France

Today we started our journey to France, the last leg of our trip. The trek took us on a train underneath the English channel. Just as we were about to exit the "chunnel" (tunnel under the channel..) the train stopped. The announcer came over the loud speaker and told us a train ahead of us had broken down, and we were stuck behind it, with a portion of an ocean sitting above our heads. No worries right? 3 hours later.. "We are profusely sorry for the inconvenience, but we are sorry to report that all attempts to repair the train ahead of us have been a complete failure.." Yes, the train announcer told us it was a "complete failure". Reassuring! As we started procedures to reverse the train and hop on a separate track and go around (not a short detour mind you) the train in front of us miraculously leaps to life and off we go! Not an hour later the train stops again. "We again profusely apologize for the delay, Maintenance which was supposed to take place after we had passed is currently going on in front of us due to the delay with the prior train." All in all, a 2 hour train ride to France took about 6 hours. Once we arrived in France, we realized there are very few escalators in France to take us out of the subway. So, here we are, 16 Americans, hauling all our luggage around the streets of France! A bit tiring. We finally arrive at the hotel, and find out its not completely paid for! Yay for dishing out another 115 euros! Then there was the drama.. i wont get into that. But lets say, i dislike dishonest people who cause drama. Devout on not letting stupid people ruin my trip, i went off to hard rock, had a nice dinner. Picked up the souvenirs i needed, and visited the Eiffel tower! I didnt go up today, the line was ridonculous. I however realized 2 very important facts that are going to make this trip interesting. 1) I dont speak french. 2)French people dont speak good english.