Pictures
Goal: To take a picture of a McDonalds in every country. Not sure if it can be done with the cities we’re going to, but I’ll definitely try!
Woke up in the morning to get some of the breakfast, which was decent. Baguette with butter and jam with some cereal and milk. After we checked out, we decided to go to the Palace at Versailles. Went to one of the main train stations and ran into the language barrier. We have a Eurorail pass, but there were really no instructions on how to use it. We had to ask several people where we could get our pass stamped, and then asked how to even get on the trains to Versailles after that! It was quite crazy. We did make it though, and the train ride wasn’t even that long. Maybe 20 minutes.
The Palace was quite impressive. Very large and gilded with gold all over the place! We got some good pictures but didn’t get to go inside because it cost quite a few Euros and we only had a little bit of time there before we needed to head back. We did walk around a little bit though. It was a rather large place for a royal family to live!
We then discovered the train stations there had pay toilets, which was not cool. They also had no water fountains, which meant we were quite thirsty! We headed back both having to potty and quite dry. Came back, checked internet, got our bags, and you would not believe how loud some of these french kids were! I don’t think they were from Paris, because they were staying in the hostel, but they were running all around, blaring music on a boombox, yelling, slamming doors, and just being retarded! I can’t believe they let people like that stay there. Gah! We then went to a corner store for some food. The trains to Gare De Lyon were insanely packed. Combine that with no air conditioning and no deodorant and you’ve got a very hot, cramped, stinky train ride. I’d rather not do that again.
We hopped on and rode our way to Geneve (Geneva), where we switched trains to the one to Bern. I slept a lot of the way. For some reason, whenever I sit down to ride a train, I pass out! We then arrived in Bern, talked to some people who told us where to go for our hostel (and we met a couple of girls going the same way), and walked over. The hostel was actually really nice and it’s a shame our stay there was so short.
Oh yeah, while in France we did go to one nice restaurant. The menu was very cryptic, so I ended up ordering what turned out to basically be a burger with an egg on top along with some fries. And when I tried to order the Creme Brulette (sp?), they ran out… damn!