Hola? Bonjour?
Most of my friends had spring break a month ago. But, here is Spain, spring break is Easter break, and we have 12 days off of school. When originally planning for my spring break trip, I was going to go to Seville and Malaga with Mariella, and then go to Barcelona with Jared and Madeline. But, I did not want to spend all my time in Spain, I had 12 days, and I had never came to Europe before. However, my friend, Mariella has travelled to over 10 countries and understandably did not really to go somewhere she had already been. She wanted to go somewhere new, so, and I had never been anywhere besides London and Spain, and the places she had already been are the places I had been dying to go to. And neither of our parents wanted us traveling alone, so we decided to come together and go to Seville, Granada, Paris, Amsterdam and Dusseldorf. While we were planning this trip, I felt like we tried to bite off more than we could chew, we planned or suggested to one another so many things we could do in Paris or Seville, that we just did not reasonably have time or money for.
<<Side Note: I would love to travel on my own one day, that would be an amazing adventure!!! I got to make my biography interesting somehow, but It is not the season for me to do something like that, after all this is my first time being out the U.S. And, I do not have the monetary funds or parental support for it at the moment, but one day, best believe I’ll do it.>>
Then, once we figured out where we were going, we bought all the necessary tickets. Then when we figured out what we were not going to do, we kind of just let the chips fall where the may, and just did everything as it came. We did not have any real structure or plans (which was a good and bad thing) but even though we never planned what we were going to do the following days, I feel like we did everything we could have done in the time we had in each place.
When we arrived to Paris, I was SOOOOOOO excited. I had been dreaming of coming to Paris since the diaper days, not quite but maybe since Rugrats in Paris (which came out in 2000). When we arrived at the airport, I was greeted by military men with machine guns standing guard, and oddly enough, that did not make me feel safe, it made me feel like I was doing something wrong and made me feel scared and that it was not okay that I was there. And that is not the only time, I would be seeing military men with machine guns walking around, they were all over the city, at the Basilica, etc.
Going to France, subconsciously, I knew what I was getting myself into, I knew that I would not understand French at all, but I didn’t understand how horrible, it would be not understanding French until, I was trying to find the bus station at the Paris airport. The airport staff was rude and did not want to help us, one day didn’t even get off her personal cell phone call, she just pointed us in another direction and in english, said “To the left”. Luckily, the person to the left, knew a little english, and told us to go right, and we would find the bus station. Once, we got the bus station, we paid for our tickets, The lady said Bonjour, and I said, Hola. LOL I guess I still had Spanish on the brain and that was not the last time that would happen. Being in France was definitely a culture shock and I feel like that was the most I felt like that since being in Europe. In Spain, I know a little Spanish, and anyone I am with does as well, so if I do not understand they can translate, but here in France, I knew no one that spoke french, we could not even said “I do not speak French correctly”, or “Do you speak english”, or “You’re Welcome”, so we were screwed, and it was annoying and kind of frustrating but also kind of fun, I was with my friend, so we at least we could talk to each other.
Our airport was an hour and 30 minutes from central Paris, and the bus ride was not bad, I went to sleep, after all it was like 11 pm. When we finally arrived at the central Paris bus stop, we needed to get a taxi. The taxi rules here are usually, the first taxi taxi in the line, is the one you go to, and so, the first taxi was a guy in SUV type car. So, Mariella said, to walk down and find another one, because it might be more. So, we did, and they told us to walk to the front of the line. So, we did, and it was awkward, because obviously, the taxi driver knew the taxi rules, and he was standing outside of his car waiting for us. So, he puts our bags in the car, and said, something along the lines of “what was that?”. LOL, and yes! He spoke English.
So, we finally we our place, we were using AirBnB, like in Seville, except this time we had the entire place to ourselves, and that is not saying much. But, it is pretty much what I expected, a one person apartment in the city of Paris, you get what you pay for right? It was really cute and quaint, and there was wi-fi, so as long as there is wi-fi nothing else really matters. It was one of the apartments where everything was literally one room, the kitchen, the kitchen table, the closet, the tv, the bed, the bathroom, etc. And, since we had a kitchen, we went to the local grocery stores and bought food to cook with. Mariella loves to cook and has not been able to since, she left the States, so she cooked the entire stay. Surprisingly she was a good cook. She loves food...like almost or more than she loves dogs, and I was expecting her to cook well, but not as well as she actually could cook. She could throw down the kitchen. She should open a (international business *wink*) restaurant as much as she loves food.
One of the most interesting things to me about where we were staying was the amount of black people I saw. I don’t know if were staying the black side of town or what, but I hadn’t seen this many black people in one place since Christmas at my aunt’s house or since the last time I went to church and It was nice. I felt at home. You definitely do not see many black people in Spain, (every once in a blue moon) so it was refreshing, like when you hear someone speaking english, in a non-english speaking country. You are just like YASSSSS!!!! ENGLISH I HAVE NOT HEARD YOU IN SO LONG! Yeah, that’s how I felt.
So, the next day after we finally settled in our place. We go to the metro station and get a pass and decide to get off at the stop Les-Halles. From there we start walking, and eventually end up at the love-lock bridge, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and we walk along the Seine river, and we honestly kind of walk aimlessly. Everything is kind of in the same area more or less. We left our place around 11 am, and we didn’t come back until like 10pm. At the Eiffel Tower, it was very interesting to see how people were just drinking Champagne, Wine and having picnics, out in the open. It was very cool, but I couldn’t help to feel like I was doing something wrong by being around it. Before we left, we met these Parisians guys, and they asked us to say something about our views on the legalization of weed in South America for his Spanish project. We were in France, and these Parisians were asking us to speak to them in Spanish for a project. That night, we saw the Eiffel Tower light up and it was so beautiful. We watched it sparkle for the whole 15 minutes, and then we just stood there and took in the reality of where we were and what we were doing. In that moment, I felt so lucky. And then Mariella and I saw a clown noise on one of the monuments and it was pretty funny. It was also odd to me, because people come from all over the whole to come to Paris, to see monuments like the one with clown nose or the ones we saw with graffiti and people that live there (or maybe even outsiders) are defacing them. But, as Mariella said, “It’s Art”. And we tried to walk back to Les Halles, and we had no clue where we were going after a certain point because we took the wrong turn. So, the struggle was too real, so end up just getting on a subway and we asked some people if we were going the right direction but we truly had to figure it out ourselves which was not that hard.
The next day we didn’t get a metro pass, which was dumb, and we ended up walking all over the city, and getting lost like a million times. The first thing we did was go to the Basilica, which was absolutely beautiful, and we saw Adrianna, Elizabeth and Brianna which was pretty nice. Then after that we went to McDonalds, and Moulin Rogue, and then Arc du Triomphe, which was in the middle of a big round-a-bout. You could only go to the Arc by going underground. And in that moment, Mariella and I were not understanding each other, and I thought she said she wanted to find the entrance to go underground and then I find it, but she wanted to go the Eiffel Tower. So we end up going back the Eiffel Tower from the underground entrance of Arc du Triomphe, which was the longest way ever. But, then we end up walking by Laduree, and we went inside and got macarons. Which would have never happened, if we didn’t miscommunicate. The restaurant Laduree was really pretty, and the line was so long, and we probably spent 30 minutes or more in there just waiting to order. Once we got the macaroons, and finally got to the Eiffel Tower, we had a picnic, macarons and wine, I felt so chic. Then we were walking through a very populous area, near the Opera House, and it was the nice side of town, saw the stores, Rolex, Gucci, etc. And we had no clue where needed to be so we went to Starbucks (You can always trust a Starbucks or Mcdonalds to have free wi-fi). Once we got our directions on google maps, we walked around for another couple of hours, until we found our house around 12 am!! And it was around 2 am before we ate dinner and I went to sleep. And sometime during this day we went to Notre Dame, and it was so nice, and we sat through a service (which was my true first catholic mass). And it was very interesting, I felt so awkward being there though, I had no clue what was going on, I knew I should be respectful and not take pictures or talk but I had not clue what we hand or body gestures meant or what was being said. But it was pretty cool, to see that even though Mariella didn’t know French, during the service, she could repeat what was being said at certain moments or tell me to kneel or put my head down, when it was appropriate. And even though the service was in a different language, some things stay the same no matter the country or language. After we went to Notre Dame we got Gyros and ate by the Siene.
Then the last day, we didn’t really have time to do much of anything. But we went back to Notre Dame, bought some souvenirs, and I was hit on by a Parisian. I was walking down the street, when this man yells at me from the other side. He was speaking to me in French, and then he started speaking English. He asked me how I was doing and if he could have my number. And I said no, and that I was leaving and I am from states. And he told me that we have to see each other again, either I come to Paris or he comes to the States. And then he asked me to give him my number, and I gave him a number, I do not know who it belongs to though. I wonder if he tried to call or text them. But a very interesting thing I have noticed with European men, when they hit me on, once I tell them I am from the states or I am leaving, they say, you should come visit me, and they are always serious. But, after that encounter, we got on the metro to our apartment, and then it was Bye, Paris and Hello, Amsterdam.
