10:30- I woke to my fantastic alarm, that I love so much. Again, laid around like a bump on a log for a while. Then began packing.
This mornings predicament: carrying suitcase down 6 floors without falling, dying or other on said mission.
Having realized that my suitcase was actually much lighter without my toiletries, I opted to take them out for the trip down the stairs. I zipped everything up, rolled the bag down the hallway and then stopped at the top of the first step and just looked down at the circular stairs ahead of me.
Back in San Diego, I'm a member of 24hr Fitness. I go almost every day, sometimes twice a day, and for the last little while I've been trying to do more weight lifting and such to gain a little arm muscle.. which I've always really lacked! Yes, in such a weakling. Haha So thank goodness I've been hitting the gym because I had to turn that suitcase on its side, pick it up and with it under my left arm, my right hand bracing the underside, I headed down the six floors - stopping just once around the 3rd floor to get a better grip!
By the time I made it to the bottom, I was so proud! It definitely wasn't as bad as I had thought! I slipped my suitcase to the side of the stairs in more of discreet area and then headed all the way back up to grab my purse, bag of toiletries and small bag with my book, headphones and other small things for the train ride.
When I reached my suitcase, I quickly unzipped it, three my toiletries in and got on my way. Threw the little court yard, small corridor, large entry way and out the door to the street. As I stood street side for a moment, I pondered whether I should take the metro or catch a cab.
With it being a beautiful day and the cabs being unusually cheap in comparison to North America, I decided it would be nice to catch a cab to see Paris one last time on my way to Gare de Nord.
I grabbed the first passing taxi on the corner of Ave Bosquet and Rue de Saint Dominique, the nearest cross streets of the apartment. We drove over the Siene, through the bustling streets of Paris. If you hadn't heard, drivers in Paris are crazy! There are no lanes, every one drives where ever they please, every one cuts every one else off and then you have mopeds zipping weaving around all over the place.
I could never drive here.
We arrive at the Gare de Nord and as the taxi driver pulls off to the side, a police officer immediately walks over and begins to write him a ticket. Why, I'm still unsure but I guess it just wasn't the place to stop. Needless to say he was pissed and said something in French to the officer and the officer signaled him to go. We move a little bit further down the road, the driver I believe was still in the wrong spot because he was checking his mirrors and constantly looking around to see if the officer had spotted us again. So I quickly paid my fare, grabbed my bag and headed inside for a quick lunch.
My first cheeseburger and fries in quite a while. It was great! I sat at the first floor restaurant, Cowans(?) or something like that... read my magazine, ate lunch and then after paying the bill I looked at my train ticket.
The whole thing is in French. Awesome. .. Of course not surprised. But what car am I going to and what seat am I in?
I head to the ticket booth and the woman, kind of rudely, shows me where on the ticket it has the information I'm looking for. I walk over to the main waiting area and wait, staring up at the departures board eager to find out which platform I have to head to.
By this time the train is going to be leaving in 25mins... Seriously, still nothing? .... Leaving in 20 mins..... The French really know how to leave things to the last minute. ....15mins, the train is scheduled to leave in fiiiiffffteeeenn minutes! What the hell?!
Suddenly the departures board begins to whir as the entire board changes and my train is fourth from the top with the platform number for the Thalys train being number 10. I was lucky to have been standing right beside it.
I was in car number 7. So thinking it would be at the furthest end of the platform I booked it down there. When I realized I couldn't tell where the numbers were located and I was approaching the end, of what ended up being a smaller train then I thought, I asked one of the men checking tickets where car 7 was.
"Down that way." He points to where I just came from.
Great. I thank him and head back the other direction.
When I get to the door, I pick up my suitcase, store it in the luggage area and find my seat a few rows up on the aisle.
The train ride was enjoyable. I listened to my music, read my magazine. When I arrived in Brussels, where I was transferring to Cologne, I hopped off the train and found myself walking behind some guy about my age with a skateboard strapped to his backpack. On the skateboard, a half maple leaf with the word "EH?!" drawn in silver sharpie. At first glance, I didn't think anything of it.
Whoa, wait a minute... !
"Hey! Are you from Canada?!"
"Ya, I am"
"That's awesome! I am too! I noticed your skateboard.."
We ended up chatting on our way inside the terminal. Turns out he was from Edmonton, backpacking for the month and headed to Amsterdam. He was a nice guy, seemed younger than I but we shared our stories then headed to catch our trains.
I waited an hour before boarding my next train to Cologne. Aboard the train, I was lucky to have the whole row to myself, so I parked it by the window, leaned against the window and the back of my seat, with my feet up on the chair next to me and took a nap. When I woke, I freshened up in the bathroom, and before I knew it I was in Cologne!
I jumped off the train, headed down the stairs where I was met by Janis with beers in hand! Stoked!
Last July, my old roommate Sydney unfortunately had to move back to Arizona and do we had to hunt for a replacement. After several interviews, we fell in love with a girl that stopped by named Natalie. She was bubbly, outgoing, and soooo excited about our house. It was the first person that really showed so much excitement about our house, which we thought was fantastic because we really love our house too!
There was only one catch, her boyfriend would be coming to live with us for 3 months at the end of September.
We debated because we weren't sure if we wanted a guy living with us that we had never met. What if we don't get along with him?
After a few discussions, we decided 'what the hell? Why not! It's only for a few months!' And Natalie moved in a few days later.
September rolls around and in flys Janis from Germany!
With Natalie beginning to work more and myself being home a lot, Janis and I developed a really nice friendship. We would chill and watch tv together while I worked on homework and he was on his computer; he would give me advice on guy problems, life problems, whatever. And we would all party together too! It was a lot of fun!
Janis headed back to Germany in December, and sadly Nat & him ended their relationship a month later. When I booked my trip to Europe, I asked Natalie if she would be okay with me visiting him while I'm in Germany. She, of course, had no problem with it at all since we had all been friends just a few months prior. So I hit up Janis on Facebook and we planned for me to arrive in Cologne this first week, stay with him and he would show me all around Cologne!
It was fantastic and quite relieving to know I'd be seeing a familiar face on my journeys! So when I arrived, we hopped in a cab, got back to his apartment and that's when the drinking commenced!
We decided to go to the Black Seeds show. I had told Janis about the opportunity earlier, an after checking them out, he was stoked to go see them. So we filled up a water bottle with Redbull and vodka, cracked a beer and headed out down the street! In Germany you're allowed to drink on the streets! (I love this city already!)
We grabbed a cab, who told it was cool to have our drinks in their and headed to the venue called the Underground.
The Underground is not really underground. You walk through an arched entry way into a courtyard, the trees strung with lights and tables with benches scattered in the area. We head to the open door of the venue, you can hear the band playing in the background and head up to the bouncer. I tell him I'm on the list, to which he checks then stamps the insides of our wrists.
We head in, grab drinks then push our way to the front of the stage and dancer the night away!
After the show and 2 encores later we head outside where Barnaby & Ned come out and meet us for a drink. We end up sitting outside for a about an hour chatting with them and another friendly group of fans, smoke a few cigarettes and pass around a joint (Ahh! Yeah! I know! To my family reading this: when in Germany, do as the Germans? Haha! Definitely won't be made a habit, might I add..)
After many, many drinks and laughs, a change of scenery was needed for all. Barnaby & Ned tell us they have to head over to the hotel to drop off their stuff then they wanted to meet up with us somewhere else. Janis suggests a place called Club Subway that was in relative walking distance to his apartment. So the band heads to the hotel and the group of us hop in two taxis and head to the club.
When we arrive, Janis & I are starving and decide to head to the McDonalds near by. We get there, order our food and then shortly after are met by a few of the people we were with. Mind you it's 2:30 in the morning, we've been drinking since I arrived at 8:30... Needless to say, we were both a little tipsy... I never thought I would say this, but McDonalds was bloody fantastic at that moment.
With food in our stomachs and having sobered up a bit, we headed back to Club Subway! When we arrived, we walk down the stairs (a basement club) and suddenly appears Barnaby bouncing happily around the dance floor and seemingly stoked on life! Haha
We all drink and dance and party till about 5am when we decide it was time we headed out. The group we were with had all left by then, except for Barnaby & Ned, whom we said our goodbyes to then drunkenly stumbled back to Janis' apartment and passed out around 5:30am.
What a night!
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| Gare de Nord Train Station in Paris |
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| Janis & I at the Underground for the Black Seeds |
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| Ned Ngatae of The Black Seeds |
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| Barnaby Weir of The Black Seeds |
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