Gay Paree

This recent weekend i had the priviledge of visiting the capitals of Belgium and France: Brussels and Paris.

Starting with Brussels, this was a law trip organized by the school, so a bus load of us headed down the highway (about two hours) to Brussels. We had two hours free to look around the city and check out the attractions. So we ate some Belgium chocolate which are to die for, looked at the amazing churches and buildings that were lit up making them look pretty damn spectacular. After this we went to the European Parliament buildings where we were given a tour around the home of the EU government and educated about how it works and who is joining it respectively. Very educational i must admit. We had some Pizza and some of my friends got pissed drunk and we went home.

After too little sleep, the next day at 7am we headed off to the train station where we caught a train to a dutch town named Breda. We were dead tired and were trying to look for this bus we had to catch to Paris. So after a few cups of coffee we headed out to the foggy mist they call weather here and looked for the bus. I was lighting a ciggie when this guy starts yelling at me in Dutch i think it was anyways, as if i had slept with his daughter. I was pretty uncomfortable about this as he was consistently screaming at me, it turns out he was saying that i had to get on the bus as they were all waiting for us. Oops.

After recovering from this scolding that my Mum doesnt even give me after i dont clean my room for three months, we crawled onto this bus and was on it for only ten minutes when this dick of a bus driver dropped us off at McDonalds and told us to ‘Get Out’ literally. So we get out and i ask him for my bag in the baggage area, he tells me ‘NO!…Later!’. So in shock by the terrible customer service we all went into McDonalds and had some breakfast that tasted like cardboard. After waiting there for about an hour we decided to leave and see what the hell was going on. This asshole bus driver had left and dumped my bag next to a garbage bin…Its official that this guy must have had a terrible childhood. So in confusion we asked around seeing which bus went to Paris. Finally we found the one and jump on to it and we all take naps all the way to Paris with a pit stop at some truckers stop.

Arrived in Paris, I see to my left Le Stade de France…so i yell a couple times and explain the signifance of this stadium to my ‘ignorant to soccer’ Canadian friends, they didnt care too much. We get to our hotel that was supposed to be a three star…well this is definetly the minimum three star as our two star in Turkey was nicer. I shared my room with my buddy Shaun who had the flu and was sick. That night the bus took us around Paris in the night where we saw the Eiffel Tower and another twenty magnificent structures that were in this historical city. Seeing the Eiffel Tower or Tour Eiffel was pretty surreal, on the hour every hour it flashes up to give this amazing sight of a blend of historical significance, beauty, and human accomplishment…even though they are French, I do give them credit for that effort. After a solid five hours sleep Shaun was still too sick to leave the room, so myself, Carson, and Shane walked around the city.

Paris is huge, make sure you bring walking shoes if you go. We saw the Eiffel Tower again, the Louvre where we saw the Mona Lisa painting and listened to American accents. We then saw other stuctures that were equally great to look at. We caught the metro back that was so packed as it was rush hour, we were all squished in this underground train. We picked up sick Shaun and went to a Ferrai dealership and admired the sick looking silver convertable. Being hungry and tired of walking by now we ate at this Thai restaurant that was too expensive but filled us up with delicious food. We then went back to the Eiffel Tower to show Shaun the surreal experience of it at nighttime that he didnt see the night before as he was too sick.

Caught the Metro home. The next day got up fairly early and visited Notre Damn, gave some money to beggers, purchased some paintings before we realized it was time to catch our bus back. It kinda felt like we were leaving early as there was still so much to see and explore in the city. You need at least five days to a week to see everything and not to be rushed.

Due to some complications with trains and delays, and taking more buses we finally got home late Sunday night. Chilled out, had a snack and hit the sack.

Went to school the next day with a cough I got off sick Shaun. Damn.

That was the weekend.

Posted by Pat @ 02:02 AM AST [Link] [4 comments]

Replies: 4 comments

Pat “world traveler” Perraton

love the updates dude…

Posted by Matt @ 12/03/2003 03:08 PM AST

i’m jealous too.

Posted by jassa @ 12/03/2003 02:31 PM AST

This sounds more and more like Victor’s account of Europe from Rules of Attraction.

I’m still jealous.

I spent the day queueing in immigration.

Posted by Edo @ 12/03/2003 01:14 PM AST

Notre Damn.

hee hee

HOT DAMMN! IT’S NOTRE DAMN!

Posted by Sam @ 12/03/2003 02:23 AM AST