Brandon O'Brien

Sunday, October 20, 2013 @ 8:37 PM in 2013 Europe

Day 116

The train ride into Paris wasn't too bad last night. The bottom bunks (which I was on) were weird because the backrest for when they are seats was still there so it was really awkward sleeping. Aside from that, the fact that the train didn't get into Paris until 10:20am meant I wasn't rushed to wake up. Even though sleeping on the train isn't the best sleep ever, I slept off and on until about 8:30. I ate a donut for breakfast that I had bought back in Italy before departing.

I changed into some jeans before getting into the station and then started my 2.5 mile walk from the Gare du Lyon station up to the Gare du Nord station where I'd catch the train up to the airport (where my hotel is at). It was actually much warmer than I was expecting it to be in Paris. It had just rained but was only partly cloudy out so the humidity was pretty high. I was actually starting to sweat in my jeans, short sleeve shirt and jacket.

I made a few detours since I was staying at the airport away from easy access to food. I first bought some apples to snack on throughout the next 24 hours. The next stop was a place that was selling pastries so I bought a croissant for breakfast in the morning. I stumbled across another busy bakery that was selling sandwiches so I bought one for dinner.

For lunch I had a chicken doner sandwich and some frites which was nice and filling. I went into the Gare du Nord station and bought a one way ticket up to the Charles de Gaulle airport and scoped out where I'll be meeting Holly tomorrow morning. Next I took the shuttle down to my hotel and checked in.

This is the first time I've had a room for myself without other people around or having to share a shower since my 2nd week when I stayed at a hotel in Limmerick Ireland. I checked in around 1:30pm and haven't done anything all afternoon aside from read, listen to music on the TV (French and random pop songs) and eat dinner. It's so nice being able to have some time to not do anything and not have to deal with shared living spaces.

Tags: daily journal, france, paris

Posted from: France

Tuesday, August 26, 2008 @ 9:00 PM in 2008 Europe Wedding

Today was spent doing more sightseeing around Paris. The highlights today were the Eiffel Tower and Versailles.

We started off the day by walking over to the Eiffel Tower and getting some pics of it from the ground. After that we took the train up to Versailles and spent some time in the museum and the gardens. I remember being extremely overwhelmed with the crowds inside the building and being so relieved when we got out into the gardens and had some space to breathe.

After we got back into Paris proper, we went back to the Eiffel Tower where we took the elevator up to the viewing platform. There was some lady behind us in line that kept bumping into us even though the line wasn't moving. It was pretty annoying and only played into my dislike of crowds, lol. The views from the top of the viewing area were amazing though. You could see the entire city spread out below you.

After the observation deck, we hung around for a little while until dusk and the tower was light up with some bright blue lights. The photos were incredible with the sunset and the blue tower.

This was our last night in Paris. Tomorrow we set off for Munich to meet up with the rest of the wedding gang!

Note: This post was written about 13 years after I went on this trip. Unfortunately I didn't keep a journal so this is pieced together from our itinerary and photos.

Teaser photos:

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Tags: france, paris, eiffel tower, versailles

Posted from: France

Monday, August 25, 2008 @ 9:00 PM in 2008 Europe Wedding

After recovering from a huge travel day, we spent today sightseeing around Paris. The main sights included the Louvre, Notre Dame and the Arc de Triomphe.

Some of the artwork in the Louvre was pretty interesting. I also remember the huge mass of people trying to get a shot of the Mona Lisa. We kept trying to find the Venus de Milo sculpture but kept getting lost. Eventually we did find it and got several pictures, lol.

Note: This post was written about 13 years after I went on this trip. Unfortunately I didn't keep a journal so this is pieced together from our itinerary and photos.

Teaser photos:

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Tags: paris, louvre, notre dame

Posted from: France

Sunday, August 24, 2008 @ 11:00 PM in 2008 Europe Wedding

Today was one of the longest travel days I've experienced. Neeta and I flew from Albuquerque to Chicago where we had a long enough layover to get pizza with her parents. After getting back to the airport, we met up with Eric who flew in. Our next leg was a flight to Zurich which got us on the ground at 12:20pm local time. We had about 6 hours to kill in Zurich before catching a trail to Paris.

We mostly spent our time in Zurich aimlessly wandering around, trying to beat the jet lag. I remember being extremely tired and not really feeling like we had enough time before our train to really do much.

Zurich was a beautiful city and I'd love to go back and actually spend a little more time there relaxing. 6 hours just wasn't long enough.

Our train ride to Paris was about 4 hours long and got us in around 10:30pm. When we finally got to the hotel, we were all extremely wiped out from being on the move for as long as we were.

Note: This post was written about 13 years after I went on this trip. Unfortunately I didn't keep a journal so this is pieced together from our itinerary and photos.

Teaser photos:

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Tags: zurich, paris

Posted from: France