Customs was amazingly simple. I breezed right though, and emerged into the center of the Orly airport. I was a bit disoriented at first. There I was, in Europe for the first time, and I didn't have even the beginnings of a plan. I changed some money and found out how to get into Paris (Orly is outside of the city). I rode a rail system into the edge of Paris where it intersected the main Paris Metro. After a lot of staring at Metro maps, I finally managed to figure out what station the youth hostel I wanted to go to was near, and after some confusion, managed

I haven't had a chance to continue that last entry until now. That first night in Prague, we went out to find a place to drink. It was raining and there was lots of thunder and lightning. Wenceslas square was really cool with lightning flashing behind the old, scary-looking church. We looked for a while before we found a nice pub on the corner of the square. We went down a wooden spiral staircase into the basement. There were no free tables, so we piled in along side a guy from Boston (Desmond) and his cousin Steven, from Dublin. They had both had a bit to drink already. Steven and I went back and forth making fun of each other. He was quite a character.

We had a beer and a sandwich in a local bar and then went and explored around Notre Dame. We had dinner in a nice restaurant complete with a nice bottle of wine (in Paris, gotta do it).

Frustrated, I figured I'd get back on the train and deal with it when the ticket collector came by. I left the ticket office just in time to see my train pulling away, gathering speed. It dawned on my that my backpack was still on the train and that I'd better get on it as well. I ran alongside the moving train, and just as I was about to jump on like I was in some sort of action movie, I realized that it wasn't my train! I'm not quite sure how I came to that realization, but I'm very glad I did. Jumping on the train, aside from being a less than safe thing to do would have placed me on route to god knows where in the Czech Republic at 2:00 in the morning, with my backpack bound for Prague.

We then went to Place de Concorde. Torbjorn took a picture of me standing in the center of Champs d'Elysse with the Arc de Triumph behind me and traffic all around. He chickened out and didn't let the cars get close enough, though. We had lunch at Chez Ronald (my name for McDonald's in Paris). Quite a trip. The same old thing as in North America, except more expensive. They do sell wine, though (this is France, after all). We went to the Seine near Notre Dame and slept in the grass along the bank for a few hours. Afterward, we walked along the river past booksellers and musicians. We saw an attractive woman giving a man a massage in the grass, and I shouted, "Moi ausie!" She lookup up, quite embarrassed. Got to love being an obnoxious foreigner.

Later, I went to Tiergarten, a HUGE park in the middle of the city. It was absolutely beautiful. After strolling around for a while (and noticing that clothing appeared to be optional), I went to Haptbahnhoff to check on the train situation. My plan was to go to Prague next. The woman at the international ticket desk spoke no English, and my German is almost non-existent, so I couldn't manage to convey the details of my needs to her. The problem is that my rail pass isn't valid in the Czech Republic, so I need a ticked from the German/Czech border to Prague. I've decided to deal with it en route, and just hop on the night train for Prague. I'm now in the station waiting for the train.

We then took random busses all over town, miraculously ending up at the Arc de Triumph. We climbed the stairs to the top for a great view of Paris. We then went to find someplace to eat. We ended up walking around an African-Parisian area, and found a little restaurant. We all ordered the Menu -- a fixed price meal including entree, plat (main course) and dessert or cheese. I had a ham entree, beef tongue (yes, I ordered that on purpose -- it wasn't a language blunder) for the plat, and chocolate mousse for dessert. The food was quite good, however the restrooms were my first exposure to the lovely custom of supplying nothing but a pair of footprints and a hole as fixtures.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Czech Republic, Notre Dame, Karin Torbjorn, Budapest Krystof, Bruegles Staatsoper, John Lennon, Paris Versailles, Fettuccini Napoli, Kristi Dara, Sacre Cours, train station, czech republic, i've seen, -- budapest, 1993 --, hopped train, budapest hungary, lake balaton, -- budapest hungary, prague czech, metro station, station waiting train, morning missed breakfast, arc de triumph, crashed morning missed,
Approximate Word count = 9174
Approximate Pages = 37 (250 words per page double spaced)