YAY!!! ELLIE!!!!!!!!

Yippeeeeeeeeeeee!!

The Smellie Ellie is in Paris! :op
It took an incredibly large amount of stress to get her here but she IS finally in Paris with me :o)
She was left stranded at the airport when she landed here today because:

1.) I had forgotten to replenish the money in my purse, so I couldn't afford a metro ticket. As I was planning on walking a little of the way to save what little money I have at the moment ( my cash hasn't come through from the English to the French account yet), I didn't realise that I had less than 2 Euros on my person until I was too far from the apartment to go back for the money. Stupid. 2 Euros wouldn't even buy me a drink and by the time I reached Gare du Nord (not even halfway to the airport because I needed to take a long distance train) I had walked 4 miles by wandering around Paris trying to find my way closer to the airport!

2.) I couldn't remember my PIN for my English bank card. I called my Dad, who, luckily, was at home. Unfortunately, all he could find was the password for something else, so that was a dead loss.

3.) Every two minutes or so, my mobly was uttering a persistent beeping sound to remind me that the battery power was running low. . . a great comfort when you are stranded 4 miles from home and even further from the destination, knowing that you will need a way of contacting the one you are going to meet!

4.) When I got to Gare du Nord, I realised that I wasn't going to make it close enough to reach Ellie in time, so I called her and tried to suggest that she gets the metro to the station, where I would meet her. However, just as I was about to tell her which train she should get, a strange French woman started telling me that my credit was running low and that I should top it up to allow me to continue with my call. By telling me this, she wasted the remaining few pennies of my credit and I was left with no possible way to contact poor Ellie in the airport!

5.) Frustrated with my mobile and desperate to get hold of Ellie, I darted into the nearest payphone, hoping that I would have enough money to at least make contact with her. As you can guess, that was also a no-go; the payphone would only take phonecards, not cash. Without one of these, and with no money to purchase one, I thought all was lost and I am ashamed to say that I was on the verge of asking a stranger if they had a euro or two that I might have. . . The thought had more than crossed my mind over the past half an hour (I had been running around like a headless chicken for nearly 2 hours by this point). As I was, about to have a temper tantrum right there in the middle of the street, it dawned on me that the station was bound to have a phone in the ticket booth, so perhaps I could borrow it if I asked really nicely. . . .

6.) Woohooo! After entering the station at Gare du Nord, I noticed a Police Office near the entrance. I hurried over to it and tried to explain the important elements of my pathetic story to the officers there. They gave me their telephone, but it was no use. It could only call local numbers, and Ellie had an English mobile number! After several attempts, I was gutted to admit defeat and I thanked them and started to walk away.

7.) I decided to check my purse one last time, just to make sure that I hadn't missed a crafty 10 Euro note hidden in a pocket somewhere. As I opened my purse, I spotted the post-it note inside with Holly's mobile number written on it. Her FRENCH mobile number! I rushed back to the station and showed them the number. They helped me to make contact with Holly, who in turn rang Ellie for me and relayed the message that she should get a taxi to Gare du Nord where I would be waiting patiently for her.

In the end, she managed to get the message and whilst she got a taxi (36 euros!!) to Gare du Nord, I waited outside the station and had to put up with strange men chatting me up in French. . . .


Why me? :os

Anyways, after ALL that! YAY, she's here now, and she brought money!! Wooooooo! I'm finally rich again! I brought her back to the apartment and we are about to go out and explore Paris a bit together. I hope the rest of this week won't be this stressful!


Will update you soon! xxxx