Ru and Jodi at a tapas resturant in HOTlanta. Summer of '06.
We'd been planning this trip since the time we figured out our semester's abroad in Europe would all overlap. Jodi, my long time soul-mate, is studying Music and English in London right now. And Ru, an incredible Croatian woman who we met at an international hostel in Atlanta, is working on her masters in French and English in Paris. So last weekend after much anticipation and e-mailing back and forth, we all met in the middle. My friend Anna who's studying with me here in Florence also joined in on the fun.
The trip was flavored with all kinds of ingredients: crepes of every assortment, red wines to the nine (ok, they were 2 euro bottles), cappuccinos on the corner, toss a few sexy Argentinean men in there, and some KFC to make you feel right at home.(Hey!--when it's pouring rain in every direction, there's no where under 20euros for lunch and you need a place of refuge...fast!...KFC's good for it!)
Exquisite tastes aside, Paris was nothing like what I was expecting. (This is what happens when you go places without reading or researching practically anything before hand...) It was much more quaint and quiet seeming on the outside. Yes, the city is HUGE, as we quickly learned after spending probably 1/5th of our time on the Metro...but when you're walking around outside, there's such a pleasant, clean, relaxed feel to things. Nothing like huge, dirty cities in the U.S. (NYC, Boston...). Maybe it's because so much of the traffic is happening underground on the Metro...they've got a really great system.
So we did most of the touristy things, which were really nice--Notre Dam was absolutely beautiful on the inside; the Impressionist Art Museum had a great exhibit with some of the first photographs ever taken; the Lurve...incredible architecture and tons to appreciate when you're not on the same floor as the Mona Lisa--when you are, it's just a sweaty hell; Mount Martre and the Moulin Rouge windmill; and of course, the Eiffel Tower.
Ah, the Eiffel Tower... so beautiful... and to make it even better, Jodi, Anna and I picked up 2 bottles of cheap red, brought along some empty water bottles, and when the time was right, overlooking the river and the tower, we popped those babies open and had one of the most romantic moments of our collective lives--sipping cheap red from water bottles, giddy that the Eiffel Tower was "having sex with the sky" (it did this pulsating, sparkling thing every half hour that would last for about 10 minutes and get really fast at the end before it stopped...sounds like sex to me), and to top it all off (no, not in that way, gutter-brains..) it was international WOMAN'S DAY!!!--A holiday widely celebrated across Europe with the giving of mimose flowers. So naturally, in English, we cheered happy woman's day to every woman that passed. The whole evening was flawless. Except when we missed the last Metro home, wandered around aimlessly for about an hour, then finally agreed to take a taxi which was surprisingly inexpensive. 1 point for the French!
Actually, despite all the bashing that the French always get, I think they do a lot of things right. They're the artists of the world who say they need vacation time so their minds can rest and their creativity can harbor. I say more power to them! Who says the rest of the world's got it right? Maybe they can be a little snotty, but maybe they just feel misunderstood (shout out to all the NFs of the world)...
And this is when you can tell that my thoughts are getting blurry, and my mind too lazy to write coherently. Apologies for neglecting this blog more than anticipated... I think shorter, more frequent posts might be good... I'll post some pics from Paris if Jo sends them to me. Unfortunately, my camera died part way through...
Ciao lovers,
Rach
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