Paris - bit of a rumbly start, recovered with a pub crawl

the trip here on the high-speed train went flawlessly, though I am almost sad I paid for my ticket...it was not checked, not once! my bags were never searched, no one checked us on or off the train, kind of crazy for a trip that cost 110 Euro. anywho, on the train i had written down the exact information i needed to navigate on the Metro (pronounced "May-trockkkkkhhhhht {insert harsh spitting sound}") to my hostel. now i usually don't mind being lost in a city, or when there are troubles, but it is not convenient when you have just arrived to a city and you are burdened with your luggage, weighted down and not as mobile as you might like to be. where is this going? i will tell you.

when i arrived at the Nord train station, i was supposed to go directly to the "5 line" metro and ride that a few stops to my hotel. easy right? instead this is what I arrived at:

right next to this sign, was the entire "5 line" entrance gated shut! there were attendants that were handing out flyers (all in french) that were somehow supposed to help you. being that i had only written the specific directions assuming all rail lines were open, i really couldn't tell what i needed to do. long story short, what should have taken about 5 minutes ended up taking over an hour, and involved 2 buses and 2 separate metro line switches. like i said, i don't mind being lost, just kinda stunk that i was weighted down and was bulky with my packs.

when i arrived to the hostel, i saw the most awesome thing! college football and the texas vs. OU game at the hostel bar. i ended up watching the rest of the game with some fellow Americans who go to Emory. i was supposed to take care of some laundry (since i was out of clean underwear...and shirts...and socks) but this hostel didn't have laundry facilities and the local laundromat was already closed for the evening, so instead, i headed out on a pub crawl with Josh and Nick from Emory which actually was so stupid but so fun at the same time. this "pub crawl for 10 Euro which included free shots at every bar" was actually just 2 frenchies, one with a little France flag, the other with a pack of litres of "shots", who led you around and herded you in like cattle to some local pubs...and the free shots? the free shots were poured not by the bars you went to, but by these two guys, out of their backpack, into little cups! how shady! (i still drank plenty of them...hey, they were free).

along the way, we did get to get into a club with no cover (which would have otherwise been 30 Euro, so the 10 Euro pub crawl entry fee did prove to be worth it). i guess i am so used to Vegas clubs when i think of paying covers of that amount, so i was shocked when we went into this club. you could compare it to the worst Houston club, yet this place still had a line that went around the block which blew my mind! luckily, we didn't have to wait in line to go inside and watch a bunch of bad, white, dancing fools. we didn't stay at this club long and broke away from the pack to roam the streets tipsily (is that a word) and search for food. all in all, the pub crawl turned out to be hilarious because of how bad it was, and it was nice to hang out with some fellow Americans for a bit. but would i recommend it to anyone else? not in a million years.