J'adore Paris!

Oh Paris, you are such a lovely, wonderful city and I am already sad thinking about leaving you so soon. (Note to self: must start looking for school psych jobs in Paris). Well, you can probably deduce that our first day in Paris was great.  Leah and I have adopted a very low-key, minimal plan type of attitude and this is a way better way to travel (for us at least). We have shifted towards more cultural activities and aimless wandering than trying to pack in all of the museums and tourist attractions that we can.  Strict schedules = exhausted unhappy travelers whereas no schedules = enchanted satisfied travelers. So each day we pick one or two must dos and just see where the day takes us.  We are liking this style much better. 

We started off the day with a lovely brunch at a cafe near our hotel. I managed to cross one thing off of my "to-eat" list in this meal, a croque Madame. This is probably one of the most perfect brunch foods although I think the French would eat this anytime. It is a ham sandwich with gruyere cheese melted on top and a fried egg. Leah and I had both ordered one (don't want to have food envy) and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Even the basic salad was delicious with the dijon vinaigrette. 

After brunch, we took the metro to the Marche aux Puces de Saint Ouen, a fairly popular flea market in Paris. This really is a hidden gem because it's in a not so nice neighborhood that we named Sketch City where people are constantly showing you knock off jewelry, bags, and probably stolen cell phones. However, if you stick with it and ignore them, you find the real flea market which is a treasure hunter's paradise. I kept saying "oh my mom would go nuts if she saw this" since thrift store treasure hunting is a favorite family pastime. We had the best time roaming through the market stalls and looking at antique porcelain, silver, books, prints, clothes, fabrics...so many things!! 

Don't freak out mom

I'm so excited at this moment: 

While some of the things were way out of our budget, we were both able to find some gems. 

My finds: a soap dish, pitcher, and Limoges teacup and saucer - all for €22!!

Leah's favorite find - a black vintage fascinator hat 

After the market, we decided to go to Sacre Coeur to get a good view of Paris before heading to the artists' square at Montmartre. Sacre Coeur is stunning itself but also provides a great view of the entire city. 

Cold and rainy for a bit and caught with only one umbrella:

We didn't let the rain stop us though and it eventually let up so we continued to the square in Montmartre where artists are everywhere painting, selling, and drawing art right there on the spot. 

It was extremely crowded but worth it as Leah and I both bought original artwork from the same artist. 

I'm in love with this. It struck my eye immediately and I kept coming back to it so I decided I should get it!

He even wrote a little note: 

After buying the art, we took a brief break for wine and a crepe. I have accepted the Crepe per Day challenge and I think I may win. 

Then we followed Rick Steeve's suggested walk through Montmartre and saw many beautiful sights along the way:

This is Van Gogh's brother's house, where he stayed during his time in Paris, which was very influential to his work. 

So jealous of this old man right now. He is the cutest!

Our Montmartre tour ended with seeing the Moulin Rouge, which faintly resembles the original one you may think about from the famous movie but it's still worth seeing. 

For dinner, we did not do anything special since neither of us were very hungry so we went next door to our hotel to a local bar. We met the nicest bartender/owner/chef who helped us with our French phrases. We have had great experiences with Parisian hospitality   despite the stereotypes. 

Small dinner of a tomato salad (Leah) and bread/cheese (me) 

Tomorrow we plan to get an earlier start and hope to have another wonderful day here to eat and enjoy Paris. I don't want to give away any spoilers but I think tomorrow will be magnifique!  Bonne nuit!

*Leah and I have decided that we would like to learn French so if anyone has a Rosetta Stone set they'd like to sell....: 

Au revoir Prague and bonjour Paris!

So yesterday was our last day in Prague and also a travel day to Paris. Travel days tend to be filled mostly with travel (obviously) so there is not much to write about but I still wanted to give an update on things. We only had three things on our list to check off for Prague - the Market, the Jewish Cemetary, and the National Museum (not to be confused with the National Gallery). So we started off on our way by taking the metro. Our three day metro passes had expired and we needed to buy a single day pass. That small task turned into a 30 minute ordeal that, retrospectively, could have easily been avoided. First, neither of us had any more cash so we withdrew a little more from the ATM to get us through the day. The ATM only gave us one large bill. Then we needed to buy the Metro Pass but because it was Sunday, the ticket office was closed and we attempted to use the ticket machine. We thought we needed to have a smaller denomination for the tickets using the machine so we headed to a booth in the metro station to get change by buying water. As soon as Leah asks for water and pulls out the bill, she is rudely waved off by the woman behind the counter. Ok...on to the coffee guy.  He waves us off to the Lotto salesperson. She waves us off to somewhere outside. At this point we are furious that no one could give us change to get on the metro. We were trying to do right by actually buying a ticket - give us a break!  So we head across the street to a casino and Leah asks the man in front if we can have change. He directs us to a moody bartender who then directs us to the cash out person who FINALLY gives us smaller bills.  Ok that mission is accomplished and it's back to the ticket machines. Except it turns out that the machine only takes coins and we both had these freaking bills that we spent 20 minutes hunting down. #%^&$!  In an act of pure frustration and desperation, I asked the metro police where we could get some coins to buy these tickets. He informed us that we could buy the tickets from the tabak shop in the station instead of using the machines. O. M. G. I couldn't decide whether to be thankful there was a solution or to be angry that the entire thing could have been avoided. Needless to say, we bought our tickets and headed to the market. 

The market was a little underwhelming and not as enticing as I had put myself on a strict cash budget for the day. They had a lot of touristy things like toys, magnets, bracelets, and witch dolls (kind of weird). They also had some very nice leather goods that were affordable but would wipe out of my daily budget. I was a little creeped out by the fur pelt that still had the toenails of the animal on it....

After our brief visit to the market, we headed to the Jewish Cemetary. The Jewish Cemetary is listed as one of the top sites to visit while in Prague.  Before WWII, there were over 200,000 Jews living in Prague and after the war, there were around 10,000 who returned as most of them died in the concentration camps.  So the Jewish Quarter is more of a memorial to the Jews who were killed during the Holocaust. The Jewish Cemetary is interesting because it is actually 12 layers of graves since they only had a small portion of land where they could bury their dead. So the graves are all on top of each other, literally. 

The pass for the Jewish Cemetary includes access to synagogues and a memorial to those who died. It was interesting to tour the Cemetary and really sad to see all of the names of the deceased who died during the Holocaust. They also had different artifacts of Jewish life, including a poem from an 11 year old boy while he was in the concentration camp.  

After the Jewish Quarter, we went to the National Museum, which is supposed to be a natural history museum. Unfortunately, the real museum is under renovation and there is a small building beside it which houses a hodge podge of human artifacts. I was not impressed and I do not recommend going to see this until the renovations are complete.  It was like they took a ton of random things and threw it together to create the exhibits...very odd. 

After the sightseeing, we were pretty exhausted from all of the traveling and tourism so we decided to head back to the hotel and wait there for a couple of hours for our transport to the airport. Also it has been really hot in Prague so I've been kind of miserable walking around as I am constantly sweating.  The only moments of relief are in the metro stations which are exceptionally cool from the trains. I could have stayed down there all day. 

This is how I feel about heat:

Upon returning to the airport, we ate lunch and I ordered a cheeseburger as I have been craving American food so much I was almost desperate enough to pop into a Burger King.  But this was much better than that, I'm sure. 

The rest of the afternoon and evening was pretty uneventful. We made it to our flight in plenty of time and had a smooth flight to Paris. However, there were some very foul odors coming from people on the plane. Leah literally covered up her nose during most of the flight due to the man next to her.  I caught a waft or two and I don't blame her. Glad I was in the window seat!  When we were descending, we could see the Eifel Tower and it was lit up for night. This was very exciting for me even though it was far away.

First spotted:

We flew into Paris-orly airport, which I can only describe as a complete and utter cluster$&@#.  We landed at 11:00 pm and you would have thought it was noon rush hour or something.  There were SWARMS of people everywhere - at baggage claim, in the arrivals gates, at the taxi line.  It honestly seemed like everyone's plane for the entire day landed at the same time and that was between 11:00 and 12:00. We did not get into a taxi until 12:20 a.m. I don't know if this was an anomaly but I'd avoid Paris-Orly in the future. However, it's probably nothing a little Xanax wouldn't fix (and did). 

Our cab ride to our hotel took about 25 minutes and we were able to see a lot of Paris on the way. It's such a beautiful city. I've been pretty excited to finally be in a city where I can use some of my French 1 & 2 phrases I learned in high school. Feeling pretty confident, I asked the cab driver how he was and he responded then he asked me how I was. I responded with "bien" then realized my mistake, quickly thought of something in French to say and told him that I didn't speak French (Je ne parle pas francaise...or something like that. Very handy I'm sure). So with the confidence shattered, he switched to English.

Our hotel here is quaint and not nearly as fancy as any of the other places we have stayed on this trip. But it's in a good neighborhood and close to two metro stops, which is very important.  It is also in the high 60s at noon right now, which makes me incredibly happy.  Time to enjoy Paris! While I'm here, I'm pretending that I'm Ina Garten, the barefoot contessa and my culinary inspiration. I have a ton of things on my "to-eat" list, some of which include:

Macarons

Tarte tatin

Escargot

Baguette and Brie

Nutella crepe

Croque Madame

Chocolate mousse

Croissants

I should probably measure my success by pounds gained. C'est la vie and Bon appetite!

The view from our hotel room:

The Royal Prague Treatment

Today was our second full day in Prague and it continues to lead the running for favorite city visited thus far. It is also exceptionally clean and fairly odourless (if you have been in a big city, you can appreciate that). 

Most awkward moment:

Due to our aching and stiff bodies, Leah and I decided to splurge and get a Thai massage offered by our hotel. Two Taiwanese ladies came to our hotel room and things got pretty interesting from there.  They laid a couple of sheets on the king sized bed, told us to undress (no room for modesty), and lay on our stomachs.  If you've never had a Thai massage before, it feels great but it is a little different as the women are crawling over you, laying against your back and pressing their feet into it to stretch it out, etc.  Despite us getting the massages at the same time on the same bed, Leah received a more interactive massage that bordered on an unwanted sensual massage. While my feet were being rubbed, her breasts and butt were...I didn't realize this until we compared afterwards and I'm glad that wasn't my experience! At one point, my lady fell off the bed and after Leah laughed, her lady smacked her butt. Also our women left a few times each to go into the bathroom. Who knows what they were doing although there were frequent toilet flushes and occasional water running.  While it was awkward at times, my body feels amazing and I'd suffer through some discomfort not to be so sore. 

This brochure picture is misleading. And I think Leah got the Tawan Touch massage...

Best parts of the day: If the massages weren't slightly awkward, they'd be in the running for this category but the best parts of today have to be our tour of the castle district and seeing the Lennon Wall. I had read a trip advisor review about how when people go to see the castle, they get off on this particular stop (Prazky hrad) but if you do that, you actually have to walk up a really steep hill and set of stairs to get there. Instead, you should get off the tram at the Pohorelec stop and then you are walking downhill.  This was an AMAZING tip and it saved us some definite misery.  Those hill steps towards the castle would have been just awful and I wanted to cheer people on as we were walking past them. 

This is only a small portion of the way...

So having that gold nugget of advice, we followed it and leisurely strolled down to the castle grounds and toured part of it. My favorite was the cathedral which is just magnificent in every sense of the word. 

I also really enjoyed the views of the city center from the castle grounds:

We even saw a medieval torture room and some curious armor:

After touring the castle and a break for espresso and ice cream, it was a short walk to the Lennon Wall, which was originally painted as a tribute to John Lennon when he was assassinated. since then it has become a living art piece as it changes daily as people paint new things. One of the most powerful things about it is that it was an expression of peace and love even during the Communist years, when ideas like that were forbidden. I absolutely loved it and it was a highlight for the both of us. 

Worst part of the day (for me):

Well, this actually started yesterday when we were walking around the famous Charles Bridge and I saw a teenaged girl having a panic attack and her mother comforting her. I said to Leah jokingly, "she must have seen a snake" because I would react in the same manner if I had seen one, since I have a severe snake phobia. About 30 seconds later, Leah tells me to not look up. Turns out there is a man with a huge python around his neck who was standing there to take pictures with people. I started to become very anxious and was on edge for a little while just knowing he was close by.  Today, we had to walk by the same part of town and sure enough, snake man was back. This time I was prepared and with Leah being the lookout, she led me by him without me having to see. It definitely would have been a bad situation if I was caught off guard like that girl was. I think it should be illegal to have snakes around like that where anyone can see them.  People have severe phobias and there is not any warning unless you have a good friend to look out for you!  So if you're like me, just be on the lookout for snake man. 

Things Europe doesn't like which were made most evident today:

Ice

AC 

Free public toilets 

Free refills 

Other photos for your viewing pleasure taken on the Charles Bridge: