Paris : we are ready for you!

The bus ride from Barcelona to Paris was awful! Fifteen hours over night, and neither of us slept a wink. We couldn’t get seat beside each other, and both of us felt pretty awkward sleeping beside strangers, not that they minded, the guy beside me was practically on my lap, and so was the lady beside Kristen. It also didn’t help that our bus driver seemed to have a small bladder, and stopped every hour and a half, kicking us off the bus when he did, to stand in the pouring rain to wait for him.
     We arrive in Paris at 10 or 11 in the morning to notice that Paris is not very wheel chair accessible. This becomes apparent when we have to lug my giant hockey bag I am using for luggage (we have now lovingly dubbed it the Beast) up many flights of stairs to get out. Next problem, we need internet, BADLY! We are meeting up with a friend of Kristen’s, Emmanuel, after he gets of work, and since our phones only work with internet...well. So we set off with Beast in tow walking almost 12 blocks of streets you would not want to find yourself at night, until we find one. I should add that when we returned to the bus station almost a week later to depart, we saw the commercial center right beside it.
    So we find our cafe, and sit to enjoy our first cappuccinos in Paris, and since we have several hours to kill, our first half liter of wine. The server was friendly, the day was beautiful, we were way to over tired to be tired at this point, so there we stayed. Finally hearing from Emmanuel, we chugged our way back to the subway to meet him at a more downtown location, and this is when the real fun begins. I am one of those people that people randomly approach and talk to on the street. I am friendly by nature so no big deal right? Wrong! The people that want to randomly talk to you on the street are generally people you do not want to talk to. Years ago I developed a defense for this; don’t make eye contact, and just walk a bit faster. Unfortunately for Kristen though, my method leaves her to deal with them. So for 12 blocks we had some guy following along, getting so desperate for Kristen’s attentions that he offered to buy her a car if she simply took him back to Canada, sounds fair.
    We get to Opera station and the same problem persists, we need internet. But we find a Pizza Hut, yes a Pizza Hut, in our defense there was a McDonald`s across the road. We get our free internet, and pizza, and wait until around 5 when Emmanuel picks us up, and to our delighted surprise...he`s got a car!
        He takes us on a short tour around, which is where we learned that the traffic in Paris is insane, and we make several stops to get the necessities; cheese and wine. But upon returning to the car, we find the keys locked in. Just to show you how much patients and humility we have learned on this trip, because we did not sit down and cry like you were all expecting, we went for beer. An hour and a half later, we were showered, relaxed, had a glass of wine in hand, and a giant plate of cheese. Ok Paris, we are ready for you!