Arrival in Paris

We started off our trip to Paris a bit rough: our train was delayed about 1 1/2 hours (unusual).  I'm not sure if it was related to the rail workers strikes in France or not.  After we passed through security, we were crammed into a waiting area with people from two other trains to France that were also delayed.  There was barely room to stand.  Eventually we got to board and made good time to Paris.

Everyone was able to get euros ok.  But I had a bit of trouble with metro passes.  First line I stood in was card transactions only, naturally none of my cards worked (swipe or chip).  The next line I stood in took cash, which I had from the ATM, but only in 20 and lower bills (I had 50's).  A stick of gum later and I was back in line for the third time to get our metro passes.  The group waited patiently, but was about to send out a search party for me.

We headed out of the station and up the street.  I took one wrong turn, going up XZY Rue instead of XYZ Blvd.  I was pulling out my map to figure out my mistake when a random French stranger stopped and asked if we needed directions.  I had figured it out at that point, but he confirmed the direction we needed to go.  Nice.

Made it to the hostel without any further problem.  Ready to explore the city...