In Search of Versailles
May 25, 2010 Tuesday
After a very long and restless night of traveling, we arrived early in the morning to Paris. I felt dredful, but I had to suck it up. No time for a sleepy day like the one in Edinburgh. We got through the metro station and found our hostel in Paris. We even got there in time to eat a freee breakfast! We dropped off our luggage but checkin wasnt till later so we headed out to go see Versailles... which, by the way, is why I look like crap in so many pictures. Oh well. Now all we needed to do was find a way to Versailles. We know we could get there by train if we used our eurail pass so we decided to try to go to the station where we were leaving the next day. Well, turns out, no, the trains from that station do not go to Versailles. The man at the ticket window wrote down the station and told us to take a bus. Ok...which bus? We found the bus stop but we were still very confused. The language barrier here really sucks and it didn't help that neither of us knows any french at all. So then we tried going back to the train station and asking them again. No help. Ok... well onto plan b? c? d? We didnt know at that point. Luckily we had a piece of paper that described how to get there that we got from our hostel. It was for the metro station though....
Ahhh the metro system. Well, what can I say... its complex. Not only do they have different the underground, they have different types of trains that run above the ground as well. Oh, and they are not on the same rail map. So there I was with the two rail maps, trying to compare them and figure out where to go when we pretty much decided we wanted to give up. But we couldn't! I've been waiting for years to see that place! This is Versaille we are talking about! We HAD to go! So we finally found an above ground train that was not a eurail train and made it to Versailles...kinda. We arrived at the wrong station cause we took the wrong train, but we were not the only ones. A few other people did the same and we just listened to their conversation and followed them. It turned out to be about a 2o minute walk away so thats what we did. Buying a ticket took another hour, but in the end, it was worth it! The palace was amazingly gorgeous, but what was even more so was the gardens. Wow! Very pretty! and what a maze too. Its huge! I kept having images of women walking around in huge dresses, carrages driving through the paths, and stolen kisses in the hidden nooks... ahhh it brought out the romantic side in me. It was getting late though and we had to get back. Too bad too because there was just so much more to explore! We didnt get to go to Marie Antionettes little hamlet or a lot of the other places. I would like to go back someday and see the rest of it... if i dont have to spend another half a day finding my way to it that is! Once we returned the plan was to eat at our hostel that had a pub in it and then go see the Eiffel tower all lit up at night. So we sat down and I ordered nachos. Bad idea. They were terrible and made my stomach hurt. I was in such pain and felt so naseous and was so exsausted that I told Tawn that we just couldn't go. I feel really bad, but maybe we will return some day.
After a very long and restless night of traveling, we arrived early in the morning to Paris. I felt dredful, but I had to suck it up. No time for a sleepy day like the one in Edinburgh. We got through the metro station and found our hostel in Paris. We even got there in time to eat a freee breakfast! We dropped off our luggage but checkin wasnt till later so we headed out to go see Versailles... which, by the way, is why I look like crap in so many pictures. Oh well. Now all we needed to do was find a way to Versailles. We know we could get there by train if we used our eurail pass so we decided to try to go to the station where we were leaving the next day. Well, turns out, no, the trains from that station do not go to Versailles. The man at the ticket window wrote down the station and told us to take a bus. Ok...which bus? We found the bus stop but we were still very confused. The language barrier here really sucks and it didn't help that neither of us knows any french at all. So then we tried going back to the train station and asking them again. No help. Ok... well onto plan b? c? d? We didnt know at that point. Luckily we had a piece of paper that described how to get there that we got from our hostel. It was for the metro station though....
Ahhh the metro system. Well, what can I say... its complex. Not only do they have different the underground, they have different types of trains that run above the ground as well. Oh, and they are not on the same rail map. So there I was with the two rail maps, trying to compare them and figure out where to go when we pretty much decided we wanted to give up. But we couldn't! I've been waiting for years to see that place! This is Versaille we are talking about! We HAD to go! So we finally found an above ground train that was not a eurail train and made it to Versailles...kinda. We arrived at the wrong station cause we took the wrong train, but we were not the only ones. A few other people did the same and we just listened to their conversation and followed them. It turned out to be about a 2o minute walk away so thats what we did. Buying a ticket took another hour, but in the end, it was worth it! The palace was amazingly gorgeous, but what was even more so was the gardens. Wow! Very pretty! and what a maze too. Its huge! I kept having images of women walking around in huge dresses, carrages driving through the paths, and stolen kisses in the hidden nooks... ahhh it brought out the romantic side in me. It was getting late though and we had to get back. Too bad too because there was just so much more to explore! We didnt get to go to Marie Antionettes little hamlet or a lot of the other places. I would like to go back someday and see the rest of it... if i dont have to spend another half a day finding my way to it that is! Once we returned the plan was to eat at our hostel that had a pub in it and then go see the Eiffel tower all lit up at night. So we sat down and I ordered nachos. Bad idea. They were terrible and made my stomach hurt. I was in such pain and felt so naseous and was so exsausted that I told Tawn that we just couldn't go. I feel really bad, but maybe we will return some day.
posted by Ashley | 8:26 AM
1 Comments:
awwh, bummer, hope you are ok now!
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