Yes, I know. The moment you've all been waiting for. A POST, and not just any post, one that describes my obsession with little dogs and crêpes. Ok so I think the best starting place for this story is our arrival at our hostel in Paris. We will skip over the Air France plane ride with crazy turbulence and French annoucements, which I could not understand. So we show up at our hostel and go to the desk to check in. Claire, who knows a little French, gave her best shot at trying to say something to the effect of, "We are here to check in and would like our room." The guy behind the counter then precedes to rattle off some French so fast that we had no idea what was being said. He could have been offering us drugs for all we know. We just kind of nodded and gave that blank stare, kind of like the one I give when teachers ask me if I understand a concept. After a few more minutes of him talking, he breaks out and starts speaking English...not just any English, he has a bonafide American accent. Apparently he found this joke to be hilarious, it turns out he is from Washington D.C. Go figure. So we leave Reggie, still chuckling it up behind the desk, and travel down a steep winding staircase to our room (the last door on the bottom floor). Now this is my first hostel experience, so maybe this is normal, but we step into the room to see a bunk bed, another single bed, and then a shower right next to the TV. Let me repeat, a SHOWER NEXT TO THE TV. You might be saying to yourself right now, "hey at least you had a shower in your room." But let me clear that up, this shower had one of those hand held shower heads with no place to hang it up on the wall. I think I could probably write a page just about my first and last shower experience in this particular shower, but I will just skip over that and say that I was dirty for about the next 3 days. So anyway, on to the more substancial adventures. I was just about a touristy as one can get in another country. I had my camera glued to my right hand the entire time. We hit all the major sites: (I'm going to list them in my best attempt to spell them the French way) Tour Eiffel, Le Louvre, Versailles (at which I was thankful for having gone to see Marie Antoinette in theaters, a Hollywood history lesson if you will), Champs Elysées et Arc de Triopmhe, Musée d'Orsay, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Jardin du Palais Royal, Rue de Rivoli, Place Vendôme, and Notre Dame. I wish I could detail what we did at every place, however even now it's all starting to fade from my memory. What I do remember is walking more than I've ever walked in my entire lifetime. My legs were on fire. I'm sure part of this was because there is so much to see in Paris, however part of this pain was caused by the fact that I am directionally challenged, and when put in charge of a map...well, it's just not a good idea. I like to go with my gut feeling rather than actually reading the street signs. However this gave me plenty of time to observe the French culture around me. My favorite part of Paris was the fact that all the Parisians had these cute little dogs that they walked everywhere. I started documenting these "little dog sightings" with my camera. My most treasured picture captured this little dog in its Burberry outfit. Yes, it was at that moment that I could picture myself living in Paris. The only problem is that I think I would have a problem not eating crêpes with Nutella for every meal. I don't know how people aren't fat in Paris. They are the most amazing food creation I've ever experienced. I wasn't so much a fan of the other French food... I decided, instead, to live off of cheese pizza for the week. Lets just keep that between us. Alright well this post obviously has not really told you the WHOLE story, or anywhere even close to it, but I should probably run through my key words from last time just for fun. I saw SHEEP at Versaille and thought it was the greatest thing ever. I trudged through the mud to actually pose for a picture next to the sheep field, meanwhile everyone else who paid their entrance fair to see the palace probably thought I was crazy. PYRAMID, well that is referring to the Louvre, which is the biggest museum I've ever been in. Not to mention the fact that we got lost inside and couldn't find an exit for about a half-hour. TIFFANY's, we we looking for a cheap place to eat one night and we got lost...we some how ended up on the most expensive street in Paris. We walked by Tiffany's and it reminded me of the scene in Breakfast at Tiffany's:
Holly Golightly: You know those days when you get the mean reds?
Paul Varjak: The mean reds, you mean like the blues?
Holly Golightly: No. The blues are because you're getting fat and maybe it's been raining too long, you're just sad that's all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you're afraid and you don't know what you're afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling?
Paul Varjak: Sure.
Holly Golightly: Well, when I get it the only thing that does any good is to jump in a cab and go to Tiffany's. Calms me down right away. The quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there. If I could find a real-life place that'd make me feel like Tiffany's, then - then I'd buy some furniture and give the cat a name!
(slightly off topic, I know)
ACCORDION was because they have these little old men that jump on the metro cars and play for you. It feels like you waiting in line at Epcot. And finally, ELEVATOR, because when we went up the Eiffel Tower, the elevator went up at a diagonal . Then you had to get off an get on another elevator that just kept going up and up and up. I definitely realized I have a fear of heights. I think I've been on Tower of Terror too many times. Ok, well that is the end of my story. C'est la vie.
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