Attractions that attracted me in Paris

First off, I’d like to officially share with you my exciting news of becoming a staff writer at Milliver’s Travels. At any time, you’ll be able to browse through all my articles right here.
It’s wonderful to be able to share on a regular basis some of the places I visited/will visit and fell in love with – and I feel privileged to be in such awe-inspiring company. Go check out everyone’s articles, they’re all lovely!

And now for the second part of today’s news

After I wrote and sent in my first article on Paris to Milli Thornton, we quickly noticed that I had way too much to say. We divided the article into two parts, which then grew up to become a three part series.

So go ahead, click through if you’re wondering which ones are “My Three Most Favorite Attractions in Paris”.

Walking is fun everywhere

I love traveling. In any amount!

To places I’ve seen before and of course even more so to places I dreamed of visiting all my life. This year, I’ve been the luckiest to have the opportunity of spending a short weekend Paris.

If you’re curious as to why this city (also) has captured my attention and took over a part of my heart – head on over to Milliver’s Travels and read all about it in my guest post, “Walking Through Paris” 

I still dream of Sicily

Just one of the many conclusions from my trip to Sicily last year is this: You can fall in love with Taormina in less than a day!

Have I made you curious as to why this town captured my attention and took over a part of my heart? Head on over to Milliver’s Travels and read all about it in my guest post

My trip to Paris, France

Let me start this post by stating that before I left, I had some preconceived notions on what Paris and the trip overall would be like. I was wrong.

It was far better that anything I could’ve ever imagined!
Somehow, I still can’t believe I wasn’t dreaming and that I have actually visited the city I’ve dreamed of visiting ever since, as a child, I could pronounce the name “Eiffel Tower”.

Walking in Paris is amazing, and I spent almost the whole time doing so during the two and a half days spent there.
The city is swarming with tourists, the food is great, the sights are all worth waiting in (the long) lines for, there are in fact streets so small they appear on no map.

Noticing the little things – some of the pedestrian signs cracked me up as never in my life have I seen a man on a pedestrian sign wait with his hands on his hips.
The city is so stylish that their McDonalds “M” on Champs-Élysées is white instead of yellow (apparently the yellow sign was considered tacky so even McDonalds plays dress up in Paris).
While you may state my mind is in the gutter I’ll just go ahead and say it anyway – some of the statues seem pretty inappropriate for public display from specific angles.
And you know how you sometimes wish you could just pull over at the corner? Well people here actually do it, so you need to watch out for cars when crossing the road because you might not see the oncoming traffic on account of the awkwardly parked cars on street corners.

And as opposed to everything I’ve heard about their resentment towards tourists all the locals I spoke to were very sweet and willing to help.
One lady even confused me for a local (within 2 hours of my arrival) when I asked about a street (apparently I pronounced the name oh-so-correctly in French) until she realized the confused stare came from my not understanding a word she’d just said (plus she talked sooo fast).

To sum it all up: I’ve had the time of my life, many new firsts (there may be a list in an upcoming blog post) and I don’t regret one second of… any of it!

Plus, I had the best company I could’ve hoped for

 

Cloudscapes

 

View from the hotel

 

Jardin des Tuileries, Champs-Élysées

 

Obélisque de Louxor

 

   Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile

 

Basilique Mazarin, Louis XIV, Hotel les Invalides, Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, Assemblée Nationale

  Musée du Louvre

 

Basilique Ste-Clotilde, Flamme de la Liberté, Le Mur pour la Paix, Hotel de Ville, École Militaire

 

Tour Eiffel

 

View from Tour Eiffel

 

Paris at night 

  Notre Dame

View from Centre Pompidou

Time Wanted

Looking for time.

I seem to have lost mine.
Permanently and irreparably. And I’m not sure how to find it.
The little time I manage to re-collect from long lost, dusty jars or forgotten back pockets I inadvertently spoil on worries, grief, unsolvable thoughts, sadness and activities which don’t bring much happiness.

Not always authentic happiness anyway.

However, realizing that although I sometimes do miss "my old life" – trying to relive it doesn’t satisfy me.
Who I am now is much better, more appropriate and closer to who I want to be.
What I do now is more hopeful and more peaceful than what I used to do.
And what I feel now is exceedingly great and incomparable to what I felt before.

So I close my eyes, smile sheepishly and fall asleep thinking of a million thoughts all at once – yet happy, dreaming of many moons and stars to come, which I choose to believe will only be increasingly more beautiful.

Goodnight

Fifteen minutes & a doodle :)

This Monday, J started an experiment for writers that I’m excited to be a part of. It’s basically about sitting down and writing for fifteen minutes whatever comes to mind. Go check it out!
And as a result of that, the blog post below has been written today in fifteen minutes (granted, in increments of three times five minutes actually as life kept interrupting)

I went to sleep bed about 20 minutes before getting up and jotting down one word for today’s post last night.
Why didn’t I fall asleep like normal people usually do as soon as their heads hit the pillow? – you might ask.
Because my mind refused to quiet down.
It’s been like this (my mind) ever since I can remember, worse for the past few years, over-thinking, jumping from one half finished thought to the other, from one random sentence to the next… and it did the exact same thing last night too.
The only difference is that while on other times I just let it do its own thing until hours later I eventually fall asleep, last night I remembered something and just had to get up, search for something and write this word on a post-it note I stuck to my laptop.

I have absolutely no idea how it even crossed my mind (at 2 AM nonetheless), but I remembered something I had once received.
High school was never exactly a great experience for me, in fact the word ‘hate’ comes pretty close to how I felt about it.
But it did have a few moments when it was good.

On a day that seemed darker than most, just before the end of a class that had drained me of every ray of hope left for a carefree weekend, a classmate of mine turned around and placed a small piece of paper in my pencil case.
I reached for it and upon opening, instead of the cursing words about the teacher that I was secretly hoping to read, I found the following doodle.

And in that moment – I felt happy.
It felt amazing to see that someone cared enough to make me something, to try and cheer me up without expecting anything in return.
That was a simple gesture of selfless kindness, of spreading love, which lightened my whole week, and quite possibly four years of high school (in terms of random acts of love).

How about you? Any single life-alteringly beautiful memory (bonus points if its a high school memory) that stands out this very minute? Do share please, I’m curious!

My trip to Sicily, Italy

I know everyone’s busy with pre-holiday preparations (as am I) so I’ll keep today’s post short, sweet and visual

Last week I’ve posted about my Multiple firsts in less than a week and now, finally, here they are, fresh out of my editing program: vacation photos of my wonderful week in Sicily, Italy.

I’ve said it before, but I have to say it again: I fell in love so many times during this trip my heart feels it could explode any second now! Just look at the amazing scenery

Flight from Rome

 

Cloudscapes

 

Sicily

 

Catania

 

Ragalna

 

Taormina

 

Greek Amphitheatre in Taormina

 

Messina

 

Petralia Soprana

 

Cefalu

 

Monreale

 

Belpasso

 

Siracusa – city

 

  Siracusa – rocky beach

 

Lovely things collage