Paris

Paris

My trip started off with finding my way from the airport to my hotel. With the help of several kind local french men I was at my hotels doorstep. The Lorraine Hotel. You have to have a good sense of humour or really low self esteem to stay in a dive like this. My dodgy hotel was next to one of the main train stations. I did have a great view of the intersection and multiple drug deals no doubt. Well, I wasn't planning on spending much time in my hotel with a shower where the closet once probably was and when you book a room with a shower expect that. The toliet was shared by the floor, thankfully my floor's toliet seat was merely for decorative purposes... oh my is right!

I had this fantasy of how magical Paris would be which in reality it wasn't even one of the most beautiful cities I've been to (Florence). The Notre Dame and the Latin Quarter area was my favourite with lots of restaurants and shops. I would say it was the safest area.

Can't complain about the weather so I wanted to walk along the river over to the Eiffel tower. After being approached by two handfulls of street gangs (which are different than home-g gangs in Canada or the states) I decided to find a bus tour and be with the tourists instead of the people targeting tourists, especially me by myself. I was underwhelmed by the Eiffel Tower. It photographs very well but a lot smaller than I had dreamed. That day I mostly rode the bus tours. I was hoping to go to the Museum of Modern Art but never made it in time after the tour stopped. And the next day made it to the picasso museum but it was closed for renovations :(

My third day I went to find the Sacre-coeur which was beautiful! Oh it was magical up on it's high hill top over looking the city. I just had to get passed these african men trying to attach bracelets to my wrist yelling "Gift!" "Admission" what they should have been saying was "Red rover! Red rover!" Aggressive jerks. After that I was literally stalked by a young man and hid in a clothing shop where people didn't speak-a the-english-a! I waited it out and eventually got away.

I only share these stories because people are so in love with the idea of Paris when actuality there are better places. And Paris was the first place I feared for my safety constantly to not enjoy my trip. But I survived it is the point. I got a couple photos and grabbed some good greek, lebanese, food and obviously a stale baguette and this delicious chocolate filled pastry I could have rolled in a ball and popped in my mouth it was so light and fresh! MMMmm. A good way to end the trip and with a salmon quiche which I didn't know was salmon until I got it as none of the labels were in english but good none-the-less.

Another interesting thing I really adored about Paris was these bridges over the river covered in locks. The story is couple go there and attach the lock throwing away the key as a symbol of eternal love. That's kind of nice, delusional, but nice.

So that was my trip to Paris! I ended Portrush with a day at Barry's amusements with my bestie Irish friend Meabh doing bumper cars (twice) and all my favourite non-scary rides. We played the 10p machines which I got a tad obsessed with and then had a beautiful lunch looking out my window. A ramore head walk was necessary and a walk around ramore head rarely ends without a trip to the old mans pub the Harbour pub! We continued a little pub crawl and drank like it was our full time job, as you do. So sad to leave and my beautiful apartment. Dear god!