One Never Knows What's In Store Paris Holds The Key

Sometimes I don't write

Hello readers! Those of you still here haha. I know it’s been a while. Since I last posted I have been to the Russian Olympics, met with activists in Serbia, hosted Fulbrighters in Burgas and am preparing to leave on my birthday backpacking spring break trip on Friday! A lot has happened but honestly writing a blog can be very hard for me at times. I teach English to 450 students every week, there’s grading and prepping for students who’s 2^nd, 3^rd OR 4^th language is English. Each class is uniquely different and between adapting constantly, grading, extra lessons, my journaling, field notes, research project and you know that pesky thing called sleep-sometimes blogging just isn’t in me. BUT I left you stranded on the top of the Eiffel Tower so I can’t leave you there.

I met this delightful dad with his sons at the top who took my picture, I made it a good while

Really hate heights

before my hatred of barrier heights kicked in and I descended back down very proud that I had finally fulfilled my 12 year old selves promise to climb to the top and I set about completing the rest of my journey in Paris.

LIttle things make the journey

I traveled around seeing all the sites and since in the morning, finished a lot of things I

Bagels!

wanted to get done in Paris from just walking the Champs Elysees to seeing the military museum and after a very long day of getting lost and finding my way back entirely by tracking metro stop above ground I made it home! Plus I arrived home to my roomies from New Zealand having left me a bagel on my bed and instructions on where to get some more. THEY WERE AMAZING. I have missed bagels so much in BG!

The next day I was up early and headed over to Notre Dame to get that climb in as soon as possible and that leads to my being adopted by a Canadian family. You think I’m joking…if you think I’m joking clearly we have never met. I was waiting in line reading the “Scarlett Letter” to prepare for teaching it after winter break, and this lovely family behind me was confused about what line to get in. They were a three generation women trip! The grandmother, grandmothers best friend, daughter and granddaughter. (Or as I call Kaitlyn, my new sister who is in 9^th grade at this progressive French language school in Canada, yeah she’s impressive) and we got to talking. They asked me about what I did in Bulgaria and after an hour and a half of standing in line they finally said: You are traveling alone, isn’t that lonely?

What people think of single travelers

Well readers yes it can be. I am happy to be alone because as Elsa would say in Frozen “Yes

But my reaction

I’m alone, but I’m alone and free.” But at the same time it is lovely to travel with friends as well. Traveling is a unique and malleable experience, it never has to be done the same way every time. And this time it was ok to be alone but it would have been nice to also be with other friends.

gargoyle friend!

They however were not ok with it. And when we climbed up the bell tower to Notre Dame they insisted on taking my picture for me, and when we went to the highest part they put me in the family photo…told you I wasn’t kidding!

Proof!

It was beautiful and when I told my mom all she said was “of course someone adopted you, not surprised.” They also helped me figure out how to get to Versailles. After Notre Dame I headed to the trains and hit the palace. The joy of having my visa means free entry so I waited in line outside for 2 hours, yet again reading (the life of an English teacher, my students couldn’t complain to me about how it took their free time to read, I READ IT AT VERSAILLES, BAM!) and finally made it in.

self portrait

Now Versailles is great, it’s gorgeous, the gardens are amazing, and inside is a delight. But what I wanted was the hall of mirrors. When my mom went to Versailles years ago she took a picture she deemed her “self portrait” and so my goal was to re-enact it as closely as possible. Between my camera on my phone and my nice camera I took over a dozen attempts to hopefully one works!!

I am ;)

After I took the tour and enjoyed the palace I then walked around the gardens, into the park, and then out into the town itself. It’s a beautiful area and I loved just partaking in it. People really neglect just watching the world go by. They think that if they aren’t taking a photo every second, or seeing another museum they are missing out- but sometimes you see the most by just sitting back and taking it in. So I did, I went to McDonalds, got a soda and sat outside watching. It was marvelous.

Paint with all the colors...

Then I headed home to pack up and prepare for my final day in Paris when I would go to the Louvre. Now I love art, that isn’t something people generally associate with me but hey, one of my best friends is an art teacher, had to appreciate it from somewhere!! I love art, I share a birthday with Van Gogh, and I have a copy of his sunflower on my wrist, so the Louvre was some place I needed to see. However for me it’s kinda overrated. The Mona Lisa is nice but that’s not what my focus was. I loved this statue of an angel where the head had come off. That sounds psychotic but hear me out. I loved it because you don’t know which angel it’s meant to be. It could be a famous one like Gabriel, or maybe its your guardian angel and you aren’t meant to know their face. It’s just put beauty.

They escaped!

Headphones in!

Since it was also after the Doctor who 50^th special any landscapes were fair game to worry about zygotes, and since it was during Sherlock series 3, I put head phones in and pulled a Moriarty. But my favorite part was the amateur wing. I just sat there looking at paintings from artists long since passed away and wondered if their attempts at art made them happy. I mean what makes great art? And how did these people not make the cut? Did they enjoy their lives? Was painting an outlet? I loved sitting there wondering about their lives. And no, I did not pull a DaVinci code (my mom already asked.) 

Then I headed back to my hostel grabbed my bag and headed back home to Bulgaria. Ending a weird era for me. It’s a joke with my friends that until this Christmas I had been to the Czech Republic, but not France. Albania, but not Belgium, I essentially rarely hit the “normal” European spots but now I have. France was not my favorite but it was definitely worth the trip, and seriously-who doesn’t want to spend New years in Paris?

Tonight’s song is “Paris Holds the Key to Your Heart” from the film Anastasia…the reason should be obvious. Up Next the Olympics! 

Anna