We'll always have Paris ;)

Hey guys, I'm so sorry for disappearing, I worked 9 days in a row so I didn't have much spare time, but I'm back so don’t miss me any more =P.

As I was saying in the last post, after Venice we took an overnight train to Paris.

We were in a 6 bed cabin, I was on the top bed, my aunt was on the middle one and a little Japanese lady was on the bottom one. The rest were empty, until we got to some city and 3 Moroccan guys jumped in. They didn't speak much English and just spoke between each other, they kept staring at us in a weird way. When we reach the border, we had to show our passports, everything was in order. But that wasn't the case of our fellow travellers, they argued for a bit, don't really know what language they were speaking but it seemed they had some problems with their papers. I felt a little scared to be honest, I don't really know why. May be because of this strange men that kept looking at us like if were meat or because they could be illegals and it was going to cause some trouble. They were loud and argued but at the end they stayed on the train, they fixed the problem somehow. After that, we all went to sleep, it was already late. In the middle of the night my aunt woke up, and she saw this pair of white eyes looking at her in the dark, super creepy. She did the only thing that could be done, turned around and tried to fall asleep again.

Early in the morning we finally arrived to Paris. I didn't know what to expect, people always talk about French being rude if you don't speak the language, a stereotype. After we got off the train I had to go and asked for directions. There was man in the information desk, he yelled at an oriental girl that asked him something in English, he replied in French, not so helpful. So I went there with the address of the hostel and spoke to him in Italian, lucky for me he told me where to get the metro, but that was about it.

We got to the station and there was only a machine to buy the tickets from, which was in French, and back then I didn't know a word of the language. So this guy was standing next to a map explaining to some tourist what lines he had to take. So I asked him for help to buy the tickets, he pulled 2 from his pocket, he said we could use those, so we pay him and got in. But suddenly, this homeless guy appeared and tried to explain to us, in a mix of French and Italian, that the tickets that we've got were for "Bambini", for children, and he kept saying that the guy who sold them to us was "diavolo", the devil. We didn't want to get into trouble because if they stop us and ask for the ticket we would get fined. Therefore, we went back out but the guy was gone. Thus, our lovely homeless friend went outside the station, found the guy and brought him back to us. We told him to print the tickets from the machine, and he did, he was caught, he looked ashamed. After that it was finally time to look for the hostel, my back was killing me, I had a 15 kilos backpack on my shoulders.

Finally, we got to the hostel, it had a strange distribution. You've got an internal courtyard where you can find all the rooms around, you've got the toilets and the showers outside. Basically you have to walk through the courtyard to take a shower, not the best thing when It’s winter and it's cold enough when you are wearing 4 layers of clothes, LOL. But we were one of the lucky ones and got a room that a shower. After settling in, we were ready to enjoy this amazing capital.

We spent a week in Paris, we went to the Louvre museum, funny thing about it is that if you are under 18 you can get in for free and I went there the day before my 18th birthday, YAAAY for me. It's an amazing place, impossible to see everything in one day. But I saw the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa, of course, just look for the crowd and you are going to find them, that’s what I did.

We went to the Eiffel Tower, it’s impressive, and the view from the top is just breathtaking. The best time to go is before sunset, like that you can appreciate the view during the day and then during the night with all the lights lit up.

The Arc of Triumph was nice too, just that the view wasn't as good as in the Eiffel Tower. We also went to see the Notre Dame Cathedral, so beautiful, with a Gothic style, I loved it, it's one of my favourites. We walked along the Siene River, crossed the Pont Alexandre III (I remember the gold in this bridge), walked down Champs-Elysées, shopped in Lafayette Galleries (ok that's a lie I couldn't afford buying anything there) and visited the Madeleine Opera (the most beautiful I've ever seen, definitely recommend it).

We met some Argentinians in the hostel, so we decided to go sightseeing with them. We ended up going to see the Sacre Coeur Basilica, to reach it you need to walk up some killer steps but it's worth it.  We all went inside, but as in many places in Paris you are not supposed to take pictures or touch ANYTHING. So we were walking around, and we decided to go and sit at the front with some of the guys. One of the boys took out his camera and started going through the pictures he took. Suddenly we heard a voice yelling at us in French. We turned around and we saw the guard just screaming at us, none of us knew what he was saying and everybody was staring at us. We slowly stood up and got off the bench section, but no, that wasn't enough for him, he kept yelling until we got outside. Yes ladies and gentlemen, I was kicked out of the Sacre Coeur.

After that, we had a laugh outside and went to enjoy the bohemian neighbourhood located at the back of the Basilica, with a square where you can find all this artist painting. We kept walking and magically end up in front of the Moulin Rouge. I was expecting something glamorous with lots of lights, but no it's just a plain red windmill, I was disappointed.

Because we were in Paris for so long, we thought it was a good idea to go for a day trip to a place that everyone recommended me, Bruges. We just took a train for a couple of hours and we arrived to this amazing city in Belgium. In the train station we went to the information site and we bought a little booklet, which suggested some itineraries to do. 

We only had a few hours so we enjoyed every second there. It's just so beautiful, the canals, the houses, I felt like, all of a sudden, I walked into a fairy tale, such a charming place. I could have spent hours and hours just walking around. After a while, we ended up in the new part of the city, with modern buildings and statues and, of course, a Mc Donald's. Such a big contrast, is like you leave a story and go back to reality.

Paris will always have a special place in my heart. Here is where I celebrated my 18^th birthday. I had a great day, bought a nutella cake and shared it with 11 strangers that sang me happy birthday and received a lava lamp that my Aunt Silvia got me and kept a secret for a week. It was the first of many birthdays I spent abroad.

Paris is a great city, lots of things to see, places to visit and very romantic. It has big buildings, wide avenues and magnificent bridges. It’s a capital that you need to go at least once in your life. It’s not true that all French are rude, I met some really nice, helpful people. Anywhere that you go you are going to find a little bit of everything. While you are here don’t forget to enjoy the food, cheeses, wines, baguettes and tasty pastries.

What to say about this small town? Bruges is just magical, makes you feel like you walk through an enchanted forest. It’s an amazing place to relax and spend a couple of days.

Next week I'm going to tell you about the last part of my first backpacking trip. All the adventures that we had when we arrived to Spain. So enjoy the weekend and see you soon.

Travelling back in time

Today we are travelling back in time. We are going back to January 2005. You may be wondering, why? Well on that date I, Jimena, went on my first looong trip, took my longest flight (until then), and went on my first backpacking adventure. It was my first time in Europe and I couldn't be any happier.

Back then I was 17 so my parents didn't allow me to travel on my own, so my aunt Silvia kindly came with me. I just finished school and she just graduated as an Accountant, so this was OUR trip. She is awesome, even though she is my mum eldest sister and she was in her 40's, she strapped on her backpack, put her boots on and backpacked through Europe with me.

Our first destination was Rome, in my opinion, the best city I've been so far. We arrived to a big airport and followed the instructions from the hostel of how to get there. I remember buying a train ticket and running to catch the train to the city. We didn't sit together because the train was full, so I was there checking this tickets when I read, "this ticket needs to be validated". I didn't know that, we don't have this system back home, so during the whole ride I kept thinking of what to say if someone stopped me to check it.  But luckily no one did and nothing happened, but I definitely learnt my lesson.

The hostel was just 2 blocks away from the train station, so we thought everything was going to be fine. It was winter so by 5 pm, it was dark already. We walked and walked trying to find the street. We found it but we couldn't find the building number, in Argentina each block goes from 1 to 100 then 101 to 200 and so on and so on; we weren't aware that we just needed to keep walking down the street until we reached the number we were looking for. Finally, after over an hour of going round in circles, we got to our hostel. A nice little hostel where we could finally rest.


The next morning we woke up early and hit the streets, we actually took the underground. We went to the Colosseum station. I got out and there it was, one of my dreams just came true. I was standing in front of the Colosseum, it's just WOW, breathtaking. We got inside and just walked around, touched those walls with so much history, sat on the steps, it was just amazing. I think that if I was alive when it was still a working amphitheatre, I wouldn't be one of those people watching, no, no I would be a gladiator, I know, I'm crazy.


These are the moments that I remember vividly. We also went to the Roman Forum ( the ruins of ancient goverment buildings), to the Il Vittoriano (a monument for the first Italian king), the Palatine Hill (a hill with ruins of different palaces). We spent a whole day just going to see the fountains and Piazzas. To be honest, I was disappointed with the Fontana di Trevi, yes it is impressive and it's beautiful but it wasn't what I expected. We visited a lot of churches, never been in so many before.





We visited the Vatican city, of course, one the smallest independent state in the world. The museum is really interesting and the Sistine Chapel is beautiful. Saint Peter's Basilica is incredible, the size of it, it's just massive . One of the things I remember the most were size of the columns around the Saint Peter's Square, they are enormous, it makes people look so tiny.

We stayed in Rome for 5 or 6 days. Because of this, we decided to do a day trip to Pompeii, the city buried by the volcano. We had to take a train to Napoli and from there we had to get another one to Pompeii. When we arrived to Napoli we realised we were going to miss our connection, so we had to run. We got to the top of the platform, a sign said platform 15 and the other said platform 16, and under each sign you had two escalators, one going down and one going up. We had to go to platform 16 but the escalator going down was under the platform 15 so I walked towards it and my aunt kept screaming at me "It's number 16, it's number 16", so I stand on the step, going down and I see her running in the same place, trying and trying to get down (she was in the escalator going up). Until eventually, she stops trying and the escalator takes her back to the top. She cracked up laughing and then got to the platform the right way, it was one of the funniest moments of our trip.



We then arrived to Pompeii. Here you can see how organised and clever people were back then. Everything had a sign that identified what was going on inside, for example a big fish would represent the fish market, as you could imagine. But not only that, along the road they had this stones called cat eyes, that when it gets dark they reflect the moonlight, that's how they had light at night . I'm very lucky, because I studied so many languages, I used to just stand next to a tour group and listened to what the guide tells them, free tours for me ;)

Next stop was Florence. I was disappointed with the Ponte Vecchio, it always looked so amazing on the pictures, but when you actually cross the bridge you find random shops selling you things, not what I had in mind. On the other hand, I found an ice cream place and had a nutella ice cream, that was great. The most remarkable thing in this city, is the Cathedral or Il Duomo, as Italian call it. It's magnificent, made of 3 different types of marble, green, pink and white, it's just beautiful. One day we started walking looking for I don't remember what and we ended up, high on a hill with a perfect view of the roof tops, typical picture of Florence.

Ponte Vecchio

Il Duomo

We also did a day trip, to little Pisa. I wasn't expecting it to be so busy, considering it's a small town. We went to check the Leaning Tower, it was really cool, we arrived during sunset so it was just perfect. Unfortunately I didn't have a digital camera back then so, as it sometimes happened before, I lost my picture :(. But I recommend everyone to visit this place.

Pisa

It was the beginning of February, and we made it to a our final Italian destination, Venice. What we didn't realise was that it was Carnival so finding a hostel wasn't easy. We manage to get the last 2 beds on a church that had some rooms. The atmosphere was magical, everybody dressed up, wearing masks, wearing capes (Oh capes <3), it felt like time travelling. The small canals, the gondolas, the little streets in which we always got lost, no cars, how great is that? I ticked something else from my list, a gondola ride, with our gondolier as a tour guide, telling in s stories of Marco Polo and Casanova. Piazza San Marco, it's gorgeous and the Piazza full of pigeons is fun, until one poops on your bag. For me, this is a great place to spend a couple of days.

Gondola ride

Crazy Aunt Silvia with an awesome old man

Italia is one of my favourite countries, food is great (love pizza and pasta), you have nutella, gelato, loud friendly people and all this places with so much history. It's not as clean as other European countries, but that's what makes it special, it's not prefect, it's just real. I had an amazing time, and I couldn't have asked for a better travel buddy than my Auntie Silvia =).

I would also like to give a big thank to my mum, she scanned all the pictures for me. As I said before I didn't have a digital camera, so all my pictures of this trip are back in Argentina. Thank you mum for helping me share this with all my dear followers.

After Italy we took an overnight train to Paris, the trip is not over yet. So don't miss next week's post for more adventures and funny stories ;).

Molly's first hostel experience =)

I can't remember the first time I went to a hostel but I've always felt comfortable and I thought it was real fun. So today I'm going to tell you guys about my friend Molly's first hostel experience. She wanted to travel, so we went together to Berlin and of course I was going to stay in a hostel, a place that she'd never been before.

But before that, I want to talk about Berlin a little bit more. I've got a few more places that I would like to tell you guys about.


Something else that I liked from this city was that it gives you many options to go on a tour. Yes, you got the traditional bus tours, as well as the walking tours. But you also got a Segway tour, that seems pretty cool I have to admit. You also got the Trabi-safari tour, basically you drive your own Trabi but you go with a group of cars and you follow the guide, who is driving the first car and explaining the sightseeing by radio.

As I said before Berlin is weird, is a strange city (not in a bad way). I saw a guy, hmm how to explain this, skiing in the street. Went to Friedrichshain, the neighbourhood full with graffiti, lots of bars with happy hour until 3 a.m., and found a market where they were selling drawers (not a chest drawer, just single drawers), and family pictures, no idea who buys this things, but I've never seen anything like that. You got photo booths EVERYWHERE, and I think that's awesome =). And for you my vegan, vegetarian friends, there are healthy, organic restaurant wherever you look.

Another thing is the TV Tower, which is 368 meters high, it's a big tower with a kind of disco ball on it. It can be seen from almost everywhere in central Berlin. It was built during the Cold War by Walter Ulbricht, as a symbol of East Berlin. On that sphere you've got a restaurant with an amazing view.

The Neue Wache, Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany for the Victims of War and Dictatorship, is a place you shouldn't miss. Inside of it you'll fin the sculpture of the Mother with Her Dead Son. It's placed under a hole in the roof, so it's affected by rain, snow and every kind of weather. This symbolizes the suffering of the people.

Ok, let's go back to Molly. So when I was checking for a hostel I had to take some things into account. I looked for a hostel with great reviews. One that looked clean and for a dorm with not too many beds (she didn't like the idea of both of us and 6 strangers, so we went for a 6 bed dorm). I wanted her to feel comfortable, so she could have a good first experience.

Molly. She didn't let me take many pictures of her

So we got there,  excellent location, very central. They gave us the key to the room, a really big room for a 6 bed dorm if you ask me. Kitchen was clean, bathrooms and toilets clean ( they clean them twice a day). And we were sharing the room with just one person, the rest of the beds were free. Everything was going great until we meet our roomie, Smokey George (that's the nickname we gave him), a 40 something year old man from Bulgaria that didn't speak English and smoked in the room. A nice guy but almost impossible to understand, he also tried to take pictures of us, creepy.

The next morning was shower time. Waking up, getting up,deciding what to wear in advance, queueing, choosing a shower, hanging everything, making sure nothing falls to the floor or gets wet because the shower curtain doesn't cover everything. This was a challenge, one that she didn't really expect, specially because she got the damaged shower with no pressure LOL.

But I think that wasn't the worst thing. I contacted the hostel before our trip to make sure they provided a blow dryer, and they said they had some. When I went to pick it up at the reception they gave me a toy-size one, that didn't blow anything. It took her AAAAGESSS to dry her hair, at least 30 minutes.
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The second night wasn't that bad, we had a new couple in the room, so Molly felt a little bit better having people her age. And we spent time in the common area playing games with people from all around the world.

By the last night, I think she appreciated it more. She was chatting with people, enjoying the whole hostel experience, with the young people and the older people that you get, with the hippy ones, the drinking ones, the couples and the weird ones of course.

So when we were at the airport I asked her "Did you like it?". she told me she still prefers the Hotel life, she like unpacking EVERYTHING in the room, and a shower where she can put things down without being scared that they are going to fall on a puddle or having to wear flip flops. But she enjoyed the experience of meeting new people and the idea of the common area where everybody hangs out.

So this feels like a win to me. I felt a lot of pressure, I wanted Molly to have a good time, feel comfortable and enjoy one of the things I love the most. I felt the responsibility of taking care of her and making sure everything went smoothly. Hostels are a big part of my trip, I travel on my own so here's where I meet the lovely people that I meet. If I go to a hotel I would feel really lonely and depressed, in hostels I meet people like me, travellers =).

Molly didn't reject the hostel idea, so YAAAAYYYY. And guess what, I'm already planning a new adventure to take her  along ;). So sit tight, because they are more things to come. But guys if you've got any questions, or you want me to help you with anything, just leave a comment and I'll write back to you. See you soon.