Before i get to all the amazing details about paris itself i thought it important to include a little bit about the hilarious spanish bus driver we had on our way to Paris...
The hilarity began in a not so funny situation- Joanna (mikes sister) and I had just arrived at the bus station to find a huge line of sweaty backpackers and foreign tourists blocking our way to the check in desk. We started to panic with few minutes remaining before our schedualed departure we were yet to actually pass through the sliding doors of parisian promise and onto the bus. I however being a little bit frantic decided to ensure the bus driver- who was smoking serenly on the otherside of the sliding doors- would not leave without us. And so in my politest dutch i asked him if he would be leaving on schedual without all the people inside or if he would wait for us to all check in. This bus driver replied only with 'espanol? francais?' and upon seeing my shocked face very quickly said 'we no leave yet', leaving me to smile and rush off to check in...
Upon returning to the bus Joanna and I followed the line to deposit our bags and then stood together waiting for the doors to open where we could finally sit down and relax. The bus driver then approached us and rapidly started speaking spanish! we tried in vain to tell him we didnt not 'comprehende' and so he began pointing at my dirty white shoes saying the same word over 'Aqui, Aqui'. Utterly confused and a little bewildered at his apparent disgust for my shoes i quickly turned to the person next to me (who happened to be one of the most gorgereous men i have ever seen) and asked him if he could translate. After a rapid exchange of spanish, a somewhat develish look and boyish laugh the man revealed that the bus driver wanted us to wait on this very spot and not move. 'Aqui' turns out to be spanish for 'here' and not 'ew look at your shoes bitch! they be gross', like i was thinking. I also aksed him why they laughed and he told me it would be better if i did not know.... 'Something about having to keep the bus clean'... yeah right boys!'
It was then i realised that Joanna and I were the only two women on a bus full of men... many sauve or savy Spaniards and Frenchies! Now i must admit i became a little nervous at this point. Dudes began filing onto the bus one after another, all not hiding the fact they were staring at us two poor little lambs standing on the appointed spot. Soon enoughl i was sure that there would be only a couple of seats left and Joanna and I would have to split up and let fate take its often mysterious path amongst random these peoples... And so fate did her mysterious thing, but not in the way id imagined.
After everyone had boarded the bus our Spanish bus driver motioned to us that we were allowed to hop on and doing so with a nervous glance i discovered the reason we needed to wait outside the whole time was because the spanish bus driver had saved us the seat of the house! two rows behind him with a stunning view of the television!
As you can imagine this gentleman became our new best friend. We thanked him graciously in our terrible spanish and he continued to put on Ratatoullie the movie for our viewing pleasure. He even gave us lollies and chatted to us as he drove. regardless of the fact we did not understand one another.
Soon enough we fell alseep and arrived in soon enough in Paris- The city of Love....
