The night at Metro station in Paris!

It was my first international experience to Paris, France, away from family. There was no hotel/hostel booked prior to the trip (since while I tried booking, the hotels and hostels in Paris showed that they were gay friendly, which made me little suspicious about the area!), so I decided to book the hotel after visiting the hotels/hostels myself. This thought was supported by my easy-to-go nature when it comes to life and experiences.

The flight was late and it was around 10:30 PM. After minutes of observation, I dared seek advice from a couple for an appropriate place for accommodation. They advised me to visit an area which had lot many hotels/hostels. I reached the nearest metro station and tried to estimate the time it would take me to reach that area. It was around 1 hour away from the place. There was a board which showed a 2 day pass to travel all around Paris. There was a man guiding others on the ticket vending machine for the passes and the tickets. He took some 70 Euros and handed over to me THE PASS.
I boarded the metro and got down at a station, while soon I realized that my destination was some stations away. I tried board the train again, but couldn’t. Taking help from one of the executives, I got to know that the pass was valid only for one time punch and that I was ROBBED! I was shocked as it was really baffling to know that, at that hour, that too in a foreign land. I was all furious. Certainly it was not the right time to roam around alone searching for a hotel/hostel, that too around 12 AM. The wildest thoughts started pouring in, one of them was to spend night in any hotel or church (but there was no hotel, no church around that area), I decided to spend the night at the metro station as it seemed like the wisest of all!:p

I asked the lady executive if this was feasible for me to spend the night there, but she politely told me that it was not in her hands to permit me and she suggested me to go with the police(who usually come to check the stations every night and take any needy to a place quite far from the main city). “Quite far from the main city”, was certainly not my idea! I had only a day and a half to explore Paris and I was in no mood to spend another half day at a place far from the city. I nodded obediently with the lady with whatever she said. Soon she was done with her service and left from her duty. I was certain about my plan of spending the night at the metro station!

It was silence everywhere in the chill of that March night. I rushed inside the Metro area and there were some staircases, which were the warmest of all the places I could find. I took out the bedsheet that I was carrying(thanks to a friend who suggested me to keep one!) and wrapped it all around myself to protect myself from cold (the jacket I was wearing was not sufficient). At times there was silence, at times there were noises from the group shrieking and shouting in a drunken state. I could feel their footsteps passing by my side. It was scary, having such an experience in the very initial hours, in an foreign land, among the strangest crowd. Almost felt like an alien. There were small naps in between which were broken by the noises of the young mob shrieking and yelling at the top of their lungs. It was the night in Paris! It taught me so much! An exhilarating experience it was and I still wish to have so many, certainly not exactly that way! :P