Sunday, February 12, 2006

A Fifteen Year Old in Paris

12.10.99: Tonight we're in Paris. Well. I'm not. I'm in the hotel. Yup. Just me and the stupid Italian, French and German speaking TV. Oh well...there isn't anything on anyway, so it really doesn't matter what language it speaks.
I would get sick. I can't believe this. I'm in Paris!!! But I'm sick. ::ch::

~Later~

I fell asleep for a little bit, and I think the maid came in. She had to've. There's a rose in the bathroom that wasn't there when I fell asleep.

Did y'all know that French people are weird? Their TV says it's 21:36. That's the time... that's a weird time. Is it like that minus 12 thing? Even if it is, who the heck would say "It's 21 o'clock"?

We're staying in this really nice hotel. The guy that came to open the door of the car for us asked if we were going to stay. I asked Marc why he said that, and he said he didn't think we looked rich enough to be staying here.

I decided that I hate trains.

But I love planes.

But I don't like 8 hour flights. Ugh. I don't want to do that again.


12.11.99: The guys told me that Ashley almost got arrested last night. They tried to sneak her onto the metro. They didn't have enough money to get her a ticket, so they sneaked her on instead. They said it was the first time the Police had stopped ever stopped them to ask for tickets. I wonder if they learned a lesson?

8 comments:

A Worm and No Man said...

That is NOT what happened! The "guys" had plenty of money, they just didn't have any coins for the turnstile and the money changer for the bills was BROKEN! Aaaand the "police" were checking tickets merely for the express purpose of shaking down unsuspecting foreigners. Nobody was ever in any danger of being "arrested." Sheesh.

A Worm and No Man said...

And yes, the "guys" did learn a lesson: Next time some French metro "policeman" asks you if you want to "pay now" or "pay later" for a so-called "offense" that was really the fault of the shoddy Paris Metro system, pick "pay later" and then get back on your plane to England and forget about the whole thing.

::mutters:: Hosing people down for 400 francs because of their own bloody faulty French technology and inefficiency, what kind of highway robbery is that?

A Worm and No Man said...

I offered to pay the guy the measely 8 francs for a ticket, but he acted all insulted and kept demanding 400!

O the injustice of it all!

::beats air vainly::

Tracy said...

::laughs:: How was I to know y'all had "plenty of money"? I wasn't there. I was off in a hotel room being sick, remember? You guys came back and told me the story. Those were your words, not mine. :p

Wait--so--did you *pay* the 400 francs??

Tracy said...

Hey Mason! Where have you been?

Little Lizzie said...

::rolls eyes:: Oh brother!

A Worm and No Man said...

The guy had a machine gun and looked very irritated. There's not much negotiating one can do with an irritated Frenchman holding a machine gun who doesn't speak any English. All I could think about was making sure the the machine gun didn't do any of the talking!

In the end he offered me a "pay 200 now" or "pay 400 later" and under the stress of the situation and not thinking clearly I paid the 200.

Stupid Paris Metro highway robbery.

Tracy said...

::nods with a sage gleam in eye:: Good decision, Justin. Because, I am sure, had you irritated the man enough, he probably would've blasted you away with that machine gun.

Poor Ashley.