In Paris, France!

Hey all! I arrived in Paris on Friday night, and there is quite a story to tell you about my little adventure from London to Paris, then finding my couchsurfing host's house. So, to start off the story, I have never seen or heard of how they transport buses using the 'chunnel', but basically, the bus driver drove the bus into this very small, very tight container and parked it. It was actually pretty claustrophobic, because your inside a bus that is inside a container, and once the container started moving, it was such a weird feeling! So, apparently a train takes these containers from London to Paris underground, which was about 20 minutes or so. Then, the container stops, the huge door at the front opens, and the bus pulls out and there we were in France! It was beautiful scenery to drive through, rolling hills, green pastures, just awesome. Then we started getting towards the city, and everything changed into graffiti, homelessness and basically it seemed really dirty. We arrived at the bus station, and my couchsurf host, Ihsen, had emailed me a map of how to get to his house. Now, anyone that knows me well, knows that I am very bad with directions, and I am still a total beginner to this whole Metro subway stuff. I wasn't able to print the map at my last hostel, so I figured, oh well, I have the address on my phone and most of the directions (metro directions that is). Well, my phone had completely and totally died. I forgot to charge it the night before, and was in the middle of Paris with no phone. Completely my fault. I wasn't panicked yet, because I had my laptop which had the more detailed directions and his phone number in my email, so I went to a cafe to use their free WIFI and have something to drink. Nowhere in France does FREE WIFI exist. They charge anywhere from 3-10 euro per 5 minutes; it was crazy! I ordered a Coca-Cola, which was 4 euro (about $5.00) and figured, okay, I will see if there is a cell phone store where I can pay to charge my phone for just 5 minutes. So, I found one and the man, although extremely flirty, was nice enough to let me charge it for free for 5 minutes. At that point, it was about 7 pm and dark, and I thought, I will just take a taxi because its worth it for me just to get where I need to be. I found a taxi driver who spoke no English, but I had written the address down and gave it to him. He knew exactly where it was, so I was totally relieved. SOOO we drove for about twenty minutes, and after 24 euro, he dropped me off at the address I had given him. I felt relieved, but there were huge business like buildings, and I didn't know exactly where his place was. So, I was about to call him, but my phone had died, yet again! Okay, so I said, no problem, I will just start walking and find somewhere where I can charge my phone again. Keep in mind, I don't think I could have looked anymore like a completely lost tourist with my HUGE red backpack and a somewhat concerned look on my face. I tried a laundromat, a grocery store, a cheese factory, and finally a little Indian restaurant where they were SO nice and luckily spoke English! They sat me down, poured me tea, and plugged in my phone. There was probably 4 of them, all guys and the restaurant was completely dead. I gave my phone a few minutes, and tried calling Ihsen, my host. No answer. Tried again, no answer. Its about 7:30 now, and he ended up calling me back about 5 minutes later. Oh yes, one more thing to add to this story; all of the sudden, after being there for about 6 minutes, the Indian restaurants electricity goes out. I said to myself, seriously, the place you find where they speak English and you can charge your phone, and their ELECTRICITY GOES OUT?!! My phone was still without one bar of energy, but it was on at least for now. Ihsens accent is fairly strong, and we had a bad connection, so it was pretty tough talking to him, but I kept asking him, can you just meet me at either the Indian restaurant or the grocery store you have close to your apartment, because that would be Hey all! I arrived in Paris on Friday night, and there is quite a story to tell you about my little adventure from London to Paris, then finding my couchsurfing host's house. So, to start off the story, I have never seen or heard of how they transport buses using the 'chunnel', but basically, the bus driver drove the bus into this very small, very tight container and parked it. It was actually pretty claustrophobic, because your inside a bus that is inside a container, and once the container started moving, it was such a weird feeling! So, apparently a train takes these containers from London to Paris underground, which was about 20 minutes or so. Then, the container stops, the huge door at the front opens, and the bus pulls out and there we were in France! It was beautiful scenery to drive through, rolling hills, green pastures, just awesome. Then we started getting towards the city, and everything changed into graffiti, homelessness and basically it seemed really dirty. We arrived at the bus station, and my couchsurf host, Ihsen, had emailed me a map of how to get to his house. Now, anyone that knows me well, knows that I am very bad with directions, and I am still a total beginner to this whole Metro subway stuff. I wasn't able to print the map at my last hostel, so I figured, oh well, I have the address on my phone and most of the directions (metro directions that is). Well, my phone had completely and totally died. I forgot to charge it the night before, and was in the middle of Paris with no phone. Completely my fault. I wasn't panicked yet, because I had my laptop which had the more detailed directions and his phone number in my email, so I went to a cafe to use their free WIFI and have something to drink. Nowhere in France does FREE WIFI exist. They charge anywhere from 3-10 euro per 5 minutes; it was crazy! I ordered a Coca-Cola, which was 4 euro (about $5.00) and figured, okay, I will see if there is a cell phone store where I can pay to charge my phone for just 5 minutes. So, I found one and the man, although extremely flirty, was nice enough to let me charge it for free for 5 minutes. At that point, it was about 7 pm and dark, and I thought, I will just take a taxi because its worth it for me just to get where I need to be. I found a taxi driver who spoke no English, but I had written the address down and gave it to him. He knew exactly where it was, so I was totally relieved. SOOO we drove for about twenty minutes, and after 24 euro, he dropped me off at the address I had given him. I felt relieved, but there were huge business like buildings, and I didn't know exactly where his place was. So, I was about to call him, but my phone had died, yet again! Okay, so I said, no problem, I will just start walking and find somewhere where I can charge my phone again. Keep in mind, I don't think I could have looked anymore like a completely lost tourist with my HUGE red backpack and a somewhat concerned look on my face. I tried a laundromat, a grocery store, a cheese factory, and finally a little Indian restaurant where they were SO nice and luckily spoke English! They sat me down, poured me tea, and plugged in my phone. There was probably 4 of them, all guys and the restaurant was completely dead. I gave my phone a few minutes, and tried calling Ihsen, my host. No answer. Tried again, no answer. Its about 7:30 now, and he ended up calling me back about 5 minutes later. Oh yes, one more thing to add to this story; all of the sudden, after being there for about 6 minutes, the Indian restaurants electricity goes out. I said to myself, seriously, the place you find where they speak English and you can charge your phone, and their ELECTRICITY GOES OUT?!! My phone was still without one bar of energy, but it was on at least for now. Ihsens accent is fairly strong, and we had a bad connection, so it was pretty tough talking to him, but I kept asking him, can you just meet me at either the Indian restaurant or the grocery store you have close to your apartment, because that would be easier. After our connection was lost about 7 or 8 times, he finally asked to talk to one of the Indian guys in French to figure out where I was. Get ready... turns out, the address I gave the taxi driver was correct, but there are about 47 "Emile Zola" streets because he is some famous writer. The taxi driver, who had not looked at the zip code I had given him with the address, had taken me to just about the farthest one of the 47 Emile Zola streets he could have from where Ihsen lived. Now I was a little panicked. I had to find where the nearest metro was to the Indian restaurant, transfer 3 or 4 times and figure out how to pay for Metro tickets in French. Can you say, learning experience? : ) So, I bid my farewell to my Indian friends who were in the dark, paid them 4 euro for their help, and started out to find the metro. I did, but the maps were so confusing to me so I started asking random people if they spoke English. I found the sweetest, most helpful girl who honestly, without her, I think I would have been in trouble. After all was said and done, I found the correct stop, Ihsen was there to meet me, and we went to his apartment where his wife was waiting for me with pizza and wine. It was a good end to a hectic, confusing day! They are a nice couple, but I find that I don't really enjoy Paris. I think I would like Nice, and other places in France, but there is so much poverty and it really breaks my heart. I have never seen so much graffiti in my life! I am happy I was able to see the Eiffel Tower, and my phone took those pictures. The entire Eiffel Tower sparkles with thousands of lights at every hour for 10 minutes. It is so gorgeous! I am going on a walking tour tomorrow, and yesterday I went to one of the biggest shopping malls in France which was quite an experience. Today I went to the Salvidor Dali museum which I have always wanted to see (it was amazing), and also saw an unbelievable, huge church, which had such an amazing view. I can't think of the name, but I will blog it when I remember. The people that try to sell you all kinds of trinkets and stuff like that are very aggressive, and that made me uncomfortable. They literally grab you by the arm and hold on tight as you walk away, speaking right in your face to buy their stuff. I have talked to a couple nice ones; they are all from Africa and are just trying to make a living, but they can become very intense. Other than that everyone, I am doing fine, just can't wait to get to Amsterdam and from there, visit my friends in Germany! Hope you enjoyed my crazy, interesting story, and I will post some pictures hopefully tomorrow from my walking tour! Au revoir!! (goodbye in French) : )