TGI Friday ... In Paris!!

"A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving." - Lao Tzu

It's a little after midnight on Day 2 of Barcelona, and I'm going to try and give you a quickie summary of Friday in Paris. Friday was definitely my fav, as a lot of the most notable and fun things happened then! I can't wait to catch up so I can tell you all about the fun we're having in Barcelonaaa.


Friday, June 18th, 2010

The plan for Friday was to hit up the Musee d'Orsy and then split up. Danielle and I were looking forward to the break from our male counterparts :) We started with brunch at a restaurant near our Hotel ((which wasn't all that great, btw)) and then headed off to the museum.

I liked the Musee d'Orsy better than the Louvre for a few different reasons. Primarily because it was air conditioned (hehe, jk), but also because it was smaller and no cameras were allowed. I guess the last two reasons are counterintuitive, but they allowed you to stop and really consider the works as opposed to snapping a picture and running on so you can cram everything in. We separated from the guys there (mostly because they are so darn impatient!) and Danielle and I took everything at our own pace. The only problem this created was that a lot of the titles/descriptions were in French so without Eric it was sometimes difficult to figure out what was happening in the painting.

We finished the museum in the early afternoon and resumed our aimless wandering, where we stumbled into a mall of sorts on the Champs Elysees. A mall, you say? We go in, of course, and stop at the food court. Michael and Eric had pizza, and why anyone would want a bad pizza when you are in PARIS, I don't know, but that's what they had. :) Danielle decided she had to try the McDonald's McCafe before we left so she went there and then we split up again to divide and conquer.

Danielle needed a dress to wear to the cabaret that evening and the guys weren't so excited about dress shopping. Go figure! Luckily enough we found a really cute red dress for her at a reasonable price.

We couldn't make up our minds about which cabaret we wanted to go to, as they are about $100 and we only had this one opportunity so we didn't want to just pick one at random. There were three that we were aware of: the Moulin Rouge, the Lido, and the Crazy Horse. The Moulin Rouge you have probably heard of, as it the most famous, but we had heard that it was mostly a tourist trap. The other two we knew very little about but Danielle had read on tripadvisor that it was the best. Information online was very confusing about show times and prices so we decided to stop by each one and get a feel for them, and ask any questions we might have. When we visited the Moulin Rouge we found that it was only about 2 metro stops away from our hotel which was very convenient except that it's in the Red Light District--not something we really wanted to stay close to! We couldn't resist walking around there briefly, but I'm glad it wasn't at night. Within a one block radius of the metro and the Moulin Rouge we saw at least a dozen strip clubs and erotic boutiques.

Suddenly we realized we were pressed for time, which is very easy to lose track of being that the days are so long in Paris-it gets dark about an hour or two before midnight! We hurried back to the hotel and got the room key from the clerk (they keep them at the desk for you during the day, isn't that weird?) and asked for the ironing board as Danielle's purdy new dress was wrinkled. We got to the room and realized that he gave us key 40 in stead of 14 so we went back down to exchange the keys. It was a little difficult to understand what he was saying as he spoke English but his accent was extremely thick. All I know is that he very generously offered me a private massage in my room for free. Do I need to run that by you again? Creeeeeeeeeeeeeepy!!!!! I, like an idiot, asked him to repeat it because I was certain I had misheard him, but sure enough, he was serious. Danielle and I exchanged awkward looks and pressed the elevator button a dozen times. While we waited impatiently for it to arrive he elaborated on his offer and when I politely declined by explaining that we had plans to go to the cabaret he generously extended his offer to the next night. Whoa. Ding! The elevator arrives, and not fast enough, if you asked me.

We got ready in a hurry and headed over to the cabaret, arriving so late that we had to skip dinner, but we figured we'd grab something on the strip after the show. Our seats were amazing, in the FRONT ROW, and the show was spectacular. By the way, we ended up going to the Crazy Horse, and I highly recommend it! I snapped pictures illegaly throughout the show, shame on me. Then my flash went off accidentally and I was encouraged (rather angrily, I might add :-P) by Danielle to put my damn camera away before we got kicked out. It sounded something like, "Way to go, swifty!", hahaha. Thanks for the new nickname, Danielle. Here's a pg13-rated one for you:

About a half a bottle of champagne later I skipped happily out of the cabaret in search of food and maybe a cute guy or two (just kidding!) We walked down the Champs Elysees towards the restaurants/the metro and were taken aback by the alarming number of people yelling and cars honking. Traffic was at a stand still, which is a big big deal in Paris, and people were standing on top of their cars waving flags. We even saw one car with the rear window bashed in. What the hell was going on?! Then we saw a group of extremely good looking riot police carrying the big plastic shields and AK-47's. Suddenly I felt very safe, Danielle-not so much. Turns out one of the World Cup games had just ended and France had played. It was a LITTLE crazy because for some reason we appeared to be the only females around for at least a half a mile and a bunch of really happy/drunk guys were hitting on us in a language we didn't understand. A couple copped a feel, but then a very nice guy had mercy on us and escorted us to the nearest metro stop. It wasn't too bad until a group of guys followed us onto the metro. Mom is probably freaking out right now, haha. They were quite persistent and a little obnoxious but thankfully didn't get off at the same stop that we did.
Here's a really crappy picture of the riot police using the shields to contain the crowds and prevent them from spilling over into the side streets:

We made it back to the hotel safe and sound and fell into bed exhausted. The next morning Michael came to wake us up and informed us that we had left the key in the doorknob. Danielle told me that next time I get drunk she is going to be in charge of the room key. In retrospect I'm just really glad the hotel clerk didn't come up and see the key in the door as an invitation!

More to come asap, sleep tight!!

<3 Ashley

And then there was Thursday.

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” – Jack Kerouac

Hello again friends! Finding time in our busy days to write this blog is a lot harder than I thought and it is really bugging me that I am falling so far behind. Mostly because the longer I wait to write each entry the more I forget the feelings and details. Right now I am on a night train on the way to Barcelona and am about three days behind on entries. I have taken lots of pictures and have already picked out a few that would go well with the stories I have shared with you, but on this mini computer and with my time constraints it is difficult to add them right now. I will probably go back later and add them, so come back later!

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

Thursday was probably my least favorite day so far in Paris, perhaps because it started off with crappy breakfast. They do say it’s the most important meal of the day! We had breakfast at the café outside our hotel and I shouldn’t have been surprised at the poor food/service as they haven’t been as friendly as some throughout our whole stay, but they are really the most convenient option for small things like coffee. I will give them props for providing us with fresh squeezed orange juice. I’ll tell ya though, it’s not as great as it sounds. It was lukewarm and extremely thick and pulpy. I prefer my orange juice with no pulp and to be cold- I guess I’m just a minute maid kinda girl.

The big event for the day was to be the Louvre, the biggest and most famous museum in the world! We got there early and skipped the lines, and although I knew it was the world’s biggest, nothing prepared me for just how big. It was the biggest building I’ve ever seen. Period. It’s wings had wings upon wings who had wings. Ridiculous! I spent the majority of the day with my mouth open, marveling at the beautiful/weird/interesting paintings, sculptures, and artifacts.

I’m glad we went, but I had a few complaints. For one, apparently it is very difficult to air condition a building of that size, and carrying a bag, scarf, jacket, audio guide, and camera made the 5 bajillion steps going up and down extremely HOTTTT! We were all sweating throughout the duration. We saw many famous works, the most notable of which was the Mona Lisa, and again in truth I was rather disappointed. There were gobs of people crowding the painting and it was roped off so that you couldn’t get close enough to really see it. I took a few photos and left, throwing a few bows on the way because people were being real assholes/pushy. I couldn’t decide if the other artists with paintings in the room should feel honored that they were asked to share it or disappointed that all of their work was largely ignored next to the famed painting.






We took a break for lunch at which point Michael decided he had had enough of the museum and we agreed to meet him after we finished looking around. After splitting from him we went back into the museum and discovered a large crowd of people had gathered, many were carrying large banners and flags and a man was speaking excitedly into a megaphone (in French, duh). Museum security came out of the wood work and despite all of the commotion they seemed pretty calm. We were extremely confused and couldn’t tell if they were celebrating something or if they were angry. I can tell you that a museum is one of the last places we expected to encounter this situation and we didn’t know if we should be alarmed or if it was normal. I asked a cute guy next to us what was going on and he basically said that actors (and make up artists?) were protesting something and that they were very angry but it was too complicated for him to explain in English. It was very interesting to see the reaction of the museum security; it seemed that as long as the demonstration remained peaceful they were content to let it proceed. We didn’t stick around although I kind of wish we had.



Eventually we left the museum and met up with Michael who had amused himself by bar hopping while we were occupied at the museum. We decided to explore the area and ended up walking down the Seine River which had lots of street vendors peddling various souvenirs and books. To our surprise (I guess you could say I spent the week in a state of perpetual surprise :-P) we encountered a young girl who approached Michael and offered him a wedding band she had “found” on the ground. We immediately recognized it as a scam, as the ring was obviously not his and she was not very good at her trade. I waved her off but Danielle swears she saw the girl’s hand damn near inside Michael’s pocket (once again, Americans-1, Pick Pockets-0)! I couldn’t help but stare at the girl as I tried to figure out her scam, and to my amusement she hissed at me to”F*** off”-probably the only English she knew, I reckoned J. She walked on ahead of us and we saw the shameless girl try the scam on five other tourists right in front of us! After she realized we weren’t going to interrupt her she seemed not to mind that we followed her, and would turn around to kind of smile at us after some of her failed attempts. We noticed that she had two older women ahead of her that were clearly with her, and a few days later on the same strip we saw another woman running the same scam and concluded that they were part of a band of gypsies who ‘claimed’ the area.



Apparently while bar hopping Michael had acquired a healthy buzz and after all the shopping he began to insist that we stop for more beer. Well hell it was only 4 in the afternoon so we tried to space it out some but eventually ended up taking shelter from the rain at a little sidewalk café on some side street. True to form, Michael began double-fisting beer and being his usual charming self. The poor waitress spoke very little English and Michael was giving her a hard time. It was rather embarrassing and I was sure the young woman would spit in my cappuccino, so I tried to communicate to her to ignore him. To our amusement she definitely got the message and apparently knew enough English to assure me that she understood and “not to worry for she had a boy like him at home!” Hahahaha.



The rain stopped and we resumed our wandering and stumbled upon an ice cream shop that was pretty awesome. It was similar to Cold Stone Creamery with the many different flavors and waffle cones, but the texture was completely different than what we were used to.


At this point Michael was 5 beers in and insisting on more- and it was still only about 6pm. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but we weren’t looking to spend the next 8 hours binge drinking and encouraging his drunken obnoxiousness. Besides, unless you like beer, liquor here is about $13 bucks a pop! Despite our discouragement, we lost, Michael won, and he disappeared into the city streets without so much as a cell phone or a map. Oy vey. The possibilities ran through my mind: Pick pocketed? Ass kicking? Hopelessly lost? Arrested? We supposed that we could handle most of those except that if he was arrested they probably wouldn’t let him call internationally and so he could sit in jail and we wouldn’t even know for days. Anyway, his wandering off kind of put everyone in a bad mood and next thing you know we were spending almost an hour trying to figure out how to get back to the hotel from the metro stop we were at. One thing led to another and BAM, our first big blow up. We ended up taking a taxi home in stony silence.


So as you can see, Thursday pretty much blew. Friday went much better, and I’ll tell you about that asap!


<3 Ashley

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

Like I said before, Michael woke us up at the ungodly hour of 7am, after a pretty late night. We walked down to the cafe on the corner and had coffee while we made our plans for the day. After that we wandered until we stumbled upon a hole-in-the-wall cafe and had breakfast. It was delicious, and we were doubly impressed because it was also relatively inexpensive (so far, everything in Paris has been very pricey, i.e., the average soda in a restaurant is 4 dollars!) The breakfast included orange juice, cappuccino, eggs, ham, and croissants for about 10 dollars. I know, If you go to waffle house you will get twice that for half the price, but you won't get a cute french guy to call you mademoiselle. Just sayin' (You're more likely to encounter a rather large, older woman with a 3 day beard).

I realized after I published Tuesday's blog that I forgot to tell you about the breakdancers we saw in the street. They were pretty awesome and I got a video (or ten).. I will try to post it for you later. For now, here´s a regular picture:

´

After breakfast we went shopping again on the Champs Elysees, which I described earlier to you as a main street that begins at the Arc de Triomphe. We eventually decided to visit the Eiffel Tower and made our way in that direction. When we arrived we realized that there were easily over a thousand people there waiting to be herded 6 at a time in an elevator to the top. Ummm... bit of a wait, you think? We're not patient people. We're Americans!! We decided to skip the trek to the top of the tower for the moment and find something cooler to do.

We definitely found it! We passed a sign advertising boat rides on The Seine for 12 euros, so roughly $15 bucks. This was an awesome find because there are over 75 bridges crossing The Seine, and the tour started at the Eiffel Tower and passed Notre Dame, the Louvre, Musee d'Orsy, and a few other major tourist attractions. We got beautiful pictures of everything, the weather was fine, and it was nice to be able to not walk for a while while we enjoyed the cruise.
The gift shop located at the docking station for the cruise had some beautiful scarves, and I looked at them with the intention of purchasing souvenirs. They were SO gorgeous, however, that I ended up purchasing 4 of them (in purple, pink, black/white, and black/pink if you're curious :-P) and keeping them all for my greedy self! I was excited to find that they were only 4 euros a piece, which was amazing, considering that you pay that much for a Coke here (atrocious!!)


Michael got bored while I was looking at the scarves so he mosied on over to the outdoor bar across the street and ordered a Long Island Iced Tea, except that apparently the only similarities were large amounts of alcohol and a brown color. I tried to get a strawberry daiquirii but the bartender was very confused so I ordered a Pina Colada off the menu. It was horrible!! It wasn't frozen so the texture was weird and I choked on every sip it was sooo strong. I placed the drink on the small table that is so characteristic of Paris (about a 24" diamater circle is the standard) and joined in the lovely conversation with my traveling partners. 5 minutes later my graceful uncle elbowed my extra large liquid Pina Colada into my lap, successfully covering the entire front of my skirt and bag. Jeez. That really blew, but maybe as a consolation prize the good looking/non-english speaking bartender insisted on helping me clean up. I let him :-P



Luckily for me I'm brilliant and wore a cotton skirt that dried quickly and off we went in search of more cultural experiences! We found our way to Notre Dame, and I won't go into too many boring details except to tell you that it was breath taking, we got shushed by little old catholic ladies for being loud, and I nearly had a panic attack because I got separated from Danielle/Eric/Michael as there were about 400 people in one cathedral.



Outside of Notre Dame we encountered an older couple feeding the pigeons. Danielle has been fascinated by the pigeons since we got here, and I can't really figure out why. They always remind me of the homeless lady from the Home Alone movies where he is in NYC for Christmas. Anyway, Michael starts talking to the guy and next thing you know he is covered in birds. Too bad he wasn't covered in bird poop! It was pretty cool.

After visiting Notre Dame we walked to the Jardin de Tuille, which is basically a rather large park of statues/flowers/fountains/French people. We sat under a tree and Danielle and I dozed off while half-heartedly listening to Michael and Eric have a meaningless conversation about parasites and their effect on the human body. What?! How is that relevant, please clue me in. I'm looking at a fountain and the statue of a naked man with a 12-pack and you are talking about the fact that they just discovered a parasite is responsible for specific diseases?

That was the bulk of our Wednesday as we were still recovering from our jet lag, but we did get dinner that night. On the way to dinner we passed a bridge with lots of locks attached to the fences lining it. I noticed that most of them had a couple's name written on them and I thought it was very romantic. My (unconfirmed) theory is that lovers each take a lock with their names on it and entwine/lock them together on the bridge and then throw the key into the water. Michael pointed out that if they were smart they'd keep the spare key in case they broke up. Hehehe. He's such a cynic but it was kind of funny.

Talk to you soon!!
Ashley

"Well Hello Paris, Nice to Meet You!"

“I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.” – Susan Sontag


It’s 7:45 pm here in Paris, and we took a break from our pilgrammage across Paris to get some tech time in! Uploading pictures and what not so that if our cameras get stolen we still have our precious memories of our time here in France :)


So much has happened in the 36 hours since we left Richmond, and I really wanted to post a blog last night but after 28 hours awake my body demanded two things: A shower and sleep! Both were glorious. ((That is, until Michael woke us up at 7 am – Mom, I’m sure you’re as confused as I was!)) But alas, that was Wednesday, and I haven’t even told you about Tuesday yet! So, check out the stuff below, it’s a very loose outline of the awesome things we have accomplished since we left Richmond.


Tuesday, June 15th, 2010


We left around noon from the Richmond airport and had a fairly uneventful flight. Things got interesting when we got to the Charlotte, NC airport – I was blown away! I think the airport is actually bigger than Emporia. Okay, I’m exaggerating, but this is my blog you know, it’s allowed. There were, however, more restaurants in the airport than in all of Emporia. There was a salon (I’m talking massages and pedicures too!), and a huge chocolate store, so you know we had to hit up both. I had the most amazing chocolate covered frozen banana on a stick. Danielle and I consumed an entire day’s worth of food in the span of our three hour layover, there was just so much to choose from we couldn’t resist.


Even cooler, while waiting for the flight to Paris (which was delayed briefly), Eric got the gonads to start practicing his French with this cute little high school exchange student. I wonder if she was a little creeped out by the 50 year old man who was so interested in her? I kid, I kid. :) She was very sweet though, her name was Claire, and I really wish I’d gotten her last name so I could Facebook her. She was everything you imagine about Paris, pale and slender, with a cropped haircut, and “loud” clothes. Total adorableness. I’ll see if I can find her picture to post.

The flight to Paris was pretty nice, two free meals and all of the movies and music on your own personal tv that you could want (also free). The disasters started when we got to Charles du Gaulle airport and discovered that not nearly as many French people speak English as I had assumed. Our first mistake was in not figuring out before we got there how we would get to the Hotel from the Airport – taxi, shuttle, metro? We opted for the metro after a man who spoke very little English told us it was the best and most economical way to do so. Well hello Redneck in the City, we had NO idea how to get to the Metro and once we got there not a CLUE which train/line/blue chicken to take. After much confusion (including taking the wrong train and having to backtrack), we finally figured out the Metro deal and officially consider ourselves pro’s (wink wink).

Before pro status, however, and having only been in Paris a few hours, we experienced our first encounter with pickpockets. We were warned by everybody and their mother that this would happen and by some miracle avoided getting all of our valuables swiped by those sneaky buggers. We were huddled by the subway pole, clutching our enormous bags, when a man beside me “dropped” his cell phone and money all over the floor. Obviously we all looked down, torn between bending to help him out of instinct and our nagging fear that it was a set up. Hustling and bustling ensued and I see two other men, apparently friends of Mister Oops-I-Dropped-My Phone, sandwiching Eric near the subway door. It was like a slow motion movie and I focused on his camera/man bag waiting for a grimy hand to slip inside. I saw nothing, and at that moment the subway doors opened at our stop. We hopped off the train and the one guy followed us off and then hopped back on right away. We were all immediately concerned, clearly on the same page that something was fishy. Luckily we were all okay and Eric hadn’t stored any valuables in the bag other than the camera, which was still there, although the bag was partially unzipped. Phew! Talk about scary, and we hadn’t even gotten to the Hotel yet!


We finally arrived at Hotel Monceau Elysees, after walking around in circles briefly. Paris is confusing! The room is beautiful but TINY, and we are lucky enough to have a corner room with three huge windows overlooking the busy street, brimming with people at the various shops and cafés below. I go to check our Eric’s room (which I clearly hear the clerk inform him as room # 12), only to discover that he is not there. Hmmm. That conversation went something like this:


“ Gee Eric, how did you get in room 15 if the clerk gave you the key to 12? What? Your key unlocks every door on this floor? And the next floor too?! “


“Oh, Hello people that are supposed to be in room 15 that are alarmed that we have a key to their room, how ya doing? Sure are glad you are the only people in France that speak English and don’t think we are trying to rob you.”


Wow! We explain the situation to the clerk and she looks at me like I am another stupid American ((okay, I won’t dispute that argument, but I’m not crazy!)) and follows us up to the rooms. After trying the key in about 5 doors and confirming that it did indeed open them all, she tells us that it is a master key that was mistakenly labeled as 12 and given to us. Okay I get that, but how many times have you made that mistake? Who else has that key? Definitely not a warm fuzzy feeling.

We settle in the rooms and decide that instead of wasting precious Paris minutes in the rooms waiting for Michael to arrive (which was tricky, btw, since we had no way to contact him or vice versa) we would go in search of food. We wandered aimlessly for quite some time and ended up getting lucky. We found a restaurant called Hippopotamus, and had steak so good that we can BOTH confirm it was the best we’ve ever had. (Sorry Tony! :-P ) About 5 hours later we went back to the hotel and met Michael, and then went back out to find dinner.


After dinner we went to our first real tourist attraction: Le Arc de Triomphe, a m.a.s.s.i.v.e. monument erected wayyy back in the day durin the Napoleonic wars to honor fallen soldiers. It is crazy big and in the middle of what Eric says is the most dangerous round-about in the world, there are NO traffic lines and people literally don’t even hit the brakes when they enter it. We are talking a minimum of 65 cars in the circle at any given time going in all different directions with INCHES TO SPARE!! To an American (okay, just me?) it is terrifying… which brings up the driving here, which is not at all what I expected. We can talk about that later, we're goin to try to get video for you guys.

The Arc de Triomphe is conveniently located right off of the Champs Elysees, a street that runs through the heart of Paris and is loaded with amazing restaurants and high end stores. We stopped at an Adidas outlet and I saw the coolest pair of cleats ever for 400 euros (that’s like $520.00). Unless you are David Beckham, you do Not need a pair of $520.00 cleats… Hell, all he even needs is a speedo and maybe a towel, hehehe.


Wow! It took a lot longer to type all of that up than I thought it would, and we are packing our day so full of amazingness that I don’t really have time to tell you about Wednesday. It looks like I will probably be about a day behind on all of my posts, so bear with me please! Or just leave me hate mail on the comments, either will work. Tomorrow we are going to the Louvre, only the most famous museum IN THE WORLD. Talk to you soon!! ((Oh and don't worry, I'm taking more pictures than you could even possibly want to see))



Au Revoir!

Ashleyyy

Ready, Set, Blog!

"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." -- Henry Miller

Hi there! While this blog is intended for family and friends, I'll begin by introducing myself to any internet creepers who may have stumbled upon it: My name is Ashley, I'm 22, have recently graduated from college, and am pretty stoked to be embarking upon my very first trip abroad. Hence the blog name -- Ashley Abroad! Clever, I know.

To get this party started I will begin with a very general outline of the trip:

Depart 12:30 PM Monday, June 14th -
Richmond, VA- Charlotte NC
Charlotte, NC - Paris, France ((arriving 6:30AM Paris time, midnightish for you Virginians!))

A glorious 5 days later we will take a train...
Paris, France - Barcelona, Spain

And another 5 days later we will find a way to drag ourselves home-
Barcelona, Spain - Munich, Germany
Munich, Germany- Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia, PA- Richmond, VA

Woot Woot!! It's almost 1 AM on said Monday now, and despite being exhausted from packing/work, I'm too wired to sleep. No surprise there! My mind is racing now, attempting to discover any critical items that I may not have remembered to pack. I have absolutely ransacked my apartment, searching through all of my belongings and throwing everything that wasn't going with me to Europe over my shoulder in a pile of "insignificance". What a joy that will be to come home to! :)

I have no idea how often I will have a chance to update this, I would LOVE to do it nightly, but can't make any promises as I will be at the mercy of my lovely friend Danielle, who has graciously agreed to allow me to use her laptop. Speaking of Danielle, my traveling companions will also include my delightful brother Michael and my uncle Eric.

I'm excited to share my experiences with you all and to have a place to record my thoughts/feelings to the new and unknown ahead of me. I welcome your comments and advice! I should probably get some sleep now or else I may end up locked on a plane like that one lady who fell asleep and is now suing the airline for her stupidity (American dream, and all that!) But before I go, I'd like to give a shoutout to my Mom & Dad, who made this whole thing possible. Thanks for being awesome and I love you both very much!!

Sweet dreams friends, tomorrow brings many new adventures :) :)