<< Leaving
NY • Index • Day
2 (9/21) >>
About two hours or so into the
flight it was past midnight so this was officially day
one at this point since this is the day I was to touch
down in Paris, not only that but we probably flew through
the time zones and flew into midnight before it was even
midnight back in New York. The flight was good, it was
during the time I would be getting my nights sleep so I
didn't get any, and I was too excited obviously. They
played one movie on the plane, The Matrix, it was my
second time seeing it so I was glad to have seen it again.
The flight was very smooth, we hit a few bumps here and
there, but nothing too bad.
After
about 4 to 5 hours into the flight we started heading
into day light already, it was amazing to me because it
had to have been about 2:00 AM back in New York, but
since we were heading east we were flying directly
through the time zones later then New York’s. It was
exciting because I knew the time was getting nearer and
nearer for our arrival to Paris.
I
can't resist this story. LOL!! 
In
the last two hours in the flight, at that point it was
fully daylight and I was listening to a tape of music in
my walkman, with my head leaned back in the seat. I would
just glance around since there wasn't much of anything
else to look at since the movie was long over. At one
point out of no where a few rows of seats in front of me
to the left side of the plane, I see an image of a rolled
up napkin fly from a passenger's seat and hit the
backside of one of the stewardess' head. I thought it was
one of the other crewmembers of the flight playing around,
but I quickly found out I was wrong. The stewardess
quickly turned around with this really shocked look on
her face and started yelling at the passenger who was a
middle-aged woman. I was shocked, too, I couldn’t
believe it. At that point the two women were yelling at
each other and one of the male flight attendants was
trying to calm the stewardess down. Rob and I just looked
at each other with shocked looks on our faces. That
passenger was trying to get her attention when she threw
the napkin, so the male flight attendant was trying to
tell her that the stewardess has 400 people to serve. I
think they had the flight attendant manager come over
because this guy was talking with the passenger for the
longest time, he looked like the main flight attendant.
Okay,
let me get on with it. The last hour of the flight I
started seeing land below, at the point I was really
excited, I was actually looking at the grounds of France
in real time for the first time. When the plane touched
down on the runway at Charles De Gaul airport I just
couldn't wait to get out of the plane and see Paris, we
landed at about some time after 10:00 AM Paris time which
meant it was 4:00 AM back in New York. Paris is 6 hours
later then New York time (EST). After getting out of the
plane we had to go through customs, I had to wait on a
long line to go through and show my passport. I was
holding my heavy bags and was so hot, I just couldn't
wait to get out there and see Paris.
After
finally going though customs, which felt like an eternity,
Rob and I went to the main area of the airport and I
exchanged some of my American cash for French franks. For
the first time in my life I was holding French paper
money, it was so cool. After that we went out the main
entrance from our terminal and hopped into a taxi. There
was a little mix up in where we ended up, we were
supposed to end up at our hotel but ended up in some
other place the driver thought we meant. The guy was
actually oriental, so don't think it was because he was
French.
Anyway, we had to find out where we were and
were our hotel was, so Rob bought a telephone card to
call for information. The phones in their phone booths
over there don't take change like ours here in the USA do.
You need to insert a card into their phones. It was no
problem, we found the nearest convenient type of store
and bought a telephone card for 50 francs which is $10
worth US money. Greatly we got the right information we
needed, called a cab, and got to our hotel, Hotel
Rochambeau. We
arrived at our hotel somewhere around 12:30 PM or so
Paris time, we checked in but couldn't get to our room
right away because it wouldn't be ready till 2:30. So,
Rob and I left our bags at the hotel and then went out
and walk around and toured the streets of Paris. It was
so awesome, I couldn't believe I was over there walking
their streets and breathing their air. Let me tell you,
looking at the Eiffel
Tower in real time
for the first time was such a happy moment, I just couldn’t
wait to go up inside of it.
When
2:30 came we went back to the Hotel, got our keys, took
our bags and went up to our room on the third floor. We
took showers and then slept for a few hours, I didn't get
my nights sleep so I was beat. Rob slept a little bit on
the plane but I didn't at all. After we woke up it was
about 5:30 PM or so, we got ready to go back out and do
some more touring. I got my backpack, got my cameras
ready for videos and snapshots. The first place we went
after that was the Arc De
Triomphe. It was
so amazing seeing it live for the first time, I spent a
little while video taping it and the area around it.
After that we took off to the Eiffel Tower, now this was
the highlight of the day, going up to the Eiffel Tower
for the first time in my life. I had my video camera
going right away taping my first steps toward it. I was
so excited, I couldn't wait to go up inside it, but that
wouldn't be till Monday. Remember this was a Friday
evening. After taking enough videos and snapshots, Rob
and I hung out at the park right there by the Eiffel Tower.
We laid down and relaxed looking up at the lit up tower,
it was great being there staring at the Eiffel Tower
remembering all the years I was longing to be there.
After our time by the Eiffel Tower
we went to a very nice
cafe, I had my
first glass of wine and it was good. To eat I had steak
and fries and Rob had a burger. The waiter was so nice,
he offered to take our picture while we were there, I was
just going to have Rob take my picture of me sitting at
the table there and when the waiter saw rob with the
camera that's when he offered to get the two of us. I
thought that was real nice of him. After the cafe we
headed back to the hotel, by this time it was late, like
midnight. We were very tired and needed sleep.
<< Leaving
NY • Index • Day
2 (9/21) >>
