Finishing in Paris
Trip Start
Feb 27, 2008
1
31
Trip End
May 28, 2008
Paris,
Île-de-France,
France
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Adventureland
. The City has also prepared for the upcoming crazy season. I've noticed that lawns in the park at the base of the Eiffel tower that were once open hosting people picnicking or playing Frisbee now are fenced off with "stay off the grass" signs. I'm sure the city gets so jaded by August that they can't wait for school to start again so all these people will leave their city. I know that's how I'd feel if Portland were a worldwide destination. That night we went to bed earlier than usual, we had a big day tomorrow and we wanted to be well prepared for it. Day 89 - We were wide awake early and for Karla, this was like Christmas morning. It was our last day in Europe and we decided to go out with a bang at Disneyland Paris. I'm not opposed to feeling like a kid again, but Karla was definitely the more excited of the two of us. We removed everything we didn't need from our bags so they would be as light as possible and set off to the happiest place in Europe. Disney Paris is about a 45 Minute ride from the Center of the city on the train. We began planning which rides we were going to hit first when Karla suddenly gasped; She had forgotten the tickets on the bed while unpacking her day bag. This was a real bummer because there was now no way we were going to get there by the time the gates opened. We headed back in a total funk. I waited at the subway station so as to not use up all of our subway passes and Karla went back to get the tickets
Aerosmith ride
. We made it to Disneyland only an hour late so not that much magic was lost in the shuffle to retrieve tickets. Fist things first, Space mountain! I've been to a lot of theme parks in my day, and I have to say that Disneyland has totally mastered the themed ride. I can see how children can be completely captivated by this place because they totally go all out to make you feel like your somewhere else. In fact, because the layout of Disney Paris is much like Disneyland in California, there were a few times when even I forgot that I was in Europe. All of my old favorite rides were there for the most part. The haunted house, the Thunder Mountain Railroad, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Indiana Jones (temporarily closed though). And even some new ones like Buzz lightyear. No Splash mountain or Matterhorn though. I guess they have the real Matterhorn a few hours away so they don't need one in Disneyland. Karla forced me on the "It's a small world" ride and I conceded. It's not as bad as I remembered, maybe they changed the one in Paris to be a little less annoying. As I went through the ride I was surprised that I actually tell the difference between most of the regions represented. Normally I would have only recognized Mexico, Russia, and maybe Africa. We rode all the big rides and then went across the park to the Walt Disney studios park. It had started to rain so we went inside to watch the Lilo and Stitch experience. It was definitely geared towards smaller children. I knew exactly how the technology worked on that one but I kept my mouth shut to not spoil the magic for the kids
Blue Lagoon
. Next we went to the Aerosmith ride. I wondered how Aerosmith got a ride at the Disneyland and how exciting a rock band's themed ride would be. Let me tell you, It was awesome! At the beginning the ride takes off like a rocket and never slows up. It's mostly dark and I can only compare it to Space mountain, but with Aerosmith Blasting "Love in an Elevator" over the loudspeakers. I didn't hear much of the music over my screaming. The studios didn't have as many of the "fast pass" rides so we had to concede to not riding a couple of them. We did ride the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror though, which is a series of free fall drops about 250 feet straight down. The operators of the haunted ride were totally in character staring at you creepily and talking in a distant monotone voice. I wondered if pretending to act demented all day at work would eventually start wearing on your sanity. Karla had mentioned that she had always wanted to eat at the Blue Lagoon Restaurant in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride so we ended our trip with a great dinner and one more time through the ride. It was a memorable day and a perfect end to our European Adventure. There was a slight bit of melancholy though when Karla forgot her mug that she bought on the train. She was a little sad, but If forgetting tickets and losing a mug is the worst thing that happened to us this trip, then we're in alright shape. That night we packed our bags and prepared for our long flight the next day
Boat around
. We were sharing a room with some guys who were just starting their summer tour. I remembered how excited I was when we first started our trip. Now I was tired and road worn after 90 days. Ridden hard and put away wet in a 8-bed dorm. Even though Europe was great, home was starting to sound like a really good idea too. Day 90 - We woke up at 6:30 for our flight but when we arrived at the airport we discovered that our flight was delayed and our plane wasn't going to be leaving until 1:30. Because we had connecting flights, this screwed us up all the way down the road. I was able to get routed through Houston and make it home that day. Karla had originally planned on having a layover in New York for a couple days to see friends but she was as road worn and tired as I was so she stayed the night in Cleveland and came in the next day. It was good to be in my own bed again. Driving down the streets I saw that little had changed in my hometown. I don't know why I would expect it to, I guess I had seen so much and been so many places that it seemed a lot longer.
Reflection - In the last 90 days I've seen a lot of places, I've met a lot of people, experienced things beyond my imagination and learned things outside of my comprehension at this point
Buzz Lightyear
. I think that Karla and I picked the absolute perfect time of year for this adventure. It wasn't too hot, but we didn't freeze and only had a few days of unbearable rain (most of them were in Zurich). We also avoided all the peak-season crowds, the lines, the families, the strollers, etc. I need a lot of time now to think about what just happened and try to digest my thoughts. I think about all the people we've met in hostels. In hostels you rarely stay with people from that country. The people you stay with can teach you as much as the place your staying in. I learned about Italian style from roommates in Madrid, I learned about Serbia while staying in Vienna, when we were in Ireland we learned more about Australia than we did about Ireland. I start to wonder where some of these other people have traveled to, did they make it home OK, where are they now? A few people we traded address information with, but I don't know if those contacts will ever germinate into a friendship.
I also think about some of the local people we did meet. If we went back to Lisbon, would be meet Joao? Is the guy in Christiana still hanging out in that café every day? How about the tour guide on the Sound of Music tour and his trusty side-kick bus driver. Will they still be there if I ever go back, can I tell him thank you for recommending the beer hall attached to the church? Who knows, but I'll never stop thinking about those that I meet along my journey
Castle
. Sometimes a ten-minute conversation will stick in my memory forever. Yet, the location of the box in the storage unit contains my wallet and cell phone is not in my memory. It's not just on this trip that I do it, I often think about people who have crossed my path temporarily. And I wish them all well. I need to read some books now, not the kind that you read while you're waiting in the doctor's office, the kind that you are supposed to read in school. I need to read about all the places that I just saw so that I can relate and remember the information. Not get my wires crossed between countries. I need to read about the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, the Ancient Greeks and Austrian Nobility. I want to read more about WWI and WWII, now that I have a better grasp of the geography of Europe. So much has happened in Europe, and it's easy to get your centuries crossed when you see Roman Artifacts in Germany and Greek Artifacts in Rome. French paintings in Italy, and Italian paintings everywhere. I have stored endless amounts of information in my brain temporarily, like this: "Impressionism is a typically Dutch style of painting and was popular art for the average persons home during the Dutch Golden Age of the 16th and 17th centuries." I don't know why I can remember that, but It's useless information unless I sort all my thoughts out by reading deeper while I'm still fresh from the experience
castle2
. Then there's Karla. We've learned so much about each other during this journey, it's hard to go back to the way things were. I can't even remember how things were to be honest with you. Traveling with someone is so much different than traveling alone. I honestly couldn't have done this trip without her. I could have gone to Europe, sure. But I doubt that it would have been as enjoyable. I wouldn't have chosen the same places to visit, I wouldn't have known Gaie and Frank, or Jens. Even little things like stopping to admire a famous painting in an art museum; I would have never stopped to look at said painting longer than 30 seconds had Karla not stopped to look at it. But because she did this, I remember something she said about that painting. I feel like I've gotten a vacation twice as enriched than if I had gone myself. However, there are some concessions to be made when traveling with someone else. When traveling alone, I can do whatever I want, whenever I want to do it. When I'm hungry, I eat, when I'm tired, I go to bed. Learning to give and take that little bit of your own freedom is worth all the rewards you reap in support throughout the trip. It hasn't been easy; She's had to put up with my picture taking; I've slowed down when I walk with her. She waits for me to pack my bag, constantly. I wait an extra ten minutes at a restaurant so she can use the restroom before we leave. We've been together apart, we've lived together, but I believe that you really learn the most about a person when you travel together, and we did it for three months. When you're on the road together you're both taken out of your element, and out of your comfort zone. If you can sustain living though that for three months, then there's a chance that you could be happy with that person in life.
We did learn however, that the majority of our arguments during the duration of the trip happened when we had our backpacks on
Celebrity train
. It was a strange phenomenon, as if the bags were anger monkeys that rode around on our backs making us irritable and short with each other. Regular issues like, "Can I borrow forty cents? I don't want to break a fifty." Turn into amazing brawls in the most loving way possible. The rest of the arguing that didn't happen with our backpacks on was over navigation. Which I'm sure anybody who's navigated with their significant other can understand. No trip of that length will go without any argument, one time Karla tried to walk out on me before she realized that she was in Madrid and didn't have anywhere to go, even if she knew where she was going. I only had money thrown at me once (this was the backpack argument over 40 cents). In the end the trip went so much better than I anticipated. I figured that at least once we would decide to go to different places just to get some time alone. Even if we weren't mad at each other I would have never guessed that we'd stay every night together for the whole trip. We've found ways to work everything out together. She sleeps on the top bunk, I get the bottom. She orders chicken and I get steak, half way through the meal we switch plates when nobody is looking. She likes black licorice, I like red. It's as simple as that, we've found ten times more things that are complimentary between each other than we have contrary. I've done a fair share of traveling alone, I really enjoyed Karla's company on this trip.
Thank you for reading my travel blog. I did this mostly for myself and so family back home could keep track of us on our travels. But I've been surprised by the number of good friends who have taken the time to read about our adventures. I hope you had as much fun reading it as I had writing it.
Comments
great blog!
Hi! I really enjoyed reading your travel blog. I am leaving for a 6 week trip to Europe soon and it was interesting to see what you got up to in a few of the places we are going.