Oh, Paris!
After I finished my exams in Lugano I decided to go meet my cousin in Paris where she was doing her Erasmus. The travel was smooth (not quite) at least until the flight part - like I said:I'm never gonna get used to it!
I left my home in Lugano and said a sad and mellow goodbye to what had been my home since September. Got on the bus this time, because I was NOT going to walk 3km again to the bus station. Got to the station feeling proud of myself for actually being on time!! Nop...lost the 1st bus to the airport.
I have to say I hate everything about flying, like all of it, the check-in, the security, the stupid bag that is always too heavy or too fat to pass without trouble, having to take out my computer and my Canon out of the bag that was so organized and suddenly I can't seem to put them back in and close the God Damn bag; the waiting (or in my case: the running), people eating smelly food by my side on the plane or the noise all around, the not being able to stretch my legs o r move for all that matters cause everything is so tiny, my ears killing me and so on.
After I finished my exams in Lugano I decided to go meet my cousin in Paris where she was doing her Erasmus. The travel was smooth (not quite) at least until the flight part - like I said:I'm never gonna get used to it!
I left my home in Lugano and said a sad and mellow goodbye to what had been my home since September. Got on the bus this time, because I was NOT going to walk 3km again to the bus station. Got to the station feeling proud of myself for actually being on time!! Nop...lost the 1st bus to the airport.
I have to say I hate everything about flying, like all of it, the check-in, the security, the stupid bag that is always too heavy or too fat to pass without trouble, having to take out my computer and my Canon out of the bag that was so organized and suddenly I can't seem to put them back in and close the God Damn bag; the waiting (or in my case: the running), people eating smelly food by my side on the plane or the noise all around, the not being able to stretch my legs o r move for all that matters cause everything is so tiny, my ears killing me and so on.
Have you notice how I complain a lot? And I LOVE TRAVEL!! But to be honest I love the destination, the feeling of leaving the plane, train or bus and breathing the air of an unknown place, a place that has so much to offer and with every street and corner to discover. I absolutely love the feeling of landing my feet on new ground, but the plane part kills me...I'm an impatient person...sorry!
Landed in Paris Charles de Gaulle, got a hard time understanding where I had to go to catch the train to the city center, for God sake I even had to ask how to leave the luggage place because I couldn't seem to find my way out!
When you get to a new city, or new country, everything always seems a bit confusing in the beginning. At least for me, on the 1st day if I pass 2 times in the same street I won't notice it. So, I'm always with the city map in my hands trying to figure out where to go, and this is one of my favorite things about being in a new place! And of course if you're travelling alone or getting to know the city alone, you're afraid of getting lost because you don't know where you might end up and shit happens so you might as well be careful and have a map!
Since my cousin worked in the morning, I got up early too (or tried) and she would tell me what train to get and where to change stations and all that so I could get to the center. Being there it was time to walk!
To be fair, I wasn't lucky with the weather. The 1st day it rained all day, but I didn't want that to stop me - and it didn't - but it was annoying and ruined my photography plans.
Landed in Paris Charles de Gaulle, got a hard time understanding where I had to go to catch the train to the city center, for God sake I even had to ask how to leave the luggage place because I couldn't seem to find my way out!
When you get to a new city, or new country, everything always seems a bit confusing in the beginning. At least for me, on the 1st day if I pass 2 times in the same street I won't notice it. So, I'm always with the city map in my hands trying to figure out where to go, and this is one of my favorite things about being in a new place! And of course if you're travelling alone or getting to know the city alone, you're afraid of getting lost because you don't know where you might end up and shit happens so you might as well be careful and have a map!
Since my cousin worked in the morning, I got up early too (or tried) and she would tell me what train to get and where to change stations and all that so I could get to the center. Being there it was time to walk!
To be fair, I wasn't lucky with the weather. The 1st day it rained all day, but I didn't want that to stop me - and it didn't - but it was annoying and ruined my photography plans.
In a previous post I told you how I don't like to spend money on transports because I feel it's a waste of money -I think that if you're in a new city/town you should walk because that's the best way to know a place. If you cross the city by metro won't you loose a whole bunch of things? Still, in Lugano I regretted not getting the bus once, and in Paris it happened again, but it was worse.
During the 1st day I schedule with my friend to meet her around 14:00 in a place in the city that was the total opposite so, since it was very early, I decided I was going to walk there because I had only bought 10 metro travels for 5 days and I wasn't going to waste more money on transports (stupid me!!). When I got to my friend my knee was bothering me and as we kept walking around during the afternoon the pain got worse. My friend was already annoyed by how much I was complaining so she gave me no credit this time (but she should have!). To wrap the knee story, the pain kept going for the entire trip and as I came back home to Portugal it got to the point I had to go to the emergencies cause I couldn't walk. Found out I had an acute inflammation of my knee tendon (the doctor told me I should rest if I wanted to get well, and all I could think was that I couldn't rest cause my classes where about to start - meaning 8 public transports per day). Took some pills and after a long, long time the pain disappeared (even though sometimes it comes back out of nowhere) .
Going back to talking about Paris! Sorry, I tend to miss the point most of the time...
During the 1st day I schedule with my friend to meet her around 14:00 in a place in the city that was the total opposite so, since it was very early, I decided I was going to walk there because I had only bought 10 metro travels for 5 days and I wasn't going to waste more money on transports (stupid me!!). When I got to my friend my knee was bothering me and as we kept walking around during the afternoon the pain got worse. My friend was already annoyed by how much I was complaining so she gave me no credit this time (but she should have!). To wrap the knee story, the pain kept going for the entire trip and as I came back home to Portugal it got to the point I had to go to the emergencies cause I couldn't walk. Found out I had an acute inflammation of my knee tendon (the doctor told me I should rest if I wanted to get well, and all I could think was that I couldn't rest cause my classes where about to start - meaning 8 public transports per day). Took some pills and after a long, long time the pain disappeared (even though sometimes it comes back out of nowhere) .
Going back to talking about Paris! Sorry, I tend to miss the point most of the time...
All I know is that during my time in Paris I did more complaining that actually enjoying those days and I can't really explain why. Maybe because everyone told me such amazing things about Paris before I go, and EVERYONE said "Oh, you're going to love it" and opposite to what everyone says about French people, they are actually nice because I never like to agree with people, my mind was set up to complaining about everything I put my eyes on. Like I said before, there was nothing ugly about the city! And, or at least French people I asked directions to, were nice and helped me out! Oh, and it's definitely NOT dirty like some people say (super clean all the way).
I went to the most common places, always on foot of course (even after my knee injure), Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Sacré-Coeur, Invalides, The Louvre (Saw the Mona Lisa...or did I?? This was a HUGE disappointment cause I had such high hopes for this painting and once I was there all I could see were about 30 tourists going crazy about it taking selfies with their cameras or Ipads, and of all the paintings in the room, The Mona Lisa is actually the one that stands-out the least), Notre Dame, Mont Martre and walked pretty much every street I could. I think that the part where everything I saw was crowded with tourists helped ruining everything. Wherever I went, from climbing the stair to the top of the Notre Dome, to simply walking around, tourists and tourists everywhere always in front of me, blocking my way, bringing their bored kids who yell most of the time. I even got stuck at the top of Notre Dame because there were so many people (once at the top, the space to walk is zero so you have to stay in line and can only move as the people in front of you decide to do it themselves!).
I've said it before and I'll said it again: I'm Impatient! And this type of situations make me go crazy because if I'm going alone I get the privilege of being able to see monuments or sightseeing at my own pace, but because of the tourists crowds I end up having to wait for people I DON'T EVEN KNOW so I can move.
So as you can now understand (I hope) the city disappointed me. Maybe not because of the city itself, but the circumstances, the weather, the million tourists all over the place. Still, I wanna go back! Yes, even though everything stayed far away from my expectations I want to go back because I don't believe I'm the only person in the world NOT loving Paris...and for that matter I will take a round 2 in order to give Paris a 2nd chance to redeem herself.