I’ve never wanted to visit Paris. I only went for two reasons: a friend and a free place to stay.
Slight problem: how to get there.
A week out, plane and train tickets were too expensive, so a friend in Duisburg helped me surf the European hitchhiking sites (or as they call it “ride sharing”). Brilliant. You plug in your destination, and it tells you all the people in your area who are driving there. I got in touch with a guy from France who was visiting his girlfriend for the weekend in Dusseldorf (the neighboring city of Duisburg), and after I slipped him 35€ for gas, we were on our way.
Of course, this traveling Frenchman’s a pro, so we stopped at two train stations along the way to pick up a couple more prearranged hitchhikers, but I didn’t mind – good excuse to see more towns in Germany and Belgium.
Arrived a little after 10pm, and met up with my good friend John. He moved to Paris almost seven years ago, and I hadn’t seen him in… well, almost seven years. Crazy. So awesome to reconnect. And like any friend from the old days, it seems exactly like the old days.
John’s got a tiny apartment in the heart of the city. It’s the kind of location where anyone, tourists and locals alike, would kill to live. Bars, museums, Notre Dame- they’re just outside his doorstep. However, it’s so tiny I’d have to sleep on the floor… so I’m not staying there.
The day I got into town, John’s friend, who lives around the corner, just happened to be leaving town… and she needed someone to feed her cat… and watch her apartment.
Oh. My. God.
Who says I suck at timing.
Right now, I’m sitting in my own apartment in the center of Paris. And I’ve got a cat.
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