Day 2: April 22, 2013 - Paris in the springtime! (Eiffel Tower and the excitement of Segwaying our way through Paris)
Day 3: April 23, 2013 - Versailles (uh...what it sounds like. I ain't gonna write Versailles if it's like, about tubing in the Amazon)
Day 4: April 24, 2013 - The Louvre...and handbags (for fashionistas only. So yes, you are a fashionista)
Day 5: April 25, 2013 - Methinks I will not die quite happy without having seen something of that Rome (yes, a very pretentious title. But I'm a pretentious bitch. And yes, it's about traveling to Rome)
Day 6: April 26, 2013 - My name is Gladiator (The Colosseum, Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum)
Day 7: April 27, 2013 - The tomb of the Apostle Peter (a tour of the Vatican necropolis - as well as the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps and the Pantheon)
Day 8: April 28, 2013 - I'm going sailing (part II) [part I, the cruise planning portion is here]
Day 9: April 29, 2013 - Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line! (our day in Taormina)
Day 10: April 30, 2013 - The joy of having absolutely nothing you have to do (oh sea day, oh sea day, how much I love thee)
Day 11: May 1, 2013 - Turkey...a place to visit, not just a delicious holiday food (ancient Ephesus, the House of the Virgin Mary, the Basilica of St. John, and the Temple of Artemis)
Day 12: May 2, 2013 - Mykonos - well, it ain't Athens but it ain't bad
Day 13: May 3, 2013 - Crete - it's like Venice, but less stinky and with cleaner water
Days 14-15: May 4-5, 2013 - Man boobage. And Paul
Day 16: May 6, 2013 - We're going home
Saturday - April 20, 2013
It is early. It is
VERY early. So early, the sun hasn't risen and it should be illegal for us to be up already. Especially on a Saturday. I didn't go to bed until about 1:30 am because I was
stressing out over last minute details and trying to make sure I had EVERYTHING
and its mother packed…and my alarm went
off around 4:20 am and our ride was at our house ringing our doorbell before 5 am
that Saturday. However, despite my
exhaustion, like a child getting up early with the promise of Disneyland, I was
excited at the same time as we were going to Europe for the second time. This time, we were jetting off to Paris, the City of Light (or La Ville-Lumiere - I'm so fancy), where I've never been before.
Oh, I've been to France (I sound so sophisticated, don’t I?)…if you count Villefranche and Eze, which I most definitely count (hey! beggars can't be choosers!). It’s the South of France – so I’ve been to
the snooty rich people part of France.
Like Beverly Hills or Coto De Caza or Martha's Vineyard. Or the Hamptons (I'm looking at you Matt Harvey).
But, it was still France, and though we were there for about 6 hours, we
still stepped foot on French soil on our last European cruise in September of
2011. But despite having been to France, I've never done
Paris. Never seen the Eiffel Tower. Never had a macaron from Laduree, never seen
the Mona Lisa, or Versailles, or the Arch de Triomphe. So even though we've told everyone we've been to France, we've never really been to France. So this time, after we booked a 7 day cruise
to the Eastern Mediterranean (we did Western last time for 12 days – which we
found just a tad long), instead of
spending a week in Rome like we had planned, we decided to do 4 days/nights in
Paris, followed by 3 in Rome, the 7 night cruise, then another night in Rome
before we jet back home on May 6, 2013.
So…it’s 5 am and our
ride to LAX lasts about 45 minutes since there’s no traffic…because people aren't crazy and out a 5 am on a Saturday!
We check in, then make our way to the United lounge…which sucks donkey
balls. Seriously, it's no bueno. But at least there’s coffee and some
cookies. The best part - they have shortbread cookies. Mmmmm...shortbread. Tasty. Ahem! But because it’s breakfast time,
they had some mini bagels too.
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| my mama in her seat across the aisle from me |
We were there for under an hour waiting for our flight. We were flying from LAX to Dulles before getting onto a flight to Paris.
Our plane to D.C was one of the older ones, just two classes. As we were in the front row, there were no
reclining seats in front of us and it was relatively comfortable. Even though I was tired, I ended up reading
for most of the 5 hour flight. I might
have dozed for 20 minutes or so, but I was sitting next to some old guy who
appeared to be a pilot for UAL (he had a crew tag and was hanging with the
pilots in the cockpit before we took off) and wasn't comfortable enough to
drool on him. So I dozed for a bit, but
for the most part I read my kindle. We
had “breakfast” on the flight. Breakfast
sucked. So badly that I didn't bother
taking a photo of it (sacrilege!). We
had a choice of Special K cereal, or some kind of egg dish. We opted for the egg dish. It looked like a puffy microwaved egg beaters
thingy with a scary looking sausage and some random wilted looking tomato sitting next
to it. Oh well, the roll was edible, and
the yogurt was good.
We had about two hours at Dulles. The lounge there was better and had more
options as it was one of the major hubs for United Airlines. I uh, ate a little too many shortbread cookies. Mmmm…buttery
goodness. Then I had coffee. And chocolates. And cheese. And of course if you have cheese you have to have crackers to go with it. And I don’t remember anymore because I was
such a pig that I blocked it out due to guilt.
Clearly my promise to try to eat healthier on vacation crashed and
burned while I WAS STILL IN THE AIRPORT.
Whatever, my fat ass can diet later. (this became my anthem while I was pigging out on croissants, macarons, cheese, baguettes, pasta, pizza, gelato, cakes, steaks, mashed potatoes, and assorted bad for my ass food - particularly when I was on the cruise ship. It's a good thing I wore my stretchy jeans.)
I took the
opportunity at Dulles to 1) charge my phone and 2) insert my SIM card from keepgo. Freaking best $12/day I've ever spent. It has a
traveling/roaming SIM card that works in all the countries. It’s a bit cheaper if you choose the
“European” SIM option, but it didn't cover Turkey, so I opted for an extra $2
a day to cover Turkey ('cause I damn well wasn't going to be without the internets in Turkey!). It also covers
the States, so I ordered an extra day before my trip actually began to test it out before I left to make sure it would
work. It works SOOO well. I will never take an overseas trip again
without buying a disposable SIM card from keepgo (no, they're not paying my cheap ass to say that). They sent my card out to me quickly and I
received it the same week I purchased it.
Though it’s only 3G speeds, it’s completely sufficient for looking up stuff
on the internet, checking email, using Google maps and navigation (which we used almost daily as we wandered around lost) facebooking and yelping on the run. Also, I installed Skype and got a Skype number
on my phone for telephone calls – totally worth it. When our ride to the Paris airport was late,
I was able to use Skype on the 3G connection to call the home office (Shuttle Inter) to check on the status of our driver.
When we couldn't get into our apartment in Rome, I was able to call the
apartment manager Maurizio to try to get the keys (he ended up being in his wine shop TWO DOORS DOWN and I didn't even need to call).
But I like having the option to make phone calls for emergencies (real and imagined) and for friends and
family to be able to reach me if they need to. I also liked (and still like) having internet access to be able to text
my friends and family through whatsapp while traveling. I used facebook as a mini travelogue this
trip – I documented thoughts and photos as I was viewing the sights so people
could share in my trip. Really though, it was mostly for me so I have something to look back on to jog my memory and to
remind me of what I was thinking and feeling when I was actually in the moment.
Our plane to Paris was MUCH nicer. On our ghetto trip last year, we only had
enough mileage to book economy seats – it was through my dad’s membership in
United’s 1K program that we upgraded up at no cost to economy plus…which was
EXACTLY THE SAME AS ECONOMY except for an extra 4-6” of legroom. For someone who is 5’2”, it really doesn’t
make a difference. But I did stare in
envy at the Business First seats the row before ours that had lie flat
beds. Though I’d seen advertisements for
them, I’d never seen them in real life before – except that plane sucked more
because it was configured 2-4-2. So the
two people stuck in the middle of the center section really hated life. Our plane to Paris was MUCH nicer – it was
2-2-2, with some facing forwards and some facing backwards. Which let me tell you, when you don't know the guy across the aisle from you - it's a little startling to wake up and see him sleeping 3 feet away from you - it's kind of awkward since you kind of CAN'T avoid eye contact as you're facing each other. Weird.
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| this is the seat across the aisle from me. It ended up being occupied by a very large and loud man who kept talking about the stupid vineyard he owned in France and how he was large and fat not due to McDonalds meals, but from the "best restaurants in the world". Douche. |
These seats were
pretty swanky. Well, I thought so, and First
Class (yes, it has to be capitalized) was Super Swanky, but I didn't want to look there too long and suffer an inferiority complex. We had access to a bunch
of different movies and games and music, but being the loser I am, I wasn't in
the mood, so I read my kindle for a bit more. The meal on this flight was MUCH better than the crap food we were served going to D.C. It was tasty enough that I actually took photos. Except they turned out blurry. And so you don't get to see the steak I ate since the picture sucks donkey balls.
Sunday - April 21, 2013
We arrived in Paris
at 6:55 am. After picking up our luggage,
we had our driver from Shuttle Inter waiting for us. The good part is that we breezed through
immigration and customs. The bad part was
we breezed through but since we couldn't get into our apartment to drop off our luggage until 10 – we had 2 hours to kill before we could get rid of our luggage. And we had THREE BIG pieces of luggage (not including backpacks stuffed with whatever crap we thought we couldn't live without on our flights). We walked down Rue de Buci went into Paul where we dragged our luggage in for
breakfast. This was the first spot we
found that was open.
I thought the baguette and croissant was tasty…until we had
croissants, pain au chocolat and sesame baguettes from Eric Kayser a street
over at 10
Rue de L'Ancienne Comedie. While
our waiter was cool – he helped us decipher the menu and the breakfast sets since
my high school French is limited to "bonjour", – one of the other guys there kept
glaring at us once we sat there for about an hour with our luggage. Shamed and uncomfortable, we each ordered
another cappuccino, bringing our total bill from 15 Euros to just under 27
Euros. Damn those are some expensive ass
cappuccinos. They’re like, $6! Who the hell in their right minds would pay
that money? When we lingered as long as
we were able to (and I felt like I was sitting on needles I was so
uncomfortable with the way that asser was glaring at us) we dragged our suitcases out and searched for a place to sit down to wait out the 45 minutes we had left until 10 am. We dragged them across Blvd Saint-Germain – which was literally 10-15 feet from our apartment on Rue de Buci. We crossed the street and found some benches and sat there to wait. Although it
felt weird to be sitting there with big suitcases, at least no one was glaring
condescendingly at us and I felt much more relaxed. Once I secured all the locks and wound every
strap three times around my arms or legs with a mental plan to punch any would
be thief on the throat, I took out my
kindle and read for a bit. (do you see a pattern of addiction to my kindle yet?)
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| we look like sad hobos! |
Time went by surprisingly fast and before we knew it, it was
10 am and we could drop off our luggage and explore. Yay!
I found 32 Rue de Buci on VRBO. Being a cheapo and someone who doesn't like being confined to hotel rooms, I went on VRBO instead to look for
apartments in Paris and Rome. We wanted a place with some
living space so we weren't limited to sitting on our beds to watch TV and
having a kitchen made our meals much more flexible. I mean, no matter how buttery and delicious,
there’s only so much restaurant food you can eat – especially at the end of a
long day when you want nothing more than to kick off your shoes and just chill
in front of the tv. We found 2 places –
32 Rue de Buci in the 6th Arrondissement in St. Germain des Pres and
at 31 Via Del Pie Di Marmo about 5 minutes away from the Pantheon. The Paris apartment was fabulous – it truly
was a little jewel. Though small, the
furnishings were top notch. The sofa bed
was SUPER comfortable, the place was perfectly clean, the towels were large and
fluffy, and the blankets were down comforters with duvets. Bliss.
It truly was a WONDERFUL place to return to at the end of the day to
kick off our shoes and just relax.
Although everything is mini sized in the apartment (the kitchen is sooo
tiny, so is the shower), it truly has everything needed for comfort. We never felt hemmed in or limited, and we
truly, truly enjoyed staying there. I
was so sad to leave the apartment when we had to, and though our place in Rome
was comfortable, it definitely didn't live up to the standard set by 32 Rue de
Buci.
We
dragged our suitcase back across Blvd. St. Germain and punched in the code to
the apartment building provided by the owner via email. Once we were inside, I buzzed the apartment (found by looking for the owner's name) and Elsie, the cleaner/manager/all
around magic lady answered. She buzzed
us in and let us put our stuff down. She
was still cleaning up after the last occupants who left that morning but was
gracious in letting us store our things and using the restroom there before we wandered off to explore the city.
Once
we dumped our luggage…freedom! With
Museum Passes and cameras in hand, we set out to explore our new
neighborhood. And because it was Sunday,
I wanted to visit Notre Dame to see if we could catch any of the Gregorian
singers for mass. Before we went to
Notre Dame though, we stumbled onto Musee de Cluny, which has a nice collection
of medieval art including books and jewels and lots of stained glass windows displayed.
We
probably spent 30 minutes there or so, and after we wandered through, we headed
to the Ile de Cite to see Notre Dame. My
dad was interested because of Victor Hugo's novel. I'm not sure if he expected to see Quasimodo there or something. They were preparing for the 11am mass when we
arrived and we unfortuantely missed the Gregorian singers. But as there was Mass, there were two separate entrances – one for visitors of the church that takes you around the perimeter without disturbing (too much) those that were there for Mass. There were throngs of people there –
everywhere you looked there were cameras, camera phones, ipads and video cameras being
waved around. But because it was during Mass, the noise was kept at a pretty low level despite the crowds inside the massive church. I had wanted to climb up into the bell tower
(hi Quasimodo!) but 1) there were a gazillion people there I didn’t want to
fight with 2) I was jet lagged and tired and didn’t feel like waiting an hour
in line with other sweaty people and 3) my dad would've blown a gasket if I
made him wait in line for an hour. It took us about 20-30 minutes to walk around the interior perimeter of the church before we made out way outside. I didn't really have a lot of expectations for Notre Dame. I just knew I wanted to visit it because it's an important historic site (I mean, this place is about a thousand years old and where Napoleon was crowned Emperor of France) - one that shouldn't be missed like the Eiffel Tower - but I didn't think I'd like it so much. It really is a beautiful church - the soaring nave, the rainbow rays of the sun that are shining through the stained glass windows dappling the interior of the church in happy colors, the graceful sculptures that adorn the altars, the detailed columns that line the aisles, the intricate carvings on the panels...there's so much to look at!
The exterior is beautiful as well. When we were there, the the flowers and trees were blooming and it literally looked like a postcard. They have these unique tulips (I think
they’re tulips, but I wouldn’t know considering I have the thumb of death and
plants come to my house to die) that have multiple petals and these flowering
trees that belong on a poster, or in a painting. My mom and I were so obsessed with these
flowers that we took multiple close ups.
Because we’re weird. But hell, we
do the same in our own backyard (well, her backyard, I don’t have one because I
live in a sorry little townhouse with a cement patio) – whenever something
blooms we lose our minds and take a gazillion photos of it like we’re
horticulturalists in a competition of some sort.
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| weird looking flower that reminds me of tulips. Would this be a super tulip? The Avenger Tulip? |
At this point, we were tired. We've been up since 4 in the morning, had two long flights, wandered St. Germain des Pres dragging our suitcases around and walked around Paris for a few hours – we were pooped out. And hungry. So we decided to grab a quick lunch before we checked into our apartment. And for our first meal in the land of culinary delights…we had sushi. And fake pho. Yes, because we are crazy and retarded (hi mom!). We were walking back to our apartment when my dad saw a sign that said “pho” and he lit up like he saw the promised land. Note that we have been gone from home for under 24 hours at this time. He pointed to it so excited that he found Asian food in Paris, and not wanting to disappoint him, I acquiesced to “pho.” Considering I remembered 1/25th of the crappy high school French I took almost 20 years ago, I wasn’t sure how in God’s name I was going to be able to order Asian food, but fortunately the people who worked there spoke Mandarin. So while in Paris, in our first restaurant meal, we ordered sushi and pho in Mandarin. Sigh.
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| non-exciting supermarket sushi |
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| fake pho. Real pho don't have no pork balls (no matter how delicious they may be) |
It was basically supermarket sushi – nothing to write home about – I’m just happy I didn’t get sick, ‘cause nothing ruins a 2 week vacation like getting the runs the first day. My parents were happy they find something soupy and noodly, even though they said it didn't taste anything like pho. They were really just excited that they got to eat something that didn't have cheese on it – something they loathe with a passion (I know, I know, the humanity). Once satiated by subpar Asian food, we walked back to our little apartment and checked in. We wanted to buy some water so we could you know, survive, except the local Carrefour (literally 2 minutes away down the street) was closed early since it was Sunday. Foiled again! So we walked to the tabac across the street and took it up the butt when we bought 3 bottles of water for 1.50€ each. Talk about the bastards ripping us a new one. But beggars can’t be choosers, so we sucked it up and spent like, $7 on three tiny bottles of water to get us through the night. Then we dragged ourselves to the apartment, spent about 20 minutes with Elsie the magic lady checking in and learning how to operate all the gadgets in the apartment and crashed. Yay!
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| the tiny kitchen |
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| kitchen and dining area |
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| bedroom with pocket doors |
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| closets in bedroom |
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| us just chilling |
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| looking from the kitchen to sitting area (and my bed) to bedroom |
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| tiny little bathroom - but upgraded very well. The shower in this bathroom was seriously smaller than the one we had on the cruise ship. No B.S. |
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| my sofa bed (soooo comfortable) looking into the bedroom |
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| view from the front door (hi dad!) |
We woke up around 7 pm.
We’d slept for about 4 hours at this point and were hungry again. My mom, being ever prepared, as well as ever
paranoid about her ability to survive two weeks on scary foreign food brought a
baggie of rice from home. As well as
fixings for congee – fried gluten (mian jing), spicy bamboo, and pickled
vegetables. This is Chinese comfort
food, and despite being in the city for 12 hours, they needed comfort. So once again, instead of the bread and
cheese I was determined to eat, we had Chinese congee for dinner our first
night in Paris. We’re SOOO Chinese
man.
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| oh yes we did |
As I was determined
NOT to waste my first night in Paris – and at this point had gotten sufficient
sleep to function and stuffed myself with plenty of carbs I proposed we take a
cruise of the Seine. Having looked into
this prior to going to Paris, I decided on Bateaux Vedettes du Pont-Neuf as 1) Tripadvisor gave them good reviews and 2)
it was relatively close to our apartment.
It was about a 12 minute walk to the pier on the Seine, and it was 12€ (now it's 13€) per person. If you KNOW you're going to take this cruise, do yourself a favor at home and buy the tickets online - it's only 8€ if you buy your tickets online and print them at home. I didn't do that. Don't be stupid like me. The tickets aren't for a particular time, so you're not making a reservation or limiting yourself to a specific cruise as long as they're not over capacity. Like I said, don't be stupid like me. The boat took us on a
loop around the Seine and was about an hour.
There were two levels to the boat – a top level that was open and a bottom one with picture windows. I went to the top level, but as the seats
were taken, I ended up standing the whole time at the back of the boat – mostly by myself, which
was awesome because I got to take photos without any obstructions or over
anyone else’s hands or head. My parents
braved the top level for about 20 minutes before they gave up and went
downstairs where they then viewed the delights of Paris through the boat's picture windows. I loved being upstairs – even though I was
freezing my ass off and had to bust out my gloves - it was exhilarating. And we lucked out with regards to when we
arrived for our cruise around the Seine.
All the reviews I read said that the ideal time was during sunset so you
could see both day views and night views of the city from the water. Being lazy and ill prepared for the cruise, I didn't time it at all - we were literally in the apartment when I told my parents we should do the cruise and seriously - the next one leaving was the 9 pm boat. I'm not sure how this all works on this side of the world, but when we left our apartment just after 8 pm, it was still plenty light out. Hell, when we got on the boat at 9 pm it was still dusk. Night fell during the course of the cruise, we got to see the transformation of the city from twilight to the City of Light. It was truly the perfect way to end our first
day in Paris and a wonderful way to begin our two week vacation. Let me tell you - there's something awesome about seeing the Eiffel Tower in person for the first time - but there's something magical about seeing it lit up from the Seine.
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| on our way to the pier. See how bright this is? This is after 8 pm |
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| right before they gave in and went downstairs. It was soooo cold! See the scarves and my mama's gloves? |
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| Pont Alexandre III (bridge) with the Eiffel Tower in the background |
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| Notre Dame at night |
So after this magnificent introduction to Paris, we hobbled
back to Rue de Buci – where mind you, things were JUST
starting to get hopping – and like the old and boring folks we are, we climbed back into
bed and conked out. Just until 2:30 am of course.
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