Today I'm in Paris. I left home at about 10:20 this morning; sat in Birmingham airport for two hours drinking coffee waiting to get my flight. I was hoping to buy a Playstation Portable but it turned out I was in the wrong terminal, Birmingham has two, and I was in the one with no restaurant and no shopping. Didn't get the trip off tothe best start!
I arrive in Paris and get to the hotel at about 5:30 local time. The hotel is right in the center of Paris, just off the Champs Elysee on rue Washington, it's actually called the "Hotel Champs Elysee". It's a typical Paris hotel (at least in my experience), they do breakfast in a small room that also doubles as a bar, and there's no dinner. My TV promises movies (in English) and a BBC channel, but I can't get either to work!
I get that normal arrival feeling, not loneliness, I like my own company, but rather isolation. This is always much worse in continental Europe than in the US. At least in the US I can talk to people, whereas here I can't. Even hearing English as I pass by people helps. After wandering around for about 30 minutes looking for somewhere to eat I settle on an 'African' restaurant, the 'Impala Lounge'. It takes 30 mins to find because when I'm on my own I'm hopeless at deciding where to eat. I know that wherever I go I will get have to sit with smokers (which I hate) and I won't be understood, so it's a matter of plucking up the courage to go in as much as anything else. It's also a matter of limiting where I eat. I know I'll be here for a few days, so if I see a nice looking restaurant I'll pass it by and go back there later in the week!
