Arriving in Paris

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Fanie, Harmony and I got up early this morning to get ready to go to France via he EuroStar International Train. It was a bizarre thought that a train can travel internationally, given our total isolation in Australia, and island nation. Our train was to leave at 10:25am, but we had to get there by 9:25am. As we listen to the news on TV, we heard about the immense Soot cover all over the British Atmosphere cause by a volcanic eruption in Iceland. All 5 International Airports in Britain were closed and people were panicking due to cancellation of flights. At best, they were able to start flights tonight, but this was unlikely. And even if they were to achieve this, all remaining passengers had to wait for "available" seats. This could take a week. This could have been us if we stuck to the original plan of flying to France. I insisted back in Australia that we experience the EuroStar - the train that goes under the ocean in the British Aisles. Luck I did as people were queuing up at the EuroStar.

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Fanie, Harmony and I decided not to wait 2 hours before catching a Taxi to the EuroStar Train Station ... we decided to leave right away ... we were panicking that we may miss out going to France today, and that would have thrown all our plans and finances out of wack.

We caught a Taxi to the St. Pancras International Railway Station. The taxi driver was a Cyrian British Driver, who went to the Cyrian University with a major in British Literature. He has worked in Embassies most of his life, but upon the new transfer request, he quit to live with his family (Wife, 22 year old naughty son, and 13 year old daughter). He was pleasant and helpful.

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Arriving at the St. Pancras Internation Train Station was an experience. St. Pancras was a Domestic and City Metro Train Station as well (we could have gotten there with the Metro, but Fanie, Harmony and I felt that we treat ourselves to a Taxi to save us carrying heavy luaggage onto extremely crowded Metro Trains).

At St. Pancras, we had to find our way to the International Train Line. There were hundreds of people all queing up to buy tickets to Paris, but the Anoucer kept repeating himself, telling them that there were no avaible seats left on the trains (there are several Train trips from London to Paris, to and fro, every day). We had to go through Passport checks and luggage checkouts, as if we were in an Airport. It was strange.

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Fanie, Harmony and I managed to find a coffee shop to setup and wait 2 hours for our trip. Lucky we did because the crowds were building in the terminal. When we finally boarded the train, it was another surprise that we were allowed to take all our luggage on board with us, even our suitecases. The seating was comfortable, and offered cages to place your luggage in at either side of the train carriage. There was plenty of room. Once the train started, I explored to see how it compared with the AmTrain in American and the AusTrain in Australia. The AusTrain provides you with cabins for sleepin, with personal toilets and shower. Plus it offers you a TV room, restaurants, and gaming rooms. The EuroStar only offered a Pub carriage to purchase food and drinks to take back to your seat, all placed in a paper bag (they found that the paper carry bag was the best way to carry things around on the train safely). The Pub Carriage also offered standing areas with tables.

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The total trip took about 2.5 hours. The first 50 minutes was traveling to the coastline of England, then about 20 minutes was travelling under the Ocean. The final part of the journey was spent travelling through the French countryside prior to reaching Paris. We arrived at the Paris Gare du Nord (Station) at about 2:30 pm (Paris is an hour ahead of England).

It was panic stations for all of us. We came to the expected reality of not only lacking knowledge of the local surroundings and environment, but also, not knowing the to speak, read or write the language. Language is so powerful, and without it, you have no identity. We didn't have it and we felt absolutely powerless, but we had our wits about us.

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We decided to catch the Taxi to our hotel, the Hotel Therese. We knew we were vulnerable, so we decided to use the Internet to locate the Hotel and the International Train Station on a map given to us. As we were lining up, as expected, the vultures of society had located us and were coming in for the hunt. One came straight to me (mainly because I had the video camera around my neck) and checked me out. He asked if I spoke French. I said "no". He then asked if I spoke English. I said "yes". I smiled inside because I knew what he was doing. He charmed me up. Then he said he will help me. Then he took my bag and tried to get me to go to his van. He said that he would short-circuit the line for me by taking me to the Hotel. He asked the name of the hotel. I said Therese. He then said that it would only cost me $105 Euro's (I knew on the map that it was only a 14 minute walk from the station). I said he was very kind, but I am in no hurry and will wait in line. He said that you may get it 1/2 the price in line, but you'd have to wait. I thanked him for his concern of my well being. He moved on.

Another rough looking guy bye passed all the people in the crowds and tried to get me go with him to the hotel for a very cheap price. He tried to take my bag as well. I said that if he could do it for $40 Euros I'd consider it. He said right away, he'd do it for $5 Euro's. He had an old smelly jumper on, and his sleeves had cigarette burns on them. I said he was also, very kind, but no. He left.

Fanie, Harmony and I finally got to the cab. We showed the cab driver the map of where we were, and were we wanted to go. He saw me reading the map as he was taking us to the hotel. He got us there for $13 Euro's. Fanie said to give him a tip of $35 Euro's but I made her realise that it was $13. She was shocked and pleased at the same time. We went to the Hotel Therese and unpacked right away. We decided to go for a walk around our block. We discovered the nearest Metro to our hotel was the L'Pyramides Metro. This was virtually right next to our hotel. This was exciting for me because now (with the Underground Train experience we've all gained in London) we were able to get back home if we ever got lost in Paris. Now I was relaxed.

Our hotel tri room is smaller still (Singapore offered us a big spacious room, London, a big room, now Paris, an adequate sized room). It would appear that with each venture East of Europe, the hotel Tri Rooms are getting smaller. Regardless, the room is fitted with modern appliances. It is clean and classical. All our hotel rooms to date have offered free WiFi, and hence was able to talk and watch video of my son, George-Paul Paris, who is back in Adelaide, for free, for a long time. It was wonderful showing him the room we were staying in using the computer's inbuilt Cam.

One of the first things that struck us in Paris was the Right Hand Driving of the cars. As we

Rue L'

Some of the words I've had to learn and us today was: Bonjoure (Hello), Messi (Thank you), Poly vu Englis (Do you speak English). I went to the Receptionist each time to show off my new words. She laughed at me and was very proud of me trying to learn French. I took the advice of my older daughter, Destiny Paris, an old friend of mine, Rena Markris, my brother-in-law, Bill Karas, and my brother, Thomas Paspaliaris; to attempt to learn their language. It seems to be working wonders in building relationships with French people. They seem to see it as a sign of respect and are more willing to help you when you try, and struggle. I even tried it on the local Market Salesman. He thought I was great trying to learn French (most of the ones I spoke to speak English and I was telling them about my quest to learn as much French as possible, every day).