My parents, bless their souls, have decided after 30 years of marriage to take a vacation at the same place they honeymooned, in Europe. It was quite an occasion for them since they never manage to take trips outside in the USA. I was excited for them. I was determined that if Becky and I hurried from the tomato fight in Spain take a long night train to Paris we could meet them for two days.

In the whirlwind to leave and pack up the house in Indiana and dealing with the 22 hour transit time I messed up the dates. Instead of meeting up for two days it was only one. On top of that we waited for a few hours in the morning at a very suave McDonald’s for their plane to land. In reality we waited for nothing and ended up not seeing them until late that evening. Not only did we lose two days, we lost the whole day to just one evening. Very disappointing. When else will a bunch of Hughes rendezvous (so French of me no?) in Paris? Rick (my brother) this is a shout out to you. You didn’t miss much. In the end we did meet up for a few short hours and had a nice dinner at a French Bistro with a man with one of those funny pointed mustaches. After that Becky and I were so tired from the night train and searching for them we went to bed. At least now I can say “we shall always have Paris” .

Tags: Hughes,Hughes's,McDonalds,Paris
Categories: Chris Blogs, Paris
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Who knew that you could cram 6 people (and all their luggage) into a moving sardine box, and ask them to sleep for 8 hours. That was my first experience with a night train. It seemed like a romantic concept. I was wrong. We of course had the top bunks and the last experience I had involving a top bunk bed was in college and ended with me falling onto the floor with my face in the middle of the night. Anyway, poor Chris needed to be about a foot shorter to even be able to fit. It was very hard to sleep.

The first time I drifted off there was a knock at the door and some tripped out chic wanting paper to roll her marijuana cigarette. The second time I fell asleep, I ended up waking up at 2 a.m. unsure why until I quickly realized that the problem was that all I had had for dinner was half of a container of orange juice and three orios. Nothing like cheap living. I was also a bit freaked because I was already in France. I don’t know French and was experiencing some major culture shock in that my bunks mates barely spoke English. What I did realize is that hang signals go a long way.

I also learned that if you decide on a second class bunk, take your own sheets, cause the bed bug bites the next day are hideously itchy!

Tags: Paris
Categories: Becky Blogs, Paris
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