Switzerland And One CREEEPY Night In Paris!!

Tuesday morning I got up around 8 to get ready, and then met everyone in the lobby around 9:30. We headed to the train station and got our reservations for our train to Paris, and we got some Franks out of the ATM. Then we split into two groups and set out for our day. When we walked out of the grain station we found a lake with some swans and ducks. We stopped to take pictures and a couple of them came over towards us looking for a snack. I got some of my smooshed crackers out of my bag and threw the crumbs out towards them. Pretty soon there was probably a couple hundred birds begging to be fed. The swans were probably my favorite part of our stay in Luzern(Lucerne). Then we walked around and took some pictures until we came to a Rolex/everything expensive store. Katie and Maggie wanted to get some knives (Swiss army knives that is), so we headed into the store. At 11:30 we headed out to find something to eat, but every restaurant we came to was super expensive. We ended up stopping at a cafe, where I purchases (what was supposed to be) a cinnamon roll, a normal, delicious-looking roll, and a piece of pizza. I ordered cheese pizza and was given a piece of pizza with a bunch of vegetables on it. I ate it anyway, though after a couple bites I peeled the peppers and cheese off. I was a little offended when the little waitress lady told me I couldn't drink my water bottle in there, simply because I didn't buy it there. Rude. The "cinnamon" roll was very lemony and gross, but I ate at least half of it. The roll, however, was amazing. One of the most delicious things I'd had to eat in a long time. (Maybe not, but it was SO good) After lunch we went to a chocolate shop where I treated myself to some delicious Swiss chocolate. After we were done shopping there we headed to a souvenir shop and bought some little trinkets. Once we completed our shopping excursion we headed out across a really old bridge. I took a lot of pictures, and we played with the swans again. Then we decided to get some Starbucks while we sat in the sun and soaked up some vitamin D. After a half-hour or so we headed back to our hotel to pick up our backpacks and then headed to our train station. We took a hope on train, and then we switched over to a French train that we had reservations for. Upon arriving in Paris we first went in search of an ATM so that we could have money to pay our Taxis since we were staying out in the boonies. Unfortunately, we couldn't find one because they don't apparently have an ATM in the Paris train station. Anyway, we caught our taxis and headed to our hotel. We drove for about 15 minutes and even though my group of three was not in the first taxi to leave, we were the first to arrive at our "hotel." It was off one of the bigger roads, but it wasn't in a very pleasant area. My first impression was "this is sketchy." We waited outside for about five minutes before the next taxi arrived. We waited another few minutes and when the other taxi still hadn't shown up William called to make sure they were okay. (Mostly because that taxi had left first and was a group of three girls). He finally got a hold of Maggie who said that the driver had taken them to the wrong zone, but that they were on their way. Once they arrived we went in and got our rooms. The hotel didn't look any better on the inside. The whole building seemed to be caving in, the stairs especially leaned in towards the middle. There was no elevator, it had a tiny lobby, and the whole place smelled bad. My "intuition" wasn't very happy, and when the gentlemen checking us in reminded us three or four times to leave our keys with him while we went out for the day I instantly feared leaving my things in my room. Britt (who joined our group the evening before we left for free travel, so wasn't included in the number we gave the hotels for our reservations) was supposed to get a room at the same hotel after we checked in. We had one room of three, one room of four, and one room of two. William and Jordan were in the room of two; Brandi, Kelsey, Amanda and I were in the room of four, and Katie, Maggie, and Jenna were in the room of three. While we were getting our bags put into our smelly, very red rooms, Britt came in and said that the gentlemen at the desk told him all the rooms were booked. Either he had to sleep in one of our rooms or he was going to have to go to a different hotel. I told him not to worry, that we would figure it out. In our room we had three single beds and one double, so I knew we could rearrange to make it all work out. We went to the room of three girls with all three guys and told them the situation. We decided to put the guys in the room of three, and two girls in the room of two, with five in the room that had originally held four. Crises averted. It was getting late and there was wifi in the lobby, so almost everyone was down there. Most of the group wanted to leave at 8 in the morning, so I decided I should probably go to sleep. I was talking to Jordan on the stairs when Jenna came up and said that we were going to have a group meeting in the guys room upstairs. When everyone got up to the room, Katie got everyone's attention and said, "We need to checkout in the morning. This needs to be the only night we stay here." Turns out there were almost 50 reviews of the hotel and all were negative reviews. (Apparently the hotel bookers forgot to look at those before booking us for three nights) There were multiple reviews complaining that the hotel workers would go through their stuff while they were out for the day, and a couple even said that they stole some of their things. Some we all agreed, we should probably get out of there. That and a few of the other hotel guests was enough to give us all the heebie-geebies about staying there for very long. Luckily we found an Etap hotel and decided to try our luck there for the next few nights, so long as they had rooms available. Unfortunately, when we called them that night the desk worker didn't speak any English, so we couldn't see what they had available. (Not to mention it was after midnight). We changed the sleeping arrangement yet again, and put Jordan on the floor of Brandi and Kelsey's room to be their protector. The room with five girls put a table in front of the door, and William and Britt (both over 6'2) were together in their room. The girls in the big room tried to decide what to do for the five hours we might sleep. After pulling back the covers and finding someone else's hair in my bed, I decided to sleep fully clothes on top of the covers. Call me crazy, but that is just one of those things that makes me go EWWWWW. Then I laid down and slept curled up in a little ball for a couple hours..
Paris Day One next ;)