Metro Madness

The Metro was super crowded today around the time everyone was getting off of work, surprise surprise. I went out to meet Kirill, an old friend for a drink. He was one of my older students last year and one of the only ones I actually became friends with. I left a little early so I could swing by the train station and buy my ticket for tomorrow, however the machines only take European cards (or at least only cards which have a special computer chip in them) so I was unable to buy it electronically (this was the same reason I was not able to buy it online). Instead of waiting in line and being late for my rendezvous with Kirill, I decided to buy my ticket tomorrow.

Kirill is going to school here and only had a small window of time in which to get drinks 6:15-7:15. So you can imagine how I felt when I exited the correct Metro station 10 minutes late and promptly got lost. After backtracking and finally finding myself, I found him at about 6:45 leaving us just half an hour to catch up. It was nice to see him and hear a little bit about all the people I haven't seen since I left France. As soon as we parted I headed back to the apartment to meet Agathe were we plan to make cookies and eat cheese (and then cookies).

Traveling by Metro takes so long. It doesn't feel like very long because the time you actually spend in the train going from stop to stop is not very long but all the walking to Metro stations and then around Metro stations and then waiting for the train, eats away at the time without me really noticing it.

My train ticket for tomorrow is going to be almost twice as much as it would've been had I bought it a month ago when I was planning my trip. I couldn't have bought it then however as I didn't know how long I'd be staying in Paris. I could do a ride share for about a third of the cost of the train ticket but it would take an extra two hours to drive there and I would have to spend that time cramped in a French car, so I've decided to count the ticket money as 'travel money' for the trip and splurge a little on a TGV (Super quick train), this being my only public transit option. If they had a cheaper but slower train, I would definitely go with that, I enjoy train rides and a couple extra hours on a train would be much more enjoyable than a couple extra hours in a car.

I am excited to head to Rennes tomorrow and see Rachelle. Rennes is the red A marked on the map. That distance from there to Paris is about 2 hours by train and 4 in a car.