paris: summer 1998 (world cup fever)
After spending the night next to a jamaican man who stole half of my seat on my eurolines coach, i arrived in paris to meet my friend jonatan whom i had not seen since we parted at graduation in India, at our English Boarding school. I arrived in a suburb of paris early in the morning, spending half an hour locating an ATM machine...then trying to find the metro station. Our agreement had been to meet at the Eiffel Tower in the morning....neither of us had been to Paris....so what better place to meet? I managed to find a metro station, praised myself for remembering some french since the ticketsellar would not sell me a subway ticket unless I asked in french (heaven help the americans in this country) boarded the train.....disembarked at the station.....and climbed out into daylight to find a nice day breaking. I walked the streets watching the cafe owners putting out their tables and drinking coffee, paris was already delightful. I arrived at the Eiffel Tower and stood for a moment in awe. Again, it was something i had only ever seen in pictures and on television.....but now it was before me. It was greacefull......even though it was quiet plainly rather ugly at the same time. Jonatan was there, and we hit it off again like there had been no distance in our friendship. We walked along the Seinne all the way to Hotel De Ville where we sat down in the square to watch the first game we would see of the World Cup on the large screens they had there. It was a nice affair, with people of all countries and colours out in the sun and occasional rain to watch their teams triumph or be tested.
to be completed::
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