Paris 1

Had a right mare at the train station. I waited almost 2 hours in line for the ticket office. Then when I got to the front, all the tickets for Maastricht on the day I wanted using an interrail pass were gone and the train was full. I was stuck. I have had to cancel Maastricht and instead am staying an extra night in Paris.

I got the metro to the nearest stop to my hostel and immediately got confused about which direction to go. I tried to ask some lady and she had no idea what I was talking about. She shouted at some guy who then came over to help me.

I then got lost again after and I clearly looked it as some guy asked me if I was ok.

The metro had been packed. People were standing everywhere. There was this guy that was probably homeless asleep across four seats and everyone kept sort of walking towards the seats, seeing him asleepband walking away again. No one wanted to invoke the wrath of the sleeping tramp.

After eventually finding the hostel I skyped mum and then sat down with a sausage from the bbq. I got chatting to an english guy, Nathan, who had been doing a cycling tour of Europe. He had ginger sideburns - not quite as fullly grown as Bradley Wiggins though.  We just sat chatting and playing cards until like 3am. It was nice.

This morning I saw him at breakfast and we sat and chatted. Then we walked to the station because he was getting the train home and I got the metro to Place de Concorde.

As I was reminded by a girl at the train its Bastille Day on Sunday.  So I went to the tourist office and enquired about any events. There are various events but the free ones I will be attending are the fireworks in the evening and a military parade. There is also free entry to the Louvre which I will be taking full advantage of. Right now I'm off to sight see.