17th April 2015
Ah Paris (I say this in the French pronunciation "Pah-ree"), the city of love; where passion, romance and love completely consumes you... Is the exact opposite to how I felt when we arrived. As I dragged myself through the train station, throwing strops and tantrums like a three year old, all I wanted to do was get to our hostel and go to bed.
Wandering around the train station like two lost sheep, my boyfriend (Jack) and I tried to figure out where to go next, or where to start shall I say. As the Parisian's ignorantly barged passed us, zigzagging in all sorts of directions, I just couldn't focus, even the English language seemed foreign. I don't know if it's just me but I'm pretty sure the maps in France make no fucking sense, a sign showing your destination will point in one direction and then when you get there, you end up upside down in a bin or walking into a bloody wall... This is not Hogwarts France, platform 9¾ does not exist.
Firing evil looks at Jack and replying with one word answers (as if it was his fault that we didn't know where to go), my patience grew thinner and the blisters on my feet grew bigger so we decided to head to the information centre (something we probably should have done when we first arrived).
Dashing out of the Metro Station, feeling like I could breathe again, we didn't realise how far away our hostel actually was, and the tube that we needed to get was closed for maintenance, typical! The information centre didn't tell us that back at the station though did they, merci mate. Luckily, there was another tube going right to our destination, or so we thought... It felt like we were travelling for hours to our hostel, the roads seemed to go on and on and the sign posts and maps made no bloody sense whatsoever but once we got to the hostel, I was so happy that I almost cried. Now all I needed was a hot shower, my pyjamas and a good nights sleep to recharge my batteries.
Staring up at the Eiffel Tower for the first time in my life, amazed at how tall it was. I wasn't overly impressed with it at first because it's just one big satellite really but there is something really special about seeing a world-famous monument with your own eyes, instead of just on the internet. As Jack and I both tilted our heads, carefully admiring the architecture and all of the finer details, we were interrupted by two women asking us to sign a petition to help the 'deaf and blind' association. Once we signed our names, of course they started asking for money and having seen this 'scam' before in England, I thought fuck this, you're only getting 1 Euro love! Jack thinking the same thing, only had a 2 Euro coin on him but the woman assured him she would give him a Euro back. As he happily handed over the coin, the woman quickly grabbed it and walked off in the opposite direction. As Jack shouted at her to give him his 1 Euro, I couldn't stop laughing! Our moment of awe and admiration for the Eiffel Tower swiftly disappeared as quickly as they did.
As I lifted up the box and stared at the empty surface below, the huge grin on my face slowly disappeared... Surprise, surprise there was no ball underneath. As the crowd rushed me away, pushing me to move on, I walked away feeling very confused. Trying to contemplate what had just happened Jack interrupted my thought and said, 'For fucks sake Daniela, why did you do that for! It's a scam!" For a moment I thought to myself, 'yeah whatever, you're just saying that because I lost 50 Euros!' but as my happy bubble floated away and my naivety turned into reality, I realised that he was right. What a daft prat! Jack explained how the other "players" had tried to distract him from stopping me playing by asking him questions, and as he tried to back away and shout my name, his voice was blocked out by these "players" who were giving me words of encouragement, or so I thought they were! I'm quite a optimistic person, someone who sees the glass as half full so I just laughed it off but the moral of the story kids is don't laugh at your boyfriend when he gets conned out of 2 Euro because karma will rob you blind.
As the day went on, my brain was exhausted from trying to take in every little detail of Paris. Love Lock Bridge was pretty cool, I admired how couples, friends and individuals had left a part of themselves in Paris so it was only natural that Jack and I did the same thing.
The Notredame was incredible, I was completely blown away with how beautiful it was inside. I would of taken a few pictures but the battery on my camera died so I was pretty pissed off that all I had was my shitty iPhone camera. I read that the Notredame took over 700 years to get to how it is today, which blew my mind and I couldn't stop thinking about all of the generations involved in the creation of this magnificent work of art. I couldn't help but feel slightly jealous that I wasn't a part of something as majestic as this.
Luxembourg Gardens was pretty impressive, decorated with statues and tulips and well-preserved nature. We decided we would have a little picnic here and chug a bottle of white wine (we forgot to buy plastic cups from the shop). As Jack and I wandered through the park, I stopped to admire the true artists of Paris who were either painting or drawing or writing, trying to capture the beauty of the garden or landscape in their own way. It made me feel a little sad inside because I wished that you could do this in Coventry without judgement or fear but unfortunately, my "hometown" is lacking culture and true happiness.
Wandering through the cobbled streets of Paris at night and breathing in the Parisian air was truly special. Even though the bars and restaurants were still busy, the atmosphere was peaceful and relaxed. Everything looked magical and I felt as if we were living in the 1920's or as character's in The Great Gatsby.
