The Race BEGINS!

While I do realize that the last post was titled Amazing Race, we’ll just give that one to the Races… the Galway Races that is. But now it’s the real race. And the prize is getting home to America. It starts in Paris, France to pick up the leased minivan we got, then to Beauvais Airport to pick up Mike the Second, then to Bern, Switzerland, then Cinque Terra, Italy as well as Rome, Venice, and Florence before going through Austria to hit up Nuremberg, Germany for a Toots and Maytals concert. Following an awesome night of skanking and mayhem we are going east to Prague, Czech Republic in the depths of Eastern Europe and meeting up with Mike 1 there. Then to Krakow, Poland to meet up with our friend Logan and go to Berlin, Germany. From there, Logan, Tyler and Patrick are departing from the road trip but me and Mike 1 & 2 continue on northward to Copenhagen, Denmark (maybe), and over the Amsterdam, Netherlands (where Mike 2 departs) then over to Brussels and Gent, Belgium where my friend Elisa lives. The finally, back to Paris to return the car and fly to Dublin, bus to Galway to pick up our luggage, bus back to Dublin, catch a flight with Mike 1 in the early morning to Toronto and hopefully catch up with Jonathan J Gunasingham, fly back to Chitown and then finally bus back to the Lou and get a ride back home somehow. All this in a matter of 3 weeks. Insane. And let me assure you, the adventures started right away.

 

So to start, Patrick, Tyler and I bus to Dublin then fly to Beauvais Airport near Paris. And by near I mean an hour and a half away. So we get into town by shuttle bus around 2 and had an appointment to pick up the car at the Peaugot car dealership at 5pm. So we grabbed some delicious baguettes, camembert soft cheese (sorta like brie) and some chorizo and made awesome sandwiches. Alright. Time to pick up our baby. Only we walked around for like a hour trying to find an internet cafe only to get stuck with some english kids hiding underneathe the Eiffel Tour because of the torrential downpour going on. They were nice and loved our ponchos.

Once we got some wifi at 5pm and found the place we were supposed to pick up the car at we started our mad dash. We ran to the nearest Metro during which Patrick stepped in a humungous puddle which covered about half of his leg. Beautiful. But keep in mind we all had huge backpacks and stuff with us so we’re hauling like crazy with tons of weight. So we take 2 metros and on the way out of the station both Tyler and Patrick get stuck in the turnstiles but Patrick finally broke free and we just left Tyler to die. TO DIE!

We sprinted through the underground tunnels for literally about a half mile or a kilometer over here. ha. We got out of the tunnels at like 5:45 and just asked a taxi where to go and sprinted some more until we were near and we called the place who said that they were closed. Heartbreak. 2 hour race for nothing? I don’t think so. So Patrick and I burst into that place and signed papers anyways and got our silver baby. Phew. So then we found Booty (aka Tyler), hit up the Charles De’ Gaulle roundabout, and headed out of Paris to a  McDonalds to find directions to the airport to pick up Mike 2. Only Patrick decided not to follow them and so we just guessed how to get to the airport. Which involved driving through scary French ghost towns and giving a french kid a ride home but we finally made it and slept in the car and it was great.

We have just started the adventure.