My first sortie out of Paris

Vienna is awesome.

So last weekend was my cousin's engagement. Chance has it that her family decided to settle in the cultural capital of Europe, very considerate of them. Looked like my first intra-Europe was on the cards.

RER < Metro

This involved me dashing off from work insanely early (translation for normal people: half 4) and taking the RER out to Charles De Gaulle all the way in Zone 5, which is incidentally not covered by my metro pass. Like the wild child I am, I got on the train anyway. Take that The Man, I stuck it to you good. After all, life is for living.

Metro - please accept my sincerest apologies for anything bad I may have ever said about you. The RER is Paris' overground train service that extends far out of the metro's reach. It's the metro's bigger, uglier older brother (much like mine). Compared to it, the metro is a positively spiritual experience (if you can get over the all-pervading smell of urine).

The impressive CDG Aeroport

I started off my trip at Charles De Gaulle Terminal 1, where (after bearing the crushing disappointment of almost being upgraded to business), I was really impressed.

Imagine serenely gliding along this walkalator with classical music playing

Nothing of note to mention on the flights apart from an American family who were seated all around the plane because they hadn't booked tickets. One of their 7(ish) old daughters happened to be sitting next to me looking very unhappy. I offered to switch seats so she could be closer to her parents, at which point the Dad asked me to switch with him so he could sit next to her.

My heart pretty much melted when she grabbed onto me and insisted that "no, he can stayy!". 

You can call me Monsieur Charming.

The Engagement Party

So after much stressing about and a looong make-up session, the ladies emerged from their lair all looking lovely and we headed off to the hotel.

I was told at pretty short notice that I was gonna be Master of Ceremonies and had a couple of speeches to make, Exactly the way I like it - spontaneity is the spice of life. It's exhilarating having 160ish people hooked on your every mot and having no idée what you're saying. One thing I should have done was to introduce myself. The guests were probably wondering who the snappily-dressed, eloquent young man en stage was.

This half of the audience was paying attention at least - they were my favourite half

The party itself was IMMENSE. The DJ began the fiesta with some bhangra and I kickstarted the dancing throwing some crazy shapes. Helped that every single one of the guests was so cool. A big shout-out to all the awesome people I met =D (my first and probably last emoticon on here - that's how much I loved you guys).

I had so much fun that I'm feeling sad to be back in Paris. I know, crazy right!?

So, all in all, taking a day off and breaking 18 months of continuous work by the interns before me was, oh, about 2505% worth it?

Peace from Paris.