December 15, 2013

Why yes I do speak French

Everyone has this conception that Parisians are rude. But I just want to clear the air here. In my experience they are really nice! 

Perhaps what helps is that I try to use my French whenever I am. And the French people really appreciate that and as a result are super nice to me. I am in love with the city Paris and its people. 

Just today I used my first day of my Eurorail pass. If you will recall the Eurorail pass allows you to travel unlimited for 10 days during a 2 month period. But as I found out today it is not really unlimited in a sense. Even though I bought the pass already I still had to make a reservation on certain trains and that could cost as high as €45.

The plan for today was to go visit my friend Alice in Strasbourg. I found out at the ticketing office that it would have to pay €45 to make the reservation. Since there was no train going to Strasbourg without a reservation. I simply had to bite the bullet. 

The train is a high speed train called the TGV because I made my reservation so late there was no place assigned to me. So I simply had to wait until the train departed to see if I can score an empty seat. Luckily I did find one next to the most helpful people. I told them about my ordeal today of paying more even though I had an extra pass. They were so helpful and got a conductor to come by to check to see if I can get a refund. Unfortunately I did need the reservation so no refund was given but on the plus side I made some new friends! We were having such a good time talking about places to visit and my awesome French that a person seated behind us actually came to tell us to keep it down (in a friendly manner no less) haha!

But as my friend suggested next time when I want to go somewhere I should call ahead of time to see if I can make a reservation first cheaper. And plan my trip around that. Or simply take the non reserve trains which will be free for me. 
The older man on the left actually is a teacher of Chinese art history and can speak fluent Chinese.

The women sitting next to me, the four of us were talking the whole trip! She is going to Strasbourg to visit her daughter and grand daughter.

Peace from the train headed to Strasbourg France.

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