MyTravels

The Louis Vuitton Incident

Not quite the Bourne Incident, but pretty close.   I am back at the American Embassy, Fat Tire Bike Tour Shop.   Last time I checked in I mentioned I was doing the night bike tour with these guys.   It was a blast!   I met some really cool people on that tour and we had a lot of laughs.  The tour guide took us over to Notre Dame and we got some gelato nearby.   It was fricken freezing out, or at least for me, someone who has spent the last few months in WARM climates.   The temperature outside for the noctural bike tour was around 38 degrees.   The only cold wear I have with me is my trust fleece jacket and it was barely enough.    After Notre Dame, we went to see the Louvre Museum at night.   There is a pyramid that has been built in between the main area of the building which is shaped like an upside U which is used as an official entrance to the Museum.    The tour guide was a lot of fun, he had us driving around the pyramid like we were competing for the tour de France.   We spent quite a bit of time here since the group was getting on so well, laughing and joking, that we were short on time to make our Ferry over along the Seine River which was included in the tour.   We had exactly 20 minutes to make it from the Louvre to the Ferry outpost.   We had a group of 18 people, some of which who were really slow peddlers.    We sped around the streets of Paris like a big clump of bike gangsters, we were ONE MINUTE late and the ferry left without us!   I was literally at the gate when the man clanked the metal latch closed and the ferry was pushing away from the dock.   DOH!   Luckily, it was Saturday night so there was one final ferry at 10:20pm.    We boarded the ferry and since our group was a bit masochistic, we all sat on the top level.   I did mentione earlier how cold it was right?    We made it one way down the river without too much consequence, the tour also included free wine which others were indulging in to stay warm.   When the ferry turned around to come back the same way, the wind changed to something fierce and it made it feel like it was about 20 degrees F on the top of that boat.    There were 4 of us sitting in the front two rows who made an executive decision to go down to the first level inside.   Once we got up, we effectively removed the wind barrier for the rows behind us so it was like a ripple effect of people coming down into the downstairs enclosed level after we got up!   Even the alcohol couldn't keep them warm anymore!

The tour lasted until around 12:30am.   Once we got back to the bike shop, we found out that the Crepe Man was open until 1am and I was the only one in the group who knew where to find him.    So MLD became Crepe tour guide for the rest of the evening.   It was a great night, it was probably my best night in Paris! 

Yesterday, I went to the musée d'orsay and walked around a lot.   I ended up meeting up with some new friends, Christiana from Germany and Benjamin from Rhode Island (currently living in Paris).    One thing led to another and before I knew it, I ended up in a meditation meeting late Sunday afternoon.   It was amazing!    I went to dinner with a larger group of people and then I got back to my hostel safely via my trusty metro pass.   I am starting to figure out finally!   

Today (Monday), I was supposed to do the DaVinci Code Tour offered by my pals at the Bike Shop.   I COULD NOT find the tour group and I completely blame the cryptic street map of Paris, not me!!   It cannot be me!!!???    I was very bummed out that I missed the tour because the main reason I wanted to do it was because it included the entrance fee to the Louvre Museum which I was saving to see because of this tour!!   After I had my little hissy fit with myself, I got myself together and jumped back on the metro and went to the Louvre myself.   I actually ran into the tour, ironically, but they were almost done and they were leaving the museum.   I decided to go and see the Mona Lisa on my own, dammit!    After the Louvre, I went over to the American Cathedral after that and I had the weirdest thing happen to me which I will share now....

The LV incident was this:   I was walking up George V and this Asian woman approached me and asked me if I spoke English.   Hmmm...What gave THAT away?   I wonder???    Anyway, 'yes, I speak English.'    This woman from Shanghei, asked me if I would go into Louis Vuitton for her and puchase a handbag and a wallet for her?     She told me that they limit Asians to one item purchases.   Being the ever blonde and gullible one, she convinced me to go into the store for her to do this very strange request.    The girl gave me $850 EURO (cash) and I had to walk up at least 50 meters from where she was standing to get to the store.   Now if I was not an honest person, which I am, I so could have ran off with $850 EURO and had myself a party in Prague tomorrow.   BUT, since I am nice and I always seem to find these weirdo situations even without trying, off I went into the LV store.   I saw the bag she wanted, and as she instructed, I asked if they had the version on display in a larger size.   The $550 Loop Handle was on display, she wanted the $675 version.   Okay, so I asked the LV store representative about the bigger bag and she said yes they had a larger size and she walked me over to the counter.   While standing there waiting for the girl to return from wherever she disappeared to, I saw the display case in front of me and low and behold, there were the wallets.   The traditional, brown, LV styles, she told me to pick any one!    So weird...  So after a few minutes go by, this blonde, older woman in a lovely black suit approached me.   "Excuse me manque vous fait parle l'anglais ? "   Um, yes, how did you guess?   Was it my hiking shoes, fleece jacket and small rock sack that gave it away???   The woman was the LV manager, and she asked me if I was approached by an Asian person on the street to come in the store and purchase items??   I have to admit, I had a moment of thought that went something like this..." shit, I am going to end up in a g'damn French Prison!!   This was a set-up!"   Luckily, I did not get reprimanded, I was basically kindly told that they were not going to sell me anything because their "LV Street Agent" (who would have thought Louis Vuitton also hires spies!??) saw me take the money.    Part of me felt offended that they didn't think I was an actual potential client!!   Do I really look as bad and as poor as I feel?!?   

Being the good dubie, and the girl who believes in karma, I left the store and walked back down the street and found my LV pimp.   I gave her back the money and told her that "they knew"...   The oh so powerful establisment of Louis Vuitton can not be fooled by some greedy sales pimps from Shanghei...

I am just glad that I didn't get arrested or thrown into prison for being involved in this... I was simply walking to the metro stop by George V...  This was my day!

I am about to leave my safe haven and head to the train where I have purchased my ticket on-line.  I will say many prayers that I find an English-Speaking agent at the station because I have been informed that the machine where I am supposed to retrieve my ticket only has directions in FRENCH!!   So sick of this already...

If all goes well at the train station, I will be on an overnight train from Paris to Prague... I am so out of here...

Au revoir Paris !

Culture française

Today I visited the American Church, Rodin musée and musée d'orsay.   When I walked into the Rodin Museum with friend I met at the American Church, I saw a statue that totally gave me a flashback to my childhood.   My two sisters will know what I mean by this picture.    Just imagine this statue life-size or possibly bigger and then imagine how weird it was for me to see this.   Basically my parents had a similiar mini version of this which we (the children) ruined because we cleaned it with some cleaning solution that cleaned off all the detail of the statue... Mom was not too pleased...LOL

Tonight I am going on the night bike tour of Paris which I am looking forward to starting at 7pm.   I also bought a 3-day metro pass for Paris which is good in the way that I don't have to speak to anymore train station attendants who supposedly don't understand English... whatever.    Marie-Claire speaks fluent French, she moved to Paris 12 years ago.   She is originally from the US.   She helped me purchase the rail ticket by speaking French to the metro station attendant.    I will say, now that I have the pass, it does not help the fact that the metro system must have been designed by people on crack.   Or, people who intentionally wanted you to be confused.    I can't help but feel that almost everything I do, like nagivate the streets using my super-complex street map, or try to understand the railway system, that there is someone silently laughing at me.    Le Touriste américain stupide !

Anyway, I feel like I have discovered the American Embassy here in Paris via the Fat Tire Bike Tour Shop.   I am using there internet again because it is cheap, and everyone hear speaks English because most of the employees are American!   I guess the owner is from Texas (I am sorry).    So I guess I am off to see L'homme de crêpe so that I can purchase my cheap dinner which will be a crêpe de chocolat!   

I will diet when I get home...

pas la tournée de France

Today I did a bike tour of Paris!    It was fantastic and it was nice to combine exercise with touring for a change!   

http://www.fattirebiketoursparis.com/

Usually you sit on a bus and listen to a guide, walk a little... This was not the Tour de France but we did cycle around for almost 4 hours.   I signed up for the night tour as well which I might save for tomorrow night since it is very cold out there.   I went from 105F to about 40F and rainy this morning.   The sun did peak out after lunch so it warmed up to like 45F.   I have been at the Fat Tire Bike Tour shop since I got back from the tour at 1pm.   After 30 minutes of use on their internet it is the same price of $3 EURO.   And this place has an ENGLISH keyboard!  And ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLE!!     I got my pics burned to CD from Australia, Thailand and from this morning around Paris.   Check the photo albums for updates!   

I have 3 more nights in Paris at the 3 Ducks Hostel and then I am heading to Prague where it is cheap.   I may not be able to move around Europe as much as I wanted to without having purchased a Eurorail pass before I left for my World Tour while in the States.   The trains are expensive and they do not allow you to purchase the interrail pass unless you are a resident of a European Country.   So I am out of luck there.   So, I will make the most of my time in Paris over the next few days on as little money as I can (EURO is stronger than dollar, v.expensive for my budget!).    Once I get to Prague, I will either just wait there for my friend Keith to arrive on May 17th or I might try to make it over to Berlin since it is close by to the Czech Republic.   We'll see...  My money is not as good here as it was down under and around there, so it might be Prague until I meet up with Keith and co-erce him to go to a few other places with me!   

Well folks, that is all for now... I have been in front of this computer all day... I will leave you with one of my most favorite pictures from Australia!!   My cute little KOALA BEAR!!   I took this one..  I just wanted to climb up the tree and pinch his cute little cheeks!!   

By the way, please excuse the lack of formatting on the pics, i.e. naming them and rotating them, oh my...  It is very time consuming and I didn't have the opportunity to do it.    I will do it eventually, it you have a question about any of the photos just drop me an email at mld@earthlink.net or MLDBoston@gmail.com.

Photo Albums to check out

Paris:   http://mld.typepad.com/photos/paris_france/

Thailand:  http://mld.typepad.com/photos/thailand/

Australia:  http://mld.typepad.com/photos/australia_sydney/

Egyptian Proposition

So here I am around the corner from la hostel and I found the internet cafè.  My latest & greatest travel challenge is trying to use this FRENCH keyboard right now!  ugh!   Can someone tell me why the French have to make even simple things like typing difficult??   Why do they have to go ahead and move all the keys around??   It is not like I have any big plans tonight anyway as I sit here typing much slower with 2 fingers.

After all that airport chaos that I went through in Thailand, I am happy to report that everything worked out okay.   The hotel I was staying at was Max-One and the owner Peter turned out to be a really nice guy who reminded me of my own Dad.   One important thing that I forgot to mention about Thailand is that the air has this constant stench to it which is not very pleasant because it really sticks in the damp, humid air like a glove on hand.   The reason I remembered this is because I was really grateful to have my hotel room until I left for the airport at 10:30p.   I ended up having dinner in Peter's restaurant which was adjacent to the hotel.   He recommended a main dish and a spicy soup for me and they were both great!   After dinner, I had a foot massage right there in the restaurant.   There was a doctor there who performed reflexology and he diagnosed some physical problems I have, it was scary how right on he was too!   I got to the airport by the hotel assistant with half-an-arm.   That will teach me to judge by first site.   That guy was really nice too.   I got to the airport in plenty of time to make a shipment home.   Tara, keep your eyes peeled.

My flight to Paris was on EgyptAir with a 5 hour stop-over in CAIRO EGYPT.  If I had some weird vibes at times in Thailand, flying on this particular airline was just a little unnerving for this BLONDE American Girl.   If you look at a geography map as to where Cairo is located in relation to another middle eastern spot that is on the news a lot, you can read between the lines of what I am getting at.   I switched my seat on the flight because I was seated next to this shifty looking guy with an EMINEM baseball cap who was doing all kinds of weird things with his electronic device/phone at 1am Bangkok Time, including making calls right b4 takeoff.   Whenever a crew member walked by and looked his way, he would immediately hide the device or stop what he was doing.   I will remind you here again, 'EgyptAir'....    

After I got up and moved away from shifty shadey guy, I was able to sleep very well with an empty seat beside me.   I landed okay, there were no situations like I was conjouring up in my head.    All the announcements were in Egyptian with a brief blurb follow-up in Egyptian-accent English.

And now here is where the fun part of the story begins...  So I depart the plane on the runway and there is this shuttle bus waiting.    I had no idea what was going on or if everyone was going to the same place.   I landed at 6:30am Cairo time and my connection flight on EgyptAir was at 11am.   So the shuttle drops everyone off at the terminal building and when we go inside the first thing you have to do is go through this security scanner.   Fine, okay.   But it was what happened next that freaked me out a bit.   Once through the scanner, there were several airport people standing there and when they asked for my passport, they didn't give it back!!!??   Okaaaaay???  So now I am standing there in this very large mix of people where I basically stick out like a sore thumb and these airport people took my passport and basically didn't tell me that I was to wait in this room until they decided to give it back.    Being a little overwhelmed at this point, and quite frankly a little nervous from general being an American woman travelling alone in the middle of a large group of men with robes and ceremonial hats and women with their heads & bodies covered with veils...  Since I really didn't want to highlight my nationality in this particular scenario, I followed the crowd and sat where everyone did waiting for their passports back and didn't say a thing.   After an hour, I really had to pee so I had to go ask one of the airport dudes if I could leave this area.   The guy I chose to ask about the toilet made me nervous at first because he asked me the dreaded questions, 'are you travelling alone?   where are you from?' and then the really weird question came next...  'Are u married?'   No.    'Do u have a boyfriend?'   I ponder this one carefully for a second before I respond, simultaneously thinking how freakin' weird this line of questioning is....   YES, YES I DO have a boyfriend...  Lies I know, but what would you do if you were me in this situation???    He seemed disappointed when I said yes to the bf question and then he asked me if I liked Egyptian men?    Was this a trick question?   I had visions of me being hauled off as some American Prisoner for saying the WRONG thing...   He told me to think about the possibility of him and me as he gave me directions to the loo.   I walked away thinking, why do these things always happen to me.   Sure, everyone at home is dying to know if I have met anyone???  These are the kinds of people that come my way...  God help me.     So I go to the restroom and gratefully he was busy on some official airport biz when I got back so I snuck by his desk and went back into the waiting room.   I curled up on 3 of the seats because I had some really bad tummy cramps.   My new friend, not to be avoided, came in to find me in the waiting area and seemed genuinely concerned about my stomach problems.   He gave me a voucher to get a free tea and a bottle of water from the cafeteria, courtesy of EgyptAir.   Not one to turn down something free, one who lives by the motto 'if it is free, it's for me!    So I go get my drinks and my new pal comes to find me again and he gives me a little Egyptian souvenir with his name, cell number, and email...  No folks, I kid you not.    The guy did everything short of propose to me... I guess he really digs blonde American girls?   Go figure?    So that is my Egyptian story, my new friend Alaa wants to know when I am coming back to Egypt so that he can take me around...  And I am quite sure he was suggesting more than a guided tour around the pyramids!   

I got to France with no problems.   I got out my French cheat sheet that my friend John wrote up for me and it worked pretty good for most of my encounters.   I greeted the man at the i desk at the airport with 'Bon jour!   Parle Vous Englishe?'   That worked nicely and he gave me good instructions on how to get to my hostel by one bus and then a short train ride.   The bus was easy, but navigating the French subway turned out to be a little harder for the French challenged American.    The ticket lady spoke no English (so she said) but I pointed to the train stop on the map and she magically produced a ticket.   This was all good until I used this ticket to get through one turnstyle only to find another that required a second ticket???   hmmmm...   The second girl was definitely what I would strereotype as typical rude French...  Even though she didn't really want to help, I think she got sick of talking to me so she buzzed me through the second turnstyle.   Aside of me not understanding how the ticketing works, the trains are pretty easy outside of figuring out how to pay for them.   

The hostel is so-so but it is cheap for Paris so I will deal.   I am pretty close to the Eiffel Tower, I took a walk around earlier.   Tomorrow I think I am going to do a bike tour around the city to see some spots.   The cost is not that bad and it seems like it might be a good way to meet some people while I am here in France.  Now that I have found a decent internet connection, I can start to figure out the logistics for the rest of my European tour!!

bon nùit

Bon Jour!!

I arrived here in Paris in one piece...I spent almost 24 hours travelling between 2 flights and lots of waiting in airports.   When I find a decent internet cafe, I will update more.   The internet station at this hostel where I am staying the next two nights is total crap, the keyboad is silver metal and you basically have to seriously punch the keys to make them work.  I am working up a sweat here...

I am at the 3 Ducks Hostel here in Paris.  I am now going to go and try to find a normal internet cafe which the owner says there is one right around the corner. I scoured the neighborhood when I first arrived here in lovely Paris, but I did not see a one!  Big difference here compared to Australia and New Zealand where there are tons of internet cafes everywhere!

I'll be back......