Today we started our weekend journey to Paris and what a journey that was. We woke up early to catch the 8:05 train into town so we could change some money into Euros at the post office. But when we got to the post office it was close until 9 so we went to kill time at a cute little café and had breakfast. This café was like the Starbucks we have in America except there small coffee is as big as out large coffee, while their muffins are about the same size as we have at home, but way better. By the time we finished eating the post office was open so we headed over there and we were able to convert our money. We then walked to the train station from the post office to take the train to the airport. But when we got there we found out that our train had a connection at the Paddington station where we had to then take the subway to get to Kings Cross station to finally be able to take the train to get to the airport.
When we finally got on the train to go to the airport the man working the train looked at out ticked and asked us where we were going. We told him Paris and he preceded to tell us that our flight was flying out of terminal 4 but there was no place to really eat in terminal 4 so we had to go to terminal 5 since they just built it and it had a lot of places to eat. So us not knowing any better followed his directions and got off at terminal 5. We found a pub there and had the most amazing fish and chips but we also had the slowest waitress in the world. We had three hours to kill so we were not worried about time as much but our waitress was defiantly cutting it close. After we paid our bill we got back on the train to terminal 4 to get checked in and board our flight. We were running behind schedule and when we got to Air France to check in the woman working there tells us that this flight is going to New York and we need to go to terminal 3. Which is on the opposite side of the airport. She also informed us that the gates close 1 hour before departure and there is no way we are going to make our flight since we had 10 min to get all the way to terminal 3. Now everyone is freaking out and running. The only way I can describe what we looked like is when you are at the airport and you see all those crazy people running with there bags trying to get through, well that was what we looked like. So we run outside to catch the buss to terminal 3 and as we get there the buss pulls away and is not stopping as we run behind it. Now we are panicked but we are getting on this plane. We ask one of the works if there is anyone around that can drive us to our terminal, but the nice man informed us that if we went through these doors we could catch the monorail to terminal 2. Just as he said this we all break off into a sprint with our bags flinging everywhere and just make it onto the monorail. The man working the monorail show how distraught we looked and asked us what was wrong. We told him our life story of this trip so far and he was like don’t worry girls you will make it but we were still worried. That is until a flight attendant who worked for Air France told us she would make sure we would get on that plane. When it was our stop she took us to the gate, helped us get our E-Tickets and showed us where to go to get through security. She was our savior.
Going through security was just as bad as the rest of the trip. We were in a rush the people working security were way to slow and to top it all off I had to get all my liquids tested. After the airport was sure that they were fine we ran to our gate to find out we still hade 5 minutes they were going to board the plane. All I can say is what a relief.
We get on the plane and finally make it to Paris. Now we have the task of finding out how we have to get out of the airport and to our hotel. We make our way to the information desk where thankfully she spoke English. She told us we had to take the metro to the Gare du Nord get off and take the second train to the Republique. So we go downstairs to buy metro tickets and end up buying a 3 day unlimited pass which was the smartest thing we did so far on this trip. We follow the woman’s directions and don’t get lost which is a miracle and make it out of the metro alive. Now we have the task of finding out hotel. Once we step out of the metro station we have to walk right through a museum protest that was going on, just our luck. We make it through the huge mob of people and now are trying to find out hotel. We walk around for a while looking for it until we are able to call and ask for directions and come to find out our hotel changed names and is no longer classed the Holiday Inn but the Crowned Plaza no wonder we could not find it. We were able to find it no problem after that and checked in to our beautiful room.
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