"Good job today, we weren't Taken." -- Kim, Chicago

Side note...or start note, however you'd like to phrase it. The title quote for today is a reference to a movie that far too many people allow to freak them out of traveling and overly worry about other's travels. I don't think there is a movie in the world that has been more brought up to me in the past two years (where the bulk of my personal travel has taken place). Yes! I've seen it. Yes! I totally get the point of the movie. Yes! I watched the whole thing. Yes! I know that could happen to me. Yes! My parents are very aware that I'm backpacking around Europe and with just another GIRL nonetheless. Yes! I have their permission, though let's be real here, I'm 26 and they trust me and pretty much support anything I want to do as long as I can present a reasonable plan of action. No! I'm not scared. No! I'm not neive to the dangers of traveling...come on people it's the world we live in and it's in the USA TOO!!! Do you ever leave your house?? :) Yes! I realize this is a reality that we live in but No, it's not going to change my mind, route, countries of choice, or methods of travel. I'm pretty sure I understand the dangers, pros, cons, best case senario-->worst case senario of traveling...I spent the better part of the last three month free lance writing a responsible world traveler's guide for a pretty big international travel club and I have a bachelor's in public health...I get it :) I love it! and I'm NEVER gonna stop doing it! Wow, I didn't realize I had so much to say on that point. Anyway, it’s time to move on.

We finally get to the ferry depot and walk on, enjoy our 1.5 hour ride across the English Channel, and off again and onto the bus that took us to our next train station. At this point it’s important to note that there were 7 of us that rode the ferry by foot. Two teenage boys, like Kyle’s age, one French woman, us, and a cute young couple that we soon found out were just engaged to be married in Prague on Valentines and were out for a 36 hour adventure before she was to return to Boston and he to London.

We get to the station and come to find out that we are about to miss the LAST train to Paris. It leaves in 5 minutes and it takes 15 minutes to get to the station it leaves from and the next option doesn’t leave until 9:30am the next morning. Super! The French lady was being picked up by her husband and not incline to offer any advice, the boys, well, I don’t really know what happened to them, they pretty much disappeared as soon as we got there. So, that left us and the English speaking couple. Here’s what happened:

We tried really hard to find a car to rent and split four ways and I would drive us to Paris. Apparently, even Hertz has European mentality in Europe. I swear EVERYTHING closes at 8pm!! The security guard, pretty much the only person left in the station, called us a taxi and we headed to Calais. The driver must have had somewhere really pressing to get to because while we’re sitting there starring at the fact that we’re in the middle-ish of some town with no sign of the next step in our transportation in sight and very few people, he gets out and starts opening our doors and taking our stuff out of his trunk for us. Hahaha what a nice man. We quickly hop out and he just takes off without a word. Hm. I suggest we go to the nearest hotel and ask about a rental or taxi, etc. That was uneventful at best. All the guy said was,"well, go down the street to the train station and try and get on a train" (we’d already emphasized that we knew there were no more) and on our way out he hollars, “And if there aren’t any, you can just come back! I’ll be here all night!” Thanks. Thanks for that. You're so kind.

We start walking, and I swear the girl, Kim, is starting to get annoyed because she just keeps bringing up, “see I told you we should have just gone to Tele Viv.” We’ve been walking in the rain now for like 15 minutes and we kinda stop to be like, “ok, what are we really doing? Like what’s the plan,” and some van taxi pulls into the gas station next to us. I kinda look at Kim and we non-verbally agree, “James, go offer him 250 euro to drive us to Paris.” He goes and after a few minutes, looks over his shoulder and says with a smile, “we’re in business!” A lot of times people say, “If you ever get lost/if in doubt, just go to the police station and they’ll totally know how to help.” Well, in the mission you quickly learn, at least as a sister missionary, that postmen are far more reliable, knowledgeable, and you’re much less likely to fear falling victim to inappropriate gestures or being followed in comparison to cops. In Europe, I decided it’s the taxi drivers. Though I can’t vouch for whether or not they are proper and appropriate. I guess since I can’t understand it if they are dirty it’s of less consequence to me. This fine gentleman pulls out his phone and in two shakes we are driving to a train station about 100 euro away to catch their last train out to another station for the last train in the region heading to Paris for the evening. Woot Woot!!! He was kinda funny because he kept contradicting himself once we were in his car. Like, "yeah, I for sure can get you there on time." vs. "It'll be close we should be ok." That kinda thing. Or like when we first asked about him driving us all the way to Paris it was 500 euro and then it was suddenly 650 euro.

Anyway, so I know I’m just gonna sound like I’m complaining, which honestly if you’ve gotten that from this or the last post, it’s misperceived, we’re actually have a blast through all this “real” backpacking experience, but can I just say we’re sitting in the taxi and we know we’re totally crunched for time and we’re all used to taxis in other places, but come on my friend, the speed limit, really? Like I swear we almost missed the train because this man had an unhealthy need to not take the right of every taxi driver and live up to the stereotype of swerving in and out of lanes and driving insanely fast through back roads and alleys ways to make sure we get to our destination in plenty of time. Kim and I decided that he’s quite possibly THE SLOWEST taxi driver in the world! And there was no time for that right then. We finally arrived, paid, and ran off into the station. NONE of the ticket machines would accept ANY of our cards. We even enlisted the help of some nice dad and a couple teenage boys to try to help us since everything was in French. Weird. Luckily for us we could finally use our Eurail pass (though it wasn’t validated yet) so it was less stressful when we remembered that. The dad told us to just run and get on it and try and pay the conductor there. So we did.

The taxi driver told us that we would get off and then go down the street about 200 m to another station and then we’d be off. Along the way though he kept increasing distance and sounding less and less confident that we would make it.

“and then you’ll run 200 m…”

“and then you’ll run 200-300m…”

“and then you’ll run down, around the corner, and across a little bridge…300 or so meters…”

We had a 12 minute layover time and were told by the taxi driver and the first train conductor we’d be totally fine.

“It’s just a short 5 minute walk.”

Yeah, right.

We get off the train and start walking toward the exit; at first glance we can see the other station. No problem. But as we approach a pretty big intersection, our stroll turns to a brisk walk and so much that by the time we get to the head of the bridge we’re in a full on sprint! I’m not kidding you. Backpack and all. I was dying!!! By the time we were 1/4th of the way across the bridge James and Kim are at least at the halfway point already. Janise and I straggling behind so badly it made us laugh and therefore even slower (they only had their tooth brushes, deodorant, and cookies in their one backpack). James sees our distress, turns about, grabs my pack, throws me his, grabs Janise’s and heads right back up to the head of our little pack. Even with next to nothing to carry, the three of us girls seriously couldn’t keep up with him. Boy oh boy were we a sight to see. Here’s is this gangly tall white Aussy with a backpacking pack on his back and two smaller packs in his arms, a beautiful bright blonde dressed like she’s going to Paris with a purple clutch in hand, a cute Malano girl with her fro popping out in all directions from under her hat dressed head to toe in standard REI traveler’s apparel and a smile that can be seen from a mile away, and me, jeans, P-coat, scarf, and a green army cap on with a flower silk scarf popping out from one side protecting my ears from the cold. We made it huffing and puffing onto the train just as the doors were closing. Oh yeah! Oh yeah! We made it! Don’t “there’s no way for you to get to Paris tonight” Me! Bam! And as if that wasn’t awesome enough, they didn’t come around asking for tickets so James and Kim caught it for free…and it was a speed train!! Heavenly Father loves us!!

Needless to say I was a bit tired by the time we got on the second train...

unlike some people...this is Kim and James

We embrace and talk of future reunions at their wedding and Kim goes, “well guys, good job, today we didn’t get ‘Taken’." We headed our separate ways. For them, some romantic hotel near the center of town and for us…well, we’ll see.

Awe Paris, the city of love. More like the city of no one wants to help or go the extra mile, I can’t find wifi, there’s creepy men EVERYWHERE starring at us and approaching us (just soak it all in daddy :) ), walking up and down streets or through “neighborhoods” who’s residents have lined the streets with their plastic, blanket, and cardboard box homes, and trying to not look lost. So, the original travel plans were to catch the 12:30pm ferry to Calais, speed train from Calais to Paris, change stations, catch the 8:30pm sleeper train to Munich, and finally the 9am train to Gyor (smallish town outside of Budapest). It was 11:44pm which meant we literally missed the backup plan sleeper train by 4 minutes. 4 minutes? Really? Thank you. Back to the streets we go. We back tracked a bit to a McDonalds we’d passed to see if they had wifi and to just sit and think about what to do next. We definitely got kicked out. Not because we were rude or anything but because again, apparently there’s no such thing as “Open 24 hrs” anywhere. And I think they weren’t so keen on us eating our own food in there. From there we just stopped in on the first kinda quaint hotel we found with wifi and I stayed up all night trying to figure out the new plan and just laughing at myself and the happenings of quite possibly the most eventful, adventurous, and probably backpacky day of our trip and probably my life…at least to this point. Did I mention it took the internet 2-3 hrs to work normally…oh yeah, I was lovin’ it!

I always forget sitting like this isn't normal until someone stands up on a table to take a picture...or just makes a comment...that's me...just keep planning, planning, planning...hey, someone's gotta do it!