Paris to Lyon train ride 5-31-2014

We have left Paris and said goodbye to Hutton. We hung out all day around the train station since our train wasn’t till 6pm.  Grabbed lunched and checked out a local park and took an hour nap.  The park was packed with people all just relaxing and lying down on the grass chilling.  It was pretty cool to basically just do what any other local would do.

               

               

            *Listening to that song again…*

    *AfroJack– Too Wild (feat. Wiz Khalifa)*

                     ^^^click to hear ^^^

                                I find myself now every time I get on a train I play this song.  The same feeling/effect happens every time.  It’s not so much about the lyrics but just the instrumentals and the echoing of voices that make it such an awesome feeling. 

                                Now to fully experience this… some good headphones (in-ear is best I think)… headphones that really allow you to have a surround sound experience.

                But as I write this I have restarted the song and we were going through a long dark tunnel, the song was building but no joke right when the “drop” happens at :45 seconds the train leaves the tunnel and just instant sunlight and green flat lands everywhere.  The music matched up with the surroundings perfectly.  I look around as I have my sunglasses on so no one can actually see what I’m looking at and I just think to myself “I’m on a bullet train in Europe heading to Lyon, France.  What an experience even if it’s just a train ride.”

THE FRENCH OPEN 5-30-2014

We woke up to a beautiful sunny day in Paris; it was perfect since we have been previously surrounded by rain for days in Amsterdam.  We headed to the metro and were on our way. Hutton would meet us later since his ticket only allowed him to enter after 3pm, matches began at 11am.  We arrive and waited in line to get in just like any other sporting event.  It was a pretty awesome feeling walking through the gates and being handed a French Open newspaper with all the daily action. Too bad I couldn’t read anything since it was in French, luckily the schedule is in a universal language haha Names, times, courts. Today there would be 4 matches on all the active courts, which was about 9 or 10 courts I’d say. Mostly doubles matches with a few singles matches. The outside courts I mean…our ground passes.

                We walked around and just got the lay of the land basically since we didn’t really know who we wanted to see first.  We ultimately made it to a men’s double match cause I mean come on who doesn’t like fast paced hard hitting men’s doubles. Sorry ladies didn’t watch much of you this event haha.  Seeing that red clay was just something else. 

                I further checked out the newspaper and finally recognized a match that would be awesome to see,Tomas Berdych was going to be playing on the outside court 2 (biggest court that wasn't considered a stadium court), it was noon and he was the 3^rd match to go on. (1^st match started at 11), so we figured we would go over there and watch the Men’s doubles going on before and get good seats for the upcoming singles match.   Basically what we do when we go to our electronic concerts and want a good spot for the NEXT DJ, we sit thru the previous act so we are all ready to go for our “favorite dj”.  WELLLLLLLL let’s just say we weren't the only ones with this bright idea.

                Now let me say first that over all the experience was awesome and once in a lifetime possibly and Lexii and I are very appreciative that my mom bought these tickets for my birthday. Love you mom!

                With that said let me continue with our “bright idea.”  We waited just about 2 hours IN LINE outside of court 2 just to get inside to watch.  Now you would think they would have TVs outside the courts so people in line could at least watch the match or EVEN see/hear the score….welllllll they don’t have that.   It was miserable yet awesome at the same time.  Imagine whatever the worse line at whatever amusement park you have ever been before and you have what we waited in.  Now that being said it is still awesome because the end result will be watching an awesome match at the French Open in Paris…Not many get to say that.  We are 8 people from getting let in. They are basically only letting single people in because no one I mean NO ONE is leaving the court because they all wanna watch the matches going on.  Finally Lexii and I get in but don’t get to sit together for the remaining for the 2^nd match (Mens Doubles). It wasn’t too bad since we were about 6 seats away from each other and were court center and 3 and  5 rows up. Being that close was so dope.  Eventually the man next to Lexii left and I swooped his spot, now being 3^rd row from the court.  It is now 3pm and singles is about to begin.  Originally we were going to meet Hutton at 3 but there was no way we were going to leave these seats now and we also had no wifi to communicate with Hutton.  We watched the first 2 sets and then it began to rain.  Rain delay was in an effect.  They covered that court so fast; it was something to watch for sure.  Lexii and I totally forgot to bring an umbrella just in case and decided to leave and find cover and hopefully hutton.  We eventually found hutton, the rain delay was over and play continued. We went and watched a mix doubles match on a distant court and then left the French open to head back to the hotel to prepare for the night to come.

               

  We went to the Latin District again and hit up many bars and got cheap drinks such as beer and wines as we either played pool, danced, talked or even met some locals and socialized.  Once again thanks to Hutton being able to speak French allowed so many more open doors for us.  Lexii and I can handle everything on our own but with Hutton in the group for a few days it really gave us another view on the vacation and going out to the bars and experiencing some other aspects of Europe. Fun night, made it to the metro in time and got home.

Back to Paris for the French Open and Hutton 5-29-2014

I have come to really enjoy Paris, for some reason it has started to feel like “home base” on this trip, even though from here forward I will never be in Paris again. 

                So we united with David Hutton and decided to go out on the town and hit up the Latin District. Not eating all day because of the trains we were hungry so we hit up this street in the Latin District that was just packed with people and lights were everywhere, it was roughly 10:30pm.  We got this gyro type food that was bomb.  Some kind of sauce mixture of sweet and spicy in a long French roll with lettuce and this meat, all topped with French fries.  So so so good.  We then continue to a random bar that just looked inviting from the outside and had Hutton order some beers for us.  Let me tell you having Hutton being able to speak French was awesome.  We got some beers and were just chatting and relaxing after the long day, then a while later we realize what time it was and that if we didn’t get to the metro before it closed we would be screwed since we were not close to our hotel or Hutton’s hostel.  We chugged our beers and headed towards the metro, along the way ofcourse taking some #selfies with the amazing buildings of Paris.  Ultimately finding that the metro in fact was closed and closed a while ago, we thought it closed later but forgot it wasn’t considered the weekend so the times were not the same.    We checked out the maps and Hutton gave us the 411 on which way to go to get home.  We went separate ways and attempted to walk to our hotel.  We walked for about 30 mins and said forget this lets get a taxi.  Got a taxi, got home (20 min drive later), we would of walked for another hour and half if we had walked.

Amsterdamn to Paris

Today we are taking multiple trains to get us back to Paris so tomorrow we can attend The French Open 2014.  While walking around the train station I realize my suitcase just got a lot heavier or has seem to have newly added drag.  My wheels are tearing apart.  What’s funny is now that the “outer shell” has broken off my suitcase is rolling faster than before. WINNING…

SNACKS ANYONE BETWEEN TRAINS? YESSS THATS A PRE-MIXED DRINK IN A CAN!!!!

the artwork on the train routes are nonstop! haha

On better news, we are meeting David Hutton in Paris tonight as he is going to stay there till Sunday.  Not sure if he is staying with us one night or not yet but either way he is looking into French Open tickets and he may be attending with us.  We will know tonight or not If he gets a hold of these “visitor afternoon pass or visitor evening pass”  and if he does hopefully he grabs us two as well since the evening pass is for main courts 5pm and on for only 15 euros…. Too bad we don’t know the schedule since the majority of my day I have no wifi to check and also play is currently going on at the French Open. 

EDIT (hoursssss many many hours later) – wellllll we finally made it to the hotel after walking in wrong direction.  Now 10 pm and have not heard from Hutton… im so tired, such a long day…. I don’t know what we are doing tonight

EDIT 2 (10:10pm)  O my god we god WIFI…it’s a fricking miracle! And somehow Hutton called the hotel and he is now meeting us here at this hotel…. We have no idea how he called…   This day is just ughhhhhh hahaha     I need a shower!   A private shower…. Not the publicishhhhh shower in Amsterdam. 

AMSTERDAMN Days Cont.

One rainy day we actually were soaked, even with lexii umbrella and my impulse buy of a black umbrella with pot leafs all over it and says Amsterdam.  Do you think they will let me bring that into the French open? Hahaha  

We did in fact make it to Anne Frank’s house and got to experience that.  We waited almost 2 hours in line for that, in the misty rain BY THE WAYYYY…kinda sucked….   The exhibit wasn’t exactly what I thought it was going to be but was historical and informational regardless.  Much of the old house has been renovated for tourist and is turned into a very well thought out timeline of her story as you walk through the house.  Most if not all the furniture was taken out and replaced with pictures and videos to show what it once looked like.  Many original journals and pictures were still there for viewing pleasure.  From the outside the house looks very modern and even a café has been added onto one of the floors.  The important rooms in Anne Frank’s story are still left mildly untouched to help the attendee get a small idea of her experiences. The original book shelf which was the door way to the hidden rooms was still intact and added the experience of walking through the house.

 We briefly saw the true Red Light District which was windows with red/pink neon lights surrounding them and inside the windows/rooms were half naked women who were mostly dressed in black leather type outfits. We walked by these areas early in the night around 11pm and not many people were out and about so we did not stay and watch long cause it was in a way still awkward. Also most of the women were just sitting in chairs on their phones; I’m assuming waiting for men to buy or pay them or maybe was waiting for a bigger audience.    

One part of Amsterdamn that I will not forget is our room haha.  2 single beds head to head and only enough walking space for one down the side of the beds.  It was small and hostel like but a European experience.  We also were right in the middle of the Red Light District so it was pretty noisy and active till about 3 am.  So we heard people all night out our window.  Annoying yet cool to hear the city live. 

Amsterdamn Days

The past few days of Amsterdamn blended together mainly because it rained the majority of the time.  Being in another country and experiencing the liveliness of what the city has to offer is one thing but being wet and cold the entire time takes a toll on you.  We didn’t let that stop us though from walking probably over 10+ miles, we didn’t take any local transportation at all while we stayed in Amsterdamn.   

Most of the time we were lost walking around and ultimately it led us to places that were pretty awesome to see such as seeing not one but two “I AMsterdamn” signs.  We made it vondalpark which was a huge huge park that had many water fountains and inner parks with soccer fields and clay tennis courts.  We stopped for a while and had coffee and watched some tennis players.  They suckedddddd, one guy broke his string and continued to play with it for the next 15 mins, it didn’t help his game let me tell you that.  It was nice to watch though since soon we will be watching hopefully higher quality tennis at the French Open.

Day 4 – Antwerp to Amsterdam

This morning was kinda brutal. We got up at 6:30 to catch an 8:30 train.  I went to bed at like 1:30, experiencing some jet lag I think.  Luckily for me Europeans like their coffee so I had a few espresso shots at breakfast haha. O ya and we made it to the train station an hour early ughhh. First time being on a high speed train and all the seats where facing the opposite direction we were traveling.  Wasn’t sure how that was going to be but actually the trains are fast yet quiet and smooth.

                Now we arrive in Rotterdam and were walking around in the train station realizing we fucked up somehow and bought train tickets to Rotterdam central and not Amsterdam central haha.  We head to ticket booth and get some awesome help from them, even showed us more about our eurorail global passes that we never knew. We almost bought tixs for 180euro total but she helped us and got tixs for 70euro total.   We were finally shown how our global passes are used correctly for all the free trains.

                So we got on another train that would be taking about an hour to get to Amsterdamn. Arrived in Amsterdam little before noon and well our check in wasn’t till 2pm.  We stored our luggage at the hotel and walked the town. 

Let me tell you Amsterdamn is ALIVE and awesome. Picture Diagon Alley from Harry Potter (the magic town).  Now instead of having magic shops and wand shops just replace those streets with Bars, sex shops, smokeshop, cafes and food places.  Also bikers are everywhere, seems like people ride bikes more than drive cars.  Pretty chaotic when walking down narrow streets, alm

ost have gotten hit many times already haha. 

We found a corner café and order some beers and fries.  The packets of ketchup are awesome, perfectly designed to squeeze on each fry haha.  Enjoyed people watching for about an hour and decided to walk the streets more.  Most of the shops remind me of streets of San Francisco and I mean by that most of the stores that look similar are basically selling the same stuff.  Standard tourist stuff and all that jazzzz.

Day 3 – Train to Belgium

Got up and walked to the metro so we could get to Paris Nord station. Grabbed a sandwich at the station and found our train.  It was soo cool to see the giant arrival/departure sign that all the letters would spin and change periodically to show updated times. This station is huge as well, in a giant glass tube in a way.

                *listening to * Afrojack – Too Wild (Feat. Wiz Khalifia)

                This train ride is similar to something you can imagine in a movie as well, picture the main character of the movie is on a train, looking out the window, just seeing the world fly by them as the movie plays some very upbeat music.  This song came on while writing and it just became so perfect of a moment.  I have never seen the land so green, EVERYWHERE, I have not seen dead grass or plants or anything yet.   Traveling between cities is just miles after miles of grass/crops and small towns.

                We arrive in Antwerp and go to an info booth to find out how to get to our hotel.  They were incredibly nice and told us everything we needed to know and even what are some “attractions” we should check out.   Made It to the hotel to realize I left my plug converter at the last hotel haha so my laptop was about to die.

                We took public transit back into old town and went to this outdoor restaurant right in front of this huge church I’m assuming.  It was so dang good, we got this huge bucket of mussels and I went with a Belgium blonde beer while lexii had red wine.  Best mussels I have ever had!  That alone made Belgium worth it haha.

Day 2 – Landing in Paris and exploring

                That flight was a long one just being over 11 hrs.  Let me tell you that damn valium did not help much.  I slept a total of about 4 hours on the flight.  The rest of the time I ended up watching the following movies; Cars, Caddy Shack, Cool Runnings, Oceans 12 and some tv show called “Americas Most Beautiful Backyards”.  Damn those backyards were amazing. 

                Made it through baggage claim and found my train to take me to Paris.  I have never seen more graffiti in my LIFE.  On either side of the train track path (cement walls and such) were covered entirely in paint.  Pretty awesome but at the same time totally sketch. I thought some parts of the Bay Area were bad, not even CLOSE!  

                Made it to the hotel after walking lost around in circles finding a damn taxi.  Found the room and knocked.  Lexii opens the door and it slowly hit me that I was finally here and was going to get to spend the next month with my girlfriend traveling the other side of the world.  We dropped everything and went out into the city.  It was a cloudy day but was a nice 70 degrees.  We did everything I wanted to do in Paris all in one day.  The love Lock Bridge, Notre Dom, Louve, Eiffel tower and anything in between that we walked by.  At one point it started pouring and so we found a little corner café and decided to eat and just watch the city be alive.  Incredible!  We ultimately made it to the Eiffel tower and walked all the way to top.  I must say that is was awesome view.  After we started walking to local metro station we saw that a beer type festival was going on.  A stage was set up as if it was a rave/event.  Music was general genres up beat.  Started watching some more and they dropped some electronic music, I automatically looked at Lexii and was like “look at that we at a rave.”  The sun was now setting and the tower was beginning to light up.  This is when I had my first experience with ordering food with someone who did not speak much English, success though, got some sausage hot dog that was spicy and has spicy mustard on it.

                It was now dark out and the tower was completely light up and was sparkling all over.  We found out that the every hour for 5 mins the tower would sparkle completely.  This is truly the moment when I looked at Lexi and said” It has now hit me that we are in another country and are traveling.” The view was no joke something you would only see in movies. Something I’ll never forget that’s for sure. Picture this… The tower sparkling completely and then you are surrounded by hundreds of people who are drinking and enjoying this beer/food festival and this was ONLY DAY 1 of exploring. 

Day 1 – SFO to Paris

                Let me start off saying it has not hit me that I am leaving for Europe and I have already passed security, hugged my parents and taken pictures and all that zazzzzzz.   Now I sit here at Gate 24 an hour before my flight and the terminal is empty.  After sitting for 25 mins I decide to ask the front desk if any upgrades are available. This is when I am told for the first time that the plane has been delayed and won’t even be arriving to SFO till after 3:00pm.  My flight is scheduled for 2:40pm.   The flight has been postponed till 5pm.  FML.    At first I find this to be a major setback and not so great start to this trip. 

                I start walking around this now empty international terminal since everyone else’s plane was on time while I found out my Paris plane for whatever reason had to turn around and go back to Paris haha.

Edit (days later) – I look back on this not so perfect start to my trip and realize this delay actually made my trip so much better.  I ended up going to an airport bar and grabbing some food and beer.  Cost me an arm and leg but it turned out to be pretty awesome experience.  Talked to the bartender and sat next to some passengers who were also waiting for the Paris delay.  All in all I met some nice people a family who were vacationing to France for 2 weeks.  The father was buzzing and buying his family shots and wine.