TravelStream™ news feed for member amykowal on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/amykowal en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 14 Jun 2008 21:44:21 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amykowal/1/1207532520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amykowal/1/1207532520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amykowal/1/1207532520/tpod.html Sat, 14 Jun 2008 21:44:21 -0400 Paris 2008

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Paris, France

Hi Everyone,

This will be my last weekly update from Paris as I am leaving to go back to NYC tomorrow evening. The time
went by very quickly and I've had a lot of fun.

The saddest part of my trip was when Frenchie's goldfish died. He hung on for 2 1/2 days, then that
was that. Frenchie doesn't seem to really care that I'm leaving tomorrow and that there will be no one
around to take care of his other goldfish that I still haven't killed. Fortunately, my friend Karina has
offered to take in the fish until Frenchie returns, so I'm bringing him over to her place tonight. She lives
just a 15 min walk from where I am so that shouldn't put too much stress on the fish.

The homeless guys have now officially become a tourist attraction. The other day I was walking by and saw
these two girls taking their picture with them. In case you are in Paris and want to put them on your
list of famous sights to see, they can be found under the train tracks at Metro line 2, Juares stop. They've
also acquired a pup tent the other day, so it looks like they are planning on staying for a while.

As you all know I've mostly been wandering around the streets taking photos. I've done a lot of walking, and
if it wasn't for all the yummy chocolate and baggetts I've been eating these past few weeks I would be
skinnier than Kate Moss right now. So the one thing I've noticed about the Parisians is that they have no
concept of personal space and will not budge an inch to let you pass on the sidewalk. I have literally been
forced off the sidewalk into oncoming traffic because they refuse to move. I've stopped being so polite, now
I just do what I normally do in NYC, I don't step aside either and I hit them with my body as I'm
passing, or I just stop and stand in their way. Both equally effective ways for getting the point across.

Another very important tip for future travels to Paris: the water here sucks! It is so freaking hard
you might as well be washing with and drinking pebbles. No wonder the goldfish died. If you are
planning on being here for more than 3 days I highly recommend that you bring the most strongest body and
face moisturizing cream on the market - this is true for men as well as women. My skin is so dried out it
looks like I've aged at least 5 years. Hopefully I will be able to turn that around when I get home and
return to my normal routine.

If you'll recall in my 1st update I told you about this bad area that I went into and the amazing
graffiti art I saw but was too afraid to take a photo of because of all the shady characters hanging around?
Well I got up the nerve to go back there this morning. This time it was totally different, Charles Manson
wasn't there and there weren't any shadesters hanging around. I was able to get some photos of it, but
unfortunately there were all these cars parked along the street next to the graffiti wall and it was really
hard for me to get good shots.

So the moral to my story is - if you let your fear and apprehension get the best of you, you can miss a great
opportunity in life. The opportunity may present itself again and you may be in a better frame of mind
to seize it, but the conditions may be less optimal than when originally presented. You can still make it
work for you, but the key is you'll have to really work it to make it work.

Ok, so that's it, in exactly 24 hours it will be Au Revoir Paris, Salùt NYC. I'll send links to my photos
as soon as I get then posted on line.
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Paris, France

Hi Everyone,
It's still pretty rainy, but the temps are warming up so it's sorta tolerable. I've taken over 700 photosalready, and have about 100 decent shots - astounding isn't it???The most exciting events for the week occurred along the Seine River. On Thursday I was walking along theriver with Heather's friend, Sam, who is in Paris until Tuesday before he goes back to NYC. We weretaking photos near the Eifel Tower when some random guy comes up to us and asks us if we lost this goldwedding band on the ground that he just picked up. After telling him no he said that it was our lucky dayand he gave it to me. I told him I didn't want it and that its finders keepers and he should keep it. Heinsisted that I take it. So I was like fine and we walked away. Then he runs up to us and asks us formoney for a sandwich. So Sam gave him 2€, and the guy of course asked him for more saying that he just gaveus this ring and basically not to be so cheap. I told him he could have the ring back and sell it if hewanted more money, he was like "no I don't want it." So we didn't give him any more money. I figured thering was totally fake but Sam points out that there is a stamp inside the ring which said 18K. So at thatpoint I was trying to figure out how we could find the person who lost it, and thinking how this guys wife isgoing to kick his ass for losing it. We decided that there was no way we could possibly find the owner ofthe ring and Sam kept it.Fast forward to Saturday morning. I'm near the same area again taking photos. As I'm setting up my shotwaiting for the cars and people to move and trying to coordinate my filter so that my finger doesn't coverthe lens this gypsy looking woman walks in front of me and bends down, picks up a gold wedding band and asksme if I dropped it!!! First I was pissed because she was ruining my shot, then when I saw the ring in herhand I totally could have belted her with my camera I was so mad. I told her to take her ring and leave mealone. But she still kept pushing the ring on me. I yelled at her and told her if she didn't get lostimmediately I would take the ring, beat her with it and throw it in the river. She scampered away at thatpoint - wise move on her part.Ok, so the other scam the gypsies have going on here is these women come up to you and ask you if you speakEnglish. They totally sound like they are going to ask you for directions or something. If you stop and sayyes then they hand you this small piece of cardboard where they have their sob story written out and askyou for money. The way to get around it is either ignore them or respond and say No when they ask you ifyou speak English.Then yesterday I met up with met up with my friend Karina who lives here in Paris. We did the typicalFrench thing and went to a cafe to catch up on old times. After that we went to the Carnavalet Museumwhich has all this info on the history of France. All the exhibit info is written in French, so I used theopportunity to have her translate stuff for me.After that we met up with some of her friends on Pont des Arts which is a nice foot bridge that goes overthe Seine near the Louvre. There she surprised us by pulling out a bottle of champagne and strawberries outof her purse, so we had a little happy hour picnic on the bridge. It was evening by this time and the lightswere coming on all the monuments so it was really pretty. After that we took a short walk through the courtyard of the Louvre. It was totally amazing. There was amusician playing some sort of instrument as you walk in, because of the accoustics the sound carriedthroughout the courtyard. The building was lit up in a soft orange glow, it literally felt like I was in adream, it was so surreal.Today is also a very sad day for me. Frenchie's golfish is dying. I woke up this morning and saw himfloating on his side, his tail was all chewed up and I thought the big goldfish attacked him, but after doingsome research on line I discovered that fish can get this disease called Fin Rot and that it can attackthem overnight. The little guy is still hanging on, but barely. I don't know what to do for him. All thestores are closed today so I can't get him any medicine even if I knew where to find a pet store.It's so sad because he is really a nice little fish.Homeless guys - the other morning I woke up and saw the cops taking the homeless guys who live across thestreet away in their cop cars. But apparently they only kept them for a few hours because they were backon their mattresses by nightfall, and they brought friends with them! So now there are like 7 of themliving there when before there were 4. They still haven't bothered me though.That's all for now...
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Paris, Île-de-France, France

Hi Everyone,

As some of your may know I am currently experiencing some down time in the employment area of my life.
I love to travel and what better time than now when I don't have to coordinate a vacation with coworkers or
deal with a cheesy alloted 2 weeks that isn't worth squat. But how to travel cheaply and yet, decently? I
solved this dilema by going on Craigslist.com and swapping my apartment out with some guy from Paris.
He's staying in my apartment in NYC while I'm staying in his apartment in Paris. His name is Sacha, but I
prefer to call him Frenchie.

I promised regular updates to everyone so you would know that I'm still alive...

I would be having a great time if it wasn't for this crazy weather. One minute it is sunny, then it turns
cloudy, then it starts to rain, then it turns into hail, and then the cycle starts all over again on the
opposite side of the street! One night the wind was blowing so bad it sounded like there was a tornado
outside. Last night it was raining and at one point was so cold it turned into snow for about a minute
before Mother Nature remembered she doesn't snow in Paris.

Before I got here the temps were in the 50s so all the trees and flowers are starting to bloom, but I guess I
brought the frigid NY weather over with me. Its actually supposed to warm up later this week, but Im
not holding my breath.

My friend Heather who came with me just left back for NY this morning. So now I can get off the business of
sightseeing, and go back to my purpose for being here - taking photos. Funny thing is that we havent been
able to do too much sightseeing cause everything is closed or on strike! Parks and churches included!!!!!

We were fortunate enough to get to go to Easter Mass at Notre Dame yesterday. They did the mass in
Gregorian Chants. It was very beautiful. Although the priest spoke in French so it was impossible for us to
understand what he was saying.

The apartment where I'm staying is very small, but quaint. It serves my purpose and is right outside the
Metro stop. There are 4 homeless guys who are living right outside the apartment door across the street
under the train tracks. All they do is sleep, drink, smoke cigarettes, and philosophize with each other.
They never move from that spot. Sometimes they'll have other homeless and normal people from the neighborhood
visit them and they'll have a little party with more drinking and cigarettes. Saturday some random dog came
to hang out with them for the day too. Im actually not too afraid of them because they never pick their butts
up off the mattresses that they are sleeping on. Plus they don't seem to really be bothering anyone who walks
past them.

My guidebook says that this is not a good area to stay in if you are visiting Paris, and clearly there are
absolutely no tourists where I am at. The other day I took a walk around the neighborhood, as long as I
don't venture too far from the metro stop into the hood Im ok. I was trying to find some park that the
guidebook says is fabulous - it is toward the outer edge of my arrondisemont. I was wandering down a
street and pulled out my map to figure out which street I needed to walk down next. I look up and a few
feet away from me is some guy staring menicingly at me - he looked just like Charles Manson, except skinnier.
I decided to get out of there and find another spot to review my map. Then I walked past this beautiful
graffiti, it really was almost like artwork. I really wanted to take a photo of it, but I was afraid to take
out my camera so it wouldn't get stolen, and plus Charles was still pretty near by. Fortunately he
wasn't following me though. Then as I'm walking further along the graffiit wall I see where the artist
wrote "I love my ghetto" in English. Then I get on this bigger street and I see the park in the distance,
but I'm also seeing a gang of shady kids with fire crackers and other scarey types around. I promised
myself to not take risky chances on this trip to get my photos - as I have been known to do in the past. So
I left the area and went back to my apartment. So no visit to the Parc la Villette for me on this trip.

So that's all for now, I'll be in Paris for another 2 weeks, so I'm sure there will be more stories...
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