This post is really for two days worth, but I was travelling most of the day on the 16th so really today is “Day 1”. I promised a video everyday but it’s a lot more work than I expected lol I’ll still post a video ever so often, but it’ll be a lot less frequent than these blogs. I do have some clips I want to show off from my arrival but I’ll post that a bit later.
Anyway! I actually made it safe into Paris. But before I got here it was quite the ride. I did some real FAIL planning. I only gave myself a month to plan really, and I thought, “Amsterdam is in the middle of everything, that’s a good idea.” Then half way through my planning I rent my apartment in Paris the day I arrive. So I had to take a train from Amsterdam to Paris. But, that isn’t the FAIL part. The fail part is where, my plane does a connecting flight in PARIS, then goes to Amsterdam. If I didn’t plan my trip going to Amsterdam first, I wouldn’t have had to chase it all the way there. FAILPLANNING. But, at least I got to see Brussels and Luxembourg while passing them on the train.
My plane rides were the usual, uncomfortable, no rest, feel sick because I get too nervous on planes, kind of ride. The only real upside to them was that the plane food wasn’t half bad this time. Air France was actually pretty good about it. What I really didn’t like other than my displeasure with my nerves was, there was no personal TV or plug outlet where I was sitting.
While waiting for my train in Schiphol (Amsterdam Airport), I was pretty thirsty. I ended up getting Starbucks. I know, not cool. But what was ever more UNCOOL, is that they didn’t have LACTOSE free milk. So, I settled for Soy. But, the poor girl was so confused. Or I looked totally retarded for saying lactose free. Starbucks is mad expensive in Europe. Think Canadian prices but switch the dollar sign to Euro sign. That’s about how much it costs here.
Right now, the weather is pretty crummy here in Paris. I did find my “host” who I’m renting the apartment from, though. Yes, I’m living in some random apartment in the suburbs of Paris. I’m in a town called Bagnolet. TBH, it’s what we Canadians would consider ghetto. But, there’s kids playing in the streets and stuff so I’m assuming is fairly safe here.
It’s actually not all that inconvenient to get to my area either. Hop on the 76 and it’s right at the last stop. I’ll probably hop on the 76 tomorrow to head to La Louvre, assuming it isn’t raining tomorrow. If it is, I’ll probably stay indoors and VLOG. I’m prepared for tomorrow too though. I headed out earlier in the afternoon to get my area a bit better. I wandered around the area aimlessly (stayed away from bad looking alleys). I eventually ended up at a mall near Gallieni Metro. At the mall I picked up a SIM card for 15€ and got some groceries from Auchan. Actually, this store is more like a Wal-Mart. It has everything. Picked up something to drink, a lot of bread like croissants and baguettes, salad and fruits.
Most of my evening today was spent looking at maps and figuring out what I wanted to do. If you ever travel to Paris, land on either a Sunday or Monday to make the most of a week pass for trains and buses! Do this because the week pass or Navigo Découverte is only valid from Monday to Sunday. You can buy passes that suit your needs more, like the Visite Paris passes but they’re much more costly. So, not until Monday will I be able to really go around the city an explore like the pass says!
Later in the week I’ll do a video on what my place is like. For now I’m gonna go relax and chill out for a bit.
