Shopping

I did my last little bit of Christmas shopping yesterday (Saturday), I had been out to the shops on Friday afternoon (there was no electricity at work) and I thought the shops were fairly packed, not really pleasant but I could still get what I wanted. I thought I'll go out a bit later on Saturday, maybe 5:30-6ish and hopefully the crowds would have died down a bit. Well maybe the crowds were smaller than what they had been earlier, but let me tell you it was only then that I fully appreciated what is meant when people talk of "rivers of people". You had to make sure you were walking in the right stream, going in your direction, and be really careful that you didn't get separated and forced into the stream going the other way, once that happens it's really hard to move or cross back over. You have people shoving you from all directions and the police were having to control the intersections, otherwise the cars would never have been able to move.

The first shop I went into was by far the busiest of all of them, perhaps that was a good thing as it made every other shop seem empty by comparison. This first shop had two main streams moving into and out of it so you had to pick your position. Every aisle was packed with people and the racks looked like a ravenous horde of hyenas had been in a few minutes earlier. I'm actually looking forward to the shops in Sydney now, bring on the Christmas Eve shopping, I reckon after that experience I'm going to be like "where are all the people, what is this Sunday shopping?". I'm actually a bit worried that I'm going to be really rude and aggressive to people when I come back, shoving through people in shops, pushing my way onto trains, probably standing way too close to people, you know, just the usual survival skills you have to learn in Paris.