La Belle Paris

***The following entry is backdated to Friday 24 Aug 2012. You must imagine that I am sitting in a cafe in Paris writing it, all excited and touristy. ***

 

 

What a day in beautiful Paris. I continue to be astounded by how quick the transit is over here. In less than the time it takes to drive from Saskatoon to Calgary (or barely even Regina), I hopped on the Eurostar train over to Paris Gare du Nord and was in central Paris by lunchtime.

 

I was a little apprehensive at finding my way in the city, but luckily my expert map reading (ha) came in handy and I am much better at reading French than speaking it. Also, everyone here speaks English...They see the panicked look in my eyes after we get past the "bonjour" part and they usually jump right into English.

 

I worked out that it has been 7 years since I last visited Paris during my high school tour....a little bit scary but yes it was back in 2005. I found myself remembering lots of the whirlwind two and a half days I have spent here and the things I wanted to revisit and explore on my own.

 

Also there is a large difference between being on a school tour and navigating Paris on your own. I did well and just making my way to my hostel was the biggest relief. I am staying in a great location - in the Latin quarter - which is within walking distance of some of the big sights - the Louvre and the Seine, and also near the Metro for everything else. I am also conveniently located near the Luxembourg Gardens - Paris' answer to Hyde Park - where I spent the afternoon lounging, strolling and just generally trying to take it all in and wrap my head around being in Paris.

 

I visited the Musee d'Orsay, which was one of my favorite memories of my last visit to Paris. It has paintings from all the great Impressionist artists and I recall really falling in love with Monet especially. It was cool to re-visit those paintings and feel like we've got a relationship going - me and the awesome art :) I also visited some new friends - Gauguin, Renoir and others.

 

It was raining after I came out of the museum so I ate my dinner crouched beneath the shelter of the museum - baguette, boursin, blueberries and some Milka chocolate - it was very romantic. After trying to gauge whether I could wait out the rain I purchased what it possibly the worst umbrella ever for 4 Euro from the dude outside the museum. It kept me dry for the half an hour that mattered when I would have been soaked, but I am a little skeptical to see what will happen when I try to open it again.

 

My day was not yet over - I walked along the Champs d'Elysees - the BIG shopping street in Paris. I am now enjoying a hot chocolate before turning in for the night.

 

Day 1 in Paris - exhausting, exciting, challenging and beautiful.

 

As my father would say, c'est bon!

There's No Place Like London...

I'm writing to you this morning from the humid bubble that is my bedroom on the second floor of this house in London. I'm actively sweating from the exertion of sitting here and typing. But hey this could be the last nice day in London for a while - so I may as well enjoy it!!

I figured an update was in order as I seem to have been getting up to quite a bit of adventuring lately. After my weekend of Welsh adventures I returned to London for another whirlwind of funtimes including my first visit to the London Eye and two more shows on the West End!

One of my favorites so far has to be Sweeney Todd - so creepy and so well done, plus it is a uniquely London musical. The gentleman playing Sweeney (Michael Ball) and Mrs. Lovett were both excellent - so much so that I feared I may have nightmares of gruesome barbershops and bakehouses. Thankfully I am still alive and have my hair on. The musical definitely showed a darker side to this city and the millions of people that have been crowded within its walls over the years.

It is sometimes hard to wrap my head around the fact that I can just drop down to Leicester Square to see a show anytime I like. In thinking about what the next step will be for me I already know I will be so, so sad to leave London. It is such an incredibly beautiful city and has re-opened my eyes to so many possibilities that I know it will always be a special place for me. But it is not an especially realistic place to live, at least not considering some of the other goals I have yet to achieve. Something I've been thinking about a lot in the past little while....

BUT there are still many more adventures to come before I have to leave lovely London, including a trip to Paris over the long weekend bank holiday coming up. Which means only a four day work week ahead :) I remember feeling at the begining of the summer that surely this holiday would never come. I would be stuck working full time for 9, 10 weeks in a row - and without batting my eyes here we are at the end of August.

Today I am going to try to enjoy a day of quiet and rest after all of the craziness of the past little while. I will be taking it easy (as much as I am able) and hopefully enjoying the London summer while it's here.

Welsh Weekend Adventures

This is a photo of me and my new friend Max, the horse that I was riding this past weeked during my adventuring weeked in Wales! He is really nice except for the fact that he was really hungry and wanted to stop and eat lots of ferns and plants along the way. He took me all the way through the Brecon Beacon mountains in Wales and it was very beautiful - postcard perfect. The morning looked a little misty but it cleared right up and we were riding through a valley in this national park in the midst of sheep and wild horses. I'm pretty sure I saw a unicorn.

This is a photo of the "hostel" we stayed at during the adventuring weekend. I use the term hostel very loosely as it was the most mansion-like hostel I will ever stay at, I am fairly sure. For one thing when we walked in the door there was a Welsh couple awaiting us to say "Welcome to the Baskerville Hall Hotel"....

It is the real Baskerville Hall from the Hounds of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This means that we were staying in the same grounds that the author of Sherlock Holmes did - very cool. And the hotel is still very much in its original state. The girls on the tour shared a chilly but comfortable dorm room and we ate breakfast in the dining room overlooking stunning grounds and the Welsh countryside. Add to this the fact that we were fairly far out in the middle of nowhere and I could almost believe that I was in a Jane Austen novel as I drank my coffee and had baked beans for breakfast.

This is the only photo I took during our stop to Hay-on-Wye, also known as the Town of Books. They have a yearly literary festival every year in May and have something like 30 plus bookshops in this tiny Welsh town. Needless to say I was in heaven!

I exercised restraint and only bought one book from this bookshop which was yes, in a legitimate castle. The whole main floor of the castle has been converted into rows upon rows of dusty old books, photos and other vintage knick-knacks for sale. There was also a massive bookshop inside of an old cinema that we visited.

Other stops during the adventuring weekend in Wales included Chepstow Castle - the oldest stone castle in Europe, and Tintern Abbey where the monks used to live hundreds of years ago and which was made famous by the poet Wordsworth.

Overall I really really enjoyed Wales - definitely a highlight of my time so far. The atmosphere was so peaceful and incredibly beautiful. Surrounded by so much natural beauty it was hard not to enjoy the slower pace of Wales and just try to take it all in. The horseback riding was a great way to experience the mountains and see some sheep close up. The weekend felt like it was a couple of weeks long and it was like going back in time and entering another world to leave the hustle and bustle of the city.

On the way back to London I seriously considered a new life plan that involved moving to a secluded cottage in Wales to write a novel and while away my days in the countryside. I will try and give plenty of notice if this plan is to go ahead but in the meantime it is back to work in London for me. I'll be dreaming of Max, unicorns and the gorgeous Welsh countryside all day long...

Adventures in Olympic Park

Going to the Olympic Park in London is a little bit like entering another reality. It reminded me of Disneyworld in that everywhere I looked everything was London 2012 - the food, the signs, the people dressed head to toe in London 2012 gear. Even the flowers were sculpted in the colours and design of London 2012. Brand name bliss in East London...

There were staff members literally every few feet directing people which way to go. This is not an exaggeration. I would like to see someone try to approach the ticket booth without having their tickets ready for inspection. We were informed at one point that we were unfortunately standing in a non-standing area and if we wished to stand we should join the others in the standing area, which was a small circle of fenced-off area that very strongly resembled a pen.

Please do not think that I did not love Olympic Park, because I did love it, in the way that a child loves Disneyworld, because it is magical and fantastic. I also now love Coke, Adidas, Parasonic and Field Hockey. It was nice just to be in the middle of thousands of people (in our venue alone) who were there to have a good time and cheer on their country whether they were winning or losing.

It was neat to see the spectacle and enormity of the summer Olympics, which I did not truly appreciate until I was part of the sea of people streaming through the gates of the Park from the tube station. I often forget that London is a city of 7 million people and the Olympic Park is its own city within London for these few weeks out of the year. I will not be one of those Olympic fanatics who goes all out but I am definitely in the spirit of bringing countries together and people supporting their nations win or lose. We watched two matches of women's Field Hockey - USA vs Argentia and Australia vs Germany. The Aussies were definitely the loudest. Being amongst so many Europeans has definitely increased my own level of national pride, which is something that I feel is not celebrated often enough in Canada.

I cannot help but be impressed by the magnitude of the whole thing and all that has been accomplished to bring the Games here. I also cannot help but think that if all these countries can come together to support each other and sponsor their athletes and find funding and housing and build stadiums to such an enormous degree then surely they can put the same kind of considerable resources to bettering the world not just in terms of sports. But that is a larger question of its own which I won't get into right now. After all, I'm still on my Olympic high.

I also have a strange craving for a McFlurry...

London 2012

Olympic mania has hit London, that is for sure.

 I went down to Hyde Park yesterday to watch the live Olympic coverage of events, etc. and it was an experience. You definitely have to brace yourself if you are going to go into Central London during the next few weeks I suppose. The good thing is that there were so many staff members there - on every street corner, at every intersection and at every entrance into the park. We had to go through airport-style security just to get in to the park - which is free, they just don't want you taking anything in there. Like, at all. I had to dump out my water bottle.

Of course they want you to buy the overpriced bottles of water available within the park, but if you don't do that it's actually quite an enjoyable experience to be there watching the games along with hundreds of other people. They have a bunch of huge tv screens showing live coverage of a bunch of different events and a festival kind of atmosphere. I didn't see any GB or Canadian medals being won yesterday but I may go back again next weekend.

I watched the Opening Ceremonies at a pub with a bunch of people from my work, which was quite fun as well. There was lots of cheering for Australia, New Zealand, Italy and of course Canada in our particular corner.

I am excited to see how the next few weeks play out and to enjoy the international vibe over the next little while. London is already full of so many different cultures, but the Olympics is a good chance to celebrate it. And just a great summer to be here as there are so many free Olympic events going on that I hope to take advantage of.

Work related things are going well. It is one of my co-worker's last few days at the office before she heads home to Australia and everyone keeps saying I've got such big shoes to fill when she leaves. I try not to be too worried about that,as  all I can really do is my best. I feel fairly settled in so we will see how it goes over the coming weeks.

This week I'm going to the Olympics!!!!! Which should be exciting, so stay tuned to hear of my sporting adventures -  mainly braving the tube ride all the way across London!

Summer in London!

Summer has finally arrived!!!! At least for this week, anyway.

I have woken up to the sweet sweat of a hot, hot day the past few days. It is proper summer here at least for the moment, which makes me happy, in spite of having to wear stockings to work in the sweltering heat. Ugh.

Although London is very beautiful and has many parks to enjoy on a hot day it is missing that all important beach aspect that I love about Canada. This weather has me longing for some decent time floating on a lake somewhere. Not that I am complaining!!! I will take as many of these sunny days as I can get.

I`ve been busy working away the past little while. I went to see We Will Rock You with some Australian pals this past weekend. Although I do enjoy Queen's music as much as the next person, it was not my favorite show so far. Definitely was something lacking in the "plot" department of this show...

I much preferred the production of Taming of the Shrew that I saw at the Globe. I tried out the standing seats in the yard area, which I am glad I did at least once, though it is a long time to stand for 3 hours. This show was really well done and made me glad that I came to London where I can see so many great Shakespeare shows. One of my favorite characters ended up being the guy who played Grumio, one of the manservants who I would usually completely write off. Also, Petruchio was half-naked for an entire scene, and it didn't rain once!

The Olympics are nearly here but other than some tube closures it hasn't really affected me too too much yet. I am on the opposite side of London from most of the events, so stay tuned to hear of any adventures that may befall me, including my visit to the Olympic Park next week!

For this week I will alternate between staying cool and soaking up as much sun as my body can handle in this brief British heatwave.

We Are Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On

It seems that the adventuring never stops for this girl - at least not while I am trying to pack in the sightseeing in this summer of fun. Today was an enjoyable trip to Oxford and Stratford-upon-Avon, which is Shakespeare's Birthplace. It is always nice to take a little foray out of London, which can sometimes get a little overwhelming!

Oxford was a little underwhelming, possibly because it was raining when we were there and also because we didn't get a ton of time to look around. I didn't realize that there is no campus exactly in Oxford, there are 38 different colleges which all have their own separate buildings all over the city. There are a few main buildings, like the library and halls and things, but mainly it's the town itself that is the university. It was also home to SO many writers at one point or another, like C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lewis Carroll, and Oscar Wilde, just to name a few. So it was cool to visit the city that has been home to and inspired so many great thinkers. Another fun fact: every elected British prime minister has graduated from Oxford...conspiracy???

Then it was off to the lovely city of Stratford-upon-Avon, Avon being the river that passes through Stratford. We visited Anne Hathaway's cottage (above), which was the home of Shakespeare's wife. Parts of the building are exactly as they would have been four or five hundred years ago when Shakespeare was courting Anne. It was very cool and very eye-opening as the cottage is tiny and life would have been very, very different back then. The Hathaway bed (apparently it's famous?) was there which is a mattress laid on top of ropes which would be tightened every night before bed. This is apparently where the expression "sleep tight" comes from.

I also viewed the site of Shakespeare's birth, and his grave which is in the Holy Trinity church at Stratford. It's really a bit surreal when I think of how incredible it is that he actually once lived in that village. Of course the tourism there now is insane, but it's still a beautiful little spot in the English countryside and definitely gives a better understanding of Shakespeare and his plays. I'd love to go back and see a production by the Royal Shakespeare Company, which has a theatre there in Stratford.

In all, a fully satisfying foray into the realm of history and culture for today. I am grateful that my roof is not made of thatched straw and therefore no bugs or mice will be above me while I sleep (I should hope) and grateful also that I have had the chance to see such awesome places. It so far has only increased my appreciation of all the blessings in my life and made me wonder at how incredibly interconnected the world really is.