Back in Paris (for one day)

An overnight bus is a bad idea. It’s really really tough to fall asleep when riding in a bus. In a plane or train, smooth rides, you’re fine, but the turning and jerkiness of the bus kept waking me up.

And then, just as I was dozing off, the bus driver gets to our destination - an hour early. What is one supposed to do at 6:30 in the morning?

So I walked into town from the train station. Sure, it took 2 hours, but I got to see more of (non-central) Paris that way. I got to see things like this:  The physicists in the audience are clawing at the screen right about now.

This extra day in Paris gave me a chance to do a few things I didn’t get to last time. I went for a walk in Paris’s islands. There, I finally got to eat ice cream at Bertillon:
Pink Raspberry and Mango. Actually very delicious. Clearly.

I also visited the Notre Dame cathedral again:
Why ‘again’? Here I am at the cathedral with Julien way back in 2004:  I promise that this is the same building. Wikipedia says that I took a picture of the East side, this time. Whatever.

Speaking of Julien, I went to visit his grand-parents (Andi and Denise) really quickly while I was in town:

I also got to relive my favourite Paris memory of sitting in a Park with a pastry and some milk:

Things I forgot to mention about Paris last time:

-TV times start at really awkward hours. Say 8:35 or 8:40. And sometimes they skip commercials and then just show them all in a row at the end.

-The sounds in the metro and train stations sound like the commercials in Bioshock. (It’s a video game, you probably haven’t played it – the gist of the reference is that it’s set in the 50s.)

More funny things about Paris:

And this kid is cool:

After my overnight bus from London to Paris I took an overnight train from to Madrid.  (I’m on an overnight train from Madrid to Lisbon right now, actually.)

On the topic of the overnight trains, imagine my surprise at the Parisian train station when I saw this:
In the picture, you can barely make out that the Madrid train was cancelled (due to a strike – the second time I’ve been foiled by a strike in Paris, the first on my quest for wifi one day). I was told that I’d either have to take a coach bus or I’d be allowed to sleep in the train overnight and would take the day-long train ride the following day. I opted to take a train to Barcelona and then connect to Madrid from there. I got to Madrid at noon the next day, still faster than any of the options I was presented, and I got to sleep in a bed on the train!

Tomorrow – Madrid!

Also, this is embarrassing.