We checked into the hostel where the bus dropped us off & went straight to bed.....until... At about 3am a couple of pommie blokes came in, drunk, & decided to pack their bags....for an hour & a half....with the lights on! Now for those of you who know me, you might find it hard to believe that I don't really have the patience for this kind of thing, I know, shocking! So I gave them over an hour before I stuck my head over the side of the bed & said "Are you guys going to be done soon?" (very sweetly I might add). They ignored me...huh?? So I said, not so sweetly, "Shut the F*** up, there are 10 other people in here trying to sleep". One of them then looked up & said rather matter-of-factly "It's a hostel, get used to it!" & went back to his bags. I was so shocked by his response that I shut my mouth & lay back down....while Andrew lay in his bunk laughing his arse off! After about 20 more minutes they went to bed & 2 hours later they left. C'mon people, if you're gonna go out on the piss the night before you leave at least pack your shit before you go out! Anyway, that's my rant....I feel better now....thanks for listening!
So we checked out in the morning & went to a new hostel....a 3m x 3m room with 2 bunks & a bathroom...it was cozy. We also had a mission today....lodge our application for Brazilian visitor visas for next month. What a mission that turned out to be. We jumped on the metro & arrived at the Brazilian Embassy....turns out the Consulate Offices have moved. So we walked about 20 minutes down the road & found the consulate office. It was here that the excitement began. We asked the guy at the front desk where we need to go for the visa desk. He asked us if we had lodged the online application....we said "Ummm...no!"...so we needed to do that first. Unfortunately the website is only in French or Portugese so we didn't know about the online stuff. Luckily there was a computer there that he said we could use & upon realising that we couldn't read the language, he even came & sat with us to translate. We finished that up on our own (it took about 2 hours) & went back out to reception for our next instructions. Problem...apparantly they had stopped giving out numbers for the queue for the visa desk about 15 minutes earlier. Our new friend saw the distress on our faces (we had shared with him earlier that we needed to get these processed quickly cos we couldn't afford to stay in Paris!!) & told us to go to the Post Office & pay the fee then come back to him....quickly! SO off to the Post Office we went, paid our fees (with the help of the amazing staff in the PO) then ran back to the Consulate. We ran, puffing, through the doors & he came over straight away & led us into another room. He started asking to see our paperwork & as I got it all out he slipped a number for the queue into my hand with a bit of a wink! We were soooo grateful & relieved.
We sat & waited in the queue for 2 more hours & we were the last ones to be seen. The lady who was helping us started to speak in Portugese & I said "I'm so sorry, I don't understand"...oh-oh, no English! She was amazing though & her English was much better than she realises so with lots of pointing, smiling & sign language we managed to finish the rest of the paperwork. Not before speaking with some dude in Brazil who said that we wouldn't be apporved unless we could provide a current bank statement. He then hung up on me & was left even more confused than before. It didn't matter, the lady had a quick conference with her colleagues & decided that we must look like nice, honest people & announced that it would be no porblem, "Come back on Thursday to collect". That gave us another 7 days in Paris....geez, what were we going to do with ALL that time??
Well, it is no secret that Paris is my Dad's favourite city right? SO he had sat down & drawn up a looong list of SOME of his favourites ways to spend a day in Paris. So what did I do? Got my notebook out & plotted an itinerary for 4 & 1/2 days of sightseeing....kinda like a treasure hunt! you might be wondering why I didn't plan for 7 days?? Cos we were heading to Disneyland for 2 days first of course!
Before we hit Disneyland though, we went out to one of the "attractions" on Dad's list - Cimetiere Du Pere Lachaise...or the cemetary where Jim Morrison & other famous folk are buried. We had the inside tip to pick up a free map inside but one lady was being very entrepreneurial & selling home made ones for 2Euros. Hahaha...suckers! We studied the map, marking all the "must sees" & set off on the trail. Andrew asked at one point why didn't they have the graves numbered or something......you do tend to forget it is a cemetary...with real dead people! It is a really cool place just to wonder around in & some of the graves are sooo old. Unfortunately it is getting a bit run down & we saw numerous graves where the head stones had fallen down, often knocking down the ones around them & causing all sorts of carnage. We did take in all the big names though; Oscar Wilde, Bellini, Edith Piaf, Marcel Proust, Chopin, Sarah Bernhardt & of course Jim Morrison. Some might say it is a weird way to spend a morning but we both had a great time. I will admit is is abit weird that we would do a cemetary & Disneyland in the same day though!
Photo: Oscar Wilde....covered with kisses!
Photo: Who doesn't love the Sleeping Beauty castle??
So we jumped on the train & took the 40 minute ride out of town to Torcy where we even booked into a HOTEL...no bunk beds...ahhhhh, the luxury!! There is nothing to do in this area, much like Anaheim in LA so the next day it was straight to Disneyland. When we were in LA years ago we spent 5 days at Disneyland & could probably have spent a few more....we loved it. At Eurodisney we would only have the day to see it all so we were ready for a big one. After queuing for almost an hour in the security check....one guy, manually checking every bag, pram & wheelchair...we finally made it through the magical gates. It was 10.30 (the park had been open 30 minutes) & we headed straight to the first ride to collect a fast pass. (A fast pass entitles you to go to the front of the line during a designated time on a designated ride without waiting at all). The time on the fast pass was 2.25pm - 2.55pm.....how in the hell had all the fast passes been taken until that time when the park had only been open for 30 minutes....hmmmm?? Something fishy going on! By 3pm the fast passes were for 9pm & by 3.30 they had been closed. Basically that meant that we had to queue for every ride & the average wait time was 75 minutes. BUT, the rides were amazing.....except Space Mountain cos I was absolutely terrified & kept my eyes firmly closed the entire time! The rollercoasters were the best though & I screamed & laughed my way around every one....Andrew is still deaf. During the times when we weren't queuing, we walked around, ate way overpriced fried food & bought waaaay too much Disney crap....although I still wish I'd bought a t-shirt....next time!
Photo: My favourite.......
By the time we left it was almost 10pm & we could barely walk from exhaustion but it had been a fantastic day. I really love Disney, have most of the movies & totally get the hysteria that surrounds the characters.....& Andrew loves a goofy hat!
Photo: See, I told you......
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