Day 3 part 2

Hi all,

I have time on my hands so I got me another half an hour on the world wide web. After my last post I went to the Catacombes, I couldn't go there yesterday as it closes at 16:00. But I managed to get in now and it was, to say the least, impressive. Not at first... then it's just a small tunnel underneath paris, it might as well be a mini subway. But after about 10 minutes they warned you (yes they actually warn you!) that you were entering the 'chambers' (can't remember the exact name). Then, once you first step in there, you get this weird feeling (well I got it anyways) that lasts only about a minute, while you just stand there looking at all the skulls and bones, carefully layed in a pattern for hunderds of meters. You just look at the skulls, some of them with teeth in them, some of them with what looks like a bullet hole, some smashed, and some non-existant, because (sick) people (maybe gothics obsessed with death) like to steal bones and skulls. Anyways, you start walking and walking and walking for about 2 kilometers and see nothing else but skulls and bones. I think you can almost compare this with visiting Auschwitz.

I wouldn't recommend anyone with the least bit of claustrophobia to go there, nor anyone with a phobia for dead things. They have a special warning sign in at the enterance warning the faint hearted and children not to go in (suprising, I saw a lot of children in there.)

After that I started strolling across Paris again and I actually did nothing else since... but I've had my fair share of strolling in Paris and I'm getting sick and tired of it. I'll be glad once I'm on my train tonight, which by the way is not a seat but a bed! Yes, an actual bed. Well, I don't know in what factor it resembles a bed but the website of the Deutsche Bahn (the train is a DB NachtZug.) says it is most comfortable and affordable. Well, I paid 20 euro's for it, I don't really consider it affordable, but I need a good night sleep. I just doubt whether I'm going to get it tonight, maybe I should've gotten a regular seat...

Another thing about Paris: It's great, for the first two days. After that you realize they're all just looking at your wallet and constantly trying to get a little bit of $$ out of it. Yes, they're all after your money. For example: Today I put my backpack in a locker at gare est for 7 euro's (!!). After that I realized that I wanted my book and my interrail ticket, because my plan was to take a train to a little village or at least somewhere not-so-Paris. But if I wanted to take anything out I'd have to give them another 7 euro's. The locker was just large enough to fit my backpack by the way, if my backpack were any larger I'dd have to get a 16 euro locker. And the drink and food here: I paid 7,50 for a coca cola and a sandwich. 7,50!!!!!! And come to think of it (don't get me wrong there are a lot of nice people here), almost everyone that you buy something from is not so friendly. (They're all down, angry, look like they just divorced, etc etc.)

Everything costs money. Everything! Yesterday I desperately needed to shit, and I went by about 10 cafe's and restaurant's and they all denied me access with a pissed look on their face. So I went to the train station, the closest public toilet, and paid 1,- to do my thing. With a cleaner that seemed only to clean the floor, that looked like brand spanking new, but the toilets... It seriously wouldn't be much longer untill I ran out puking.

Whoops... I'm headed down that spiral of negative thinking again, the one everyone has been warning me for. I think I'll just leave it at this.

Byron