Well where to start..
I'm only on day 5 and I already feel like i've been doing this ages.
Paris was a bit of a nightmare on the 15th. Even though the hostel was only meant to be 10 mins walking distance from the Gare Du Nord it took me 2 hours and a lot of sweat to find it.
It soon turned pitch black and i'm sure i looked a right prune. Nevermind an easy target. Some dodgy bloke approached me; gave me directions to the Peace and Love Hostel (which by that point was a few metres away, but may aswell have been miles) and then proceeded to start asking for money and started grabbing my jacket.
Fortunately i was able to shake him off and found a top geezer in a hotel reception to point me towards my hostel. Needless to say, it was a huge relief when I did find it - just inside the 3hour limit before they give your bed away!
Hardly slept that night. Just my luck that every 2mins an ambulance with sirens blazing would rush past my window. Add that onto the music seeping through the floorboards of the bar downstairs (I was on the 1st floor) and it could've been better.. still, can't moan - would've been a lot worse with no roof.
Day 2
This wasn't so bad. I got some excellent directions from the Peace(?!!) & Love Hostel staff to the next place I was staying - the Oops Hostel. Got there nice and early. There wasn't much sleep here either because of some American girls getting up at 3am, then at 6am. The beds were also made of a metal frame, so if you so much as blinked the whole room knew about it.
Today I had my first Parissien croissant then went off walking down Ave De L'Hopital and then along the river Seine. I saw all the big attractions along the way and had sore legs and feet by the end of it. The Eiffel Tower was as crowded as you'd expect; i walked upto the 2nd floor then got the lift to the top.. some amazing views, though i doubt my camera did them any justice.
Had a genuine crepe avec jambon along the way, got to watch it being made - the guy made it look easy. Bought a book from the Shakespeare and Company english bookshop (For Whom the Bell Tolls), a real gold mine.. the owner is from England.
Wrote a couple of postcards today. By the time it got to posting them the Bureau de Poste was closed, so i managed to get them sent off when I got to Blois.
By the end of the day I was feeling a lot less nervous about Paris. I think there is a bit of a steep learning curve when it comes to navigating this place. I'd have done well to get a street map which was more useful than second-hand toilet paper, unlike the tiny map i tore out from the Europe on a Shoestring guidebook. Got there in the end though, which is the main thing!
