Anyway, back from my trip to Paris, and it has taken forever to upload pictures and such. I have little time to write, so perhaps I'll have to pull a "To be continued."
TUESDAY
1) Woke up later than I wanted because I didn't hear my alarm go off.
2) Jorge got me a baguette and some brie for breakfast.
3) Off to meet Camille for lunch! I don't remember where we ate.
4) Walked towards the Eiffel tower, took some pictures
5) Musee D'Orsay (Degas was my favorite exhibit, by the way. Better than Monet in my opinion)
6) Walk to and in Notre Dame Cathedral
7) Coffee and Pain Au Chocolat (chocolate croissant essentially)
8) Waffle with Nutella!
9) Eiffel Tower - second floor
10) Crepe with Nutella and banana!
11) Back to the apartment for the night (at half past 10 ish)
WEDNESDAY
1) Wake up a bit later than I wanted again
2) Same breakfast - still yummy
3) Explore Montmartre a little more by myself
4) Crepe with nutella and banana!
5) Airport
6) Passport control - yes, this was an entire ordeal worthy to be noted
7) Back in Ballymoney!
Paris IS beautiful, and thanks, Camille, for the correction of my lousy French. I guess I mixed up "Au revoir" along with that.
I would have loved to stay for a few more days, but I knew that would have been dangerous because I would have just splurged on all the little cute things I found. In this way, it would have been more expensive to live in Paris. But you see, Dublin is so much more expensive. I spend less there because things are just not as worth the money, whereas in Paris, I could fork over 3 or 4 euro about 3 times during the day for crepes or coffee. See? Dangerous.
Either way, I loved the cobblestone streets, the bridges and the river. I loved the architecture, the layout of the city, and the fact that there aren't as many chain stores littering the sidewalks. I loved how I bought a hat for 7.50 euro, but I didn't love how I was ripped off in a souvenir shop in the Eiffel Tower. Oh well. Four euro lost can't hurt anyone, I suppose.
OMG! That's the value of a crepe! BOO.
The Passport control story:
So I thought this would be no problem because I'm an American citizen, and you know how Americans love to travel all over Europe. Going to Paris, they just looked at my passport and stamped it and let me through. Easy enough, eh? It was so nice - they defini: stely weren't so nonchalant about it when I arrived in Dublin.
Looks like Dublin and Belfast run along the same tightness of security. After filling out the landing card, the lady looked at me and my passport and hence the following exchange (or something to this effect):
Anal lady: Why did you come here?
Sweet, innocent Asian American girl: I'm visiting
AL: Why did you go to Paris?
SIAAG: I was traveling
AL: How long will you be staying here?
SIAAG: Until March 1st, but I'm going down to Dublin after that
AL: Where will you be staying? Who will you be staying with?
SIAAG: Uhh...my boyfriend
AL: Where is he?
SIAAG: In Ballymoney **Mind you, this is all on the landing card I took minutes to fill out**
AL: What does he do?
SIAAG: Finance assistant
AL: Is he Irish?
SIAAG: Yes...British citizen?
AL: And where did you and your boyfriend meet?
SIAAG: In Boston
AL: What was he doing there?
SIAAG: Traveling
AL: All right.
And then, when I was exiting the area, another man stopped me and asked me for my passport...
Nicer man: And what brings you to Northern Ireland?
Me: I'm visiting friends
NM: Where are you going?
M: Ballymoney
NM: Who are you staying with?
M: Uhh...mmm...my boyfriend's family?
NM: Oh okay, enjoy your stay then!
So after Belfast International Airport interrogated me about my love life, I strode on through the exit finally to read about Raskolnikov murdering the old pawnbroker in Crime and Punishment.
My Picture Game in Paris:
Anyway, I loved Montmartre, by the way. I loved spending a little bit of time by myself walking and exploring the neighborhood. I ended up playing a little game with myself, and I'm not sure how I can continue it in other European cities. I wonder if they have as much color as Paris does.
So I got the idea after seeing this:
I noticed that the scene was predominantly purple, but you can obviously still see the rest of the colors in the picture. So I thought it'd be cool to show the contrast:
And so followed a few more. But I couldn't take as many because I didn't want to be too creepy.
I like this one because the yellow car was parked perfectly next to it.
So I cheated on this one. The reason why the scooter was kinda cut off was because there was a sneaky red van parked in the top left-hand corner, and I wanted this to be just the red scooter.
I noticed that the trash cans were basically the only green items along this street, minus the tree and the panels of wall in the back. But this one's one of my favorites!
Well, no more. The others are on my FB album. I just didn't want to take up too much room on this entry - it's long enough already. It was fun, though. I definitely like this little game and wonder if I can pull it off in other cities. I did miss one key shot of a man dressed in flourescent green. How AWESOME would that have been?!
To leave you off:
I love my camera. Thank you, daddy. =)
