France


23.01.98 - Back in Paris

After managing to get a few hours sleep on the train (I had three whole seats to myself) I arrived back in Paris around 7am with no city map and no money. Fortunately I had a couple of Metro tickets, so I caught the train to Gare Du Nord (Paris North) from Gare de Est (Paris East) despite the fact that they're only about 300m apart (you wouldn't have guessed this from the rail map).

Once at Gare du Nord, I ditched my back-pack in a locker and waited for the tourism office to open so I could pick up a map. Once I was map-equipped I took my bags to a hostel and wandered around the city for a few hours, just killing time. I bought myself some shorts because up until that point I simply didn't have any and, since I was just about to leave for Africa, I thought perhaps I should get some. I met Chris at Gare du Nord at 8pm and we headed back to the hostel.


24.01.98 - Latin Quarter

Chris and I met up with one of her friends, Veronique (who'd have guessed), for lunch in a cafe. It was pretty funny hanging out with an actual Parisian seeming as previously we'd been travelling for so long and had met so few actual locals. We wandered around the Latin Quarter for a few hours, and checked out Veronique's University Campus. The Latin Quarter is pretty cool, heaps of Cafe's etc...

25.01.98 - Washing Day!

Today I actually managed to do some washing! It was all very exciting, we went to the laundry and I put EVERYTHING through the wash and dried it all and folded it and stuff. While it was washing, me and Chris pigged-out at a local patisserie, it wasn't easy to find food on a Sunday, but we managed.

I had arranged to meet Joe and Brad at the train station on the 25th at 5:30, but they didn't show up. I figured they had to be SOMEWHERE, so I left messages at the only two hostels I knew they would be at. On the way back from one hostel I stopped back in at the station to see if they were there - they were.

It turned out that Brad and Joe were going to be extremely boring and not come out for dinner, so Chris, Veronique, Veronique's weird sister and I headed out on our own. I had a three-course meal, which I didn't mind splurging on since I figured a decent meal might be hard to find in Africa. We then wandered up Sacre Coer to look around and had some hot chocolate in a Cafe (it was very damn cold up there) before heading off 'home'.


26.01.98 - Out of Paris

Got up to meet Brad and Joe at the station at 8:30. They were late, of course, and we ended up hurrying to make our flight. The flight was pretty uneventful (not even much turbulence) but the food was nice at least.

We arrived in Nairobi that night and immediately got picked up by 'Mike'. At first he claimed to be a taxi driver, but later he became a 'volunteer worker for Nairobi tourism'. We didn't care what he was, he was a great help. He got us a taxi to our hotel and told us he'd meet us the next day. Fine by us. Just hope he realises he's not getting any money out of us.



Document: 980123.shtml
Published: 26.07.98
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