Sarina's Parisian Adventure

Ever since I was a teenager I had always yearned to travel. I have gone on a few cruises and been to Canada a few times, but for as long as I can remember I have had my heart set on Europe. When Tim and I were planning our wedding and we discussed honeymoon I campaigned for some where in Europe. However because a lack of funds, we postponed our honeymoon. When we started looking for houses we thought, maybe we should do this now before the opportunity to travel gets away from us, because if we don't do it now, it may never happen. So we decided to take our dream vacation and booked a flight for Paris!

Without further ado I present to you a series of posts detailed all of our Parisian adventures! Spread through out are some travel tips that I hope you can use if you plan to do your own European adventure.

The big day finally came and I was super nervous and it was quite the day of travel. Our friend Greg gave us a life to the train station, which we then had to take to Jamaica queens to take the sir train to JFK airport. Well some dingus decided it was a great time to schedule track work, we had to take a bus to the next train station. ARG! I was a stressy mess! Luckily we made to Jamaica then JFK without a problem.

We had the fun part of going through customs, the line was super long but it moved pretty quickly. I was nervous going through customs because I had recently chopped all of my hair off and my passport has the ol' long hair do, but I was fine. We made it to our terminal and soon after boarded the plane.

We searched around for flight, Tim got email reminders about the latest deals. We scored and got two tickets for under $2,000. The air line we went with was Aer Lingus. Its an Irish airline and was so excited to get on the plane and hear their Irish accents. The captain also had a really awesome name, Balldrick. We enjoyed these stupid details because it was my first little sliver of Europe!

The plane itself was pretty snazzy, everyone got a blanket and a pillow and each seat got its own little TV screen. I thought they would have shows from the U.K. but to my surprise it was all American stuff, so I watched 21 Jump Street. Also on the meal we got a meal! I can't remember the last time I got a meal on a plane. To make it even weirder the food was actually really good!

Oh hey that's Ireland!

Soon after I ate I fell asleep as the sun was going down. A few hours later I woke up as a flight attendant handed me a cup of orange juice and said good morning. I peeked outside the window and saw the sun was rising. It was definitely a head trip because about few short hours had passed between seeing the sun set then rise. At that time we were also making our decent (we had a stop over in Dublin). We looked out the window and Tim said nonchalantly, " Oh hey that's Ireland."

We had a short layover, so walked around the Terminal for a bit. We got a kick out of looking at European snacks.. not sure why we found this so amusing but we did. We did some people watching and I was even very tempted to have a Guinness, but that probably was not best for my jet lagged body.

Soon after we boarded our second plane that was Paris bound! On that plane I noticed a lot of Irish and British children. I kept wondering why they were going to Paris, then I heard someone mention Disney... of course Euro Disney is just outside of Paris! Its funny to think but a flight like this must seem like a domestic flight to some one back in the U.S. Instead of trekking down to Florida for Disney trips, they just go to Paris. Weird.

It was exciting to make our decent into Paris because we were able to get our first glimpses of the city. The moment when it felt real was when I saw the Eiffel Tower. I thought, " Holy crap I am actually here." 

We landed, got our bags and set out for the city. We were a little disorientated, most everything was in French and we weren't exactly sure where to go. We figured out that we had to take a train into the city then try to locate our apartment. After some confusion as to what train to get on we finally found it and were able to chill out for about a half an hour. Tim was dozing off but I was observing everything outside as we passed Parisian suburbs. After we got off the train we were walking up and down the street in which our apartment was located, Montparnasse. We were a little freaked out because we weren't sure where to go. Despite this little stress I took some time to look around. I noticed some interesting things about Paris, for one thing a lot of the rumors are true: Yes, people do walk around with baguettes under their arms. Yes, every street corner is an adorable cobble stoned street with outdoor cafes. Yes, everyone smokes ... a lot! I also noticed the tiny cars they drive, the funny sound the ambulance siren makes and the air that is so sweet. I'd like to think it is from all of the wine they drink.

We eventually made it to the apartment and met the owner, Jacques. He showed us in and put us in the perhaps the tiniest elevator I have ever been in. He showed us the room which was great! It had a living space then a little lofty upstairs with the kitchen bathroom and bed. We also had wifi, which Jacques pronounced 'whiffy' lol. Soon after he left and me and Tim took a much needed nap.