PBJ - Travel

In order to shake things up around here and avoid another chronological retelling of my voyage, I’ve decided to share some highlights of my recent adventures in Paris and Barcelona using a thematic framework. To wit, this first post will focus on Getting There and Back. Later ones will focus on Friends, Sights, and Food. I’ll be in Toulouse this week with my choir, so blogging will be a bit sporadic. Take care!

My travel to Paris was quite eventful – I took the TGV train comme d’habitude, but was quite tired that afternoon. We had all stayed up late and woken up early to send off E, my housemate who would return to America after a few precious last days in Paris. I did, however, manage to read the first 50 pages of “Lady Chatterly’s Lover” in between naps. Let me preface my next few comments by saying that I LOVE the Paris metro system. It’s fast, efficient, and riding le métro is quite the experience. E got a bee in his bonnet and decided that we should head down to the registration office using city buses and trams rather than take the metro and walk 3 blocks. As the kids say these days, “Epic Fail!” We spent 50 minutes on a bus and 30 minutes on a tram, yet the ride back home took 8 minutes on the metro. Thankfully, he saw the error of his ways and we rode the metro for the rest of the trip.

I had accidentally booked my flight to Barcelona for 9:30 pm instead of 9:30 am. Whoops, though this oversight did give me more time in Paris before I had to say goodbye to E. I flew out of Orly , which is roughly twice the size of the airport in Wichita, KS instead of the massive beast that is Charles DeGaulle. I was able to take an RER (Réseau Express Régional - Regional Express Network) straight to the airport with only a 5 euro supplement. My flight on Vueling Airlines went smoothly and upon exiting the Barcelona airport, I managed to find the city bus stop. Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia, one of Spain’s more independent autonomous regions, and all of the signs were posted in Spanish, English, and Catalan. Just another reminder for my students that English helps all over the world! I decided to take the 1.40 € city bus rather than the 5€ shuttle bus and consequently my journey took 1.5 hours rather than .5 hours. Though the metro wasn’t working in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, I was able to find my hostel only to realize that there was no reception between 1 am and 8 am. I walked around a bit, popped into a 24 hour snack shop, and contemplated some of my life decisions while sitting across from a gaggle of drunk girls who were devouring burritos in the park. Luckily, these ladies attracted some drunk male college students who mentioned the name of the hostel (Sant Jordi – Saint George in Catalan) who let me enter the premises. I crashed on a quite comfortable couch until reception opened, then switched to a slightly more comfortable bed for a few hours.

While everyone else was freaking out about the Unutterable Horror that had erupted in Iceland, I was oblivious to any disturbances. My journey from Barcelona back to Nancy went off without a hitch, in part because I had given myself far more time than I usually do to reach my train. One quick note about paying for bathrooms: perhaps this is to encourage local commerce? I for one would rather enjoy a pleasant pause in a café rather than disinfect a public facility. Many times, the difference between these experiences is about .50€. Another thing I love about coffeeshops is that you often get free Wi-Fi and access to other services with your selection. Back in my university town, lots of students studied in coffeeshops with laptops, iPods, and warm beverages to relax them. In return, though, patrons should probably purchase something at least every few hours.