You know how I’m always seeking out new and interesting experiences? Well last weekend I went drift racing. One of my coworkers, Miki, is extremely into cars. He has a Limited Edition Impreza (one of […]
How many of you have heard the name “Transdniestr?” Not too many, I’m guessing. Transdniester – also known as Pridnestrovie in Russian – is a small rogue nation occupying a narrow strip of land along […]
Somewhere around six months ago, I was sitting in my apartment talking on the phone with my mom. From just outside my window I could hear Buddhist monks chanting at Ninnaji, an enormous wooden temple […]
Peder and I left our pousada in Trancoso and started out for our day’s 30 km walk at around 11am. The plan was to follow the coast all the way to Arraial d’Ajuda, a neighboring […]
Picture yourself looking up at a blue sky peeking through a huge canopy of leaves on a perfectly clear day in Kyoto. As the faint sound of Japanese flutes recedes softly into the background, it’s […]
I’m here. In Tokyo. Finally. During my idle time on the flight over I kept on thinking, “what am I going to write to everyone once I finally get to Japan?” Most of you already […]
Once I was satisfied with the 200 Eiffel Tower snapshots of the day, I headed back to the room to get ready for my first night out in Paris. I was to meet up with Aurelien, a Parisian who I met when he briefly interned at the game company I worked at in Japan.
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After struggling quite a bit on my first day in Paris, I woke up on day 2 and left the hostel feeling like a new man. For starters, I’d requested a room change – to be moved below the 5th floor where the wifi signal couldn’t reach. They put me in an empty room on floor 1 – not only way less of a hassle to run up and down all those stairs, but since I had first pick of beds I got the only free-standing one, leaving the far less convenient bunks for the Brazilian guys who checked in the following morning.
At breakfast I went through and marked everything of interest on a big city map, hopefully alleviating the previous day’s disorientation issues. Despite the supposedly “all bad ahead” weather forecast and icy cold air, the sky was again blue.
Paris, here I come!
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Throughout my first day in Paris, I constantly found myself stopping to think, “Paris really is an f’ing gorgeous city.” Every single road I turned down I literally wanted to pull out my phone and write about it – but it would’ve just been the same line over and over: “So-and-so road is amazing, if you’re ever in Paris, make sure not to miss it!”
What a city.
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Le Montclaire in Paris is the nicest hostel I’ve ever stayed at. For only slightly more than your average European hostel, I ended up in a (nearly) private 3-bed room with its own bathroom in a great area of town. It’s spotlessly clean with a fantastic lounge and kitchen, free wifi, and as a lifetime first, a REAL breakfast: cereal, coffee, croissant, juice, etc.
Normally when a hostel claims “breakfast included” it ends up being white toast and butter.
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The moment I boarded the bus to Paris it became clear that I was in for a cultural treat. On the entire trip thus far – Munich, Fussen, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam – I haven’t encountered a single person who doesn’t speak English. Most people are virtually fluent. But on this bus to France, the driver couldn’t understand even one word I said. Nor could the luggage handler. Nor could the woman sitting in front of me, nor the man who sat next to me part way through.
France was going to be different, that’s for sure.
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