My Overdue Trip Report

Old Aug 18th, 2008, 12:35 PM
  #1  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 101
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
My Overdue Trip Report

I traveled in May for 2 weeks an a half to Brussels, Paris, and Rotterdam. It was a great experience with some bads in between...

First a little bit of my background. Born/raised in the Dominican Republic, Moved to NYC about 12-13 years ago. Engineer, female 28. Traveled alone. Second time in Europe. Disclaimer I can’t write at all (but you prob knew that when you saw “Engineer”)

Brussels: I decided last minute to make a stop in Brussels since the Salsa Congress was happening the first weekend I was to be in Paris, so flew to Paris and took the Thalys (loved it!) Before going I met a woman in facebook who was in the organizing committee of the congress and who offered me to stay at her place for free. I had never before met this woman and I was a little apprehensive at first, due to the age difference (28-42) and the fact that this was a complete stranger in another country, and my a female traveling alone...but I kind of felt she was ok because she was in the salsa committee, and she works for the European Commission (that info from facebook) so I reserved a hostel room anyways. I'm so glad I did end up staying with her!! She picked me up at the station and we drove to her place. She was such a great person, we had a lot of fun, she had another friend from Antwerp and we went dancing at the congress the whole weekend, I visited the city alone since she was working with the congress during the day, they both were really sweet women and we got along great! I had a great time in Brussels.

Paris: I stayed in Paris for two long weeks taking French at the EF school there. I loved the school, and how they teach French, it was very good, the only drawback was that there were way too many young people (16-23) and some of those kids were spoiled rich kids that made my face fall every time they spoke....Paris is a beautiful city, but after a week there I hated it. I went very open, I have wanted to go there and learn French, get immersed in the culture, the wines etc and I had such a bad experience with the people who I thought were incredibly rude!! Now before anybody says anything, I live in NYC, so I think I know a thing or two about rude people, and I never expected to feel the way I felt in Paris. I wanted to leave! I did not want to be there one more second!! Anyways the Paris part of my trip was a bitter sweet experience...I have a lot of good experiences, but just the general feel I got from the people there kind of ruined it for me.

The good:
Meeting many international people and making good friends at the French school, improving my French! I was able to communicate with people for basic stuff and I could understand a lot more.
Visiting the Louvre, seeing the Mona Lisa, but most importantly seeing all the other paintings that left me in awe! Some of them were incredibly real, almost like photos.
Talking to a guard in the Louvre who though I spoke French (compliment!!) and trying to find the exit for like 20 minutes. That place is huge…will have to visit again!
Walking all of Paris. There's so much to see it's just beautiful.
Buying books in Paris, at the main book stores something jeune or jaune I can’t remember with the face of a guy.
Berthillion Ice cream!
The pictures outside of the Luxembourg….I was in tears with some of those pictures. They are incredible.
Taking a bike ride on Velib and getting lost intentionally....and ending up in Champs Elysees.
Taking video while riding the Velib!
Pique-nique at Pont des arts and at champs du mars at night. Drinking wine in public parks! (so not allowed here in NYC)
Finding a self sanitizing toilet at champ du mars! (I hate public toilets!)
Getting caught in the rain while climbing to the Basilica de Sacre Coeur.
The views from up there.
Meeting with fellow fodorites tod & husband and Gina. They were lovely, we met at l’insulaire and it was such a great time. I enjoyed the food and talking. Thank you Tod for the beautiful bookmark you brought me. I love to have little things from all different countries!
Taking a cab once and seeing Paris from the driver pov, and not the Metro. (I’m a driver here in NYC yea go figure! so I missed that a lot over there, since I only took the Metro)
Finding a salsa place in Paris (Barrio Latino) and dancing there. Meeting two Cuban guys (good) who proceeded to hit on me (bad lol)
Wine, wine and more wine.

The bad:
I stayed at a home stay and did not feel welcome on the least bit...more like the lady was just putting up with me and my roommate (sweet girl from the Netherlands) She was supposed to cook breakfast and dinner for us. She never made breakfast since she had our room prepared for us to have breakfast there, and a lot of times gave us frozen dinners. I had no problem with that at all, I can understand people are busy etc…what really bothered me is that she went and complained to the school that we would spend too much time in the main house (our room was in the basement). Now I don’t understand how we spent so much time in the main house since we ate breakfast in our room in the mornings and at dinner was the only time we would be up, and not even every day since we would sometimes go out, let her know we were not coming home and she did not have to worry about dinner. Another day I was walking home and she caught up to me. We started chatting but she did not slow down, she kept walking faster than me and while giving me her back, half-way down the street, still was talking to me!! Could she be more rude? She could have just said, I have to go, I can’t walk with you, see you at home or something of the like….That was the most dismissive thing anyone has ever done to me.
Another bad thing, I was with my friends at a restaurant, and the waiter was so rude, he basically threw the menu at me and since I was the only one that ordered something was a little upset. I’m still having my drink (not even halfway) when he brings me the check and tells me I have to pay! What? Like I’m going to leave the place without paying, nobody can tell me that was not rude! I decide to use the restroom and as I’m walking to it he sees me and asks me again! My friends (from the EF school) are all still sitting at the table (4 of them)!
My other rude experience is, me and my friends go to see the mime festival and we are a bit separated to find chairs (it was packed). My friend gets up from her chair to take a picture, she didn’t even walk more than 3 steps and a woman proceeded to call another lady to come sit in my friend’s chair. The lady came and sat in the chair, this all while my friend was still taking the picture.
Oh and I got sick at the end of the trip, the day before I was to travel to Rotterdam.
I felt that little things kept compounding and added on to the feeling I had. Maybe the fact that I did not feel welcome where I was staying kind of put a damp in the whole Paris part of the trip….

Rotterdam:
I was there for a very short 2 days, visited a school there that I’m considering, visited the main shopping area, and had lots of Ice-cream! Is a small city, so not much going on there. Plus I was sick so I didn’t try to do anything there. I stayed in a Hostel, with a French guy the first night and the second night another guy came from Poland. They were both there for business, the French guy who I tried to practice my French with, spoke little English and was there for an internship. The polish guy had an audition to a Jazz music school there. Both pretty cool guys! It seems that I don’t look like a foreigner in Rotterdam (everyone started talking to me in Dutch, but after I stared with a blank face, then switched to English)which I was surprised by…I mean I’m short, curly dark hair and permanently tanned skin. But I was told that there are a lot of Caribbean Immigrants there from the Dutch islands so I guess that would explain it. Took the train back to Paris, got stopped and searched by the police (boy was I hating Paris by then), and then flew back to NYC.
AyQuehago is offline  
Old Aug 18th, 2008, 12:48 PM
  #2  
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 12,188
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
You write fine!

Sorry to hear about your Paris experience. That sort of thing has always made me leery of homestays. I agree that if you had stayed someplace more congenial, you likely would have had a better experience in Paris.

I'm glad you enjoyed much of your trip.
WillTravel is offline  
Old Aug 18th, 2008, 04:32 PM
  #3  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,435
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Hi,

I am sorry that your stay in Paris was spoiled. I do think that a lot of the people that take in students, really do it for extra money. It is a business deal and the people who live there really do not want to get involved.
Expectations should have been made clearer by the school. The good news is that your French is better than ever.

Yipper
yipper is offline  
Old Aug 18th, 2008, 07:27 PM
  #4  
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 22
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts

I am not at all surprised by your experience. I have had similar experiences staying with French people in France. However I still love the country, people and culture.
marseillegirl is offline  
Old Aug 18th, 2008, 09:45 PM
  #5  
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 23,773
Likes: 0
Received 6 Likes on 1 Post
When waiters are ending their service at a café, they have to collect payment from all of the tables they have been serving. Otherwise, you can sit their all day with nobody asking you to pay until you want to. I think a lot of tourists don't understand what is happening if their French is not good.
kerouac is offline  
Old Aug 18th, 2008, 10:44 PM
  #6  
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 5,056
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
It's a shame that your homestay spoilt things so much for you. can't you just sort of laugh it off and imagine all the great funny anecdotes you can tell about it. It sounds as though that was really the main 'bad' thing that has soured your stay. If you can put it to one side, you might find you enjoy the rest of your memories more.

On the restaurant, to be honest, if 5 people were sitting at a restaurant table and only one of them ordered anything, I can understand the waiter/restaurant getting a bit shirty.
nona1 is offline  
Old Jun 18th, 2009, 12:22 PM
  #7  
 
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 21
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Nona1 is correct. The rudest thing on your trip was in the restaurant. Five people taking up table space and only one person ordering. Now that is rude!
cherylgirl is offline  
Old Jun 19th, 2009, 11:14 AM
  #8  
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,400
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Are home stays the same as B & B's? I've stayed in B & B's and liked 2 out of the 3 host families that I stayed with.

It is too bad that you were treated so poorly and I would imagine having a cranky rude host would affect my enjoyment of a vacation. I wasn't aware of the policy that the waiter has to collect before going off shift.
bluzmama is offline  
Related Topics
Thread
Original Poster
Forum
Replies
Last Post
Sheila946
Europe
53
Apr 11th, 2006 09:51 AM
css
Europe
10
Jul 22nd, 2004 01:19 AM
yogiusd03
Europe
32
Jun 2nd, 2004 10:23 AM
reddattitude
Europe
7
Jan 10th, 2004 04:35 PM
Maryann
Europe
8
Nov 15th, 2002 05:15 AM

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are On


Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information -