I've landed (so to speak...) in Paris
08/07/08 02:05 PM Filed in: Personal /
Misc.
Well, I made it to Paris on time this morning. I
arrived at 9:50am local time (+1 from London). I
paid €7.00 for a locker for my big bag and
then wandered the streats outside of the train
station for about 30 minutes before going to a
Subway. Yes, my first meal of the day was Subway in
France. My French was as good as the associates
English but we managed to exchage food for
Euro’s with out problem. After wandering out
of Subway I found myself waiting to see which tour
bus company arrived first.
They would get my business. It was the L’Open Tour company. I paid my €29.00 for the daily ticket so that I could see Paris. They had 4 different routs including one Main route (I.E. Eiffel Tower, NotreDame, Etc.). I wasn’t on the main one. I found that out about halfway through. I found a stop that I could transfer on and at last I was on my grand ‘one-day adventure’ in Paris. I saw a lot of things and realized exactly how much I hate (HATE!!!) using my phone as a camera. Sure the picture quality is up to 5 megapixels but the lag on the shutter is up to 10 full seconds (lame) and the refresh from a picture can nearly be that. I’ve just proven that if I want to see Europe (and I do) I need to get at least another decent point and shoot camera.
I’m drueling over the recently announced Nikon P6000 which is 13.x megapixels, supports RAW, and even does Geotagging which would be nice especially while traveling. For those of you who don’t know what Geotagging is, it basically assigns a lattitude and longitude using GPS to each picture you take. I.E. it knows where you took the picture and your pictures can be organized by location or even assigned to a map. Google Maps is using some of this technology already. I saw a ton of places and learned a lot really. I hope that some of my pictures turned out alright as I want to try to show them off on here sometime later.
Right now I’m at a place I’ve seen all over Paris. No it’s not Starbucks but it’s really close, McDonalds. I know, I know, I’m in Paris and I’ve gone to a McDonalds. I didn’t come here (where I am now actually) for the food. I came praying for a Wifi Hotspot and a place to ‘plug-in’ to a power connection for my laptop and my misc. gadgets to follow. Well, I found the power after a lot of akward looking and waiting for a guy to get up but the Wifi here shows up but will not for the life of me connect. I’m hoping I’ll just find a place later to upload this to. I’m not a great tourist.
I’ve seen the main sights (in one day mind you) and I’m unsure of what to do now. I know you’re probably thinking that I should go to the Lourve which I would love to but It would be about another 2-4 hours bus driving and I don’t want to miss my train along with the fact that I would love to spend at least half of a day there and it’s a great reason to come back. Now if only I can find one of my friends who speaks French to come with me to make me look less stupid. . . well. . . at least a little.
I’m singning off for now.
Chris
They would get my business. It was the L’Open Tour company. I paid my €29.00 for the daily ticket so that I could see Paris. They had 4 different routs including one Main route (I.E. Eiffel Tower, NotreDame, Etc.). I wasn’t on the main one. I found that out about halfway through. I found a stop that I could transfer on and at last I was on my grand ‘one-day adventure’ in Paris. I saw a lot of things and realized exactly how much I hate (HATE!!!) using my phone as a camera. Sure the picture quality is up to 5 megapixels but the lag on the shutter is up to 10 full seconds (lame) and the refresh from a picture can nearly be that. I’ve just proven that if I want to see Europe (and I do) I need to get at least another decent point and shoot camera.
I’m drueling over the recently announced Nikon P6000 which is 13.x megapixels, supports RAW, and even does Geotagging which would be nice especially while traveling. For those of you who don’t know what Geotagging is, it basically assigns a lattitude and longitude using GPS to each picture you take. I.E. it knows where you took the picture and your pictures can be organized by location or even assigned to a map. Google Maps is using some of this technology already. I saw a ton of places and learned a lot really. I hope that some of my pictures turned out alright as I want to try to show them off on here sometime later.
Right now I’m at a place I’ve seen all over Paris. No it’s not Starbucks but it’s really close, McDonalds. I know, I know, I’m in Paris and I’ve gone to a McDonalds. I didn’t come here (where I am now actually) for the food. I came praying for a Wifi Hotspot and a place to ‘plug-in’ to a power connection for my laptop and my misc. gadgets to follow. Well, I found the power after a lot of akward looking and waiting for a guy to get up but the Wifi here shows up but will not for the life of me connect. I’m hoping I’ll just find a place later to upload this to. I’m not a great tourist.
I’ve seen the main sights (in one day mind you) and I’m unsure of what to do now. I know you’re probably thinking that I should go to the Lourve which I would love to but It would be about another 2-4 hours bus driving and I don’t want to miss my train along with the fact that I would love to spend at least half of a day there and it’s a great reason to come back. Now if only I can find one of my friends who speaks French to come with me to make me look less stupid. . . well. . . at least a little.
I’m singning off for now.
Chris
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