One of the cool things about travelling is that plans change. One of the not so cool things about travelling is that plans change. In this case they were changed for us by that most uncontrollable of variables, the weather. The plan was to wake up without an alarm (or to alarm not as I put it in the last instalment, humourously I might add but I have been told that I speak England real good so, correction made) and that is as far as the plans went. One look outside and it was definitely not pool weather. It was wet and actually a little chilly, not what you would think of for Singapore. So, we improvised, did a little shopping and stayed in the hotel room and enjoying not being at work. It turned out to be a good day, good food, good company, watching dvd’s on the new computer. Sometimes life is good.
The next day we were due to fly out at almost midnight so we had the whole day to wander, which, it turns out, is way too long. We did check out the Singapore Flyer which is a giant ferris wheel similar to the London Eye. Not bad, but nothing to write home about (with all the irony in the world intended). That took us to about 12 noon. With nothing really left to do in Singapore, we caught a movie at the cinema. Seriously, we almost watched 2 movies since for the cost of 2 tickets, it still didn’t come up to what we pay for one in Adelaide. So after one more sensational meal, we picked up the bags and started our 20 hour ‘journey’ to Paris.
After really looking forward to flying on the behemoth of a plane that is the A380, the reality of it didn’t live up to expectations. In the words of Homer, “it was good, but it wasn’t great”. Being on the second floor of a plane was an experience and the seats have a compartment under the window for storage. Im sure that it just gets full of garbage that someone has to clean up after the flight, but it was there. Most of all, it was a really, really, really uncomfortable 12 hour flight. Either that or I am just getting old because I don’t remember 12 hour flights being this bad. So, following about 3 hours sleep, our arrival in Paris was exiting, at least for us since we had not been there before (here is where the tense could get a little mixed up since we are still in Paris as I write this). It was exciting until we saw the line for immigration In very typical French style there were 8 people checking non-EU passports, of which Tanya is one, and there were 2 checking EU passport holders, of which I can be one. The amusing part is, once I got to the front of the line (about 20 minutes after saying goodbye to Tanya), the guy in the immigration booth was chatting up some girl, glanced at my passport for what seemed like 0.5 seconds, but Im sure it was at least a second, and waved me through. I don’t know where they get these stereotypes for these sex crazed, cheese eating, baguette carrying, beret wearing French people at all. This guy definitely did NOT have a beret. Now here comes a little part of the story that I am both embarrassed and proud of at the same time. I met Tanya at the baggage carousel and she had been there long enough to collect all but one of our bags, the one being my large, 90L backpack that someone once said is made for me and bodybuilders. It was taking its time coming so Tanya and I were engaging in what seemed to be a good conversation, as good as it can be after being awake for pretty much 30 hours, when I ‘heard’ my bag drop onto the carousel. That’s right I know my bag so well that I can tell which one is mine dropping onto the carousel just by the sound it makes, so there. Ok, we have our bags, now to get to our hotel, for which we need money. Go and stand in line to get money. Done. We need museum pass tickets. Go and stand in line for museum pass tickets. Done. We need Metro tickets. Go and stand in line to get Metro tickets. Finally done. We need the train. Go and sta…. you get the idea. There seem to be a lot of lines to stand in here, and we are not even out of the airport. We finally arrive at the hotel, very worn out and only wanting a shower and maybe a lie down, but check in is at 2pm and when they say 2pm they mean 2pm and not before even if the room is ready. We dumped our large bags and set off into gay Paris. The first thing we came across, after a 30 minute walk, was the Eiffel Tower. It is very impressive, and so was the line that went with it.
At what seemed to be the end of the line there was a sign saying “1 hour from here”. I reckon it was at least a 3hour line just to that point so we took a few photos and moved on. It is a very pretty city, and very quiet.
Our hotel is within sight of the tower (mind you, most of the city is) and there is no sound. So we wandered around some more, went back to hotel very weary and waited the hour or so it took for our room to be ‘ready’. Once we got the room, had a shower and felt human again, we decided on a ‘quick’ nap to recharge. This was at 3pm. At 5:30pm we woke up, looked at each other then fell asleep again. At 8:30pm we went out for dinner. At 10:30pm we went to bed and loved it.
As we were wandering around we began what turned out to be a major ordeal. While in Singapore we remembered we had not brought the adaptors for the different countries electrical outlets. No problem, you can find them anywhere. Well, how wrong were we. None at a pharmacy. None at a newsagent. None at a furniture store with an electrical department. We went to a shopping mall that had endless fashion shops but nothing we needed. In the end we had the hotel concierge let us know of a place that had them, but it was a fair way out of town. Guess what, they had every type of adaptor, from European to American, European to Australian, European to European but none the other way round. Finally we decided to head back to the airport. Surely a major international airport would have the adaptor we needed. Not only did it not have what we needed, it was closed. One lady at the information desk of the 3rd terminal we tried suggested the airport hotel. It was on the way back so why not. When we got there the guy at the desk gave a shrug, looked confused, checked a cupboard and came back with a box full of adaptors people had left behind. “Take what you want, free of charge”. Sometimes life is good.
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