Time has been flying by, and I've neglected to write about my travels
throughout 2011....so here I go...The travels will include Paris, the
South of France, Cinque Terre, Tuscany, Rome, the U.S. Virgin Islands,
Kauai, and Belize, and I'll do a blog entry for each & probably add
more photos later so feel free to take a second look at these posts.
I'm afraid I won't remember all the details if I don't write them down,
so this is both for you and me. :) I'll start with our most recent trip
& work my way back to January.
My significant
other's sister got married in Europe, so we built our trip around that
event. I'll refer to my significant other as J from now on. I took a
trip to South America with my girlfriend Jessica a couple years ago, and
I remember her saying,
"Emily on vacation is not like Emily at home."
Jessica is a dear friend as well as a client, and she said this because
she knows how organized and scheduled I can sometimes be at home...but
on vacation, I don't like to plan
anything (which drove her a
little nuts but we worked it out!). So, our Europe trip was the same
(good thing J works the same way as I do...). We didn't book tickets
until about 2 weeks before we were going because we couldn't decide
where to go and what to do. We eventually decided to fly into Paris and
fly home from Rome. That was all we really knew, other than the wedding
plans. The good thing we did, and here's a travel tip: We got large data
plans for our phones...not because I wanted to be on the phone really,
but because I wanted access to my email if I needed it and because I
could get online & use Google Maps or book hotels or do anything I
needed to do, without the stress of carrying around my laptop or trying
to find wireless. I got 800 megabytes (I had to learn how big a megabyte
is) in a 2-week period for about $85. Worth it!
So we
arrive in Paris & we have no idea where we're staying... We got a
taxi (seems like all their taxis are Mercedes) and found a hotel online
called Hotel Agora Saint Germain (
http://hotelagorasaintgermain.com)
&
had our driver take us there. I was so exhausted (we left LAX at 9am
and got into Paris the next day around 10am) & J only let me lay
down for about 5 minutes before I was dragged out into the city. We ate
at this great cafe (Cafe Le Barnum Brasserie) across the street. They
served us such a big breakfast that we took up two tables... Yummy tea,
fresh bread, all sorts of jam, greens, water, and eggs with veggies.
Then we walked to Notre Dame and to the Eiffel Tower. I've been to Paris
a couple of times before, but J had never been there, so this was all
new to him. Along the way to the Eiffel Tower, I discovered an art store
with the most beautiful colors (walls covered with every color you
could imagine) and brushes I had ever seen. I was in a mini heaven. We
didn't go up into Eiffel Tower. I've still never been up in it - - every
time I've been to Paris the line is too long. It's great if you can go
around 9:30pm because it sparkles for about 30-60 minutes around that
time. If I ever go back, I'll work up my patience level....
That
night we walked to the Latin Quarter to have dinner. We ate dinner at a
supposedly really nice place, but the food in France is mostly not
good. I'm not saying it's all bad, because I have had great food in
France, but it's much more difficult to find good food in France than it
is in Italy (which I'll get to in a minute). I was afraid of something
at almost every meal! (
What's in that sauce? Did those vegetables come out of the microwave? Why so much butter??)
The people at the restaurant actually asked us why we weren't eating
more and if we were hungry. Pretty funny. J said something about how
we're feeling strange due to the time change and it was really
breakfast-time for us, and I tried to explain that French food is just
rich so we can't eat as much of it. That probably wasn't good, because
the guy walked away at that point. : )
The next
day we did the Louvre. We ran into some friends there, and it was funny
because we ran into that same set of friends (also in Europe for the
wedding) in the middle of the Sistine Chapel in Rome a week later. What
are the odds?! This day was a bit rough for me. I was grabbed and yelled
at by a crazy woman in a pastry shop (great shop called Boulangerie
Patisserie). The shop workers had to kick her out...and then in the
subway someone tried to steal my purse. Luckily I know Paris has a lot
of petty crime, and I was paying attention... I saw a guy posing with
his "girlfriend" coming up behind me a little too close -- I was
watching them in the glass reflection of a window -- and at the last
second I snatched my purse up and over to my other side as he lunged for
it (it was a purse that has a strap that goes across your body). I gave
the guy a terrible look, and the "girlfriend" hissed at me. It
definitely pissed them off that they failed at getting my purse, and the
guy almost started a fight with us. I was afraid he had a knife or
something (it turned out there was a group of 4 of them), so we left the
subway. Of course, we saw them back up in the street trying to do their
thing to other people...but I steered clear. Lame people. Anyway, the
last time I was in Paris I also refused to wait in line for the Louvre,
but this time we did it, and it was worth the wait. You can't imagine
the sheer size of the Louvre until you're in it, and even then it's hard
to grasp. The paintings and artifacts are breathtaking, and it's also
worth seeing Napoleon's apartment. You'll never see anything else like
it. We also went to the Arc de Triomphe. It's beautiful, and it's worth
going there just to watch how many cars nearly get into accidents trying
to go around that round-about.
 |
| J walking to the Louvre |
 |
| You can see part of the line here...click on the photo to enlarge it. The line wrapped all the way around the glass diamond... |
 |
| Photo from inside the Louvre, looking across the way... I took it from my iPhone but it looks fake! |
 |
| A shot inside Napoleon's apartment. |
 |
| Arc de Triumph |
I've flown EasyJet
in the past, and it was great. I would still recommend it, but don't
miss your flight and you can't have too much luggage! We missed two
flights in a row, trying to get out of Paris. First, we booked a driver
to the airport & gave them our flight time (yes, we actually planned
for something...and it would have been better if we had just grabbed a
taxi). In California, if a van picks you up on the way to the airport,
they might pick up other people, but they always take into account your
flight time and they would only pick people up along the way. Not the
case in Paris. Our driver actually picked up people 40 minutes the
other
direction, despite our panicking that we were going to miss our flight
(we were watching him on Google Maps). We were late to the airport and
missed our flight. Unbelievable. So we had to pay €60 each for adjusted
tickets and €40 in train fees to get across Paris from Charles de Gaulle
to Paris Orly (the other airport) to try to make another flight out.
The gentleman at the desk said we would definitely make the next flight.
Not the case. We ran as fast as we could (J even had to throw a
suitcase over some entry bars to the train) to get on the train, make
some transfers, and get to our next flight. We missed the cutoff by 10
minutes!! EasyJet tried to make us buy entirely new tickets (I about
lost it but J is more diplomatic than me, and so he convinced the girl
to give us free tickets). We felt that missing the 2nd flight wasn't our
fault and that EasyJet should have told us we wouldn't make it. By then
it was late at night, so we booked another hotel room near the airport,
got a few hours of sleep, and we were back at the airport and on our
way to Nice - -
early - - we weren't going to miss another flight.
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