Paris - Here I Am

So yeah, I remember we were forced to learn French from 1st - 9th grade in school at that time I thought it was boring and to be frank the way it was taught was boring. We didn't get to use the language practically but for the first time, I hated that I could not speak french. I am in a beautiful city and I really would have loved to speak to the people in their own language. In Barcelona, we had Soji as our translator and for some reason I thought Spanish was somewhat easy to navigate. Anyway, we land Paris and oh my goodness what a headache.

We couldnt read the map, turns out that we were looking at the bus route instead of the train route and so we had a hard time finding our way. Some nice french guy stopped by and helped us out. Anyway, we navigate our way to the Hostel and our story begins....

Drama #1 - Aloha
We go to the Aloha hostel that I did not want to stay in but Soji had mentioned that he would be of no use if we all stayed in a Marriott Category 7 hotel. We get to our hotel to find out that they had messed up on our reservation. Actually, they didn't think they messed up but what we got is very different from what we booked. We booked a 4 bed mixed room and we were scheduled to check in at 11 am. We get there and are told that we are in a 6 bedroom with 3 other people, bathroom down the hall and we cant check in till 5 pm. Keep in mind its like 2:30 and we are only here for 2 days. That was not going to fly. We also had lock out times and obviously that was not going to be ideal so I called Marriott and confirmed a room We are all excited because as far as Marriott is concerned, this is one of their highest rated hotels. We get the hostels managers name in order to contact her and settle billing issues.

Drama #2 - Renaissance Paris Vendome
We get to our hotel and Marc the french guy at the desk starts telling me about signing a form that meant using all my 52 thousand and something points for one night at the hotel. I was sure it was meant to be 35,000 because I checked online anyway, i sign the form, get a copy so that I can call Marriott rewards and set them straight later and we head up. We get to our room and while we are all excited taking pictures of the room because to be honest, this is a fabulous hotel, I get a call from Marc talking about I dont have enough points to stay at the hotel. He said I had 250 points and I needed 52, 500 points. I am like, No, for sure I have 52,000+ points, he transfers me to rewards and I get to talk to about 3 different people, It turns out that I had 52,250 and I needed 52, 500 points for a night at this hotel. So

Person 1 was going to sell me an additional 1000 points for 12.50 and I was going to settle for this option when Soji said no, we saw it for 35,000 points and thats what we should get it for
Person 2 - Was going to give me the additional 250 points as inconvenience points but I demanded that I get the room for 35,000. He checked online and saw that the hotel was set for 52,500. Finally, he decided to log in using my access and we solve the mystery. I guess I get some sort of discount and so I was to get the room for 35,000 points after all. He said he would send my certificates over and so I called Marc to share. I also asked for my bags and Marc said he would send it right up.

We finally left to do the sight seeing thing, the boat tour, Eiffel tower, souvenir shops, obviously taking pictures as we go. We are all now getting tired of walking, I mean in the U.S we drive so much and for those of us that dont get to run often which in this case is all 3 of us, we are sore. I don't think I have done this much walking ever but there is a lot to see and do and so we drag ourselves on. It was a great work out I guess. We had dinner in this pub right opposite the hotel. We ordered hamburgers and it came out with the meat and eggs (no bun) and some really nice french fries. We finally retire to our room and must I say that I fell asleep in no time.