incredible journey...day 1

e* and i arrived here this morning after a dreadfully long flight. to me, long flights are made dreadful by any one or combination of the following: no interesting people in the immediate vicinity of your seat; no hotties sitting in the immediate vicinity of your seat; no hottie stewards to admire or chat up; terrible food; charges for liquor in steerage class; bitchy stewardesses [even the boy ones!]; turbulence [inside or outside the plane...]; not a single copy of hello magazine on the plane. i learned quicky that although e seems like a very well-put-together traveler what with lists and notes and packing everything including a steamer [don't ask!], but he stresses out the minute we arrive onto airport soil. calgon!

after we landed in paris, we wove our way through baggage, immigration, passport control etc. to try to find the tgv station for a jaunt down to the med. for a night before the really incredible journey begins. [side note: when a passport official sees that someone clearly holds a new/ newly renewed passport, the common courtesy of stamping it is appreciated. i got no stamp! so did i really visit france?] anyway we found the tickets and train, and surprise[!] my french is pretty damn good. nice accent too. the lady at the ticket counter said that, at least.

when we arrived in marseille, we had tried to get a cab to go to our hotel even though i knew it was pretty close by. what with my steamer trunk and e with all of his luggage, we thought a taxi might be easier. however, the nice taxi driver pointed out that we can walk the three blocks, and pointed us to the corner where we go, or we pay him the €50 to drive us there. we walked. really we stumbled there. it was a damn steep hill down from the train station, with about a trillion steps, too. uh, could someone please tell me when did france get humidity? it felt like houston, and you remember how miserable houston is!

e and i changed shirts and headed out on the city of marseille. e has the gift of sniffing out rainbow flags- any and all rainbow flags. i was determined to exploit this talent to our advantage much like kathy lee gifford exploits asian children who know how to operate a sewing machine. two points! we found both gay pubs within a matter of about an hour. at last, the incredible journey gets interesting...

* - e being the mysterious pseudonym for my partner;