I won't be home for Christmas Blogisode 3 -The Paris Nightmare

Stay tuned for some video footage!
Pictures are at the bottom!

Here I go flying to Paris alone in the middle of winter and staying with a stranger from Couch Surfers so I could save money just to spend my New Years Eve under the Eiffel Tower.  At least that’s what I thought it was going to be like.  Never in my life would I imagine what was to happen next. 

The first day went well, I met up with my host from couch surfers Anous.  He was very nice and was ready to take me to all the popular tourist attractions in Paris.  Once at his small apartment that reminded me of a crappy motel suit with only one room, a small bathroom and a kitchenette I knew I was in for an adventure.  He would sleep on the floor as I slept on his foldout futon. The first day we explored a few attractions that included the The Louvre and the Opera House.  He showed me what train to ride and how to get around on the dirty metros.  I was exhausted; I went from touring in Barcelona for three days straight to now walking the streets of Paris.  My feet hurt and my eyes were so baggy from the lack of sleep I desperately needed a good nights rest.  New Years Eve was the next day and I had to be ready to celebrate.

The day went on taking millions of pictures of the Eiffel Tower and Champs-Élysées while freezing my ass off.  I remember standing in line for the Eiffel Tower shaking so badly from the cold thinking to myself, why I was making my self so miserable just to see the first level of the Eiffel tower.  I told Anous I didn’t want to stand in line anymore, that I got some pictures and I wanted to leave.  He eventually talked me into staying and I finally after climbing a zillion steps made it to only the first level.  I immediately bought the most expensive Hot Chocolate I ever bought in my life and tried my best to warm up while standing under the heater.  I’m a Texan girl, I don’t do cold.

Eventually after our days adventures we headed to the market to buy some Champagne for the night and the back to Anous’ place for a small nap before ringing in the New Year.

After my nap I looked at the clock and realized we only had an hour to get ready and to get to the Eiffel Tower before midnight.  Anous grabbed some vodka and started drinking early while I drank a red bull still exhausted knowing that it was going to be a long night.  If I only I knew that Anous’ idea to start drinking early would snowball into worst night of my life I would have broken the bottle.  I remember distinctively telling him not to drink too much because if something happened to him I wouldn’t know how to get back to his apartment.  Little did I know that’s exactly what was about to happen.

We get to the train station near his place looking at the screen and adding up the minutes its takes to get from his town to Paris, I was quickly realizing that we might not make it to the Eiffel Tower before midnight strikes.  Trying to video tape my experience I only got on film Anous’ crazy antics being already intoxicated while I tried to calm him down.  Oh great I thought to myself, the last thing I needed was to take care of this fool.  We finally got to the streets of Paris a few blocks away from the Eiffel Tower and looking at the clock (it was five till) we decide to do the count down in the streets with everyone else.   

As I filmed us opening the Champagne and screaming out Bonne Année, Happy New Years in French (the only phrase I learned during my trip) I watched three men come up behind Anous and one of them had hit Anous’ head with the back of his hand.  I guess you could say I was lucky to have caught some of what happened on tape.  As Anous turned around he took a swing back at the guy who had started the whole thing.  That one punch started a full out brawl between Anous and the three men which started to look more and more serious as each second had past.  My fight or flight response kicked in and I chose flight as I ran not knowing what to do while at the same time trying to film what was happening on behind me.  I was in a panic, not knowing rather to go back, keep running or try to find help.

 I hid for a while which for me felt like forever but in reality probably was only a min or two.  I started to walk back down to where the fight broke out and I see the men who started the ruckus coming toward me.  I screamed at them, “Where is my friend?”  Of course they didn’t speak English and they started yelling at me while I examined the blood on all of their arms.  One of the men grabbed my arm and I screamed at him to let me go which caught the attention of a tall blond man.  He came running over to me and to the bloody bad guys who were trying to convince me to go with them.  By the time he reached us the three men started running down the street.   The tall blond man quickly realized I couldn’t speak French and asked me in English, “Do you need help ma’am?”   I screamed at him that those guys running down the street had just beaten up my friend and I’m American and yadda yadda yadda.  In the middle of my panic the tall blond man explained to me that he was a policeman and called for back up.

Within two minutes there was three cop cars and an ambulance on the street where we were supposed to be ringing in the New Year.  The policeman walked me down the street to look for Anous.  I had no idea where he was or how bad he had gotten hurt.  As I’m talking to the police still not knowing where Anous is, a young nice man comes up to me and says to me “your friends blood is all over me, I tried to help him, do need help with translating?” 

“Yes please, I’m so glad you speak English I’m trying to explain to the cops what happened.” I explained.

“We saw everything, let me help you.”  Said the nice guy that could speak English.

By this time Anous shows up covered in blood and trying to talk to me.  At this point I was so freaked out by what had happened and not knowing Anous very well, he was as scary to me as the guys who had beaten him up.  I didn’t trust anyone at the moment but the police and I was so sure that if Anous didn’t drink before we left that this whole mess could have been prevented.  I think his intoxication helped him in throwing that first punch instead of backing away from the whole ordeal.

They put Anous in the ambulance while I had Anous’ keys to his apartment in my hand trying to figure out in my head how to get back to his place across town.  The worst had happened and I was trying my best to keep it together.  The police told me not to go home alone it was too unsafe and they asked me if I had a friend to take me home.  The boy that came up to me earlier that tried to help Anous and had helped me translate told me he could accompany me back to Anous’ place later on.  I was desperate, I had know idea who this nice guy was or who his friends were but something told me to just go with them instead of going to the hospital with Anous. What a dumb decision right? 

This nice boy was named Bruno, he was from Brazil and he and his friends who I had met were in Paris for New Years as well.  Bruno convinced me to spend New Years with him and his somewhat intoxicated friends instead of spending New Years alone.  Again I’m not sure what I was thinking at the moment but I knew that the last place I wanted to be was alone in Anous’ apartment during one of the most important nights of the year.  Bruno told me that him and his friends were headed to the Eiffel Tower to meet up with another one of his friends that was American.  Sounded ok to me.  I watched as the ambulance took Anous to the hospital while I took a sip of Champagne and finished my statement to the police.  This was going to be one hell of a night I had thought to myself. 

The worst was over right?  I can go with Bruno and his friends, celebrate the new years, meet some new people and then Bruno or one of his friends would accompany me back to Anous’ apartment and then I would look for a hostel or hotel to stay in.  Yeah, if only that was what had happened.  The worst wasn’t over it was just the beginning.

As Bruno comforted me I was introduced to his friends from all over the world including France, Spain and Italy.  Only a few of them spoke English and I tried my Spanish with the Spaniards.  An hour goes by and we still are on the street trying to figure out where to go, the Eiffel Tower, a party in some guys flat, or Champs-Élysées.   We went from the street to the metro then back to the streets.  At one point I heard one of the guys tell the other guys to grab a girl and protect her.  I thought that was a little weird as Bruno put his arm around me and told me to stay close.  I asked him why and he had told me Paris could be dangerous at this time of night during the holidays.  He was right as I had men on the street try to grab at me and slap my ass while still in the arms of Bruno.  At this point I just wanted to go home and asked Bruno if we were almost to our destination.

We weren’t.  We get back on the underground metro that was insanely packed like we were human sardines.  For New Years the city had made the subway free for everyone to use it, of course this would make it crazy and packed.  Onboard already uncomfortable and a little claustrophobic I started to feel someone’s hand in an area where it shouldn’t have been. I grabbed the man’s wrist but he was too strong and kept violating me.  It could have been worse, I could have been wearing a dress which was what my new friends were wearing as it was happening to them too.

What these men do is they purposely violate girls so that the girl’s attention is on what is happening to them while another guy goes through the girl’s purse.  As I was fighting some man to take his hands off of me I see out of the corner of my eye that his friend was digging his hand in my purse.  Luckily everything of importance to me was left at Anous’ home and the only thing the robbers stole from me was my hand sanitizer and my sunglasses.  I got my sunglasses back but the dumb ass’s kept my Purell.  Luckily my camera was tucked away behind two zippers so it was a lot harder to get to, it was safe.

The boys that were with us figured out what was happening and tried there hardest to hold us and protect us until the doors of the metro opened.  The doors didn’t open for another 20 minutes as I tried my best to get away from the bad guys who had just violated and robbed me.  The boys that were trying there hardest to protect us could only verbally fight with the bastards until the doors of the metro had opened.  The doors finally opened as tears fell down my face.  My new friends (the strangers) kept asking if I was ok and to check my purse to see if they had stolen anything else.  They hadn’t.

After that I was very reluctant to get onto another metro but I knew we had to get on one to get to where we were going, though at this point I still didn’t know where we were going.  This next metro wasn’t any better.  We got stuck in this one for at least an hour or two.  Not only am I claustrophobic but I stood next to a man that had too much to drink that night and was puking all over the floor right next to my boots.  The smell of the metro was enough to get to me to join in on the puking madness.  I was tired, cold, scared and a little sick from the horrid smell.  Four hours pass and this night still wasn’t over? 

We never reached the Eiffel tower and we never got to go to that party they kept talking about.  My new years night was spent in the metro station and on the streets of Paris dodging the chaos of crazy drunk men among other things.  By now it’s five in the morning and I’m following my new friends back to the their hotel.  Bruno said in the morning he would help me get back to Anous’ house to retrieve my things.  I would end up staying in the girls Hotel room sharing a bed with to other girls who didn’t even know me.

It wasn’t until the next morning when I left that I found out the hotel we were staying in was in a bad part of town, the many burnt cars on the street near the hotel was evidence of that.

Eventually I confronted Anous, grabbed my things headed back to Bruno’s hotel to take a shower and rest. I ended up sleeping the rest of the day.  Bruno woke me up when he and his buds came back; it was two in the morning.  My third day in Paris and here I was asleep in a strangers hotel room all day long while my new friends were out touring the places I had planned to tour as well.   I could have found a Hostel but Bruno said it was ok to stay with them another night.  They were leaving in the morning as well and we all had planes to catch. 

By now Spain was home to me.  I wanted to get back to my piso, back to my bed and back to a country where I could at least speak some of the language.  People say that Paris is the city of romance, a magical city, the fashion mecca, but to me Paris was a nightmare come true.  Again the pictures were great but the story was horrible.  One thing I can be thankful for was that God was watching over me.  He kept me safe and gave me one hell of a story to tell.  This one. 

 

These are the strangers that took me in! Bruno is the guy closest to the middle.

I won't be home for Christmas Blogisode 2 ------Finally

Sling mud at a brick wall, watch how it clumps and slides down the side of the wall as it dries in the sun.   This was what I imagined when I saw the Sagrada Família for the first time as I stood in the long line that rapped around the cathedral.  While discussing the wait time with Alicia and her boyfriend I kept staring at parts of the massive Catholic Church wondering where Gaudi imagined up these designs that reminded me of mud.  As waiting is not one of my favorite things to do my eyes scoured the outside of the building trying to find figures, animals and symbols like I was a five year old searching in an I Spy book.  Confused at what I should be feeling while gawking at one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, I realized maybe that was Gaudi’s intention, he wanted the viewer to be confused and a little unnerved by his unusual design. 

 

It wasn’t until I stepped inside that I literally held my breath at what was the most insert synonym for gorgeous here sight I had ever seen in my life.  My camera immediately began snapping pictures as I was in a pinch-me this is to unreal moment while my mouth was wide enough for bird to make his home in.  As I fought other tourists with their cameras for some prime picture spots I couldn’t help think how much work and manpower it took to construct the massive structure. This time I wasn’t confused, more so overcome by the massive elegance that I was lucky to be standing in.

Eventually I had to leave and follow the rest of the tourists to the museum and read a little history. After that Alicia, her boyfriend David and I headed to the Park Güell, which inspired us all over again.  I couldn’t help imagining being transported into this wonderland of gingerbread houses with icing roofs and gummy statues.  Park Güell reminded me of a real life Candyland, except this board game was real life and the gingerbread houses were just the imagination of a great artist.

On the way back to our awesome hotel the last day of our visit I was tapped on the shoulder by an old lady inside the metro station.  She told me “ tienes un pequeño muñeca en su espalda,” or something like that. It translates into you have a small doll on your back.  I was very confused as Alica grabbed my shoulders turned me around and started laughing as she pulled off a blue paper shaped like a stick man that had the word gaupa on it with a smiley face. 

Earlier that evening Alicia, David and I were in Starbucks (heaven) and they were telling me the significance of the holiday December 28^th El Dia de inocentes.  They were explaining to me that the holiday is similar to our April Fools day were family and friends go around playing jokes on each other.  The newspapers also run fake news stories and a television program that’s on every year pulls pranks on celebrities and raises money for children with disabilities.  They also mentioned to me that it’s popular for young people or teenagers to go around and stick little paper dolls on to people’s backs as one of the traditional jokes.  The victims of these jokes are called inocentes.  That night I was one of those inocentes as I had one of those paper dolls tapped to my coat.

Alicia thought it was funny, I thought it was a strange coincidence as 30 min before we were talking about the holiday and David was upset that I didn’t have enough situation awareness.  He kept asking me why I hadn’t felt someone tape that to my back without me noticing it.  My excuse was my jacket was thick and padded, which it was.  As we laughed and talked about my little surprise on the way back to the hotel, Alicia mentioned that it was the perfect way to leave Barcelona.  I thought so as well and even more pleased that the paper doll read guapa, which meant beautiful.