A Prom Queen in Paris

It’s time to play a little blog catch up. I can’t wrap up 2011 without posting pictures from my vacation in Europe over the spring.

I should start by saying that traveling to Europe was something that came about kind of by accident and fairly last minute. In January my mother and grandmother told me they wanted to go on a Mediterranean cruise and asked me to come along/help plan the trip. After working seasonally as a tour guide in Juneau, the idea of taking a cruise was not terribly appealing. But seeing as 1) I had never been to Europe before, 2) this was fairly important to my family, and 3) I didn’t have anything significant planned for all of April, I may as well go along. I figured that if I could head out earlier and see a few things on my own terms prior to meeting up with my family, I wouldn’t feel so trapped and at the mercy of the time restrictions that comes along with cruising.

I arranged to first use my miles in order to get me to New York and do a few editors’ rounds since it was on the way. Then I found a cheap ticket to London out of NYC where I would arrive on my birthday and spend two weeks staying with my friends in England. In between England and the cruise, I decided that going to Paris was a huge priority. For one, I’m a big fan of train travel, and I really wanted to take the Eurostar (or as I like to call it, “the submarine” — protip: they don’t like it when you call it that). I also wanted to see the Eiffel Tower. Badly.

It did not disappoint. I was beyond content simply sitting in the park and gazing at it, because for me, the Eiffel Tower tops the list as an undeniable symbol for wanderlust. And I got to experience in person. For real. *check* Another life goal completed. Since the Eiffel Tower is so overly photographed and it was an unremarkable day lighting-wise, I decided to snap a quick self portrait — I didn’t have enough of those from the trip anyway.

A glimpse into my bag with my Europe traveling essentials (joeytip: always carry either a pre-made or pre-purchased sandwich when you take a train trip! That way you’re covered if the food onboard sucks or isn’t available. The one wrapped in foil was a DELICIOUS meatball sub made by my friend Jenise before I left England)

I set aside three days and two nights to see as much of Paris as possible. Not going to lie, I was incredibly intimidated by the city. Aesthetically, it was as beautiful and romantic as I had read about, but not speaking a word of French (my friend Michelle kindly wrote out the “most important phrase for me to memorize” at the front of my translation booklet because she knew I was helpless) and being completely alone in a non-English speaking country for the first time was… difficult, to say the least. It was also very expensive. More-so than I imagined, and I was on a pretty strict budget. This limited a lot of what I could “do,” so I kept the majority my sight-seeing to walking the streets and just soaking in the city.

A huge fan of street art, I was super stoked to see some of Space Invader’s work in Paris.

For the most part, I knew what to expect with Paris–a lot of history, cafes, art, expensive boutiques, beautiful buildings, churches, etc.–so I combined a few things from a “must-see” list my father gave me (he had been to Paris himself the year prior), some suggestions from friends who had also been, and a guidebook. I firmly believe that you should always travel on your own terms and see what YOU want to see, even if that means not doing some things you feel like you’re “supposed” to see. My father insisted I go to the Louvre, which, seeing as I’m not a huge fan of classical period art, I was hesitant to believe was worth the hype. Oh how wrong I was. It was so much more than I expected, and for the first time ever, I fell in love with sculpture.

Later that day, as I was enjoying a nice walk on the Left Bank, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a bridge filled with locks that had initials and dates written by lovers. What treasures they were! I hadn’t read about this in any of the guide books or heard about them from any friends, so my fresh eyes happily welcomed the love padlocks. Someday I hope to return and leave one of my own.

I truly believe that you really get to know the beat of the city by visiting their markets (I will have a whole blog post on that later). Unfortunately time didn’t allow me to visit them all, so for Paris I decided to stop in at the flower market — a nice change of pace from all the food and clothing markets I had been visiting thusfar. It was quaint, simple, and captured the essence of what I imagine their countryside is like.

Now, I’m no stranger to traveling for long periods of time. I pretty much live on the road year round, so I know the deal: there are going to be brilliant days filled with intense swellings of happiness and accomplishment, and then there are going to be down days where you’re tired and slightly depressed and don’t feel like you’re getting anything done. The low feelings felt much more acute in Paris than ever before, I think because of my alienation. At one point my phone was stolen during an hostile encounter with some young women who clearly target tourists regularly. Thankfully a barista intervened, got my phone back, and got them away from me, but it shook me up for a while, as I am a very trusting traveler and have never been so blatantly victimized.

I decided to wash the bad taste out of my mouth by getting up early on my last morning in Paris before catching my train to Barcelona. I had yet to see the Moulin Rouge, and while that was kind of a bore, seeing Sacré Cœur during the early morning light and walking the streets where Picasso once painted, well, that was kind of magical. For the first time since I arrived, I felt connected to the city.

I’ll be honest: I left Paris feeling conflicted, mostly because I felt like I should have fallen head over heels in love with it since I know of practically no one who has visited that hasn’t. As much as I appreciated Paris, it wasn’t my favorite place in the world (so far) for various reasons. To be fair, I was also coming off a high of spending time in London — a city that I absolutely ADORE in part because, culturally, I think it’s more my scene. Someday I’d like to go back with a companion (and a bigger budget) and experience Paris again, but for now I’m really glad I got to spend a little bit of time there.