So I’m in Paris for 5 days and I’ve already been to the police station five times… I’m not a criminal I swear! Actually, maybe it’d be  cooler if I was… yeah I’m baaaad. I, uhhh, was taken into custody for  speaking English in a French only zone and, ummmm, the theft of five  crepes, one of which had delicious nutella on it. And I scoffed at the  Mona Lisa. And I put space invader art on buildings throughout the city  without permission! Errrr, the last bit will make sense in a minute. And I’ll explain the police stations too.
The walking tour was cool, a cool chick from Australia was the  guide. Got to see the cafe and the grocery, and also a good angle of  the Sacre Couer which I missed when I visited the other night.  Apparently, the stone used to construct it has some special property  that sort of removes the dirt automagically when wet! So basically,  when it rains, the walls look like new! How cool. The rain doesn’t  actually touch a lot of places on the building, so the result is parts  of it are black with dirt and parts are nice and bright white. They  hose it down once every 9 years to make it look beautiful. Although I  didn’t see it that way, I’m glad to have seen it dirty… the contrast  made it look really cool.
Yet with all these lovely sights and history, my favorite part  of the walking tour was some small pieces of art attached to seemingly  random buildings throughout the area. Space invader art! They were  about 1 foot tall and between 1 and 3 feet long, and all pixelated,  maybe tile, space invaders. According to the guide, some vigilante  artist, under cover of night, put like 32 of these up throughout Paris.  He uses some super strong bonding material so that the only way to  remove it is to chip away part of the building! I didn’t look for it,  but there is also supposedly a website for this guy. If you plot the  Paris locations on a map, these points will also make a space invader!  He has also put them in other countries… one on the Forbidden City,  which people are upset about because it’s so historical. There’s one on  a buoy in the ocean or something somewhere… so cool!
After the tour, I grabbed some dinner with Tricia at this greek place… yum. Then we  walked around the city for some hours… I’ve decided one of the things that I love the most about Paris is that you can just randomly walk around  and find cool shit all over the place! We walked through some of the  “dodgy” parts of the city, I think it was the 18th or the 19th (Don’t  worry mom, it was still light out) and frankly, I enjoyed that more  than the rest of the city. It was a little dirtier there, but I think  most of the reason why it’s considered the unsafe part of town is the  racial difference. There were a lot more black folks in the area, and I  really think that people are just racist and also a little bit afraid  of something different. How sad. It was nice to escape from the  touristy parts… and it just seemed a lot more lively over there. We  also found a little passage full of Indian restaurants. Too bad we already ate!Â
But yeah, walking around Paris with no plan or route, you’ll  see a lot of beauty. We turned one corner and found something that  looked like a mini arch de triumphe, and around another corner was an  awesome looking cathedral. Also found a MacDonalds, and I did verify  that a cheeseburger there is called a royale with cheese just like they  say in Pulp Fiction. I took a picture of the menu… yeah tourism! Who  cares, that’s why I”m here right? Right!
I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned the sunlight here in Europe,  but it’s nutty! It doesn’t get dark until like 9 or 9:30, so it gets  late awful quick. What I mean is that you think that the sun went down,  so it’s probably around 7 or 8, but it’s actually much later, so the evening time is much later and shorter. So when it was a bit of a shock when I got back to the hostel and it was 11. I was also a bit shocked to discover that my ATM card, which is the primary way I get money without any international fees or ATM fees, was nowhere on my person! After a bit of a scramble looking through my stuff, I realized that it was lost.
It was one of those moments where you half-panic for about 10 minutes and then you realize that stuff like this happens, you’ll do what you can to handle it and probably forget you ever had a problem in a few days. I hightailed it back to the greek place and the waiter explained that he found my card on the floor and gave it to the police. He gave me directions to the nearest police station, but the he also told me he just gave it to one of the guys on patrol. At the station, they didn’t speak English, and surprisingly my French was understandable enough to discuss the details of what had happened. I think they spoke a little slowly for me, but it was relatively painless. They didn’t have the card, or any report of it, and apparently the police stations aren’t connected by computers or anything, so they called a couple other stations and then sent me to a different one. At the end I asked them how my French was and they said it was pretty good, so booyah!
At the next station, a couple of English speakers had had their wallet stolen on the metro, so the guy was trying hard to speak English to them. I decided to try French again and the guy seemed to appreciate this a lot. Of course, the card wasn’t there either and he called another station. When I explained when it happened, he said the dude probably needs to complete his patrol and to try back there in the morning. I also did some translating for the couple, so I felt like a total badass. Je parle francais comme les francaises! Ou peut-etre comme un fils qui a huit cinq ans… anyway…
In the morning they didn’t have it, and sent me to the Center for Lost Objects, which was actually way on the southeast side of Paris nowhere near where I was staying or the city center. The lady there was quite short with me, and when I told her how recently I had lost it, she told me there was no way it was there yet. I asked her to humor me and try, but she was right. So I decided it was about time to cancel the card, but I couldn’t make a collect call to my bank’s number from a French payphone. No big deal, I would just skype back at the hotel… but first I decided I neededto relax and get some lunch! On the way to the center, I saw a nice little cafe that advertised a sandwich, dessert, and a drink for 5 euro… which was the best deal I’d seen in Paris. The sandwich was on a long bagguette and had mayo, which I don’t like, but I told my tongue to not worry about it and enjoyed it thoroughly.
The neighborhood down there was actually really lovely and peaceful… I found a park right near the center and ate on a bench and watched the people pass me by. I got the impression that I was in the middle of a real French neighborhood, not just a tourist town. People jogged, laid in the sun, and some kids played with a soccer ball nearby, gorgeous weather. A group of schoolkids on the way to the playground for recess walked by all in cute little uniforms. They were well-behaved for the teacher on the way, but once they hit the playground it was pandemonium. Running around, screaming, goofing off, climbing on stuff… I realized that I had forgotten what recess was like. And upon remembering, I realized that these kids were just like kids in the USA… full of energy and unafraiid to act like they were bananas crazy. Lovely to see.
It was strange to feel serenity during what most people would call a travel emergency. But frankly, without this happening, I would never have seen that neighborhood or the park… one thing I’ve already realized about my trip is that being “lost” is actually not a bad thing… you will find your way back and see some things you would have missed. And if I had been in a panicked hurry, I would have also missed it. So if you’re traveling, bring two methods to get money… and if you lose one, don’t freak out. Just handle it and continue to enjoy yourself… worst case you can always sell your kidney for some bus money back home 🙂
I visited a couple more police stations where they didn’t have my card and referred me back to the center for lost objects. I remembered I had gotten a French calling card from a girl who was going back to the states, used that to call the bank. There were no fraudulent charges on the account and they cancelled it easily. They also put me in touch with this kickass service through Visa called Visa911. Basically, in addition to sending me the replacement card to my address, they sent me an emergency card to an address abroad, which is basically the same thing without the bank logo on it. So I lost my card on a Thursday, reported it on Friday, and I will have a fully functional replacement in Berlin on Monday. For free. Damn, go Visa!
Back at the hostel I met up with a British gal I met the other night who I refer to as Helene of London… we had a lovely evening including dinner at a place called Indiana Grill or something, with food from the states! A fitting meal for my last night in Paris! Errr… it was still French deliciousness though… I had some lemon chicken thing with basmati rice, which you probably wouldn’t find in Indiana, so it wasn’t terribly blasphemous. We also caught the Eiffel Tower at night, which is pretty cool. Once an hour, for five minutes, it sparkles… meaning they have a bunch of white lights that turn on and off randomly. It was neat, but even when the sparkling was done, it was still beautiful all lit up.
Helene of London told me a lovely story about how she met her boyfriend… it’s amazing how most good relationships just kind of happen when least expected. Most of the good love stories I’ve heard about begin when no one is actively going out looking for love. I’ve decided that this is because when you’re looking for love, you have a tendency to be faker and put on airs, try to be cool, not act like yourself. And as a result, even if it works, you’re not selling the other person on who you really are. There are certainly exceptions to this, and I’m not advocating not trying to find someone. All I’m saying is that if you’re in a situation where you feel nervous or are not acting like yourself, you probably aint gonna find the right person. Anyway, I always like to hear about those nice and casual, relaxed meetings whether they end up working out or not.
Tomorrow I fly out of Paris on AirBerlin to… ummm… Berlin! The flight is at 9:30, which means I have the privilege of waking up at about 6:30… awwww yeah! Looking forward to meeting up with my friend Justin from the states there, hotel for 8 days! And I don’t speak any useful German, so that will be exciting! Maybe I’ll just throw jibberish at them until they understand… mein fluggenboogen ist rechtung sie dorfenschlaggen! Danke shoon!
Is it true that European meal portion is smaller than here in the US?
I’m not really sure! I haven’t really noticed it… but the price is much higher. The thing is, I think that the portion size here is the perfect amount for me, whereas back home it’s too much so I end up with leftovers. Yeah so kind of a bum deal here, less food for more money. But it tastes awesome!