Day 30: Beaubourg

It was our last day, the 3oth. We made the obligatory stop in a crêperie (in this case, the Crêperie de Paris in Beaubourg) and we all filled up on crepes, some with whipped cream, others with Nutella, and others with classic amd simple sugar and cinnamon.

Before we left, we went to Beaubourg. We passed by the Saint-Merri church, by the Pompidou center which is a contemporary art museum, but unfortunately we didn't have time to explore it. I would have loved to go in and gaze at the magnificent masterpieces, but I'll leave that to another time. What I loved about that place (rather, the whole city) were the souvenir shops. We can find t-shirts with and I <3 Paris sign or Marilyn Monroe bags, Pop Art postcards, mini Eiffel Towers, Paris painting, etc. I wanted to take it all.

So there, this is how my trip ended a year ago. If I cried? Of course I cried. I fisically couldn't stop the tears from falling. As I watch and rewatch videos and photographs I miss it so much. I would love to have enough time to calmly get to know Paris, to go to less turistic places, soak a real parisean life and not have the video camera and digital camera on my hands with fear of missing something to photograph.

I also know that in excursions we can't do half of what we want to do. And five days isn't enough to get to know Paris. To the milimeter, at least. Even though it didn't stop us from doing anything, the rain could have toned down. Ironically, the sun was shining the day we left.

So much has changed since that trip. First of all, I'm in senior year. Tanto mudou desde essa viagem. Para já, estou no 12º ano. I would love to do an Erasmus in Paris, but unfortunately my University only allows exchanges in Lille. It is close by, but it wouldn't be the same. I'm sure I'd skip class so I could escape to Paris for a while.

A year has passed (it seems like it was yesterday) and instead of being in Paris now, I've been home with my cheek swollen because of gum surgery. Honestly, this baffles me.

Paris, tu me manques beaucoup.

Bisou, bisou *

* Todas as fotografias tiradas por mim.

Day 29: Disneyland

It's truly a magical place where we can feel like a kid again, there's no comparable place. We arrived at Disneyland very early and we rode in lots of attractions like the Haunted House, a rollercoaster, another rollercoaster, a boat ride inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain (twice), the classic teacups attraction and to finish off, a ride where our seats were shaped as Dumbo.

Between all this, there was naturally a parade, where my friends and I yelled the characters' names, the heroes of our childhood. You really do feel a thrill inside. Something a bit bad happened, though, but it was funny at the same time. A friend of mine got lost and we only found here because she had the luck to find a nice portuguese man who lent her his cellphone. As soon as I picked up my cellphone I couldn't help laughing when she told me in a very scared voice that she was at the "Hakuna Matata" restaurant. Epic.

After a lot of shopping and completely broken-down, we went back the hostel. Our last night was very... terrifying to say the least. I shared my room with three other girls, and while one of those girls and I were in another room, a man went in our room with no warning or a polite knock on the door (yes, we left the door open because it was very rusty and didn't close properly). A man with nothing but briefs on. No, not boxers. Briefs. Tight and clinging briefs, the sort you don't imagine a middle aged man to be wearing them. Meanwhile, one of the girls was lying down, reading, and the other girl was in the toilet. When we figured out what was happening and why he was there (our french is a bit rusty), he explained that we were making a lot of noise. Well, two of us in another room, another one lying down and the other one in the toilet... only if my friend's stomach was really, really achey, which wasn't the case.

After several inappropriate looks by said man, we decided to wake up our teacher and the case was solved. There still was a little chat the next morning between my teacher and him, where she took him down and had the right to. Or is it normal in France for middle aged men to walk inside a room where there are sixteen year old girls? Exactly, my friend, je croie que non.

Wendy, come on! It's time to dream!

Paris, tu me manques beaucoup.

Bisou, bisou *

* Todas as fotografias tiradas por mim.

Day 28: Louvre, Champs-Élysées, Arc de Triomphe, Académie Royale de Musique, L'église de la Madeleine, Sacré Coeur et Moulin Rouge

I've never walked so much in my life like on March 28th 2009. Especially in a foreign country. We started our day at the Louvre museum. Since I saw the DaVinci Code, when Tom Hanks enters the main piramide that I asked myself how the museum's like past that marvelous entry. It was a shame we went in through the subway station and not through the main square, but since we left through it anyway it doesn't really matter. Unfortunately, the Louvre being the enormous and artistically wealthy museum it is, we weren't able to see every exhibition nor every wing in so little time. But what I saw was enough for me to be enchanted. Especially the notorious Mona Lisa, of course. I was so surprised when I saw that the painting was so small, I was imagining a huge frame, but no. We went to the greek/roman/etruscan antiques exhibition, to the egyptian antiques exhibitions and to the paintings in general. I was very annoyed when a friend of mine told me she heard a woman (I think she was american) ask her friend if the Winged Victory of Samothrace was the Titanic. Cough, cough.

After taking loads of photographs and filming the center of the museum (especially the elevator, that was neat) and the piramides outside, we wandered an almost never-ending path. From the Louvre we hopped to the Place du Carrousel, to the Jardin des Tuileries and to the Place de la Concorde (and the obelisk, of course). All this wrapped around a gorgeous view of the Eiffel Tower (like I said, I love how in Paris everything is interconnected). All good up to here. Then the rain started. Then the wind. And the cold. And in these conditions we climbed the Champs-Élysées. We stopped for some lunch at a sandwicherie, even though we sat in a promenade with said rain splashing all over our faces (kind of). The heaters helped a bit. We also stopped at Virgin Records since we don't have it in Portugal and we devoured the whole shop. A few steps later we arrived at the l'Arc du Triomphe.

We thought we had already done the main path of what was originally planned, but ooooh nooo. No, no, no. From the l'Arc du Triomphe we catched the subway until de Académie Royale de Musique (the Opera) at the Garnier Palace (even though it was a brief visit, unfortunately). After that, we walked to the Madeleine church. I was so enchanted by Rue Royale (Royale Street) which is perpendicular to the church. My eyes popped when I was the Chanel and Dior boutiques, but I was also surprised when I realized we took the long way around because the obelisk was right in front of us again. There they are again, the interconnections.

I honestly don't remember if we catched another subway in la Madeleine, but even so we made it to the Sacré Coeur walking. And what a climb! The majority of us didn't want to climb until the very top because we were already so exhausted. I was so embarrassed because I didn't know that monument even existed. It reminded me of the Taj Mahal. When I saw the movie Sabrina with Audrey Hepburn and I saw the Sacré Coeur in the background of a scene (in Sabrina's room at her Paris apartment) I smiled so much.

After the Sacré Coeur we went down and walked a bit longer and stopped at the legendary Moulin Rouge. I was a bit sad I was in an excursion, we never get to do half of what we want. We arrived at our hostel very shabbily, but it was an unforgettable day.

Paris, tu me manques beaucoup.

Bisou, bisou *
* Every photograph taken by me.

Day 27: Versailles, Eiffel Tower, the Seine and Notre Dame

It was the first big day. We left the hostel bright and early (naturally, I didn't forget my beret) and after the flustered teacher told us the way, we went inside the "surface subway" (which to me is a train, but whatever) and off we went.

It was horrible weather. Rather, the weather was awful the whole time we were there. There was rain, wind, clouds... The sun? It stayed back in Lisbon. We arrived in ice cold Versailles and that wonder smacks us in the face. I'd never been there before (I should mention that the last time I was in Paris, before the trip I'm reporting now, was in 1998) and I thought it was breathtakingly stunning. And naturally, the prestigious gardens, there are no words that will do them justice.

After a quick lunch we headed back into town and, finally, I fulfilled my lifelong wish of climbing the Eiffel Tower. I didn't know you had to stop on the second floor, wait, and only then climb until the last one. That transaction took about an hour and a half (or more). Cold, mizzle, wind and everyone was so far up on one of the most beautiful monuments in the world. Yes, I was very lucky. After inumerous ahhhs and ooos and this is gorgeous, after the obligatory photographs of every angle of Paris, after a small tantrum (I was going to write bitch fit) caused by not wanting to leave, we left. This time towards the Seine.

Ah, how it's beautiful. I was sorry that we didn't make the whole route, but it was enough. The passage between the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame on those funny bateaux mouches was another dream come true. It's not every day that you're on a boat in the middle of the Seine, that you pass by the Louvre, by the Alexandre III bridge, by the typical parisian buildings that give me the oh-my-god-I-want-to-live-her-so-much-and-see-this-for-the-rest-of-my-life feeling, and stopping in Notre Dame.

It's incredible, I see so many photographs taken in 1998 in various locations that I also visited last year and I don't remember it. Yes, I was six, but I thought I'd remember a bit more of it. I only remember the little episode where one blister found its way to my feet and we couldn't do anything but getting inside a taxi and wander around the streets of Paris looking for a shoe shop (and I came out of one with slippers, even when I was six I already had a great style, you see? I wonder, where are those memorable slippers?).

The inside of Notre Dame disappointed me. The interior can't compete with the exterior, it's impossible, but it doesn't stop being admirable.

Paris, tu me manques beaucoup.

Bisou, bisou *

* Every photograph taken by me.

Day 26: La Bastille et La Défense

I thought about it all day. I remember counting down the days two or three months before the trip. And now here we are, one year later. Every hour I kept saying, a year ago, we were there! A year ago, we were landing! A year ago we were already at the airport! A year ago we were already taking photos in La Défense! I could tell my friends were a bit annoyed by this, but I knew they missed it as well.

A year ago, I woke up at 6am, I was at the airport by 7:30am and at 9am I was already on the plane (between these last two we managed to take a photo with a famous football player. A year later, today, we managed to meet an even famous football player from the same team, the world is funny). When we arrived, I could smell that humid and Parisian scent filling up my lungs. As soon as we arrived we immediately went to our hostel rooms in Maurice Ravel (one of the worst experiences of this trip, I'll explain why as I post blogs), two or three people in each room. I changed and there we went, off to the métro de Paris, directly to la Bastille.

We hopped to McDonald's, hopped to Starbucks and then we took another subway to la Défense. I had never been there and, honestly, I didn't even know what it was or what existed there. I was dazzled with the modern buildings, they were so aesthetically beautiful. The fact that Paris is so symmetrical, every monument being so close to the other, almost in a straight line, it's a quality that pleases me even more. We can see the l'Arc du Triomphe from la Défense, isn't that amazing?

Can't you see me so happy radiant?

Paris, tu me manques beaucoup.

Bisou, bisou *

* All photgraphs were taken by me.

BEDA (and a little Parisian touch)

(Photo found here)

If you've been a Nerdfighter for (at least) little over a year and you're familiar with the "most interesting Twitter user to follow" (as won in the Mashable's Open Web Awards of 2009) and a Maureen Johnson book reader, you know all about BEDA. This project stands for Blog Every Day April, and the name basically explains it.

When I got back from Paris last year I heard about it, and I hopped on the bandwagon on the 2nd and although I had some difficulties coming up with something to blog about every day, I didn't miss one single date. Plus, Maureen set us all up in groups of four, which were labeled as BEDA Buddies. I'm lucky enough to have gained a very good friend with this experience, Michigan's own lovely and adorable Kim. Although she was an official BEDA buddy, I did meet some other people, including Nicola, who basically was, as she called it, an unofficial BEDA buddy.

We loved the experience so much that here we are, one year after (already?!), and we want to do it again. I'll be doing it with Nicola and her other three BEDA buddies, Becky, Christina and Autumn. We've come up with a list of themes for each day, which definitely makes it easier and so much fun! If you're interested, here it is:

1. BEDA Intro/Interviews(?)
2. Music
3. Food
4. Weekly Wrap-Up
5. Sports
6. History of Hairstyles
7. Celebrity Crushes
8. Things I Love Thursday
9. Teach us!
10. Shopping Kryptonite
11. Weekly Wrap-Up
12. Daily Routines
13. Unique skills
14. Travel
15. Things I Love Thursday
16. Collections
17. Books/What you're reading
18. Weekly Wrap-up
19. Timewasters
20. Dreams
21. Guilty Pleasures
22. Things I Love Thursday
23. Weather stories
24. Favourite Childhood Books
25. Weekly Wrap-Up
26. Quotations
27. Addictions
28. Favourites
29. Things I Love Thursday
30. End-of-BEDA Post

Do join us if you're up for it!

PS: Since tomorrow's the anniversary of my latest trip to Paris - kind of - I think I'll be posting the places I went to every day until the 30th. Hope you enjoy it!

Bisou, bisou *

Interconnected musical discoveries

(Photo found here)

One of the things I love most is discovering new music and new artists. Sometimes it happens unexpectedly (that's when it feels even better) and sometimes you go looking in specific places, maybe browse for artists related to the ones you like and, bam, you get a new obsession. This has happened to me twice in the past two weeks.

I discovered Melody Gardot when I was watching the latest Grey's Anatomy episode. I heard a jazzy melody (see what I did there?) and soulful voice, googled around and voilà! I found her. It's just the kind of music I love, the kind of songs I'd listen to for hours and hours and I wouldn't get sick of them (and I've already done that). I bought one of her albums on Friday and I couldn't be happier with my purchase.

Now, for the second discovery: Madeleine Peyroux. My best friend first spoke to me about her, but I didn't pay that much attention and didn't give her the deserved interest. I was listening to the An Education soundtrack and there it was, her name on my iPod and I hadn't even noticed. I immediately googled around some more and there you go, Madeleine, you have one more crazy fan.

Why did I call this post interconnected musical discoveries? Because both Melody Gardot and Madeleine Peyroux are featured on the An Education Soundtrack. Life is funny sometimes.

Enjoy!

Bisou, bisou *

Paris

(Photo found here)

How must it feel to live in Paris? How must it feel to wake up on Sunday mornings, yawning and stretching, opening the curtains and the balcony, and gazing at the Eiffel Tower while munching on a fresh, crispy croissant and sipping a café au lait?

How must it feel to have a day off, putting on a classy pair of heels and browsing in stores like Chanel, Louis Vuitton or Dior with a magical place always around us?

How must it feel coming home from work, putting off said heels and lolling on a cozy couch, always with the assurance that the Eiffel Tower, that Paris is always behind us?

I only know that I'd be by the window at all times with fear of it disappearing.

Bisou, bisou *

Suicide

(Photo found here)

I still don't understand it. I've heard about so many people killing themselves lately, be it here or miles away. People younger than twenty-five, people who are twelve years old killing themselves. It's mental.

I have a very strong opinion about suicide. It's not worth anything, maybe it will only make it worse, who knows. But it's certainly going to make our family and friends' life worse. People who kill themselves are cowards, unfair and selfish, no matter how much pain they're going through. Ending our life because one of our family members died (eg. the designer, Alexander McQueen), because of a breakup (eg. a cousin of one of my classmate's) or because of bullying (eg. the twelve-year-old kid who's been talked about a lot over here), is not the solution.

Some people think it's a way to seek attention, never realizing that when they jump off that bridge, when they throw themselves into the sea, when they throw themselves onto the railway, everything is over. There's no going back. We can't float all the way to the surface, we can't fly backwards. We made a stupid choice with the goal to end our pain (or "pain") and, probably, a lot of people wish they had been stronger with their feet firmly on the ground.

What scares me the most is the fact that this is happening even more among my generation, it's a kind of fashion now. Teenagers and young kids who have the world at their feet, their whole lives in front of them, and they decide to just throw that all away without any gratification of being here in the first place. It's disrespectul towards people who were forced to leave and didn't want to. It's cowardice. It's unfairness. It's selfishness. What about our parents? What about our friends? What about everyone who helped us? Aren't they worth staying here for? Is it worth letting other people speechless, almost like zombies, after watching their cousin, aunt, uncle, brother's plain act of suicide? Is it worth destroying the lives of others to end our "pain"?

It isn't worth it.

Sexy: The new Lady Gaga and Beyoncé music video.

Unsexy: Not having more chocolate in the house... meh!

John Mayer: 67 days; Miley Cyrus: 75 days; U2: 201 days.

Bisou, bisou *

Oscar Reactions

(Photo found here)

I have to say that I'm truly surprised. I'd thought Avatar would be the night's winner, it was so strange watching it win only the tecnical awards. Sorry, James Cameron. Even so, I'm very pleased that Kathryn Bigelow got the award since she's the first woman to ever receive Best Director. That's pretty good, isn't it, girls?

I was so upset that Inglourious Basterds only got one Oscar... I would have love to watch it win Best Original Screenplay and, possibly, Best Director. It was just an incredible movie and I think it's become one of my favorite movies.

I was extremely pleased with Up! I was so happy when it won not one, but two Oscars, including Best Animated Picture. I was very happy to watch Precious go home with two Oscars as well. I was so mad with the fact that An Education didn't win anything!

I predicted that Up In The Air, A Serious Man and Invictus would go home with nothing and I was right. They just didn't cut it (especially the Coens, ahh, I hated it so much). And Sandra Bullock as Best Actress, really?

Now, about the actual show. Well... last year's was one hundred times better. All the excitment with Slumdog Millionaire and the "Jai Ho" performance and Hugh Jackman (<3) as the host... this year didn't beat that at all. Don't get me wrong, I loved watching Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin up there, and they were funny (I cracked out laughing when they started talking about James Cameron and pulled out 3D glasses, epic!) and all, but... they weren't Hugh Jackmans.

Thank you so much for bearing with me with all these movie posts lately! I hope you enjoyed them, because I sure did. Who knows, maybe I'll get into the movie business one way or another (and the Oscar goes to...).

Sexy: Meryl Streep, Rachel McAdams and Miley Cyrus on the red carpet -- stunning!

Unsexy: The Oscars being seven hours away, thus ending at 5AM, thus making me look like a zombie this entire day.

John Mayer: 74 days; Miley Cyrus: 82 days; U2: 208 days.

Bisou, bisou *