Leaving Paris (May 12th Journal Entry)

This morning was extremely frantic. I had a train to catch at noon, it was already 10:30 am. Not all my stuff was packed, I had to check out of the hostel, and take a long metro ride to the train station. In my hasty packing job I managed to leave a rather nice shirt at the hostel. God dammit.

I threw my forty pound bag over my shoulder and got the fuck out of there as quickly as possible. Rushing with such a large bag made me really think if I actually needed all of this crap. No time to think about that though. Luckily for me the metro was more or less empty the whole way to Gard du Nord, so I didn't get too many scathing looks from Parisians as I hauled this monstrosity onto the metro.

When I got into the station I went over to an automated ticketing machine to pick up my pass that was reserved over the internet. My heart sank as the machine told me my credit card made no such reservation. A quick run over to the human-operated toll booth solved my issue, as they were able to get my ticket. Sometimes technology really isn't the quicker option.

I got onto the train without any other trouble, and enjoyed the French countryside between Paris and Lille at three-hundred kilometers an hour. Arrived in Lille just on time, with Andrew waiting for me.

First thing we did was fill our bellies with a Royale with Cheese (they DO exist), and to wash it all down we enjoyed some tasty 1664 beers. What a country.