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First time in Paris

Thursday 19th of June 2008

For my first serious meeting and my first time to France ever I had to stand up very very early. Although I set the alarm to early half past 4 in the morning I was awake before as usual. I beat my alarm by 10 or 15 minutes every morning. No matter how early. So I stood up, and went first to Liège by car and after that to Paris by train. I guess, if I do not count a tank stop in Belgium in 2001, this also was my first visit in Belgium. From Liege we drove by train to Brussels and took the famous Thalys to Paris. Once I have been there, it was only rushing through the metro and getting to the conference building. I saw some things of Paris, but hardly anything to tell about. At the meeting itself I felt rather useless. I had a very annoying cold, so my nose kept me busy the whole day. In the end it even rained on the way back we almost missed our train back to Germany. I even get stucked in one of the metro doors, because it closed while I was jumping in.
I was almost running, while my colleague was rather relaxed for getting the train. But since I intended not to go back to Germany, I had some certain motivation. In Brussels I left the train and bought a ticket to Den Haag. I missed my first train by 5 minutes, so I had to wait almost one hour. I went grocery shopping - including Brussels-fee. I spent 7 Euro for tissues, chewing gum, Coke, yogurt and a banana. After a small sight seeing around the train station I got my train to Den Haag. One the way, my cold even lost its strength. Until the next morning I was almost healed. For the following days only a little bit sniffing was left. And the following days meant to be busy. Busy, awesome, and a lot of traveling. Best holidays I could imagine.

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