The Siroker Brothers

Stewardessing Across Europe Part 2: Paris

Our first real stop on our Tour de Europe was Paris, France. We arrived in the evening just long enough to check-in to our hostel, the Woodstock. Without having much frame of reference, we started off liking the hostel. That was, of course, until we saw the closet of a room we had.

It was room 315, which was actually on the fourth floor because brilliant Europeans start numbering their floors with the zero-ith floor. Lacking an elevator, and bolstered by the blistering humid heat, we got to our closet of a room sweating our asses off. Our room had two bunk beds and a mattress on the floor. It was nice having a private room, but the random spots of the room that smelled like rank sewage kind of negated any joy derived from our privacy. This hostel marked the first of the prison-style push-button showers and sinks that force you to constantly have a hand on some dirty metal nob anytime you wanted water.

Our closet in the Woodstock.

Despite all this, our spirits were high when we left for our first dinner in Paris. That night's dinner was unbelievably delicious and may have been the best food we have eaten yet. It wasn't ridiculously expensive, but because of the poor dollar to euro exchange rate, it wasn't cheap either. That dinner also marked the beginning of drinking a bottle of wine or sangria at every sit-down dinner thus far. Fortunately for the three of us, we are all tanks and can easily hold our alcohol (read: light-weights).

Our first of many bottles of wine.

Our first meal in Paris.

Our first dessert in Paris.

One of the most entertaining nights in Paris involved getting a little (a lot) drunk. After walking to the Moulin Rouge and trying to buy tickets an hour before the show started, we found out that we were three days too late. Apparently you need “reservations” for things like this. Thus our night of aimlessly walking the streets of Paris began. We stopped at a nice bar with live music and ordered three beers. We had read in our guide book that if you order at the bar, as opposed to the patio, the price is a lot cheaper. Unfortunately, this bar must not have read the same guide book as us, because they charged us 9.80€ per beer. That was the first of many rip-offs that night. We all agreed to institute a moratorium on the particulars of the other rip-offs. Eventually, we got back to the hostel a bit tipsy and met some interesting 20-somethings from Canada and Kansas. We shot the shit for a few hours and had a great time.

The Moulin Rouge looks nice from the outside.

After a couple more beers, we started our drunken stumble up the four flights of stairs. Once we got to the top, we rudely neglected to quiet down and inadvertently woke up all of our neighboring rooms. First were the four Japanese girls across the way. They proceeded to angrily mumble something at us in Japanese to which my brother responded loudly, “Benkyo suru no ga ichiban suki desu ka?!” which means, “Is studying your favorite thing to do?!” Having taken three years of high school Japanese, my brother and I, were quite skilled at the language (read: that was the only sentence my brother knew). The Japanese girls giggled in response, but were obviously unhappy at their rude awakening. As my brother yelled his question to the girls, the Canadians sleeping next door woke up and proceeded to sincerely compliment us on our Japanese. To them, my brother sounded fluent. Interestingly enough, the more we drink, the better we get at foreign languages (particularly Korean, Chinese, and Japanese). After the Canadians, the last room opened up and a huge shirt-less black guy walked out. As soon as he entered the hallway everyone immediately shut up. He was obviously very tired and half-asleep, and asked with his eyes barely open, “What are we doin' guys?” as if to ask whether he could join our tomfoolery. It may have been the single funniest thing that happened that night. After apologizing profusely in English and Japanese, the three of us retired to our closet and slept.

Here are a couple of cool pictures taken across Paris.

Outside Notre Dame.

Inside Notre Dame.

In front of Notre Dame.

Matt and Eric on a seesaw.

Me and Eric on a seesaw. I fall off soon after (because of Eric).

Eric and Matt in front of some sort of river.

Matt’s learning how to eat.

Unexplainable statue in a French courthouse.

We went to a museum.

This is me standing in front of the Arc de Triomphe. Matt took this brilliant picture.

Stairs up the Arc de Triomphe.

After climbing said stairs

Matt at the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

Me at the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

Matt and Eric at the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

He only fell a couple of flights.

The only injury Matt sustained from falling down the stairs.

I’m almost as big as the Eiffel Tower.

Eric throwing Matt off the second level of the Eiffel Tower.

Me, Matt, and Eric at the very top of the Eiffel Tower.

Eric at the Eiffel Tower.

Matt and Eric at the Eiffel Tower.

We fattened ourself up everyday at a bakery.

Matt is cleaning Eric’s mess.

A computer science duel for the ages.

Who can resist?

Someone’s attractive.

Eric gets a good idea.

Expensive-ass beer.

The metro can get hot.

Eric actually ate snail.

Matt actually ate a crap.

We had many adventures in Paris and overall enjoyed our stay there. The hostel wasn't great, but we spent most of the day out and about enjoying the city. Eric and I had been there before, but it was nice to see all the sites again with Matt. Spending all day and all night with two other people can be very difficult, but Matt and Eric were generally pleasant to travel with. Aside from Eric getting a bit unwieldy when drunk, most of our misfortunes have been the fault of circumstance, not our travel mates. After an afternoon in Amsterdam, and three days in Paris, I can safely say our voyage across Europe has thus far been a success.

The top bunks of the tiny six-person couchette (sleeping train) on our way from Paris to Barcelona.

Stay tuned for the next installment of our exciting trip across Europe. Next up are Barcelona and Nice!