Day 5: Do as the Germans.

May 3rd, 2012 ---

10:30- I woke to my fantastic alarm, that I love so much. Again, laid around like a bump on a log for a while. Then began packing.

This mornings predicament: carrying suitcase down 6 floors without falling, dying or other on said mission.

Having realized that my suitcase was actually much lighter without my toiletries, I opted to take them out for the trip down the stairs. I zipped everything up, rolled the bag down the hallway and then stopped at the top of the first step and just looked down at the circular stairs ahead of me.

Back in San Diego, I'm a member of 24hr Fitness. I go almost every day, sometimes twice a day, and for the last little while I've been trying to do more weight lifting and such to gain a little arm muscle.. which I've always really lacked! Yes, in such a weakling. Haha So thank goodness I've been hitting the gym because I had to turn that suitcase on its side, pick it up and with it under my left arm, my right hand bracing the underside, I headed down the six floors - stopping just once around the 3rd floor to get a better grip!

By the time I made it to the bottom, I was so proud! It definitely wasn't as bad as I had thought! I slipped my suitcase to the side of the stairs in more of discreet area and then headed all the way back up to grab my purse, bag of toiletries and small bag with my book, headphones and other small things for the train ride.

When I reached my suitcase, I quickly unzipped it, three my toiletries in and got on my way. Threw the little court yard, small corridor, large entry way and out the door to the street. As I stood street side for a moment, I pondered whether I should take the metro or catch a cab.

With it being a beautiful day and the cabs being unusually cheap in comparison to North America, I decided it would be nice to catch a cab to see Paris one last time on my way to Gare de Nord.

I grabbed the first passing taxi on the corner of Ave Bosquet and Rue de Saint Dominique, the nearest cross streets of the apartment. We drove over the Siene, through the bustling streets of Paris. If you hadn't heard, drivers in Paris are crazy! There are no lanes, every one drives where ever they please, every one cuts every one else off and then you have mopeds zipping weaving around all over the place.
I could never drive here.

We arrive at the Gare de Nord and as the taxi driver pulls off to the side, a police officer immediately walks over and begins to write him a ticket. Why, I'm still unsure but I guess it just wasn't the place to stop. Needless to say he was pissed and said something in French to the officer and the officer signaled him to go. We move a little bit further down the road, the driver I believe was still in the wrong spot because he was checking his mirrors and constantly looking around to see if the officer had spotted us again. So I quickly paid my fare, grabbed my bag and headed inside for a quick lunch.

My first cheeseburger and fries in quite a while. It was great! I sat at the first floor restaurant, Cowans(?) or something like that... read my magazine, ate lunch and then after paying the bill I looked at my train ticket.
The whole thing is in French. Awesome. .. Of course not surprised. But what car am I going to and what seat am I in?
I head to the ticket booth and the woman, kind of rudely, shows me where on the ticket it has the information I'm looking for. I walk over to the main waiting area and wait, staring up at the departures board eager to find out which platform I have to head to.

By this time the train is going to be leaving in 25mins... Seriously, still nothing? .... Leaving in 20 mins..... The French really know how to leave things to the last minute. ....15mins, the train is scheduled to leave in fiiiiffffteeeenn minutes! What the hell?!
Suddenly the departures board begins to whir as the entire board changes and my train is fourth from the top with the platform number for the Thalys train being number 10. I was lucky to have been standing right beside it.

I was in car number 7. So thinking it would be at the furthest end of the platform I booked it down there. When I realized I couldn't tell where the numbers were located and I was approaching the end, of what ended up being a smaller train then I thought, I asked one of the men checking tickets where car 7 was.
"Down that way." He points to where I just came from.
Great. I thank him and head back the other direction.
When I get to the door, I pick up my suitcase, store it in the luggage area and find my seat a few rows up on the aisle.

The train ride was enjoyable. I listened to my music, read my magazine. When I arrived in Brussels, where I was transferring to Cologne, I hopped off the train and found myself walking behind some guy about my age with a skateboard strapped to his backpack. On the skateboard, a half maple leaf with the word "EH?!" drawn in silver sharpie. At first glance, I didn't think anything of it.
Whoa, wait a minute... !
"Hey! Are you from Canada?!"
"Ya, I am"
"That's awesome! I am too! I noticed your skateboard.."

We ended up chatting on our way inside the terminal. Turns out he was from Edmonton, backpacking for the month and headed to Amsterdam. He was a nice guy, seemed younger than I but we shared our stories then headed to catch our trains.

I waited an hour before boarding my next train to Cologne. Aboard the train, I was lucky to have the whole row to myself, so I parked it by the window, leaned against the window and the back of my seat, with my feet up on the chair next to me and took a nap. When I woke, I freshened up in the bathroom, and before I knew it I was in Cologne!

I jumped off the train, headed down the stairs where I was met by Janis with beers in hand! Stoked!

Last July, my old roommate Sydney unfortunately had to move back to Arizona and do we had to hunt for a replacement. After several interviews, we fell in love with a girl that stopped by named Natalie. She was bubbly, outgoing, and soooo excited about our house. It was the first person that really showed so much excitement about our house, which we thought was fantastic because we really love our house too!
There was only one catch, her boyfriend would be coming to live with us for 3 months at the end of September.
We debated because we weren't sure if we wanted a guy living with us that we had never met. What if we don't get along with him?

After a few discussions, we decided 'what the hell? Why not! It's only for a few months!' And Natalie moved in a few days later.

September rolls around and in flys Janis from Germany!

With Natalie beginning to work more and myself being home a lot, Janis and I developed a really nice friendship. We would chill and watch tv together while I worked on homework and he was on his computer; he would give me advice on guy problems, life problems, whatever. And we would all party together too! It was a lot of fun!

Janis headed back to Germany in December, and sadly Nat & him ended their relationship a month later. When I booked my trip to Europe, I asked Natalie if she would be okay with me visiting him while I'm in Germany. She, of course, had no problem with it at all since we had all been friends just a few months prior. So I hit up Janis on Facebook and we planned for me to arrive in Cologne this first week, stay with him and he would show me all around Cologne!

It was fantastic and quite relieving to know I'd be seeing a familiar face on my journeys! So when I arrived, we hopped in a cab, got back to his apartment and that's when the drinking commenced!

We decided to go to the Black Seeds show. I had told Janis about the opportunity earlier, an after checking them out, he was stoked to go see them. So we filled up a water bottle with Redbull and vodka, cracked a beer and headed out down the street! In Germany you're allowed to drink on the streets! (I love this city already!)
We grabbed a cab, who told it was cool to have our drinks in their and headed to the venue called the Underground.

The Underground is not really underground. You walk through an arched entry way into a courtyard, the trees strung with lights and tables with benches scattered in the area. We head to the open door of the venue, you can hear the band playing in the background and head up to the bouncer. I tell him I'm on the list, to which he checks then stamps the insides of our wrists.

We head in, grab drinks then push our way to the front of the stage and dancer the night away!

After the show and 2 encores later we head outside where Barnaby & Ned come out and meet us for a drink. We end up sitting outside for a about an hour chatting with them and another friendly group of fans, smoke a few cigarettes and pass around a joint (Ahh! Yeah! I know! To my family reading this: when in Germany, do as the Germans? Haha! Definitely won't be made a habit, might I add..)

After many, many drinks and laughs, a change of scenery was needed for all. Barnaby & Ned tell us they have to head over to the hotel to drop off their stuff then they wanted to meet up with us somewhere else. Janis suggests a place called Club Subway that was in relative walking distance to his apartment. So the band heads to the hotel and the group of us hop in two taxis and head to the club.

When we arrive, Janis & I are starving and decide to head to the McDonalds near by. We get there, order our food and then shortly after are met by a few of the people we were with. Mind you it's 2:30 in the morning, we've been drinking since I arrived at 8:30... Needless to say, we were both a little tipsy... I never thought I would say this, but McDonalds was bloody fantastic at that moment.

With food in our stomachs and having sobered up a bit, we headed back to Club Subway! When we arrived, we walk down the stairs (a basement club) and suddenly appears Barnaby bouncing happily around the dance floor and seemingly stoked on life! Haha

We all drink and dance and party till about 5am when we decide it was time we headed out. The group we were with had all left by then, except for Barnaby & Ned, whom we said our goodbyes to then drunkenly stumbled back to Janis' apartment and passed out around 5:30am.

What a night!

Gare de Nord Train Station in Paris

Janis & I at the Underground for the Black Seeds

Ned Ngatae of The Black Seeds

Barnaby Weir of The Black Seeds

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!

Sacre Coeur

In the Dome, the Eiffel Tour in sight!

Creepy Statue in the Crypt of the Sacre Coeur

Slinky time!

Moulin Rouge (obviously)

Winged Victory at the Louvre

The Black Seeds at La Monquinerie!

Day 3: When all else fails...

May 1st, 2012 ---

After feeling like I missed half the day yesterday, by waking up so late. I was determined to make sure I was up-and-at'em early today! Set my alarm, woke up, got ready and headed out the door.

On my way to the metro, I walked by Rue de Granelle - a market was going on. So I took a gander, grabbed myself a water and a small bag of grapes and kept on my way.

As I hoped down the stairs to of the metro to the self-service machines to buy myself a ticket, I met my first language barrier. What the heck is this mumbo-jumbo?! Son-of-a...!
Alright, alright.. Recall grades 1-9 French... Click here, click there... Accept?... Sure, why not... £1.70. Cool.. Think I got the hang of this. Ticket prints, and I'm off!
Take 2, on my mission to the Louvre!

After a few subway transfers, I make it.

I follow a herd of people and my google maps in the direction of the giant glass pyramid... As I walk through a beautiful and large corridor, I spot the pyramid! Stoked!

As I trot around the enormous courtyard, take some pictures, I head to the entrance....That's funny... Why is there no line up?

A sign:
"Le musée du Louvre est fermé Le mardi."

You have GOT to be kidding me. ... For you English folk, the louvre is closed.

Well hmm.. Alright. Next idea?

I get back on the metro, take it to the Notre Dame.
The one thing I forgot to anticipate about coming during the beautiful month of May were the lines. Tourists everywhere! The line to go in the Notre Dame was probably about a solid 45mins long. Thankfully, on that good old' school trip back in the day, I had been in it before. I cruised around the area taking more pictures, when I seethes girl with bleach, bleach blonde hair... Had to have been from California, especially with the fake boobs she was sporting. Haha... Turns out I was bang on. It was Holly Madison, Hugh Hefners ex-girlfriend of many years from the Playboy mansion. Solid celebrity-spotting on my part.

I carried on, walked along Quai de Montebello and ended up finding one of the original editions, 2451/2663 of Le Petit Prince... But was soon devastated to find out that the woman wouldn't sell it to me without buying all other 6 volumes in the collection for £550. Rats!

So on my way I went, again. When I was a lot younger... Maybe 5 or 6? My dad came to Paris for a few months to teach baseball. He told me that him and his friends always used to hang out along St.Michel, which happened to be a few blocks from where I was.

As I headed that way, I ended up discovering a fantastic bookstore, which later found out was quite famous, called Shakespeare & Co. Its a two-story bookstore, with old signs above door frames, "Old Smokey Reading Room" and "Blue Oyster Tea Room", with rickety wooden ladders to high up, stocked shelves. It featured old typewriters and organ upstairs. There were little nooks with benches to sit and read all the notes left by visitors over the years that hung on the wall. The place had so much character and history it was almost overwhelming - so much to look at! After spending about a half hour or so exploring the bookstore, I felt a bit hungry... Stomach growling.. I headed to back to the street of Saint Michel and found myself a restaurant with a good looking menu and decently priced too.

Le Cloud de Paris, it was called. I ordered myself a Croque Monsieur sandwich (ham & cheese) and a creme brûlée! At the end of my lunch a couple sat next to me that spoke English. I was so excited to hear people speak English that I said hello and had a chat. It was nice, but I was brought the check, paid up, and headed to the washroom before figuring out where to go next.

Not to get so descriptive, but while I was in washroom someone tried to open the door... Thank goodness i locked it or their would've been one of those awkward moments, but when I came out the woman apologized and I told her it was alright and started to wash my hands. This is when she did the same thing I had done just shortly before, "you speak English! Hunny! Where are you from?!" I told her I was from San Diego and, what-a-freakin coincidence, so was she! From La Jolla, not just a few minutes down the road!

We chatted a for a few minutes, told her about my adventures and she told me I had to come meet her family at their table! Well long story short, they turned out to be an absolute riot!

I sat with them for about an hour, had a glass of wine or two and cracked up while chatting with them. It was fantastic! It turned out that the woman I met, her family owns Mr.A's downtown San Diego, a favorite of my parents, and her son was an editor of Celebrity Apprentice & The Amazing Race, which I'm dying to do to some day when I'm am American citizen! (haha) it was a fantastic afternoon, and so nice to sit and socialize with people that spoke English, were funny, annnnnnd from the same city!

After exchanging information, we parted ways and I headed back to my apartment. When I got back I decided to change into a good ol' tshirt and headed out to climb the stairs of the Eiffel Tower.

Ya, you heard me. Climb the stairs all the way up.

Well when I got to the Eiffel tower... Not only was there a line that wrapped around for days and days... There was also an enormous line just to go up the stairs! Who knew that so many people Had the same idea I did.
Once again, plan failed.

The sun was setting, and I didn't want to be out when it was really dark just as a precaution while traveling alone in Europe, so I opted for a chocolate banana crepe and a walk over to the cafe across from my apartment for a glass of champagne. Not bad, if you ask me!

Tomorrow I'm headed to the train station to pick up my next ticket to Cologne and then to Montmartre and then the Black Seeds concert tomorrow night!
Should be a nice day! :)

The Louvre!

Closed on Tuesday

Notre Dame

Shakespeare & Co.

Rosalie, from La Jolla! 

La Tour Eiffel!

Day 1: Bonjour, Paris!

April 29th, 2012 ---

If you've ever seen the movie Eat Pray Love then you can recall the scene where Liz & Dalia are upstairs in a bedroom. While Dalia is changing her child's diaper, the two talk bout the whole institution of marriage and starting a family. Dalia admits that her life is the one she always wanted, that she secretly kept a box stored under her bed of little dresses, toys, etc for what she hoped would be for her future daughter. To this, Liz explained that she had a similar box but not full of baby joy, but of pictures and clippings of places and cultures around the world that she wanted to experience one day.

When watching this movie, that's based on a true story, I found myself completely relating to the story being told at that moment. Yes, I'm a girl and dream of getting married, etc and that whole sha-bang.. But I have a similar destination-filled box.

Ive been traveling since I was 3 months old. My first trip to Rancho Bernardo, California - which actually seems kind of ironic now that I live a few miles away in San Diego!

Anyways, I grew up with my parents always encouraging me to be adventurous.. they encouraged me to explore, use my imagination, be creative and as an only child - be independent. Over the years, this led to incessant curiosity about the world around me. So for as long as I can remember I've been on a fun and inspiration-seeking life path, and though there has been ups and downs, I wouldn't change a thing! Sometime along this path, I started collecting pictures and articles and making mental notes of places I'd discovered or heard about- thus further developing my passion to see even more of the world.

Now to continue with how THIS incredible trip came about... This trip has been planned in my head since about the age of 14. I've always been somewhat of a planning-type... Yes, I'm incredibly spontaneous, but it's nice to have a general plan.. And mine was to either do a study abroad or big trip (such as this one) before I graduated college.
Why?
Because when you graduate college, if successful, their will be job opportunities that one shouldn't turnn down. And then once you get a career started, it gets harder to take time off... And then say you meet someone, fall in love, start family... Before you know it, you're on the brink of a mid-life crisis trying to figure out where time went! Now, I'm not saying that happens in every case, obviously, but I'm fine with diving head first into a really fantastic career when I graduate... It's the big pay-off for all the studying I have to do; it's when it all finally becomes applicable. So this whole theory and plan has been in my mind for a very long time.. And after years of discussing this topic with my parents they noted how hard I've been working in school and gave me the green light! Wahoo!

It also became one of those now-or-never situations, as well. With the beginning of the National Student Advertising Competition quickly approaching in October - I have to commit 6 months of schooling to that and then I would have a few quarters to go till graduation; who would bail out to travel right at the finish line? So if I was going to go at all, now was the time... Take a quarter off, enjoy what the world has to offer in a big way and then get back and buckle down... Getter done!

My adventure began on April 21st. I flew from San Diego to Toronto, Ontario. From there, I drove the 45minutes out of the city back to my hometown of Kitchener and spent a fantastic week with friends and family. I'm pretty sure I left with a new set of abs from laughing to the point of tears everyday I was there! It's so nice to get back to the home spot every once in a while!

Anyways, now I've flown from Toronto to London Heathrow... Landed at 8:20am, took the subway to St.Pancras International train station.. Then boarded a train to Paris. From the train station in Paris, I navigated myself on the metro to La Tour-Maubourg, where I got to street-level and simply marvelled at the surroundings. I was blown away.

I walked down Rue de Granelle, a tree-lined street with beautifully Parisian buildings all around and felt that unbelievable moment of appreciation and surrealism when I looked up to see the Eiffel Tower peeking over the buildings. Incroyable! I turned down Ave Bosquet, walked a few more blocks and reached the large brown doors with big brass handles that led into the apartment I would be staying in.
After ringing the bell, I was buzzed in by a man named Edouard, I walked through a tiny corridor to a small courtyard - having had trouble trying to figure out what door to go through in said courtyard, Edouard suddenly appeared and happily escorted me through one of the doors. And with no elevator in sight, he politely grabbed my bag and told me to go up the very small, steep, circular staircase up to the top (6th) floor. I felt awful for him carrying my suitcase, offered to carry it part way, but he assured me he had it!

When we reached the top floor, we hung a left, then a right and I found myself face to face with what would be my door! Edouard opened it up for me and the very first thing I see is the Eiffel Tower, bold and beautiful, clear as day from the window.

Speechless, was what I was that moment. Then I just laughed in utter amazement at such an incredible beginning to my solo European adventure!

So here I am top floor, Eiffel Tower in sight!
Bonjour, Paris!

Let the adventures begin!

My plane from NYC to London!

Walking down Rue de Grenelle to my apartment!

The view :)