iTourNow

Sleepless In Paris

@ daveNY37

To use the bathroom in a Parisian McDonald's, you need a special security code.  I guess I can let that slide since Steve and I mooched off their wireless signal for a couple hours that Saturday night.  We did do some more research on hostels in the area.  Odds were though, that we'd show up and they'd be booked as well.  In fact, a lot of the sites we hit pointed this out.  Fortunately it was a little warmer than usual in Paris that night, and that made our decision a little easier.  We were going to spend the night on the streets.  This would turn out to be quite the experience.  Big shout out to Klint on this one, his story convinced me we could pull it off as well. So around 11pm Steve and I abandoned our comfy McDonald's booth and ventured outside into the elements (we packed an extra Big Mac for later).  I'd guess that it never got colder than the 30's outside for the whole night, although that was still pretty cold.  We back-tracked through the French Quarter again just to take it all in.  By now I had reached a point with my pack where I could bear whatever it threw at me.  I was in the zone.  A brief pause every now and then would give me enough of a break to handle it.  I was going to show this thing who was boss.  We took a couple of different turns as compared to our previous walk through this section of the city.  We came across a public square with a Metro Station in the center, stairs disappearing down below.  At this point we hit one of the benches, and started joking about adopting this as our bed for the night.  A bunch of rowdy, inebriated people began coming our way  while we feigned bench-comfiness.  Two of them broke-off from the pack and sauntered over to us.  These two early 20-ish French guys began to grill us about the packs, where we were from, what we were up too, and all that good stuff.  They seemed friendly enough, and when we got to the part about us wandering around all night they began to freak out.  Now, I'm sure alcohol played some part in this but they were determined to help us with our situation.  We were actually ok with it by this point though.  But these guys would have none of it.  They begged and pleaded for us to go down into the Metro with them, hop the turnstile, and take a train to where they had parked their car.  From there they wanted to drive us somewhere, but I couldn't quite figure out where.  We were touched by this act of generousness.  However, I'm not sure if either of these guys could touch their nose and walk in a straight line for more than 10 seconds.  That, and sneaking into the Metro didn't sound like a good idea.  We had to pass, but walked them down into the station.  Sure enough they bid us adieu and hopped the turnstile, disappearing down the hall and making noise well after we couldn't see them anymore.  I wonder how our night would have turned out if we had taken that option… We hung around that square for a little longer, plotted a new route, and then took off into the night.  Never once did we worry about walking down a certain block, or encountering the wrong group of people.   This area of Paris just didn't give off that vibe.  We meandered our way back to the Seine, and then began to head west.  At night this area almost seemed to be more beautiful, and quite peaceful.  After some time we came across a large building to our left, and it had a decent-sized grate along the outer wall which was shooting out hot air.  I made the call to stop here for a bit.  Now stopping definitely made things much chillier, but the hot air blowing against my back made up for that.  We took a seat, and wound-up hanging out there for quite a while.  I pounded my half of the Big Mac (which really tasted much better than usual at the moment), we chatted for a bit, and just basically took in what a night along the river would give us.  It was here where I actually received solid perspective on something I had wrestled with back home.  Good stuff. I'm not sure how long we were there, but after awhile it just seemed like a good time to get going again.  We decided to make our way towards the Eiffel Tower.  By now we definitely wanted to grab the first place that might be open for some breakfast.  We were sure rewarded on that.  After about 30 minutes we came across a bakery that was open for business.  Practically blowing-down the door as we flew through it, we were greeted with the delicious aroma of freshly baked goods of all kinds.  This was like paradise.  The staff of two seemed a little surprised to see two exhausted backpackers come in, but they were happy to help.  Man, did we pound some croissants!  Amazing.  We also sampled a few other things, and I have no idea what they were called.  Pastry, chocolate, creme, Orangina…it all hit my belly.  Due to the circumstances I'm sure, that was one of the best breakfasts I've ever had. From there we made our way to the Tower.  By this time daylight was upon us, and it looked to be very gray and cloudy.  When the bathrooms finally opened I was the first in line.  It donned on me that most of the public restrooms I had been in seemed to have "staff."  One or two people, who I guess were city employees, would just be hanging out down there.  This particular bathroom had 3 people, one in a booth-type structure.  Everyone appeared to be bored stiff, just kind of sitting there.  Cushy government job perhaps?  Who knows.  The Eiffel Tower was followed by another walk through another interesting part of the city, and then the Arc de Triomphe.  Both were great to see for sure, but just walking through Paris to the extent that we had up to this point, I admit we were a little "monumented" out.  I mean, they are everywhere. After the Arc, we finally caved and took the Metro back to the Louvre.  My feet were like two lead weights, and I was absolutely dead tired.  But it would still be a while yet before we attempted to land a place to stay.  Exploring the home of Mona Lisa must come first.  Thankfully the museum had a place where we could ditch our packs.  We wandered around until utter exhaustion seemed to hit us both around the same time.  It was time to find a place to crash.  By the way, I couldn't tell if she was smiling or not… We took the Metro back to the last hostel we had hit the previous night.  We checked-in, grabbed some grub, then we were basicaly done.  Spent.  Paris was finished.  The next day we were up at a decent hour, and making our way back to the airport.  Next stop, Portugal.  We weren't quite sure what to expect in Lisbon, but I did know the weather would be way better.  One thing is for sure, I'll never forget my Parisian experience…and slap me if you ever here me complain about a bed again.