My goodness, Mike! Thank you for posting all of that detailed information on the Paris metro system. It doesn't look too hard. (Famous last words. lol) Thank you for all of your time and effort in typing that message!

Besides not being a big city person, I guess my hesitancy is from the experience I had in Krakow, Poland, and I wasn't even alone on that trip. My friend and I landed in Krakow after a long night train ride from Budapest. In Eastern Europe the trains are not very comfortable; at least ours wasn't, and my friend was totally freaked out about the drunken border guards checking our passports in the middle of the route. I've never been to Western Europe to make a comparison, but surely it's a quieter ride.

Anyway, we were already tired upon arrival to Krakow. We knew from reading Lonely Planet that somewhere around the train station there should be a bus that would take us to Auschwitz-Birkenau. We stored our luggage at the train station. We went across the street to the bus station. We could not read any of the signs! A couple of people tried to help. To make a long story short, we went back and forth across the street from the bus station to the train station for two hours!!! Finally, we went back to the baggage department at the train station and asked the man who worked there if he could help us. He directed us to the correct bus stop, which was downstairs through the train station and on the other side of the train station- opposite of where we'd spent the last two hours. We barely made it to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

I will always regret that I didn't have more time to spend at those concentration camps. I do not know if I will ever have the opportunity to go there again. I know that part of the fun of travel is figuring things out, but I'd rather be sight seeing than spending two hours trying to catch a bus! My theory is that the more planning and research I can do ahead of time, then the more things I will get to see. So thanks to you, and to all the other Ziners who have been helping me figure things out before I go. When I do get to Paris, all of you will have helped to have made my trip much more pleasant and memorable.

What a great message board this is! Thanks.

majeba Seattle area, WA, USA