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(10 Oct 2010)
Left apartment, tried the Metro for the first time. Had people thrusting pieces of paper at me, I took one, it turned out to be a ticket. Then they came after me demanding payment, I was confused. Got given the opportunity to buy a package of 10 for 15 euros, I think, "1.50 each!" I declined, said I'd just pay for the one. Gave the guy 5 euros since I had no change, he gave me 3 back, I objected, guy in charge told guy 1 to give me proper change. Grudgingly, I was given another 20 cents, not 50, but I decided not to push it.
Online I'd been told a ticket was 1.70, or 12 euros for 10, so I got ripped off 10 cents, but sounds like they were aiming for 3. OTOH I didn't see ticket machines at that entrance, so maybe it's convenience.
Train downtown, walked around, found the Louvre thought it was too late. It's huge! Weird pyramid entrance in the middle, you go underground. Walked through an Arc de Triomphe, into the Tuileries, saw lots of couples stopping a bit short of clothed sex on the grounds, felt lonely. Saw the Seine. Kept walking, found the real Arc de Triomphe. Didn't go up it, but did go under. Walked some more through central Paris, finally found another Metro, got off at Pigalle. Heh, red light district full of strip clubs. I stopped and talked to one barker, she was all "20 euros normally, but now 10 euros and a free drink." "I'll pass." "No, come up, come look." "Ok." (Hey, free chance to ogle strippers for a minute, right?) "What drink do you want?" (Wait, sounds like something I'd have to pay for.) "No, I'll go." Actually this exchange happened at two different places; first one had a cute woman going "Aww, why not?" and pressing for reasons. Second one had an older woman simply gripping my wrist and trying to haul me upstairs, until I broke free.
===
Moving on to Amsterdam tomorrow - I think. I have lodging for the next week, but Thalys website didn't want to sell me a train ticket. So I called my card company. Same old exchange: give them my information, get transferred to Fraud, give them my information all over again. They did see the rejected thing, but the woman in Fraud was clueless. "You have a flag, it should go through now". But it didn't, and she said she didn't even see it. And then my phone ran out of credit, even though I was supposed to be calling a collect number. And T-Mobile never really cottoned to my credit card -- well, it didn't like the address, since it forced me to enter a UK address.
PISSED
Tried my other credit card, but that didn't work either. Of course, that one was never notified about being in Europe, so they have an excuse. Guess I'll see if I can pay cash at the station.
Lovely how the fraud computers don't mind my paying $500+ for a hotel in Amsterdam but allegedly object to my trying to actually go there. Same as happened in Paris.
Oh, and while I don't need it right now, seems like my cell data isn't working either, perhaps due to the lack of credit -- despite my having a 20 megabyte allowance for the week.
Left apartment, tried the Metro for the first time. Had people thrusting pieces of paper at me, I took one, it turned out to be a ticket. Then they came after me demanding payment, I was confused. Got given the opportunity to buy a package of 10 for 15 euros, I think, "1.50 each!" I declined, said I'd just pay for the one. Gave the guy 5 euros since I had no change, he gave me 3 back, I objected, guy in charge told guy 1 to give me proper change. Grudgingly, I was given another 20 cents, not 50, but I decided not to push it.
Online I'd been told a ticket was 1.70, or 12 euros for 10, so I got ripped off 10 cents, but sounds like they were aiming for 3. OTOH I didn't see ticket machines at that entrance, so maybe it's convenience.
Train downtown, walked around, found the Louvre thought it was too late. It's huge! Weird pyramid entrance in the middle, you go underground. Walked through an Arc de Triomphe, into the Tuileries, saw lots of couples stopping a bit short of clothed sex on the grounds, felt lonely. Saw the Seine. Kept walking, found the real Arc de Triomphe. Didn't go up it, but did go under. Walked some more through central Paris, finally found another Metro, got off at Pigalle. Heh, red light district full of strip clubs. I stopped and talked to one barker, she was all "20 euros normally, but now 10 euros and a free drink." "I'll pass." "No, come up, come look." "Ok." (Hey, free chance to ogle strippers for a minute, right?) "What drink do you want?" (Wait, sounds like something I'd have to pay for.) "No, I'll go." Actually this exchange happened at two different places; first one had a cute woman going "Aww, why not?" and pressing for reasons. Second one had an older woman simply gripping my wrist and trying to haul me upstairs, until I broke free.
===
Moving on to Amsterdam tomorrow - I think. I have lodging for the next week, but Thalys website didn't want to sell me a train ticket. So I called my card company. Same old exchange: give them my information, get transferred to Fraud, give them my information all over again. They did see the rejected thing, but the woman in Fraud was clueless. "You have a flag, it should go through now". But it didn't, and she said she didn't even see it. And then my phone ran out of credit, even though I was supposed to be calling a collect number. And T-Mobile never really cottoned to my credit card -- well, it didn't like the address, since it forced me to enter a UK address.
PISSED
Tried my other credit card, but that didn't work either. Of course, that one was never notified about being in Europe, so they have an excuse. Guess I'll see if I can pay cash at the station.
Lovely how the fraud computers don't mind my paying $500+ for a hotel in Amsterdam but allegedly object to my trying to actually go there. Same as happened in Paris.
Oh, and while I don't need it right now, seems like my cell data isn't working either, perhaps due to the lack of credit -- despite my having a 20 megabyte allowance for the week.
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Date: 2010-10-15 05:25 (UTC)From:not all places accept the same credit cards, I picked a friend up today who flew in from Scotland, and her credit card was declined at Target but accepted everywhere else we shopped.