And the plot thickens

And thus we have come to the story of the trip to Paris. If I ever say to you that I should have gone to Debronik, I'm not kidding. And, if anyone ever tells you it doesn't matter who you travel with, they're lying. Now, I have been to Paris before this semester, it was only for 10 minutes, but I've been there, and I really wanted to go back this semester because I didn't really see much in 10 minutes, and I felt that there was a lot I missed. So, while a bunch of people went with Peter (from Poland) to Mejugoira, I decided to go with some people who I knew to Paris. I was supposed to be going with a good friend of mine who we'll call George, but George decided to go with some other people, and I ended up going with 2 boys....Arnold and Walter, and 1 Girl, Matilda. Now I knew before the trip even started that I didn't like Walter, he's annoying, and stupid, and arrogant, and unpleasant to be in the company of, but I really wanted to go, plus there were a bunch of other people going too who I was good friends with, so I figured that it didn't matter that Walter was there because I had all these other people around. I didn't realize though that Paris is a freaking huge city, and I wasn't staying anywhere near these other people, and that I would spend 3 horrifying days trapped in the company of Walter. Well, it wasn't as bad as that sounds, but it was pretty horrible. It got worse though because on the trip I got to discover a lot of Arnold's worst qualities. I will never go anywhere with Arnold again.

The trip started out just dandy. A bunch of us went early to validate eurails, and sat around in Amstetten for 4 hours waiting for the night train to Paris. We discovered a nice little kebab place, its down the street to the left. The train there was fine, there was those nice reclining seats, good company, this was going to be a good weekend. Was, notice the "was." First problem, we get to the hotel, and Arnold has booked a 2 person room, which is fine we'll just sneak the other 2 up. Unfortunatly the lady in charge had suspicions about us, so we had to hide from her a few times. Also Walter kept freaking out, talking about disguises and how to get out. I'm thinking he hasn't done much hotel sneaking before. It ended up working out fine, it was just one of those moments that everyone wanted to stress about even though nothing was really wrong. Other than that the first day went by very nicely. We went to the Louvre after 6 because then it was free, and we saw all sorts of fun things like the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, a lot of Greek statues, a lot of painting, the Winged Victory, and a whole lot of other things inbetween. My small group went with George's group, so all together there was 8 of us, and we had a good time. After the Louvre we got Crepes, and went to a couple bars. Then Arnold and I met up with some of the other people that were also in Paris, and that night was the last time I saw them until the train ride home.

The second day we got up nice and early and went to the Bastille, which is just a monument. Nothing exciting there, so we moved on to Notre Dame. Somehow we ended up in the line to climb the towers, so we went up. That was very nice. The balcony is right on the edge, and there is a wire to keep people from falling off. You get to be really close to the gargoyles though, and they're detail is amazing, each one of them has a very different character. I had no trouble at all imagining Quasimodo running around up there. When we went up to see the big bell Arnold decided to have a little fun, and he stuffed his sweatshirt up the back of his shirt. Sometimes Arnold can be a little bit too much, but this time he was actually really funny. After we came back down we went inside the church and spent some time in there. Afterwards we all wanted to go to the Eiffel tower, and we were going there, but Arnold insisted. since we were in Paris, on stopping in almost every single pastry shop there was. We also made a random detour to the Parthenon, but it cost money to go inside, and none of us wanted to see it that badly. Now, according the to map the Parthenon is pretty far from the Eiffel tower, and if we wanted to go there that night we were going to have to take the subway. There is though, a good view of the tower from the Parthenon, and Walter thought that because he could see it, that it wasn't that far away. Poor poor boy with his sad sad depth perception. We found the subway and we got to the tower, and successfully got in line. While 3 of us stood in line Arnold decided that he wanted food, so he ran off to the concession stand. The 3 of us remaining didn't really care that he was gone, until we started getting close to the point where there is a guy who checks your bag, and from there to the ticket window there is no leaving or coming into the line. We yelled and yelled to Arnold, but he just wouldn't come, so we ended up passing that point without him. He came about 3 minutes after we'd gone through that point and made sad face at us. I didn't feel bad for him at all, but Matilda thinks Arnold is cute, so she was sad for him, and Walter kept saying something about not leaving a man behind. At this point I think it is important to give a brief sketch of the area that we were in. We were in the line to go up the north tower, and the east tower was the only other one open. Just in case you've never gone up the Eiffel tower there is a line like the ones at amusement parks, with the same types of barriers, then on the outside of that there is one of those metal fences that come in sections and can be moved aside to let someone in. Arnold was showing signs of jumping over the fence to join us in line, and I was worried that he was going to do so, and upon remarking such a fact to my comrades Walter said he hoped he did jump the fence, and Matilda just wanted him to be happy. Anyway Arnold said he was going to get in the other line for the other tower, and would meet us at the top, which was absolutly fine, but then he decided the line was moving too slowly, and he ended up jumping the fence. At that point I was furious with him, he felt like he had done something clever when to me he had just done something incredibly stupid. I had discovered him to be one of those people who thinks they can talk their way out of everything so it didn't matter if he broke the rules. The only problem with that was that we were in Paris, which is in France, where they speak French, and none of the 4 of us knew French. If we had gotten in trouble there was no way for us to talk to the people, and I know for a fact they hate speaking english to people who only speak english. Then because I was mad Walter joined in that everything turned out ok, so there was no reason for me to be mad about anything, and Arnold added something about how he was getting food for us. Thanks Arnold, I have been truly touched by your generosity. I probably get too worked up about it, but I was serious pissed, and I do believe that is the correct word to use in this context. I was furious with the boy, mostly because he had absolutly no idea how he had done anything wrong, and to him me being mad was just an excuse for him to try and be cute to me. To move on then I got a ticket to go all the way to the top, but it had started raining, and they were closing the top for a while, so the 3 others only had tickets to the second landing. We ended up waiting on the second landing for about an hour, then we went up to the top and it was AMAZING. It was pouring rain and we could barely see anything, but it was still amazing. After being completely soked for a while we decided to go back down to the second landing, and there we found the 4 people from George's group. We ended up waiting for them to come back down, and went to get dinner together. I think altogether we spent something like 5 hours at the Eiffel tower. Being up there in the rain was one of the best times I have had in Europe though, so it was definitly worth it.

Day 3 we took a train to Lisieux and went to mass at the Basillica there, we went to smaller church in the town, and to the Carmel. I liked it there, I don't have any particular special devotion to St. Therese, but I don't think there is anyone who doesn't admire her greatly, and isn't moved by her work, and her life. It was nice to spend a Sunday afternoon there, just experiencing the place where she grew up. Everywhere I go, if I know something historical about the place, I like to imagine what it was like back then. Its still completely strange to me that now when I read about a place in a book, or I see a place in a movie, or in pictures, I can say to myself that I've been there. I've walked up those steps, I've opened those doors and been inside that building. And its even more extraordinary to have been somewhere that a Saint lived.

After Lisieux we went home, and I have never been more excited to get into the Kartause before. I was so happy to be rid of my travelling companions. I have to say though, now that I've had a month to look back on the trip, while it still was as bad as I remember, it was a good trip in that it was my first trip ever on my own in Europe, and it wasn't a complete failure, in fact I saw a lot of things that I wouldn't have seen otherwise, and I had a good time seeing them. I am a person who always thinks of how much more fun I would be having if I enjoyed the people around me, but then I also like looking back on it, and seeing how I just went somewhere with someone who I would never have chosen as my companion, and yet it worked. It a sort of weird thing to get calm out of, but somehow for me that works. I will never travel with those people again, but hey, I went to Paris, and I've got some good pictures to prove it.