Au revoir, Paris.

14.04 entry

I am writing this entry on the train to Florence, surrounded by seven high-school aged Italian girls who are going home from a school trip to Paris. I know absolutely no Italian other than "si", "non", "mi scusi", and "non mangio la carne", but earlier they were arguing with one of the train employees about what seemed to be the size of the couchette car and the number of people that were to fit in it with all their luggage, and it turns out I was right! So, we'll see how well the next week or so goes.

This morning after breakfast I met my new roommates, who were from London. They were very nice, so I added them to my collection of world contacts.

After I checked out of my hostel I went to see la Musee de l'Erotisme - an educational and highly entertaining collection of artwork. I took plenty of photos and will be happy to show them on request.

After my cultural enlightenment for the day, I bought the day's rations at various markets on the street where my hostel was: a baguette, a crepe avec sucre, and an apple (note: those weren't the only things I ate today, but rather the only food things I bought). I annihilated the crepe in minutes, and I hiked up to Sacre Coeur one last time. Sitting on the hill and eating my apple, I reflected on how much about the city I had come to learn in just four short days.

On my way out of Montmartre, I left behind one of the tshirts I had brought that I definitely wasn't going to wear and shouldn't have packed in the first place, and a book that one if my roommates had left behind. There are a lot of homeless people in Paris, so I was hoping that one of the children who had stopped me and asked for money or food would find it.

I got to Gare de Bercy several hours early, so I wandered around Paris one last time for a while. I found the Bastille and got super, super lost on my way back - but still managed to get there over an hour before my train left.

As I mentioned earlier, I was put in a cabin with a hoard of teenaged Italian girls, who all ended up being very sweet. True, they kept me awake later than I would have liked, but I wasn't terribly perturbed.

Sleeping on the train was an interesting experience. Instead of being rocked back and forth with the motion of the train, you're rocked from head to toe. Very odd indeed.

Florence in the morning!