Sorry, we don’t speak French…

The constant refrain we have been saying since arriving in Paris.

But before I delve into that, the conclusion of our London saga:

We checked out of our hostel and decided to spend our last few hours checking out the free Science Museum conveniently located down the block (If only we had known that first day we had three free Museums down the block: Natural History Museum, Science Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Art Museum- dang) We had a wonderful time exploring the various exhibits and learning knew things J We grabbed our luggage and another cheap lunch of an apple and a sandwich, caught the tube- stress with all our luggage- soooo crowded- to St. Pancras to hop on the Chunnel.

The extremely crowded tube... joy

Getting on the Chunnel was way less stressful than airport security.  The ride there was pretty chill (other than a woman being in my spot she had confused a past ticket with this one). 

After stepping off the Chunel in Paris!

After arriving we stressed over trying to get to our new hostel. First our credit cards don’t work here (we don’t have a chip or something in our cards), so they wouldn’t work in the ticket machines. After finally getting a ticket, we boarded the metro to Guar de Lyon. THEN we couldn’t find out how to escape the train station. There were like 14 exit options ALL IN FRENCH. When we asked the information woman she didn’t speak any English. Then Kate saved the day with some Spanish-French, and we finally escaped. At the hostel we made the beautiful discovery that we have our on private room and bathroom! Downside: no Internet. We showered and got dolled up, grabbed some “kebabs” (gyros to us) from the place next door (it’s like Mexican food here in France apparently).

Our new (and obnoxiously bright) hostel! Our own room! 

Kate, Michelle, and I then ventured to reconnect with Flora (our French lovely French friend) for her birthday celebration at a typical French bar. This was another struggle. Only 4 problems to our advent: It was Paris, where we have never been before, at night, we don’t speak French, it was going to rain, and we had issues trying to get out of the train station earlier and now we were willingly getting back in.

After almost calling it quits and heading back, we decided to ask the guy behind the counter (named Bear Grills who looked like he could be in the black eyed peas)

And he was actually helpful!  As we were waiting for the metro, we were entertained by an fabulous flute player who played a symphony track through speakers to back him up- it was AWESOME!  We took the metro and the proceeded to get very lost. FINALLY we found the bar and Flora and Dianne eagerly welcomed us! We thanked Flora for all her help and presented her with Minnesota gifts (we seemed more enthusiastic about them than she was). She and her wonderful friends helped us decide possible plans for the rest of the trip. We had some pink wine as well, walked back, made plans to meet Flora at the Fount San Michelle the next evening, took the metro, and returned to a sleeping Charlie.

Happy Birthday Flora! 

It’s been a crazy transition day, but ended with a fun and successful evening!