I am JPond: Day 4: Success!

May 2nd, 2012 ---

Well this morning I had a bit of a late start. After having a bit of a late night, not getting in until around 11 then talking with friends and finishing up my blog posts, by morning I was exhausted. My alarm went off around 10:30 this morning and I was ready to huck it across the room. I may be on vacation, yea, but I had things to accomplish today! No sleeping into the afternoon!

I slowly got up and ready for the day... And by slowly I mean laid around for a little bit, checked Facebook, emails, texts, etc, then finally showered, dressed and was out the door by around noon.

Montmartre was on my mind. But first, to Gare de Nord to get my train tickets! I booked Paris to Cologne for tomorrow (with a transfer in Brussels) and then Cologne to Lucerne for Monday.

Following this, I headed straight for the Sacre Coeur!

By the time I arrived, it had begun to rain.. again.. So I whipped out my fantastic little raincoat and began to conquer the stairs up to the beautiful Sacre Coeur.

If you don't know anything about the Sacre Coeur, it's an incredible church, perched atop Montmartre and over looks all of Paris. So, when I got to the top and looked out the view was pretty great!

I went inside, dipped my fingers in the holy water and enjoyed all that my Catholic upbringing had to offer. I browsed around and then found myself sitting in one of the pews just gazing up at the alter and magnificently tiled ceiling, colourful and shimmering gold. I sat there for awhile, debating if I should say a prayer.. Or do anything that connecting me to the religion I was raised on but in all honesty I just sat. I was in such awe of the church itself, the fact that I was in Paris and the idea that I had become so unconnected with religion and frankly, feeling awkward about a prayer attempt. So, I sat. I observed. I thought. I enjoyed. And then I took a picture or two and went on my way.

On my way, I noticed a sign leading into a basement entitled "Dome & Crypt" then a larger arrow. My curiosity led to go find out what it was all about.
In a deserted tourist area, I found myself face-to-face with a woman in a ticket booth asking me to pay a few euros to see what the crypt and dome were all about.
After getting my ticket I ended up in a tiny, tiny circular staircase that I swear went on foreverrrr! (300 steps to be exact.) It was cramped, literally could only fit one person up at a time and had few windows. About half way up, not only was I out of breath but with no sign of life, I was also getting quite nervous.
If you know me well, you know I have quite the imagination and don't do well with scary movies, haunted houses or the like. So my nervousness slowly turned into utter fear. Why was were there NO people at a what is supposed to be a tourist attraction?
I decided it was now or never to face my fears -- I mean, I had already made it, what seemed, to be half way to the top!

Finally, I see natural light! Horray!

Suddenly, I'm on a roof, complete with stone gargoyle to my left. What the..?! Okay... I guess I'll just follow the tinnnnyyyy, what im assuming is a walk way in front of me. This is the point where I ask myself if Im even supposed to be here... Did I take a wrong turn? Did I miss a door? Anything...?! I couldn't have. Theres no way. It was just a staircase...

I walk a little further and as I turn the corner of another dome with a small gated opening I here the flutter of a bunch of pigeons. Scared me half to death! It was like watch tower-type deal. Oh, hunchback? Where are you??

I keep walking and suddenly see someone taking pictures! YES!!!! Another human being/ tourist!!! Fear disappears almost immediately.

I head up the few steps to the doorway he's standing at, which of course leads to *another* staircase. But at the top of this one, I walk through and I'm on top of the world!
...Okay well Paris, at least! I was literally at the top of the Dome with only but a handful of others. I could see in every single direction! All that fear and all those damn stairs definitely paid off. I could see the Eiffel Tower, church steeples, Gare de Nord, and downtown Paris, miles away. It was quite a sight to be seen!

After enjoying a solid 20mins, atop the Sacre Coeur, I headed back down the stairs, pathways, more stairs to the basement.. Also known as the Crypt. It was dark, quiet, smelling of age and there was an eerie feeling in the air. In the crypt, there were small alters, swords, lit candles and statues of all sorts - everything from Jesus, various saints, catholic figures and even one that particularly stuck me was headless but holding its head in its own hands.

I didn't spend too long in the crypt... was in need of some fresh air and somewhere that felt a bit less death-like. And this is when I found Rue Foyatier!

Rue Foyatier is the "street" with all the stairs and tram-like car that goes up to the Sacre Coeur. It's also the street that I walked up last time I had come to the Sacre Coeur. Standing at the very top, I stood and looked down with a grin on my face admiring all those stairs... Why? Because this time I came prepared with a slinky in my purse! Hahaha!

I must've looked so absurd with the large smile I had, bouncing down the steps looking for the perfect spot to send off my classic metal slinky - but I didn't care! This is my trip and my bucket list I'm checking off! And the French have seemed to be a bit stuffy for my liking anyways!

I get about a quarter of the way down, squat and whip out the slinky! It didn't take long to realize that the stair-to-slinky size ratio was going to make this impossible. Dammit!! If only I had brought a bigger slinky!

Still, I let the slinky slink one large step and smiled and laughed with full content that I still did what I had come to do!

I carried on bouncing happily down the rest of the stairs, slinky in hand and then when arriving at the bottom I realized it was still fairly early and could go explore a lot more. Since I was only a few stops from the Moulin Rouge, I set out to check it out.

Well, I got off the metro, which happened to be literally across the street, looked at it for a minute, snapped a couple photos, got bored and got back on the subway. Haha! At night it's a little more glamorous but during the day, it's really quite dull looking and the neighborhood is... well, quite lewd. Sex shops, strip joints, erotic museums, "head through the velvet for a good time" kind of area.

So with a few hours to kill before I had to head back to the apartment to get ready for my evening plans, I decided to make a third attempt at seeing the Louvre.

This time when I got there, not only was it open, there was only a line of about three people! Wahoo! I went through the entrance of the pyramid, through the standard security bag scan, down the escalator and grabbed a ticket and the museum map. I was on a hunt for the Mona Lisa!

It was pretty crowded in the museum, which made it pretty warm and humid. Within about 10mins I was using that great brochure-sized map as a make-shift fan.

On my way through the museum, I turned a corner (following directional signs to the Mona Lisa) and found myself in a large corridor, one set of stairs away from the statue "Winged Victory" - a very famous statue.

I remember years ago seeing this statue in art class and then again when I came to the Louvre on that school trip but every time I see it, it's pretty glorious. The way the "fabric" looks like its draped is amazing. Of course, I, like the many other people around, snapped several photos before continuing on my adventure to find the Mona Lisa.

When arriving in the room where the painting hung, there were hoards of people all pushing and shoving to get a picture of her - the Mona Lisa. The one thing I noticed is that there weren't many people that were actually looking at it, like reeeeaaallly looking at it. Everyone was taking pictures and then looking at their cameras. What's the point? .. I mean common, go google it if you're just going to look at the picture rather than admire the real thing. And in that case, get out of my way!

It takes me a few minutes to push my way through, having people completely ignore any sort of personal space I may have had, but when I get about 2 rows of people from the front I stop and just check it out. Sitting behind a pane of glass and guarded by security, its so much smaller than everyone believes and I had believed. So I admire it a little longer then go wander around the museum.

When I finally decide that the crowds were becoming less enjoyable and I'm ready to head back after an hour or so, trying to find the exit was a mission in itself.

While trying to find a door that led to the outside world, I managed to stumble upon the Venus de Milo statue which was pretty neat. And then I found myself in a room of Venus' & statues of other women.

I slowed my pace a bit and stood and stared at this one statue for about 3 or 4 minutes. It was another "Venus"-entitled statue, one holding a child's hand. But the one thing I noticed, and began to notice more about all the other statues as well, was how natural they all looked. Which got me thinking about how the perception of beauty has changed so drastically from then to now. It really gave the statues a whole new meaning for me. It was nice! :)

Shortly after I finally found the exit, with almost having a run in the security attempting to go through the wrong door.. I made my way back to the apartment.

After walking all day, my feet were killing me and I was exhausted... About 10x more exhausted walking back up those 6 flights of stairs too!
I really believed I would be prepared having been using the gym Stair Master like a boss before this trip.... Guess not! Haha

It's around 6pm and I'm heading to a concert around 830. So I sit and relax for about a half hour, catch my breath.. Change and head to the restaurant on the corner for a drink, supper, creme brûlée then hop on the metro.

Back in January, I started hanging out with this really great guy from New Zealand and he introduced me to the band, The Black Seeds. After falling in love with the band, he had told me they were going to be in San Diego on April 6th and that he wanted to take me to see them! Well plans were changed a bit when he had to fly out to Fort Lauderdale for a job but I still went to the show.

At the show, my friends & I all drank in excess and being the friendly, social butterfly I am - I made friends with several of the band members! After talking with them, we realized that we were going to be in Paris at the exact same time! They encourage me to come to the show, we exchanged information and then went our separate ways!

Well here I am, in Paris, the day of the show and ready to go enjoy some good music! Turns out one of the band members recalled I was here and hit me up with a text asking if I was still coming to the show! (Cool!) And hell yeah! Of course I was! I already got a ticket!

I had googled the name of the place, mapped out which subways I had to take and headed proceeded to head that way. Once I arrive, I realize I'm walking in circles around the same few blocks looking for the bar.
Okay seriously.. Where is this place?
I whip out my phone, look at Google Maps.. One block up.. Alright perfect.
... No bar, venue, sign or anything that could remotely be a place where a band would be playing.
Look at google one more time.. It says I'm at it.
Seriously, wtf? I look up at the very cute handbag boutique I'm standing infront of, "La Maroquinerie".
Gahhh! Dammit!!!!
If you didn't catch on, that would be the same name as the place I'm going. Excellent.
I look at google once more, this time I zoom out. Oh, look at that... Another little red pin on the map across town. Peeeerrrfect.

One long metro ride, with one switch, later and it turns out I'm in what looks to be the ghetto of Paris. Awesome.
But wait it gets better...
I decided it would be nice to wear my new wedges I got last month (that I looove) to this little shindig. Was no problem until I realized I had to walk about a mile... Against the wind... in the rain... Uphill. By the time I get to the place, I'm relieved, wet, pooped and my hair has never looked better, #absolutefrizz, #curlyhairproblems.

The band is already playing, so I quickly grab a Jack & coke and make my way downstairs to the basement-located stage. After dancing and downing my drink, I pushed my way closer to the stage. I got about 2 people away from the stage and decided that was the spot for me. It was an absolute blast and ended up getting mouthed a "heyy!" from Ned Ngate, the bassist that recognized me and a smile from the lead singer, Barnaby Weir who ended up coming up to me after the show asking if we had met prior because he, too, recognized me.

Ned caught me just as I was leaving and thanked me for coming out and supporting them again, then invited me to stay and hangout at the bar with them on the street level of the venue.

Hesitant at first because I had quite a journey to get back to the other side of town, I ended up staying for a drink. I chatted some more with Ned, Barnaby, the trumpet player of the band, Johnny and some other people that had been at the show. It was a lot of fun and once again, nice to hangout with people that spoke the same language!

I decided to head out around 1230, and having been talking with them about their tour and my adventures, we both realized (again) that'd we'd both be in Cologne tomorrow! Hahaha! Crazy! They told me I had to come out, see the show and hangout with them again! My train arrives in Cologne at 815 and they go on around 9, 9:30ish... So I said I would try and that I would have to check if my friend that I'm staying with would want to go.

As I said my goodbyes, Barnaby again encouraged me to come tomorrow and said that he would even put my name on the guest list so we wouldn't have to buy another ticket! Score!! So nice of him!

I got on my way and headed to the metro and stood looking at the map for a second figuring out if I had to go left or right to get on the one I needed to go one. A man standing beside me said something to me in French.
Me: "uhh.." He says it again. "I sorry, I speak English!" He chuckles, holding his suitcase and says with a shrug, "it's closed!"
"what?!"
"closed!" - He points to the screen above. Last run at 12:47. I look at my phone. It's 12:48.
Whhhhhaaaaat?!!!!!! NO! No, no, no, no! Shit!!!! I had no idea it stopped running, the thought never even occurred to me! Ughh!!

I end up taking the last subway to a different station where I could get a connection that would take me close enough to my apartment. I prayed that the connecting subway would still be running by the time I got there.

Of course, as a good story would have it, by the time I had got there it stopped running too.

Miles and miles away from my apartment, I get up to street level with nothing going through my head but curse words. How much would a cab back be? Could I find a cab? Are they gunna rip me off by taking a really long route? Which way am I even going?
I start walking.
Suddenly a cab appears! I run for it!

If you're a girl and a fan of Sex and the City, you may recall an episode where shes late on the morning she has to ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange... She dashes out the door, screaming "Taxi!" as loud as she can and the taxi comes to a screeching halt.
That was me.

I open the door, gasping "do you take card?" The driver looks at me puzzled.
Crap. Does he not speak any English either?
"Visa. Do you take visa?" I ask, while attempting to make a rectangle with my fingers.
"Ah! Visa! Oui! .. Uhh.. Minimum £15"
"ummm.. Ya, sure. Okay, whatever!"
I hop in and we start driving.

I have a new appreciation for Paris after that ride.

We drove through the cobblestoned neighborhoods, down Quai de Montebello, passed the Norte Dam and other famous sites, all places I've visited over the past week. And while sitting in the back of the cab, all I could do was admire Paris.

Paris is a completely different place in the dark. It lacks all the hustle-and-bustle, the tourists and tour buses.. the traffic and the noise. It's calm, quiet and serene. It seems as if there is no one around and that's when you can really see the beauty of Paris.

By this time the rain and clouds had passed and the wind had calmed down. All the tree-lined streets were lit with decorative Parisian street lamps, and the Seine was relatively calm, looking very much like wet pavement. The Notre Dame was completely dark except for one single light on the very top left corner. The Eiffel Tower had turned off its lights as well. It was like Paris had gone to sleep.

I arrived at the apartment sometime around 1:30. I took a shower and now off to bed.

Today was a success and another fun adventure.

Tomorrow?

Cologne, Germany!

Cheers!