Paris Day 01 / 08 Money

Once they made a couple turns they found their selves in front of a bank, and a hotel.

“Let’s just spare the shame shall we?” Mireya said pointing at the bank’s ATM.

“Good idea” Mark said pulling out his wallet and taking out his credit card “Seriously one more denial and I’ll start singing “I dreamed a dream” from Les Miserábles”

“From where?” Mireya said as Mark slide his card on the ATM.

“A musial” Mark answered as he pressed his pin number.

“Ugh! And if u start singing I’ll start crying, and then I’ll kill u!” Mireya replied half disgusted with the mere thought of that.

“Oh! Shut … oh-oh” Mark face was stroke down by sadness

“What does that mean?” Mireya asked

“No founds” He softly replied.

“Ughh!!! Whyyy am I not surprised?!” she shouted pulling out her credit card “Move!” she said taking his place before the ATM “You should really start saving up instead of spending it all in silly stuff! You know! Some time you might actually be useful to someone” Mireya was saying as pressing the buttons on the ATM “And that day please give me a call! Because … SHIT!”

“What now!?” asked Mark

“Kid saving account! I can’t withdraw any money!” Mireya said while retrieving her card. “God damn!”

“Well one day you’ll be a reliable useful adult and that day …” Mark was saying

“Oh shut up!” Mireya cut through his words “You’re the elder one, why don’t u prove out you’re actually reliable and go get some euros huh?”

“That I shall, madame” Mark answered

“Mademoiselle!” she replied at him.

They both went into the hotel across the street and Mark moved on to the front desk, Mireya was following  him when she heard “Bon Nuit Monsieurs” then she she turned on her heels around thinking “Oh hell no!, not again, I’m not ready to go hear this again” She went and looked at him blabber something to the receptionist.

“Tourist?” the guy behind the desk asked to Mark.

“Oui, pour quoi?” Mark asked “Damn my French sucks” Mark thought.

“Votre Français c’est parfait” The front desk guy replied “Very good French, monsieur, very good”

Mark blushed slightly “Merçi Beacoup” he said “We need to get some euros, we’re desperate, sir, we’ve been looking everywhere, we need at least so we can use the subway to get to our hotel, please sir.”

The man stared into Mark’s eyes; he smiled and said “How many do you want to change?”

Mark smiled widely “Merçi Beacoup, Monsieur” he turned around and didn’t saw his sister next to him, he snorted “of course, why not? Avoiding the shame” he thought, “Mireya! Bring your dollars” he shouted.

“For real!?” Mireya asked from the entrance door.

“Yeah!” Mark replied “Come on!”

“Oh thank god!” she said moving towards him and pulling out her wallet.

They exchanged a few dollars for euros and after Mark gave a smile and a “merçi” to the front desk guy they both left with a wide smile in their faces and headed back to the subway station in front of the Academie du Musique, they paid their fares and went into the platform.

Twenty minutes later they were leaving the subway in the Gallieni station and heading back to the hotel.

“Thank god” were Mark’s first words after he let himself loose into the mattress “Having money in your pocket is such a blessing” he added as he walked out to the window and bumping with his bag. “Woops”

“Jerk” Mireya said, too exhausted to think of something more aggressive “I’m hungry” she added.

“Yeah me too, we should try to go and find …” Mark began to propose.

“Seriously?! It’s like almost midnight! You really are out of your mind if you think we’ll find something” Mireya responded annoyed.

“Well I was just trying to … Oh! Mom sent us granola bars remember?” Mark replied.

“Oh yeah!” she said as they both unpacked their granola bar boxes and took one pair out “And to think you didn’t wanted to bring them with us huh?” Mireya remembered while biting her bar as Mark responded with a silence and some chewing noise “Well I’m taking a bath” she stated, her brother replied with silence and chewing again, she took another bite and grabbed her towel as she headed to the bathroom chewing on her granola bar.

“Oh Happy Birthday” Mark said with a giggle afterwards.

“Nice one, jerk” she said annoyed after she slammed the bathroom door and opened the shower thinking “Thank god! Now time to finally relax after all that circus” she let out a sigh as she took off her clothing, he hand went into the shower and felt the warm water then she slide in completely as her mind was calming down “Paris, so beautiful, tomorrow will be a wonderful day, I’m so sure of it” were her thoughts as the lavender scent of the soap wrapped her into a scented mist which she inhale and exhale slowly, she opened her eyes and thought “Yeah, tomorrow it will be wonderful”

Paris Day 01 / 07 First Night In Paris

Paris was beautiful, but cashless it was a bit of an annoying situation, they went into another hotel and Mark went to the front desk and asked if they exchanged money, the reply: Of course, monsieur. Luck seemed to have changed. “Your room number? monsieur.” Continued the receptionist.

So far, so good, and then he asked that, “We’re not in this hotel” replied Mark “but if you could help us, we would be really grateful”.

“I’m sorry, monsieur, but we only have the currency exchange service for our guests” The desk guy added.

“Thanks” Mark replied, as he turned to Mireya and repeated “Room Number” he sighed “They only exchange money to their guests.”

Once they left the building the sun was gone and Paris revealed her night sight to them, the dark navy sky and the lighted buildings made them feel like they were on a post card, it was just beautiful, they were tired and apparently unlucky, so they started looking on to the Parisian sights that appeared before their eyes, and of course they kept knocking on hotel doors just to get one of two answers: “No Exchanges” or “Your Room Number?” which led to the first answer, he would gave out a “merçi” and they’d kept walking.

Looking for a currency exchange they went into a hotel where they were told they could get some euros at an exchange place that was on Champs Élysées, they thanked the man and went out.

“Champs Élysées it is” Mark said.

“What!?” Mireya shouted quite upset “Are you out of your mind? You’ve no idea

‘bout what’s where in Paris! How do you expect to find that place?!”

“Oh… Watch Me!” Mark replied.

“If it was thing of ONLY watching I wouldn’t mind but I have to crawl next to you! Going god knows where!” Mireya was tired, upset and penniless so obviously Mark was in huge trouble.

Mark decided that the best was to just stay quiet and keep walking towards Champs Élysées, not that he really knew where that avenue was, not really knowing where he was exactly but he walked with a decided and strong step through the Parisian streets. Mireya followed him upset almost stomping her feet against the floor in protest, but she kept a slight distance until they arrived to La Place du la Concorde, when she finally spoke “Ok genius, what now?”

“Well, we’re at …” Mark had no idea so he pulled out the map, opened it and started looking for references.

“You’ve no idea where we are” Mireya was half happy to snort at him and half pissed, but right now she was enjoying as he was completely lost. “Ugh, this sucks.”

“We, mademoiselle, are at La Place du La Concorde” said Mark proudly.

“Huh” Mireya turned and saw him, and when she was about to ask him how he knew but she saw the map on his hands so it crossed her mind that it was best not to push his ego, then managed to ask “And how are we supposed to get to Champs Élysées, Einstein?”

“Well, they’re actually pretty close” he replied noticing how hard was to impress her “they kinda come all the way to this place so  there should be a sign here somewhere, we’ll find them soon, you’ll see”

She knew he had no idea where how to find them but he seemed overly confident, like he knew exactly where he was and where he had to go now, that attitude irritated her “Fine, lead the way, mister Paris expert” she finally added.

He saved the map back into his bag and kept walking under the golden evening sky for a couple of minutes when an old lady bumped with them.

“Pardon” she said with a very rough and raspy French.

“No problem” Mark replied with a smile. His sister moved to his back keeping her distance and staying out of the conversation.

The lady was elder probably on her fifties and she seemed to be a tourist just like them, however Mark thought she would probably be from somewhere in central Europe because of the raspy of her accent, he was about to keep back on her track when the lady stopped him gently with a motion of her hand. He turned to his sister and then approached the lady “Yes?” he asked but she started asking something in a language he couldn’t quite understand “Français?” he asked, to that the lady shook her head in denial, same luck happened when he asked for English and Español.

He sighed and then the lady put her hand on her chest and said “Russia”.

Mark only knew how to say hello in russian, he sighed “Privyet” he replied with a smile, his sister stared at him.

“Ah, privyet” the lady said back to him.

Mireya stared in disbelief “What the hell?! He knows Russian?” she knew Mark was crazy and dazzled on a lot of different things, but to have actually learned Russian? That just seemed too much even for him.

The lady replied some words in Russian, to which Mark only shook his head and answered “No Russian, sorry”.

“Thought as much!” Crossed Mireya’s mind and she let out a grin.

“Louvre?” asked the Russian woman.

Mark smiled widely, and turned to look for his sister, she was still around, “Thank god, she’s not lost” he thought “Yes!” he answered to the woman “That way” he said pointing to the East.

The Russian woman nodded, smiled at him and said something which he thought meant “Thank you” in Russian so he smiled back and waved at her as she walked down the street.

“What was that?” Mireya asked.

“She was looking for the Louvre and got lost” answered Mark.

“And how the hell u know where the Louvre is?! You’ve never been in Paris before” she replied.

He couldn’t hold a smile “Google Maps” he answered.

“What?!” was all she could manage to say.

“Yeah, there’s a way u can zoom on Google Maps that allows u to see some of the big cities, it’s kinda like a virtual tour” Yeah, he was proud of having searched that before “I may not have been in Paris before but I’ve toured it, and the Louvre was right by the river” and the pointed to the bridge near them “Same river that goes right there”.

“Well then, were’s Champs Élysées?” she snorted out a little annoyed.

“Um, close” he replied, not really sure when will they find it.

They kept walking and they got close to the river and the bridge. Then Mark said “Well Champs Élysées are close to La Tour Eiffel, we might not be able to see the avenue but we can see the tower, if we get to the tower it will be easier for us to find Champs Élysées, and we might get a glimpse of La Tour Eiffel from that bridge”

Mireya simply snorted back in response, she wasn’t convinced with his arguments neither comfortable with the whole situation, but since she didn’t had an option she walked up the bridge behind his brother, she could feel the cold wind of the night giving her goose bumps, her hair flowing when the wind blew and hitting the back of her neck.

They stopped at the middle of the bridge, she was tired, penniless and hungry, her legs were hurting, and she had no idea how they were gonna get back to the hotel, yeah, she could say that the situation … sucked, entirely. She leaned on one of the sides of the bridge and looked at her brother gazing out at the horizon; she moved her toes inside her shoes and let out an exhausted sigh. Mark looked nervous, Mireya rolled her eyes and said “There it is!” and let out a quiet sigh “Damn it” she mumbled quietly.

Mark turned to where she was pointing and looked at the light up above rolling around Paris, holding it, above all the buldings on his way and crowing the dark night sky, rose up on the distance La Tour Eiffel “Whoa” was all he could manage to say.

“Mhmm and you’re crazy if you think I’m gonna walk all the way there!” She was exhausted and pissed, and right now, beyond cooperating with anything. “Let’s just go back and then, well, you can beg at some hotel and we might get enough to go back home”

“Yeah, it’s late, and it seems quite far” He saw the distance and looked how tired she was, he was pretty tired himself, but quite excited to be in Paris too.

“Finally some common sense” Mireya thought and she turned to her brother who started to motion on the way back, but suddenly he crossed the street “What the ..?” was sliding in her mind as she shouted out “Hey! Where the hell are you going?!”

“If we’re going to head back we can go through the other side of the streets, we might have a better luck” Mark shouted as he crossed the street.

“I guess he had too much common sense for today” Thought Mireya and groaned as she went behind him, her mind kept rambling “I’ll kill him when I catch him, then he’ll have the PLEASURE to have died in Paris, jerk… ”

They went through the other side of La Place du La Concorde by the side of a building to their right the circuit was glowing under the golden lights of the statues wrapped by the dark night sky.

“Isn’t it beautiful” Mark said as they went across a large street while looking at the monuments before them, his sister walking up close to him as he admired the wonderful contrast, the sole pure elegance of La Place du La Concorde rising from the dark surroundings of the Parisian night, he felt into a contemplation state from which he was abruptly pushed off when Mireya shouted out. He turned around and saw a police patrol turning around the circuit, his sister holding on to his arm tightly after almost got ran over by the French police.

“Assholes” she said when she got back some breath, he helped her stand steady still a bit lost on what had happened.

“You ok?” Mark asked

“I almost got killed!” she shouted, she glared at him with flames of rage in her eyes “… but as you would say, AT LEAST it was in Paris! Huh?!”

He stared at her confused “I guess you’re not ok”

“I should’ve been honored huh?! To depart but at least do so with grace and glamour in your beloved city of lights!” Mireya was shouting at him while making poses pretending she was high royalty, a model or a celebrity all to mocking him.

They stared at each other, he giving his best not to laugh at her, the view of her sister pissed off, shouting in the middle of Paris at night and giving up a lousy act of a star was just too much to handle, yet he tightened his fists and pushed that laugh and smile back staring at her eyes while she looked back at him, then she noticed what she had done and tried not to laugh her shame out and to keep up her ground.

Seconds went by slowly as they both made an effort to keep their feelings locked down and the whole environment was wrapped in a thick silence that was just disturbed by the sound of the wind through the leaves of the trees, Mark was cracking up and a smile started to show on his lips he was scared of provoking Mireya further, but his laugh was poking up and tickling his lips.

A loud laugh cut through the night wind and Mark stared at Mireya while she let it out and looked back at him “Will you move?! We’re gonna get nowhere at this rate!" she said while smiling more calmly.

“My god you’re crazy!” Said Mark as he walked by her side “Who would get you?! Shouting out and acting up like a diva” said Mark while imitating her then he looked back at his sister, her eyes wide opened and her mouth pressed hardly clearly holding a smile or laugh down, Mark turned his head quickly back and caught a glimpse of a line of police men standing guard behind him, he looked back at his sister. He had just did the same lame act, but why not? In front of a bunch of sexy French police men “Did they …?” Mireya simply nodded to that “Holy shit! How embarrassing!” He started through the eyes of the police guys

“… And in Paris!” Mireya’s voice sounded behind him.

After crossing another street they bumped at the door of another hotel, their eyes met and after nodding they walked up the stairs, Mark went in and after a few minutes came back to his sister’s side “Room number” he simply said and she sighed, then they both walked down the street back to where they had come from.

Paris Day 01 / 06 Chasing Euros

As soon as the hotel building didn’t covered their eyes a sight of the urban Paris appeared before them. There were street names on the corners, traffic lights, cars, a park nearby, people crossing the streets, it was Paris, however it felt incredibly familiar, just like if they were somewhere in San Diego which is why it was strange a feeling looking at everything in French, of course they were in France so it should be in that language however Mark felt so at home that the fact that the writing on everything wasn’t in English or Spanish surprised him a little, they moved across a store it looked like a Walmart back at home and just next to it a McDonald’s “of course, they’re everywhere” Mark thought and just next to it was the subway entrance, they followed the stairs and went in to check le metro fares.

There was a window an display and some machines, probably for self service, Mark thought about checking them but he ditched the idea, they didn’t had money to waste so they went to the window.

“Pardon? Combien le billet pour le metro, mademoiselle?” Mark asked trying to keep up in French, his mom had told him that in France, in most Europe actually, they didn’t liked American very much, and his English was quite Californian; the lady behind the glass pointed at the printed fares between the machine and the window. “Merçi, mademoiselle”

Mark and Mireya approached the ticket fares and started checking them up. One way ticket was 1.7 euros, so for the two of them it was 3.4 euros. “Perfect” Mark thought, they both moved to the window and got the tickets, Mark let out a “merçi” to the lady behind the glass, they went through the bars and then down the stairs till they arrived to the platform where they waited under the “Gallieni” sign.

Mireya seemed calm and at ease while Mark had the inner excitement of a kid in Christmas after all it was Le Metro au Paris. When it finally arrived Mark got in expecting to see the French-style-passengers whatever that could possibly mean. So when the doors opened the excitement on Mark’s eyes searched for the couture and the model looking people but what expected his sight inside was pretty much the urban scene that was available well almost in any city and then the train was on their way and they were off to meet face to face with urban Paris.

About 35 minutes passed by and they got off when the Opera sign appeared in front of their window, they walked out of the subway, up some stairs and out the station into the streets of downtown Paris to find right before their eyes the proud building of the Académie Nationale du Musique rose high magnificent freshly renewed, with gold coated details all over the façade, two golden angels at each side welcomed everyone into the building that ruled the  view, the dome rose on a jade-emerald green bringing two colors to the place, green and gold, colors of wealth from the Parisian luxury.

Both walked into the Parisian downtown still bewitched by the building before them, it was there and it was real, the place where the famous story of the Phantom of the Opera was inspired, it was rich and magnificent, they could feel the glory of all those years ago coming from the ground; Mark stared for a little longer at the building “So this is it, The Ópera Populaire … how wonderful …” he thought but right now they had something to do, they needed euros, and as gracious and glorious as the building could be they had better things to look for, and a place to exchange currencies was on top of the list beating the five minutes of delight in front of the former Ópera Populaire.

“He said just coming out of the station here didn’t he?” said Mireya looking around “Well, where is it?!”

“There” Mark said a little bit loud pointing at the place and walking towards it, Mireya hadn’t spotted it yet so she walked by him trying to find where he pointed at “Right there, just where it says … Fermé” he let out a sigh, of course it couldn’t be that easy.

“And “fermé” means?” Mireya asked to Mark, and he told her that it meant closed, “Ah! Perfect! So we’re in nowhere, let’s just go back to the hotel, please?” Going into pointless adventures wasn’t much her type.

Mark considered the option quickly then he shook his head “We got a lil problem there.”

“Oh? which one!?” she said a little bit upset, going all the way into downtown for nothing wasn’t exactly what fun meant in her dictionary.

“We kinda have only 1.6 euros left” they only had 5 euros and they both used a 1.7 euro ticket to get there. “It’s not enough not even for one of us.”

“Well I can try it’s just 1 cent what’s missing” Mireya was upset when she answered “It was your idea to come here after all.”

“Oh come on, I mean this is downtown” Mark said while walking into a crowded street that seemed full of life “there HAS to be hotels around here and usually in hotels they exchange currencies, mostly because well, it’s downtown of a very touristic city.” They were walking through the street and Mireya was about to reply when Mark spotted a hotel sign “Fair enough there’s one right there!” And he walked faster towards it.

“Fine” Mireya thought “hope this is quick, I’m tired.” And she kept up the speed to her brother’s walk. They walked into a hotel on the boulevard Des Italiens, Mireya was waiting for Mark to come up with the answer, few moments later he was coming back. No exchange.

“But he did told me that there a place close by, however, it was probably closed, because it’s Friday and it’s 8 o’clock” They walked out of the hotel and stared at the golden sun on the horizon “8 o’clock? Doesn’t seem to me at all” Mark thought, they kept walking on the same boulevard until it became the boulevard De La Madeleine, they passed through the great and beautiful Madeleine and turned on Rue Royale just to watch the Place du la Concorde sparkled with the evening orange sun the whole golden scenario was a perfect romantic view, however they were two brothers with no cash, romance wasn’t on top of their lists right now, they needed one thing: money.

Paris Day 01 / 05 The Hotel

The hotel that displayed in front of them was just nice; it seemed a perfect expression of minimalist-euro pop-chic, white seemed to be the natural color of everything there, except for some crystal walls that were in neon colors as well as some decorative objects and personal rugs on the lobby, the hotel seemed fresh, new, modern chic, well it was just a splendid place to stay.

Mark and Mireya reached the reception and a beautifully groomed girl with Asian features welcomed them, her hair was pulled back on a bun, her make up flawlessly applied, on her right chest a little card showed her name, Marie, in white letters and above the name were the flags of China, Japan, the United Kingdom and France, so they supposed that she spoke Chinese (probably mandarin), Japanese, French and English.

“I could talk to her in French” Mark said almost whispering to Mireya.

“Yeah and I could talk to her in Chinese” she replied “but that’s not gonna happen either, so we’ll talk like normal tourists … in English”.

“You had to bring that up?” Mark was a bit upset, but just too little, he was in Paris after all, however he had studied some French and if there was a time it could be useful, the time was now. “Bon soir, Marie!”

“Mark!” Mireya groaned lowly as she nudged him, then addressed to the lady on the reception “Hi, sorry ‘bout that, we would like to check our reservations, please”.

“Yes, of course miss” Replied Marie “I just need the reservation number, please” She looked up at them and Mireya turned to Mark, he was already handing over the reservation paper with a smile, “Merçi” she said as she grabbed them and started typing the numbers into the computer, then the grabbed two cards and handed them over to Mark “Your keys and your room …” she was writing down the number on a post-it “… 412, the elevator is on your right down the aisle”

“Thanks” said Mark as he grabbed the keys he turned towards the elevator just to see Mireya half way through, he walked up to her and catch her up in front of the elevator’s doors “God I’m tired” he said to her.

The space opened before them and Mireya entered “Which was our room?”

Moments later they were entering room 412; Mark let himself fell on his bed and watched his sister do the same. After a few moments she turned to him and said “So, we’re in Paris”

“Yeah” he answered as he sat on the bed and looked at her “Wanna go get your cake?”

“Aww, yeah; but where?” Mireya replied “Plus we didn’t changed our dollars for euros”

“Well in that case we should go out because we’ll need euros at some point.” Mark said while he started packing up his stuff into his bag. “We can get euros in the main desk; I mean in every hotel they change currencies, right?”

“Yeah, ok, let’s go” Mireya added while getting her stuff following her brother out of the room.

Back at the main desk Mark asked the guy that was in if they could get euros there.

“Oh I’m sorry” answered the attendant “We don’t have currency exchanges here”

Mark turned to Mireya “What the heck are we gonna do now?” Mireya’s eyes looked back at him; “Great” he thought, then turned back to the receptionist “Excuse me, you know where we could get dollars now?”

“Oh, yes, just in front of the Opera” he said and pulled out a map for them “It’s right here” he said pointing at a spot in the map “You can use the subway two blocks away and get off in the Opera station” he finished handling Mark the map.

“Thank you” said Mark grabbing the map and went to the hotel lobby where his sister was waiting for him “Now, how are we supposed to get there?” he said to Mireya.

She sighed and opened her purse “We should’ve got euros before we came here” she thought and pulled 5 euros from her purse “I have this but I’m not sure if it will be enough for us both”

Mark stared at her and then replied “Well, we won’t lose anything by checking that up, will we?”

“No, I guess you are right” she said as they got on their way out of the hotel “Where do we go now?”

“It should be a subway station two blocks away from here, or so it shows on the map” Mark said folding the map back and moving around the hotel. 

Paris Day 01 / 04 Landing in Paris

They finally set foot into the airport, Mark felt a rush of excitement crossing his body and the anxiety of being there in Europe at last; behind him Mireya walked confidently staring at the way while her brother was walking at looking at everything “like he never had been on an airport before” Mireya thought, but Mark kept walking, watching closely and taking mental pictures of the airport and people, and also daydreaming about the whole trip, but daydreaming simply was keeping it short because he was living his dreams now.

This had to be what having your dreams come true had to feel like, and he was liking it, the feeling of starting a new trip was all over him, it wasn’t only the promise of living the trip he had dreamed for so long, it also was the fact of getting there, to that finally realized dream that he had, it was a nice feeling, he looked out through a window and watched the grey sky above the city.

Paris. They had finally arrived to the city of light, the city that was inspiration to so many poets, the place that inspired romance with the sole look at its marvelous buildings, and now they were there in the most classical romance destination on the globe.

They both kept walking through the airport surrounded by some people that were on the same flight and headed to the baggage claim bands, they were there for a few minutes then finally he got her bag and pulled it out of the band, after looking that her stuff was out she moved towards her big pink bag and pulled to her as she took a few steps back.

A few moments later Mark spotted his blue bag arriving at the band, when it got close enough he pulled it out and went to meet his sister at the customs line.

“Finally” she said looking at him.

“Yeah” he muttered “took some time for it to arrive, but everything’s here now” He looked up and his eyes soared through the line they had to wait on “Ugh! So many people I hate such crowded spaces especially waiting on long lines.”

“I know, but hey at least the view here is way better than the waiting lines back at home.”

“If you say …” He turned around taking a quick look at the people that surrounded him “… so …”

A group of people walked through them and both just stared at the runway-model-like figures topped with magazine-cover-like faces all wrapped in beautiful color mixed clothes with incredibly tailored fabrics. Their eyes stared as they walked down the aisle with a step and pose more worthy of a runway than an airport.

“Whoa” Mark managed to say.

“I know” Mireya added, she sighed and smiled up “Well, welcome to Paris”

“This is so not home anymore” he said and laughed. Then they moved up the line to go through the passport check, Mark looked at the people coming in singles or by the pair and soon their turn came up, he turned to Mireya and said “Come on, it’s our turn”

“… Our turn? It’s a one by one check so it’s your turn now hurry up, don’t keep them waiting” Mireya replied waving her hand in front of him so he’ll move on.

“Fine” Mark grabbed his stuff and walked to the customs guy thinking that she just didn’t want him by her side “Whatever…” he thought and handed his passport to the officer, and as the officer checked the passport, he checked the officer, looking at his golden-tanned skin, his light blue eyes and dark blonde hair trapped into a square face with raw features, his neck seemed strong, under his impeccable shirt a broad chest was hidden “Not half bad …”

“Thank you” said the officer handing back Mark’s passport, his voice was low and raspy, Mark nodded trying to keep his mouth shut so he wouldn’t droll at that sculpture of a man, so he grabbed his passport and walked away thinking “Even his voice is sexy … I wonder what’s their recipe to sexiness here in Europe” he turned and looked at Mireya walking towards the ward, her forehead was up and her eyes were haughty, she handed over her passport and gave a quick look at Mark, her eyes turned back to the officer, a catlike feeling expressed on her face.

Then the officer’s hand motioned with two fingers instructing her to come closer, her gaze turned from catching snotty to a frightful look with a hint of panic and slowly she looked up to meet her brother’s eyes, still a scared she moved forward to the crystal, pushing her legs hard to the floor as she felt the nervous shake going up her spine and freezing the tip of her fingers “What the hell could be wrong? What would I do?” were her thoughts as she motioned towards the crystal, the officer leaned forward, her eyes went nervously from the each time closer guard to her brother behind the customs booth and she felt her heart beating so hard that it muted the outside noise, she finally arrived at with the officer and the man said something to her, in that moment her shoulders fell back into their place and so did her eyebrows that had been up with concern, her eyes turned from the fright to relief as she picked her passport and walked up to her brother who was waiting for her at the other end.

“What happened?” Mark asked as at his just frightened and now smiling sister.

“Well, to be honest I got a little bit intrigued, thought I was gonna have some troubles” she left out a quick giggle “But he just called me and said –Happee Beerthday-” she sighed and left a still a little nervous giggle as they both were walking towards the exit “God! He’s so handsome and sexy … aaand he noticed my birthday!” a soft exhale left her lungs and they replied “This is gonna be the best trip ever! … Don’t you think?”

“Mm hmm” Mark answered but he thought “Darn luck!” seemed the spotlight had picked the main performer of the show.

They went out the gate and looked for the guy from the tour company, as usual they had to look for a guy in the crowd of guys just looking the same holding their companies name just to find out that the company’s name was, for a letter or two, spelled differently, once they finally reached the guy that was supposed to take them all to the hotel, they had to wait for the rest of the people to come out with their bags.

The group gathered was of 6 people, Mark and Mireya, both from Mexico, a newlywed couple from Chile and 2 friends from Argentina, they got inside the minivan and the driver put their baggage in the trunk in order so they would be picked up easily when they left.

Once they were all in the car they left the airport parking and a gray rainy sky appeared before them covering with raindrop the front glass of the vehicle. Mark turned to look at Mireya “And your journey begins …” he thought as he watched the rain cover the glass on his side, the van had the A.C. on however Paris didn’t welcomed them with a hot weather even though it was summer outside it was fresh and the wind moved the trees slightly.

They were in the city, however against what peoples and novels pictured; the Paris they watched wasn’t exactly XVI century classy styled, it was a very urban look, big stores with large parking lots, suburbs and some graffiti now and then on the back of some unlucky buildings.

About twenty five minutes the car took them through that quite familiar gang-like scenario and then it turned on a corner to arrive to the hotel.

The driver grabbed the pad that had the list of people on the van and asked “Mark and Mireya? You guys are in this hotel.”

“Just us?” Mark asked grabbing his backpack.

“Yeah, the rest are going to another hotel” The driver replied opening the trunk “Which ones are your bags?”

“Those two” Mireya answered pointing at the two large bags.

“Those two?” the driver replied taking the two bags out “That’s it?”

“Mm hmm” nodded Mireya taking her bag and walking up to the hotel entrance.

“Thanks” Mark said grabbing his baggage and catching up to his sister just in time to walk together into the hotel.