The value of friends

On Monday I made it to Paris at 2:00PM and hadn’t heard anything from my friend who lived in France. I decided it was my own fault for not making contact with her sooner and that I should just carry on to Portugal. However, like many things, that was easier said than done. For starters, I had to get from Paris Nord train station to Paris Montparnasse train station. I looked at a map and figured out how to get there on the subway, but getting there on the subway took over an hour because of ticket machines out of order and massive lineups for tickets. I got to Paris Montparnasse station 1 hour prior to departure of the train to Portugal. Whew, still enough time to catch the train…well, the person at the ticket booth nearly laughed at me when I asked for a ticket to Portugal. They told me I wasn’t going anywhere until at least Monday; all trains were booked because of the holidays. I wasn’t extremely thrilled at the idea of staying in Paris for 3 days because I heard it was quite expensive, but I decided to look at the positive side of things and realized that I had the opportunity to see some places I’ll probably never see again. This plan wasn’t so bad, until I found out that the hostels in Paris were full and was now looking at the idea of sleeping in the train station for the night!

Luckily by this time I had connected with my Parisian friend, Domi, and she was determined to help me solve my problem. It turns out her sister’s got her own apartment 3 floors above her parents’ apartment, and she worked out a deal to get me the apartment while she shares her room with her sister. So now here I am, spending my three nights in Paris in my own apartment only 5 minutes from the Eiffel tower! Just a wee bit better than sleeping in the train station, wouldn’t you say?? NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE VALUE OF FRIENDSHIP!! That’s gotta be the coolest thing about my exchange in Copenhagen – meeting people from all over the world and gaining the opportunity to meet up with them in their home country.

Yesterday I did a little self tour of Paris, followed by an adventure with Domi where she showed me the non-touristy and more fun parts of Paris. Pictures to follow :-)