Hola Barcelona!

After four short hours of sleep I woke at 4:55am and hit my snooze button for another crappy 5 minutes of sleep. After a flick of my eyelids I jumped out of bed, grabbed my ipod and phone, which were next to me, and headed down stairs to take a shower. I warmed my shirt by the heater as I showered and psychologically prepared myself for the bus trip, plane trip, and new city that awaited me that day. Following my shower I quickly collected all the clothes and belongings I needed for my short three day trip to Barcelona. I packed three t-shirts, three boxer shorts, three pairs of socks, my sunglasses, my camera and ipod, and my rainjacket, just in case. I returned to the bathroom with a clear plastic bag (mandatory for carry-on toiletries, liquids, gels, and pastes) and packed my toiletries while making sure that none of the bottles held more than 100mls. With my bag packed and my mind ready I headed down the stairs at 5:30am to catch the first metro train to Concorde, then change for the metro to Porte Maillot.


You see, I was flying with RyanAir, and as any european traveller knows, RyanAir is cheap but its a pain in the ass. My flight to Barcelona return was about €40 including all taxes and extra charges, but it involves a 30 min metro trip to a place called Porte Maillot, where you catch a RyanAir chartered bus for one and a half hours and another €13 to Beauvais airport.


So i took the bus, and as i was tired I slept most of the way. As I was only travelling for three days I had just one bag so it was not much to worry about or to carry. I had my passport and my printout of my confirmation ready and went to the desk for check-in, the line wasn't too long. The lady was nice and gave me my boarding pass. I had 30 min to chill before boarding began. It was 7:30am. I went to the unclean toilets and then walked around for a little bit. As I walked I saw a Nepalese couple who I'd checked in at my hostel and seemed quite friendly, then I saw a bald Italian man eating a sandwhich who I'd instructed in my broken italian and his broken english on how to get to the Louvre two days before at the hostel. Then as I bought my own sandwich i stood in line behind a group of canadians who I'd spoken to at Aloha hostel on the previous night about the best way to get to Beauvais airport. The backpacker community is a big and small world.


In the little food store at the airport I had the choice between a small bottle of orange juice for €1.50 at 200mls that I thought i might have a chance of taking onto the flight with me, and a 1L bottle for €1.35 that I knew I'd have trouble getting onto the flight. I chose the big one and a ham cheese sandwhich for €3.50. The sandwhich was gross so I saved it to the flight, I then proceeded to drink the orange juice as quickly as I could because I knew my time was running out before boarding. I managed 500mls before throwing it out (bloddy terrorists wasting my juice) and I headed through security. I didn't beep but they searched through my bag and had a good look at my toiletries. But I passed and went into the waiting area to find a seat. I sat for 30 mins with no info, then I saw the nice Nepalese couple and I went and chatted with them for a while. After an hour of waiting they announced that due to fog my flight was cancelled. I went to boarding desk. Flight Cancelled. Next one in 13 hours. Maybe. Can't give refund for return flight. Okay maybe. Okay can give full refund. Cant give refund for bus. Sorry. Cant give refund for hostel accomodation lost. Took bus back to Paris, back to apartment. Slept and felt empty.

Socio-Baguette Interactions

I've found a great way to make friends and talk to random people in paris. The trick is to find a boulangerie open late on a sunday night then buy a baguette. Let me explain. One of the biggest problems i have with paris is that it is a major city, always considered in the top five in the world, however almost all shops shut all day sunday and sometimes monday, they shut at lunch time everyday, and some even close early on a whim. finding a place to buy a baguette at night is almost impossible but finding a place on a sunday is an acheivement that parisiens even respect. So as I walked along with my baguette under my arm I had person after person as me where did i buy it. Its like waving a flag that says i know where you can get a baguette at this impossible time. The trick, ihave learned, about paris is not that everything is shut at stupid hours and days, but that you can always get what you want at any time if you know where to go, are prepared to pay a little more, and are happy to walk for a great distance.

I'm going to Barcelona on Thursday so I am very excited. BTW there are new photos on Flickr so check them out. More if you are authorized. Cheers.

F**k its cold!

Ok winter is here. my hands are freezing and i feel like my nose is made of concrete and is about to fall off. Paris is cold. It doesn't help that i packed for summer and i've had no money to buy clothes. the scarf I'm wearing around is the socceroos one Steve gave me as a present during the world cup. it looks like i am constantly on my way to a football game or something. (Incidently, yesterday I wore it to the Moose for warmth and was lucky enough to find that the final of the international rules game in dublin was being televised. Australia won by the way.) So now that I have been paid I'm going to go find a cheap market or shop where i can get a nice black or navy scarf so that i can be sufficiently parisienized so as not to get spit on in the street. I think i might need gloves as well, and a thick jacket and a beanie. I don't know how i'm going to carry this stuff with me to america when i go. Weight is gonna be a huge problem.



So work has been going really well and i'm starting to get into a groove. Last sunday (not yesterday) I worked for 12 hours from 8am to 8pm, which tested me. The problem was that i then went out after work because sunday is always fun. Monday I did the same 12 hour shift then had to rush off to my weekly quiz, which was an average quiz, but my friend Abi, from Garmisch in Germany, one of the original members of the quiz team, was in town so it was nice to catch up with her. It was a halloween themed night and one of the bonus questions was 'how many darth vader costumes were sold in US for Halloween in 2005?', I guessed 867,012, and the answer was 1.2 million. Somehow I was the closest and as a result we won a free round of beers. It was great. Following quiz at the Auld Alliance pub, we headed to the Beaver pub where they have open mike night on Mondays. It was a lot of fun because loads of friends are there and everyone is excited from a fun quiz. I left at about 1am cos I knew I had to work the next morning. Yes, at 8am again for another 12 hour shift.

Tuesday was Halloween and with no time for anything but work I had absolutely nothing planned for a costume for the evening. My brain was constantly thinking about what I could do with no money or time. Oskar had arrived back in paris the day before and so we were going to spend halloween together. A while ago now he missed his train to Austria and changed his mind to going to Torino instead and find a job during the ski season there. Except once there he found the city to be boring and rude and was disappointed to discover that the season didnt start until late december. H e was desperate for money so he returned to Paris and is now in Tours in the french contryside. I haven't heard from him but i assume he's alright. Anyway, so halloween day at wokk went pretty quickly, and the boss decorated the place for a halloween party there later in the evening. At the end of my shift I rushed home and quickly created some shoulder armour out of cardboard and sticky tape. It wasn't as crappy as it sounds but at the end of it all it looked more like NFL should padding then armour, so I borrowed one of Oskar's football jerseys and changed the costume into an NFL player. I had no make-up so (although its a bit disgusting, it probably isnt that bad) I used ash with water and spred a black like under each of my eyes so i better look the part. Oskar and I then headed off to the Moose because they were having a party and got a heap of drinks there. I then rushed off back to the hostel so that I could make their party. I was buggered by the end and got home with enough time for 2 hours sleep before I needed to get up and off to work because yet again I was working from 8am doing another 12 hour shift.

Somehow I got through my forth 12 hour day in a row on wednesday and thankfully had thursday off to recover. Friday I got paid for my long hard months worth of work so that was great and lifted a huge burden of worry from my shoulders and allowed me to buy some food. I took the weekend pretty easy although partied a little too hard on friday and saturday night. Yesterday I was spoke to take it easy again, but after meeting some friends and getting some free drinks I was wrecked by 5:30 in the arvo. However I had a relatively early night and work this morning was a piece of cake so I am feeling good. Tonight its quiz again so I am greatly looking forward to it.

Opposite my apartment is an old hospital which isn't used anymore. They have started some demolition and here are two photos.



My plans for the rest of my trip are coming together so I am pretty pumped. I'm travelling to Spain and Sweden before I leave Europe, and next year I'll spend a month travelling in the US before Hawaii and back home. Its pretty exciting and there'll be plenty more to tell. I miss everyone and Melbourne and I hope you are happy and healthy. Please let me know what's going on.

PS. here are three photos of three different demonstrations down my street all in the same week.