parisian goodbyes.

credit: fashionista.com

i love this. of course it's parisian. oh, those trendy rebels.
(i plan to dedicate an entire post to graffitti i've found in my travels very soon. i'm excited.)

i left paris weeks ago but since i refused to blog, even during downtime, this wasn't updated. je suis desole, blog.

leaving paris was so bittersweet. personally, coming from rome, paris did not impress me. hm, does that make me sound like a brat? i know people would die to come to this city, but it wasn't (at first) all it had been cracked up to be.

then it began to reveal itself slowly: graff (like the one above) hidden behind dumpsters, shoes that must have been made by goddesses worn by everyday folk clicking in front of me, the occassional sunny day perfect for park naps and sailing toy boats, wine on the grass at montmartre, and finding my beloved straw fedora right next to a strip club. little things like that made me realize i had been approaching this city the wrong way.

the last few weeks in paris had been spent exploring every nook and cranny i had missed in the first 3 weeks. the catacombs of paris is a sight to see. you walk along for literaly maybe 15 minutes of desolate, tiny paths until you reach a doorway that literally says, "stop! this is the empire of the dead." i mean, come on, how enticing is that!? once you pass under it, you are immediately thrown into walls and walls of bones. this mass graveyard goes on forever with bones stacked neatly upon eachother. sure,walking along it is morbid, but we're not the ones who made it a tourist attraction. now that's morbid. and on another day, i climbed the arc de triomphe on one of the more sunnier days in paris. it was breathtaking. the view of champs elysees all the way to the river and in the far distance stands the eiffel tower in its glory. i could have laid up there for hours soaking in that sun. some other notable attractions are the monde du arab institut (arab institute) where you have a view of notre-dame to die for and the pantheon where many great philosophers have been laid to rest (hugo, rousseau, and even marie curie!)

when not in art class visiting museums (musee d'orsay, pompidou centre, and rodin museum) or in french class (...learning french? lol), i was roaming the city alone with my ipod. i've spent quite a few hours sitting by the river listening to music or going into record and book stores and just being amazed by the everyday-ness that i'd fallen into. it would be a walk to a local attraction, grabbing a gyro and fries, and walking until i couldn't any longer. i'd come back to the big green doors, swipe my key, and then walk up the five flights of stairs to my 5th floor dorm room.

on one of my last few days in paris, i finally climbed the eiffel tower. the third floor (the top-most floor) had been closed for renovations for a long time. but i was lucky enough to head up there just a few days after it's re-opening. and it was so worth the 12 euros. the wind and bitter cold was killer but so was the view. i went up around 9:30pm and the city was aglow. i had fallen in love with the city of love and this view only affirmed it.

on the very last day, i went back to my beloved seine river and waved to tourists on the boats and they happily waved back. it was the perfect way to end my stay in paris. paris, je t'aime.

-- i have been in dublin for quite a while now and spent spring beak in london. more on that in the next entry.

ps. escargot is amazzzing.

sun, sand, and sangrias.

man oh man. i am WAY behind on updating this.

i want to to write down as much as possible on my short but AMAZING weekend in barcelona. mostly for me, of course, but just in case any of my diligent readers wanted to know...

barcelona is my favorite city in spain. sure, granted it was the only one i went to, but i already can tell that it's my favorite.

thursday, march 13th, we arrived super late and caught a taxi from BCN airport. that was the first time i'd been in a car since my last day in New York! it was so relaxing because we were driving through the city at night and it was quiet and the man was playing spanish radio and he offered us gum. yeah, maybe not the smartest thing to do, take candy from a stranger, but hey, i'm still kickin' and breathin'. once at the hotel, we settled in and passed out from the day's events.

friday morning was a blur. met up with some other sju kids (notable fact: our entire hostel was taken over by sju. there had to be close to 40-50 sju people there). walked down the las ramblas and to the port and soaked in this amazing sun. i overestimated the weather and brought my scarf AND sweater, both highly unneccessary. after taking in some sun and breeze, we walked back and dropped our winter clothes off and headed back out in search of a place to eat. as we deciphered streets and turned corners, we stumbled upon a ...FILIPINO RESTAURANT. i'd never felt more at home. barcelona was becoming more and more comfortable by the minute. originally, we wanted a real "spain-ish" restaurant. but as we saw that the spainard place next door was really flimsy, we opted for the real pinoy food.

i think i forgot to mention that i gave up pork AND beef for Lent so i was definitely suffering as i watched Camay eat lumpia (beef for her) but they called it something else...not exactly sure what they were named. but it was comforting to hear the language being spoken in such proximity to me. after that we headed to st. josep's market and got this really awesome euro smoothie.

walked around for a bit before heading to the Cathedral of Barcelona which was stunning. said my prayers and my petitions and went off into the music of the streets. as we began searching for the water again, we stumbled onto a cute street with lots of little stores. i was tempted to buy this long dress just 'cause for 25 euro but camay convinced me not to.

the sun had set and night had fallen onto barcelona. we found the water and passed boats and overlooked the mont juic from the port. breath. taking. being the courageous people we were, we were adament about finding the beach and so we took off for the other side of the city and nearly an hour later found the beautiful, sandy shore. even in darkness it was amazing. we settled down, boots first, into the sand and watched the black waters crashing while listening to our ipods.

the next day consisted of an early wake-up call. since we stayed in a hostel (my first!), the 9 other people we didn't know in the room were hustling and bustling around at like 7am. it was, undoubtedly, annoying, but we got up and began to hustle for breakfast not too soon afterwards. we headed outside and literally 5 steps from our hostel was a gaudi house! i had always been fascinated by his architecture, especially after seeing them on the travel channel. then we decided to go to his unfinished materpiece, La Sagrada Familia.

camay and i have become pros at navigating through cities. we've gone around all of rome, florence, pisa, venice, sort-of paris, and barcelona all on foot. all we need os a trusty street map and we're good. and so that's how barcelona went. we located La Sagrada Familia and were on our way. one of the highlights of the walk was seeing a huge owl on top of a building. upon arrival to la sagrada familia, i was taken aback by its architecture. this was one landmark i did not remember watching on the travel channel, so it was a happy surprise. we waited the long line to enter an unfinished cathedral (supposedly will take 50-70 more years to complete) and to climb all the way to the top. the view was ridiculous! a hot sunny day in barcelona with a killer view! then we took a break for lunch at a place called donde jorge (forreal) for some paellas. my first time havin' 'em and they were goood!

after a hearty meal, we trekked up towards 'arc de triomf' listening to jason mraz the entire time. i must admit, this arc is prettier than the one in paris. then we bump into katie from our cohort! crazy and random. we walk through the major park (i forget the name) and then along the edge and cross train tracks to get to the beach. o.m.g. the beach during the day was the best. i definitely felt spoiled because it was freakin' march and i was at the beach. i took off my sneakers, switched to my flipflops, and happily walked along the sand. we went to the edge and walked along this rock dock and sat there listening to more music, sunbathing.

to get some food before our trek back, we stopped by this restaurant and as camay went ot the bathroom i literally closed my eyes and let my finger point out my meal. it turned out to be little fried fish. i don't normally eat that stuff when my dad cooked it so when it arrived i sucked in air and had to tell myself that i was paying for it. it ended up being decent and i got to keep my liter water bottle that the waiter provided us.

we found ourselves walking back to the cathedral of barcelona and caught the WHOLE SQUARE joined together in hands, dancing the famous 'sardona' dance. there was a live band outside playing and the young and old were in many circles just dancing. it was incredible! i can't believe that happens all the time. we need stuff like that in new york.

after i finished recording videos of the dances, got some sangrias and chocolate and churros and we were on our way up to mont juic and the "magic fountain". after sadly realizing the airtram didn't work past 6pm, we found ourselves somehow getting to the magic fountain on accident. it was incredible! it was an entire show matched to music and lights and afterwards we climbed up the steps and had a whole night time view of all of barcelona. it was the best way to end my stay in the beautiful city.

viva barcelona!


i promise to update about my last few weeks in paris and my first week and a half in dublin ASAP because I will definitely be blogging while in grand ole London over spring break.