, I could handle this on a more regular basis!! With so much to do and see in Barcelona, I opted for the only sensible choice, a day at the beach! Actually it was partly a way to explore that side of town and have a good walk down through the beach area of Barcelona, and I couldn’t have wished for a nicer day to go and do it!

Looking at my map (yes, the Shari one!) it looked easy enough….head out to the bottom of the Ramblas, turn left and basically keep walking. Had there not been a port and several buildings in the way, this would, indeed have been pretty simple. As it was, I ended up following my nose for a while and trying to keep as close to the shore as possible. This wasn’t always that easy and I ended up slightly off track (rather fortunately as it turned out) and figuring the way back to where I wanted to be, headed on through a delightful little park! Perfectly peaceful and just away from the usual tourist crowds, walking through I felt genuinely lucky I had got slightly lost!

The park took me out onto the sea front and the beach. I was somewhat surprised at how quiet it was but guessed it was now out of school holidays and a lot of the usual tourists were safely locked up in their jobs at home! All the better for me! Not really thinking before I came out this morning, I hadn’t packed a towel (as if one of those travel towels would actually do me any good on a beach) so decided my bum was better placed on one of the grassy banks than on the sand itself. From there I could soak up the sun, read my book and admire the beautiful ladies without getting sand all over my backside!

Feeling the heat slightly I ended up going for a couple of beers in the shade, and have to admit, for the first time on this trip, sat back and just relaxed! It was at that moment I really started to feel like I was travelling and really enjoying seeing somewhere new yet able to unwind and start taking it all in!

I met up with a few of my roommates later in the afternoon (a couple e of Scottish lads who had come to Barcelona to try and find some work and a guy from Oz). What we did that evening, was, well, rather British! We managed to get a few more guys (and Francis, the girl who was asleep in my room when I arrived yesterday) together and headed out to a bar to watch football! Yep, here I was in Barcelona, watching Man U in the Champions League in an Irish bar! Of the things I said I’d avoid on my travels, this was number 2 (right behind 1: Have a McDonalds). I successfully managed to knock number 3 off the last as well before we got home by tucking into a rather tasty kebab!

Arrangements can come undone as quickly as they are made so it seems. After chatting with the American couple in my couchette last night we discovered that we were all headed to Barcelona only they were without a hostel. After asking where I was staying, they’d decided to follow and see if they could get in at the Dream Hostel as well. It made me feel a little more comfortable heading into this new city with people I’d got to know and got on pretty well with.

Like I said, these arrangements didn’t last too long when going to get my onward ticket (the one I was told would be no problem in Paris), I was informed my train was full and I would have to wait. The couple who had already booked their tickets on the train said their goodbyes and I was left stranded waiting another hour (on top of the hour and a half I had already waited) for the next train.

A coffee and a croissant later and I felt a bit more ready to handle the day ahead. My train as it turned out was the stopping service to Barcelona and when I say “stopping service” I mean just that. I don’t think we ever got above 5mph on the entire run, stopping some 40 times along the way!!!! It wasn’t until we stopped at Gerona that I was convinced it was the correct train! A Columbian lass sat opposite was kind enough to tell me which station I needed to get off at and 3 and a half hours later I was getting lost looking for the underground at Barcelona Sants station!

Once I’d found my way to the metro and following the directions given to me on the website, I had negotiated my way fairly easily to Para-lel metro stop and outside. However, here my directions took me somewhat astray. Fortunately 10 minutes of wondering took me onto the correct road and to the hostel moments later.

First impressions can often be very accurate, on this occasion they were somewhat misleading! The hostel, with its spectacularly graffitied (they had been designed this way) walls and doors, the music blurting out in the corridors and the girl asleep in one of the beds as I arrived in my room (it was 3pm by the way!) gave me a slightly daunting view of what I had just walked into!!! It seemed there had been a bit of a party the night before at the hostel and one or 2 were still sleeping it off!

Now, like Paris and Lille before I was keen to get out and have a wonder round so took off for Placa De Cataluya in the hot Barcelona sunshine! The walk took me up the famous Ramblas with Placa De Catalunya at the top. Deciding that my 14 hours on the road had taken a large portion of my energy away I chose to grab a seat, read my book and watch the world go by for a bit. Now I chose my seat (a conveniently empty space) pretty well as it turns out. A beautiful lass was sat next to me and tried to get a conversation going with her.

Shari turned out to be just finishing her stay in Barcelona (a great shame) and was off back to Brugge tomorrow. We chatted a bit about what to do in the city and she passed on her guidebook to me (all in Dutch but it had a great map in the back) which seemed like a nice gesture. We wound up going for coffee (she was actually waiting for her friend who was living and working there) and we got on pretty well it seemed! I was really disappointed when she had to go and knew I’d likely never see her again but we swapped email addresses and went our separate ways.

After a good month of trying to initially get in contact with Alan, we finally managed to meet up!!! I braved the rain (I knew the mac would come in handy) and met him in the Hard Rock Cafe in Placa De Catalunya. “You come all this way, meet me to hopefully show you some local knowledge and I end up taking you to the most touristy bar in Barcelona” was his comment when we finally met! It was true, but I knew we’d head out elsewhere!

Something I hadn’t bargained for however, was meeting up again with Catherine, another friend from back home (and good friend of Alan’s) who I hadn’t seen for what must be at least 4 years! She just happened to be out visiting Alan whilst I was in town and couldn’t believe it when I saw her at the bar! As if to tie the trip together a little, she was the girl I had gone out to Lille to see some 5 years previous and the time spent there was the main reason I had wanted to go back and see Lille again! A coincidence, definitely but certainly made the night more enjoyable!

We ended up (6 of us in total including a few friends of Alan’s) at a great Tapas restaurant around a few backstreets off of the Ramblas. I couldn’t tell you where on earth the place was now as it really was round some rather dark alleys! The food though, was excellent!! For €16 a head we had more tapas than we could possibly have eaten (I lost count of the number of dishes!!) and as much Sangria as we could manage! Good food, muchos alcohol and nice ambience made the perfect backdrop to catching up with old friends!

I made a crucial mistake going back into my room at the hostel (must have been around 2am) when, not being able to see what the hell I was doing, I turned the light on. This flick of the switch brought several groans from my roommates and realizing my mistake it went off pretty quickly. Lesson learned here – Make sure you are ready to be able to just jump into bed when you get back from a night out!

I woke on my final day in Paris feeling a great deal better than this time yesterday! Fully recovered now but not really feeling like venturing too far as I would have to catch my train later in the evening and return to the hostel to pick up my backpack, kindly stored in the basement.

My replacement roommate arrived a little earlier then expected, when returning from my rather lame breakfast (a stale croissant and an orange juice – Yes they’d run out of coffee!), a pleasant enough Aussie girl was already sat on my bed awaiting my departure! Debbie and Sacha were both there for another couple of days so it was no problem to them but I did feel a little uneasy sorting the rest of my belongings out before leaving!

After saying my goodbyes, I opted to just kick around Montmartre for the day, deciding there was a good bit of it yet to see and I did want to go and have a look at the Moulin Rouge which was apparently pretty near by.

After a relaxing coffee (I’ve taken for asking for an “American coffee” in the vague hopes of getting something more than just an egg cup full!) in a nearby cafe, I headed out along the treacherous route of the red light district, down to the Moulin Rouge. Thinking that at this time in the morning I was unlikely to be harassed the same as last time I flung myself down towards Pigalle.

Now, in Soho, London, it seems that the place hides away its dark side during the day. This is definitely NOT the case here in Paris! The sex shops were all open and the “shows” seemed to be in full swing! And once again, I was harassed and chased (even keeping my head down and keeping walking) on several occasions on my trip to the great bohemian show house. I have to say I really wont be sorry to see the back of Paris despite not having seen several things that were on my “to do” list. I’m hoping Barcelona is a little more relaxed than here!

I eventually made it down to “The Temple of Music and Dance” that is the Moulin Rouge and still feeling a little creeped out by my walk here, managed to get some photos before scooting back from whence I came, this time opting for the other side of the road.

On my walk back, I passed an English bar and a few moments later, a moment of wonder struck me. Could it be possible, that here in Paris, they might, just might be showing the cricket? A slim chance surely and the debate raged in my head that only the off chance they WERE showing it, should I really be watching cricket with just hours left in this city?

The answer came back an emphatic “YES” when retracing my steps a few yards, and poking my head around the door I did indeed see a big screen showing the final day of the final test between Australia and England. How could I not take a seat?!

The bar was pretty deserted except for one English guy (and his newspaper!) who was killing time, enjoying the cricket, while his girlfriend was at work. I know that sounds bad but they were both students waiting till college starts again. I got chatting with this guy and ordered myself a small beer which pretty much did me for an hours watching.

Enjoying what I was doing, I decided that staying put wasn’t as bad an option as I may have seemed. I didn’t want to go far as I’d have to come back anyway and I couldn’t really do all that much as I wanted to give myself plenty of time to get to the train station later. I was enjoying myself and that alone was reason enough to stay. Add in the fact that Paris was kind of getting on my nerves and, hey presto, I was here for the long haul!

So stay I did, nursing just a coke for the entire afternoon! I ended up giving the barman a bit extra tip for putting up with me obviously only being there for the sport!

A triumphant day in English cricket but I had run out of time to see the presentation and had to make my way back to the hostel to pick up my backpack and continue on to Austerlitz station.

I was actually pretty early arriving at the station but I’d rather be here in plenty of time than have to kick about the station all night waiting for the next train tomorrow! When the platform number was announced and I’d found my way there, I couldn’t honestly believe the size of the train!! Now, back home, a large train will have maybe 10 carriages at most. This one had 50, with muggins here, in pretty much the last carriage! I felt like I’d walked to Barcelona by the time I reached my coach!

My first experience of a night train and damn are these couchettes small!!! 6 beds crammed into a space no bigger than store cupboard! There was barely enough room for everyone’s luggage we were just thankful there was one spare bed! Upon trying to sit up on my bed, I realized just how tiny this place was as my head banged on the bed above before my back was even vaguely past halfway straight! Sitting up in bed (the only space available to me!) was not, it seemed an option! The blow of having to live like a battery hen for the rest of the night was sweetened ever so slightly by the free water and somewhat strange sweet type thing that had been placed by each bed. Whist the water was consumed gratefully, the other packet remained, sensibly, untouched!

I was sharing this rather cosy couchette with 2 couples. Above me were a friendly American couple, recently married and backpacking Europe for a while before returning homes to life after Uni. Below were a particularly strange middle aged French couple whose grasp of the English language was limited to “hello”. Now, you may say, why were they so odd Dave? And you’d have good reason for asking. It seemed this couple didn’t put any value on sleep at all. Instead every half hour through pretty much all the night, one or the other would get up, attempt to open to the door (causing a loud ffffssshhhh noise in my earhole) and go out for a cigarette/ toilet break. If the door hadn’t made that noise every time it was opened it might not have been so bad but the constant fffssshhhhing was leaving my sleepless or at the very least, dozing for 30 minutes between ffffsssshhhhs. The other reason for calling them slightly odd was that to help aid their sleep they consumed a nice flask of coffee through the night. Now, in all reasonableness, I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say they were trying to stay awake (although why they went the extra yard and payed for a couchette is beyond me) but the addition of coffee smells to the ffffssshhhing wasn’t exactly the helping the rest of us!!!!!

The couple did eventually depart at Perpignon and the fact that I was awake to tell you that goes to show just how much sleeping I did! Around an hour and half later we had pulled into Port Bou and had we been in England, you might just have heard “all change please!”.

Oh man!!

I woke with a hellish hangover this morning! Not really headache bad, but just totally drained! At least I woke in my bed! I’d somehow managed to get back to the hostel! Even better, back to the right room and even into the right bed!

The confusion came when my total drunkenness of the night before seemed to be common knowledge with my roommates! It’s one of those times that has you thinking terrible, terrible things about what might have happened last night between me leaving the bar and winding up in this bed!

It seems after Debbie (my American roomy) had been back in the room for a while her decision to use the bathroom had been somewhat foiled by the door being locked! So wondering if someone was in there, she banged on the door asking. Nothing! No sound from within. It seems several thoughts had gone through her head from wondering if someone WAS unconscious in there or if the staff had locked the door for some reason to show they were unhappy with us.

Sacha was the next to return, obviously wasn’t her inside. So getting a little worried as to what was going on and getting no response to the shouts and banging on the door, they were on the verge of calling security. Then it seems they heard snoring!

Dave!

I vaguely recalled some of what had happened as deciding I was close to being rather “ill” last night I’d gone for the security of being next to the toilet. When after a while nothing materialized, for some strange reason I decide to just lie on the floor and had obviously fallen asleep in my rather uncomfy surrounds! It seems I did however manage at some point to drag myself out and back into bed!

So, feeling somewhat worse for wear I opted for a wonder rather late in the morning around the local area in Montmarte. I wound up finding the Sacre Cour and started what was to be a rather slow trudge up the hillside!

Now, having been harassed yesterday near Pigalle I was hardly chuffed to pieces when 4 or 5 guys swarmed on me, one of them chasing me for about 100 yards to try and put what was basically a piece of string, around my wrist. Despite my constant “non, non, non” he persisted until I eventually managed to shrug him off and move onwards. This is really starting to annoy me about this City!!! There’s a lot to see but it seems everywhere I go I have someone bothering me. It’s not what I want at the best of times and especially not today, nursing the consequences of last night’s over indulgence!

The Sacre Cour is beautiful!!! Nothing short of spectacular and some great views of Paris to be had as you climb up! It would certainly be up there in my top 5 of things to see here in Paris!!! To think, had I NOT been hung-over, I probably would have wound up elsewhere!

From the Sacre Cour it was an adventure down to Austerlitz station to go and get my ticket onto Barcelona for tomorrow. Not really realizing just what this trip entailed it was a bit of a surprise when I wound up on a train!!! I hadn’t expected this! I just hoped I was going in the right direction as the platform instructions were sketchy at best!

I did make it to the train station, in what was actually a pretty good dry run for tomorrow as at least now I knew what would be involved in getting there and just how long it would take. Unfortunately at the station, I couldn’t get the direct ticket to Barcelona I had wanted, it seemed they have already sold out! Certainly a lesson to be learned here for the rest of the trip! Instead I’m on a later train and will have to change near the French/Spanish border in Port Bou. They wouldn’t let me make a reservation on from there to Barcelona as it seems I should just be able to jump on the connecting train.

In the evening, I wound up at a restaurant with Sacha (cool!!) very near our hostel. It seems she was recommended this place with someone telling her they had eaten their best meal of their trip here and it just happened to be round the corner from us!

It certainly didn’t disappoint either! My Duck in Blueberry sauce was terrific and there was plenty of it! The price was a little more than I’d normally want to spend on my meals but a treat every now and again is worth it! We sat outside watching the world go by and eating for a good couple of hours! I must admit I could have stayed there all night, I was enjoying myself and the company wasn’t too bad either!!

We ended up at the internet cafe and finally (after just 1 month of trying) got hold of Alan!!! At least I have a phone number for him now before I arrive in the city he lives in!!! I’ve also booked myself into the “Barcelona Dream Hostel”. Might just be another “interesting” location with it being situated just off the rather lively Ramblas!!! Lets just hope it lives up to its name!

With the original plan yesterday going out the window, I was determined to get to see the Louvre today (inside this time!)! With a bit of luck on my side, Sacha was going as well and we headed down together.

Fearing the worst about how long the Queue would be we went to buy tickets inside at the machine (no problem and headed for the inside entrance rather than going through the pyramid as I’d been told it was a lot easier and quicker to get in this way. Boy, they weren’t wrong!!!! No Queue and aside from getting my bag checked, no wait at all, just straight in!!!

So I knew the place was big, but this is just incredible!!! After deciding to go see the main attractions (or the couple we really knew about), we wound up suggesting sections in turn to go explore. There was just no way to see it all (or even half!) and not really knowing what was in most of the sections, it was pure pot luck if it was any good. The result…I’d defiantly recommend Napoleons Apartments – they’re absolute stunning and just so “grande” looking!!!

Towards the end of the visit (tiring more than anything) we stumbled upon a room with about 24 very large paintings, each following on from the last in telling a story. Unable to translate the French we must have spent a good 45 minutes trying to figure out what the story was about. Even now, I still haven’t really got a clue, but it was certainly a fascinating way to end our stay there.

So, 5 hours later and the Louvre is behind us. It feels very, very strange but I already have a sense of being a bit museum’d out! Sounds pretty silly I know after just one museum but despite wanting to go and see the Orsay, I’ll probably give it a miss and spend my time tomorrow exploring other areas!

Sacha shot off long, long after to go for a cycle tour and I decided to head back to the hostel and see what took my fancy from there.

I didn’t quite get as far as the hostel as it turned out! After a brief foray into the red light district (I was actually pretty freaked out by the amount of women that approached me, grabbing me and chasing me down the street!!!!), sorting through a few emails, and desperately trying to get in touch with Alan (a friend in Barcelona) with little success, at the internet cafe next to Abessess metro station, I opted to try a bar there and settled down to have a beer and write a little.

I’d just started my 2nd beer when I noticed a young couple chatting away in English in the sofa seat just over from me. I turned to them, introduced myself and said what I was doing and before you knew it, we were getting on just great! They (Alice and Mark) were here in Paris to celebrate her birthday (tomorrow) and had just wound up in the bar. As we were chatting a couple of guys had started playing some acoustic guitar covers and the three of us were getting into it! Singing along we were suggesting a few songs for them (I got my Verve lol) and the place was kinda swinging to our beat! The drinks were flowing (one of the guys playing joined us for Tequila slammers) and it was turning into a pretty sweet night!

And turn it did!!! Just not quite in the right direction! With the band still playing away, Alice and Mark called it a night and I decided to stay a while longer as I was really enjoying myself. Suddenly, just moments later, it hit me!!!!

The drink!! OH MY GOD!!!!

I was gone!!! Just like that! Seemingly fine and fairly sober to pissed as a fart in a matter of minutes. I didn’t see it coming AT ALL. I really hadn’t drunk all that much!

Home, I had to get home, so I did. I just got up and bolted straight out the door! I had absolutely no idea if I still owed any money for drinks and to be honest it wasn’t really a thought that crossed my mind until a little later! I just knew I had to get home, back to the hostel, into my room, into bed, in one piece!

To be continued……

An early(ish) start to the day! Left the hostel at 10am because of the lockout, despite my train not being till 12. So killed a couple of hours in the internet cafe and round the shops.

On the train, at first it looked like I’d be seated next to two lads but it seemed they were in the wrong seats and were quickly replaced by a very beautiful French lass!!! We wound up having a good chat, she just happened to be studying English in Lille as luck would have it! I’m not sure just how into the conversation she was but I wasn’t going to let a woman as beautiful as this one get away that easily!! We wound up exchanging email addresses and got a little help in finding where I was going once of the train but she disappeared (after we’d said our goodbyes) not long afterwards.

According to young Debs, the metro would be a fairly easy option to get to my hotel, but realizing that I wasn’t entirely sure where it was or how to get to it from any given metro station, I opted for the safer bet of a taxi. In finding the taxi rank, I was offered a “cab” for €30. Now to me, that sounded pretty damn expensive as I knew it was all that far from the Gare Du Nord station. The guy said he’d do it for €20 but that still figured as too expensive so just waited in line (for about 45 minutes) for a proper cab. The eventual cost of which? Yep, €6.50. Bargainous!

At the hostel I met one of my two roommates, Debbie, a middle aged American lass and the 2 of us headed out to the Louvre. Nothing like just getting straight in there with some sight seeing! In the end, we decided against going in and wound up having a picnic in the park next to the Louvre. We met a slight problem when the glasses I’d pinched from the hotel to put the wine in had been crushed in my bag so I set about a repair job with a penknife and some green insulating tape I’d brought with me (much to the wonderment of Debbie!). It did the job so what more can I say!!!

Halfway through our rather nice picnic, Debbie commented on a man carrying a briefcase that had been wondering around the same are for quite a while and we had a good chuckle about it, wondering what on earth he was doing. About 20 minutes later the police had arrived and the man, who it seemed had been hiding out in some bushes(!), was tracked by the 3 policemen. It seems our comedy look at the guy had been somewhat misplaced and we brought our belongings just that bit closer!

We continued the walk down the Champs Elysee to the Arc De Triomphe marvelling at the architecture we passed along the way! From here it was down to the Eiffel Tower. This hadn’t really been my plan to do this all today but I was having fun so just went with it.

The Eiffel Tower was actually more spectacular than I had imagined and catching it sparkle as we walked down, I wondered if it would do it again. To our delight at 10pm for 10 minutes we got the rather spectacular sparkling light show. It was definitely one of those moments when you wish you had that special lass with you but I just had to make do with some friendly company. Went up to the 2nd floor as top was closed and there are some spectacular views from even there!! I’d quite like to see it in the day time though as the views were basically just a lot of lights!

Back at the hostel we met the other roommate, a very lovely Aussie girl called Sacha, we managed to stay talking till 3am much to the displeasure of Debbie!! My first experience with a mixed dorm and well, I really didn’t have a problem with it and neither did they it seemed. Will definitely have to get to the Louvre tomorrow if nothing else! Kinda feels like I am having to think about getting to Barcelona already as only really have 2 more days here!

Strange things, dorms! I’ve figured that out already! Take last night (my first night in any hostel, in any city, anywhere, ever – You get the idea) for example. Now the room sleeps 5, seems simple enough, right. Now I’d met 3 of my 4 roomates as I said yesterday. Nice guys the lot of them but had yet to meet the 4th. In fact, none of us had met this 4th chap. Now, obviously the question of whether this guy actually exists came to mind given that the only evidence of his presence within the room was a bag on his bed. Could it be that someone had just left it there?

It would seem not. For our mysterious 5th roomy DID return to this very dorm last night. A stumbling and fumbling performance in the dark at 2am confirmed as much! Yet, as it happened, we still never met this mystery man. All evidence of him ever having slept here had vanished at around 7am and we were none the wiser. Still, I guess I’ll just have to live with it!

The hostel had a shutout between 10am and 3pm but this wasn’t really a problem given that I’d planned to spend the day out and about exploring this little French City. Breakkie and lots of coffee and I was away!

The weather certainly seems to be a plus at this early stage and in the warm summer heat, I was able to take in Place Charles De Gaul which actually wasn’t quite as beautiful as I’d remebered from a short visit here about 4 years ago (a long weekend to see a friend from back home). Still can’t complain when after having a good wonder around the streets I found myself at a bar in the main square, sat outside, watching the world go by and reading my book! Now THAT was just the perfect way to unwind and take in what this trip might bring. One thing defiantely sprung to mind early on though….man are the lasses here ever beautiful!!!!

I managed to drag a couple of my roomates (Johannes and a new guy from Strasburg) out on the town for a few beers. We ended up on a mini pub crawl trying a good few of the many beers on offer. Indeed a selection of over 40 at the “Beer Palace” could have kept me quite happy for the rest of the month!

Went to get my train ticket as well today for the trip on to Paris tomorrow, which ended up being rather more difficult than I’d imagined because, it seemed, nobody spoke any English. I ended up writing down what I wanted and the ticket looks like it should even be the right one! I guess if I end don’t wind up in Paris tomorrow I can safely say that it wasn’t!