Last Friday, carly, sam, and jess, and victor and I all traveled the one hour outside of paris to go to Disneyland Paris. And for this I must begin when we got off the train. So we had to take the RER, which is the suburb train. And for that we technically went out of range of the validation of our metro passes. Well so we get up to the exit… and realize this fact. So we look around, there’s no one who works for the metro that we can talk to. literally, no one. But I had been reading all about Disneyland in my travel book and it told me that to go out to Disneyland should only cost about 8€. Which is totally fine. 8 euro, big deal. In any case so we go find this machine where you can buy tickets. And we ring up 5 tickets, and you know how much it tells us that’s gonna cost. ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE EUROS. That’s correct. 125€. Hell no. so we don’t buy those, and go look for a person again. This time we instead find a sign. (note: by this point another couple has joined us in the search for a way to exit.) so the sign says, more or less: your ticket will not work. You bought the wrong one. Tough shit. No go buy a ridiculously expensive ticket from the only machine in the entire place which is right behind you. Oh, and no, there is no one here to help you or to talk to.
So we have a pow-wow and decide that we’re just gonna try and sneak out behind some nice people when they’re leaving. Also, for anyone who hasn’t been on the metro in paris, this is common practice. But the timing must be right because the doors shut very soon after the first person walks through, so only about 2 people at a time can go. And doors will shut on you (or your luggage) if you’re not through in the allotted time that they give you. Its very fun to watch. In any case, jess tries to sneak through, she was the third person. There was a couple in front of her who were using the same ticket. Needless to say, she didn’t make it, and instead walked smack into the door. Made a huge noise. We cracked up. Totally hilarious.
Well so then we decide that we’re going to just buy the tickets. Except we try that and carly’s card gets rejected twice. So on to plan C…
So we’re still just standing around in the metro station. Unable to get out. There’s another couple still there in the same situation. And we start to watch the exits again. We notice that there’s a handicapped/stroller exit on one of the sides, and that if you time it right when someone is coming in, you can sneak out. Needless to say, we try it. The first time, we had the timing off, and the woman with her stroller took too long to get through so jess made it through, but we all got stuck again. So we wait around for another two minutes or so and a business man comes up to the door. The remaining 4 of us, along with the other couple, are all standing right near the door, ready to bolt through when it opens. Door opens, we run. We all make it. And the business man just stares at us with this, ‘oh I am so not amused’ look on his face. But you can’t tell me that that man has never hopped a metro in paris. Its practically a right of passage here.
But anywho, after much amusement and adventure just trying to get off the stupid train we arrive in Disneyland!!!!!!! Disneyland paris is very very similar to Disneyland or Disneyworld in the states. Different castle, different country, but all the rides, all the characters, everything is identical. EXCEPT, Disneyland paris isn’t popular so there are NO LINES. Not a one. Longest we waited was 15 minutes. Absolutely brilliant. Oh, and Disneyland paris is missing splash mountain. Real lame. In any case, we were by far the oldest ‘kids’ there. but we acted just like little kids, we even bought Minnie and mickey mouse ears. So so so fun. Also, everything was decked out for Halloween so there were pumpkin-headed painter statues all over that were ‘painting the town orange’. Just something fun and cute for the holiday that no one seems to care about over here. (really its awful, I have yet to see a Halloween decoration, or for that matter even a freaking pumpkin)
So we spent the day in disneyland, and then it was off to the metro again to attempt to get back on the train without a ticket. This time sam got stuck in much the same fashion as jess did earlier, but she made it, and we didn’t get caught. It was a perfect Friday.
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