Part 1: Arriving in Paris, Losing People on Trains

We should have known by our first hour in Paris that epic mistakes and adventures were in store for us.  We should have seen what was coming. And maybe we did. But those mistakes always make the best stories. And luckily we got a lot of it on camera (See the video at the end!)

Tulsa to Paris: Three flights and fifteen hours in the air. Usually, one of us gets nervous on takeoffs and the other gets nervous on landings, so it makes for interesting flights. This time, we brought along a bottle of NyQuil, and everyone was happy for that.

We had five of us traveling at the beginning: Kristian, Kinda, Ashley, Brittany, and Angei. Four of us flew together, and Ashley came in an hour later at the Paris airport.  We should say, she came in somewhere at the Paris airport. And we apparently were somewhere else at a similar baggage claim. But we tracked her down and found her at a terminal that felt like miles away.

When you travel overseas, even the simple things get more complicated. Only one of us had a data plan on her phone, and we couldn’t just simply make phone calls to each other during the trip. This small detail would quickly become very important.

We finally all met up at the airport and went into town to take a train to Notre Dame, where we were staying. Taking the underground metro is the cheapest option in Paris, but it’s always crowded and boisterous. We made it to our stop at Notre Dame, and we jumped off.

Kristian: I looked around to make sure all the girls were following, only to see Ashley shrink back from the closing door. Her face was in distress as she realized she had missed her chance to get off. She waved to us in a panic as the train sped her away to the next stop.

The train was gone, and so was Ashley.

We stood there in disbelief for a second. It’s not that big of a deal to miss a stop on a metro. The doors open and close so quickly, and people crowd around them like sales on the day after Thanksgiving. So we just assumed she would just jump off at the next stop and take the train back.

We stood and waited. And waited. No Ashley.

Kristian: After waiting for about ten minutes, we realized that we might have lost her. So we assumed again that she had gotten off at the next stop and waited. Angei and I went to the following stop, only to be met by an empty dock. It was then that we started to get worried.

Kinda: I couldn’t believe it. An hour into our trip, and we had already lost a girl. It’s pretty common to get lost on a trip. New territory, new way of travel. But there are some common things you do. If you miss a stop, you 1) come back or 2) stay put. Neither was working, and I couldn’t really think of what option three might be. I sent text after text to Ashley and called her – nothing was going through.  She hadn’t turned her phone on. I started to feel a cold sweat forming under the pack I was carrying. We hadn’t even made it to our apartment yet, so she had nowhere to go. I had no idea how we were supposed to find someone lost in Paris.

Finally, a text from Ashley came in. She had gone back to the stop, hadn’t seen us, then went above-ground to find a McDonalds for free wi-fi.  We had found her.

Kinda: There was a huge moment of relief for me when Ashley’s text came in. I guess we Americans find McDonalds and Starbucks like homing pigeons. But whatever the case, there’s another rule that I should have known: Never assume. And that you can’t hold people responsible for something you haven’t told them. We had set no plan for getting lost. None. But you can be sure we did then.

We met back up with Ashley and once again started making our way back to our yet-to-be-seen Parisian flat. The adventure had started.

Travel Costs: Train from Paris Airport to City Center: 9.75Euro per person. (According to our cheapest money option, we got cash out of the airport ATM.)

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