Paris est toujours une bonne idée...
Soooo.... I'm in Paris. A lot has happened today, so where do I begin?
My dear friends of Dream Careers invited me to tag along on their trip to Paris. Let me rephrase that: they invited me to crash their trip to Paris for the weekend. I am literally staying in their hotel room, which is totally against the rules...oops, but live for the memories, right? (cue Drake: YOLO). Well, it kinda got off on the wrong foot. Their train, with their whole crew (literally... their whole program) was leaving around 7am to get to the city for the full day of fun. I booked my train ticket for the same train, to be safe, feel secure, and keep travel plans in check.
However, I'm the idiot that forgot their passport before crossing borders. Yep, that's right. I went all the way to customs of the train station before noticing my mess up. Getting all the way to security without a clue that I needed my passport to go to a different country, like what is wrong with me? I didn't have enough time to travel across London to grab my passport by my departure, let alone the next scheduled train. I had to get ahold of Julia & have her meet me halfway at Piccadilly Circus in order to make it back for the 8am train. Let me remind you that there is no phone service on the underground. That was tricky.
But I made it safe and sound to Paris. My train ride wasn't all that bad. It was quite relaxing really, and I had my row to myself. The EuroStar is a bullet train that goes underground, underwater, and at the speed of light. Well, obviously one of those isn't true. I was a tad nervous for the trip, considering the incident that had just happened in Nice a few days ago. France had been recognizing the tragedy through the state of mourning, and so much terror has happened around the world, it's almost crazy to not feel shaken up. Let alone to be traveling to France alone.
I didn't let it get to me, and I made it to the City of Love with my one true love, aka myself I guess?? Ahh, the wonders of wandering. It wasn't until this moment, when I had actually stepped foot in Paris, that I realized the extreme language barrier. Every sign was in French. Everyone around me spoke French. I felt so lost, and I had signs pointing me in every direction. I used the "Toilette" and actually had to pay for a use. Literally, with my credit card... swipe. My first €2 gone.
I called an Uber, and boy that was interesting. Imagine me... finding a dark car, trying to communicate with a person who has no idea what I'm saying, getting into the car, and sitting in silence, wishing for communication with the driver in front of me as the radio soothes the tension with soft French words. Yes, that's what it was like. All I could do was enjoy the french language from the radio.
To kill some time, I stopped in a cute little bakery, Mellifuell, for a snack. I didn't even know what half of the treats were, so I just pointed to the pretty one and said, "I want that one." Too bad for me, yet again, the use of the English language is dead at this point. The baker sorta understood me, and I felt relieved, until he looked me dead in the eyes while handing me my pastry to say, "Thank." Ahh, the beauty of language barriers. I walked around the streets for about the next hour avoiding eye contact and communication from store to store, just using the two words I know in French, "Bonjour," and "Merci."
It was an interesting first few hours, but I was finally reunited with my friends at their hotel. I had to sneak my way up to their room with my luggage, and made it safe and sound. The rest of the day was time for adventure. We traveled far and wide through the streets of Paris. We saw the Eiffel Tower, explored the shoppes on the main road, took a walk around what I like to call the street museum of high fashion (or Avenue Montaigne), and admired the Arc de Triomph.
It was a remarkable day, well spent with Caroline, Katie, Laurel, and Rick. I think we explored most of the inner circle of the city. The amount of walking we did definitely deserved an ice cream. We enjoyed the sunset from the high rooftop view from the hotel. It was beautiful to see the city from above. The streets and architecture were magic. I enjoyed frolicking through a city as if I was Belle, from Beauty and the Beast.
We concluded the night with our favorite pastime... drinking wine and champagne, like a picnic, if you will... in front of the Eiffel Tower. I highly recommend this with a group of friends. All you need is a bottle and a baguette!
Chut, je rêve...
My dear friends of Dream Careers invited me to tag along on their trip to Paris. Let me rephrase that: they invited me to crash their trip to Paris for the weekend. I am literally staying in their hotel room, which is totally against the rules...oops, but live for the memories, right? (cue Drake: YOLO). Well, it kinda got off on the wrong foot. Their train, with their whole crew (literally... their whole program) was leaving around 7am to get to the city for the full day of fun. I booked my train ticket for the same train, to be safe, feel secure, and keep travel plans in check.
However, I'm the idiot that forgot their passport before crossing borders. Yep, that's right. I went all the way to customs of the train station before noticing my mess up. Getting all the way to security without a clue that I needed my passport to go to a different country, like what is wrong with me? I didn't have enough time to travel across London to grab my passport by my departure, let alone the next scheduled train. I had to get ahold of Julia & have her meet me halfway at Piccadilly Circus in order to make it back for the 8am train. Let me remind you that there is no phone service on the underground. That was tricky.
But I made it safe and sound to Paris. My train ride wasn't all that bad. It was quite relaxing really, and I had my row to myself. The EuroStar is a bullet train that goes underground, underwater, and at the speed of light. Well, obviously one of those isn't true. I was a tad nervous for the trip, considering the incident that had just happened in Nice a few days ago. France had been recognizing the tragedy through the state of mourning, and so much terror has happened around the world, it's almost crazy to not feel shaken up. Let alone to be traveling to France alone.
I didn't let it get to me, and I made it to the City of Love with my one true love, aka myself I guess?? Ahh, the wonders of wandering. It wasn't until this moment, when I had actually stepped foot in Paris, that I realized the extreme language barrier. Every sign was in French. Everyone around me spoke French. I felt so lost, and I had signs pointing me in every direction. I used the "Toilette" and actually had to pay for a use. Literally, with my credit card... swipe. My first €2 gone.
I called an Uber, and boy that was interesting. Imagine me... finding a dark car, trying to communicate with a person who has no idea what I'm saying, getting into the car, and sitting in silence, wishing for communication with the driver in front of me as the radio soothes the tension with soft French words. Yes, that's what it was like. All I could do was enjoy the french language from the radio.
To kill some time, I stopped in a cute little bakery, Mellifuell, for a snack. I didn't even know what half of the treats were, so I just pointed to the pretty one and said, "I want that one." Too bad for me, yet again, the use of the English language is dead at this point. The baker sorta understood me, and I felt relieved, until he looked me dead in the eyes while handing me my pastry to say, "Thank." Ahh, the beauty of language barriers. I walked around the streets for about the next hour avoiding eye contact and communication from store to store, just using the two words I know in French, "Bonjour," and "Merci."
CHEERS!
xoxo
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