Pointless Shenanigans

Day 12 - BBQ at the Park :)

Most importantly, I ACTUALLY TANNED A LOT! It’s noticeable because I have a watch tan line and a shoe tan line. Haha and my arms are a lot browner than usual (I know my a lot browner might not be all that brown BUT WHATEVS! In my eyes, I am a crisp golden brown! :D haha). 

I scaled the jungle gym, half climbed a tree, ate so much food, had watermelon :D, soaked in the sun, played on the swings (for a very long time), and went on long walks through fields, and played an intense game of volleyball (not really that, but it’s the best explanation) with the boys. :) Good company. Great location. Excellent food.  

Paris Day 4

Initially had plans to get up at 9am and have yet another early morning, but we were both so exhausted from the past 3 days, so when the alarm woke up, I decided I was going to let us both sleep in. It was my last day anyway, and I had done almost everything I wanted to do. Anyway, when it’s morning time and I’m exhausted, I don’t really think logically. Woke up at 10:30 because Raha checked her phone, we got up, dealt with a fruit fly problem, showered, and left the house.

We went the Institut Du Monde Arab, which was pretty cool. It was a collection of important parts from the Arab world, from books to paintings to tea. :) And the view from the terrace was so nice!

We walked around a bit, and then asked the security guard if the infamous Paris mosque was close by. After getting pretty simple directions, we started our mission to find this mosque. The way wasn’t as easy as the security guy made it seem, but eventually we found it. AND OHMYGOSH, I was utterly blown away by the beauty that was the mosque. Also, the azan was zuhr started to go off a bit after we walked in, so I got to pray in the mosque as well, which felt cool. :D 

And the last touristy place we went to in Paris was the Museum of Natural Art (I think..?). We were literally in there for 5 minutes, took a couple cool photos, and had to make a run for it. 

Split our ways (because Raha had babysitting). I went home to get my packed luggage (nearly forgot my Mac book charger.. thank you Allah for being on my side and making me remember as I left the elevator!!), and then hurried to our meeting spot. Had one last delicious meal in Paris and one last Paris-Raha-hug (there is always a possibility that it might not be the last one). :) 

It was a superb trip, so glad it worked out alhumdulillah. :)  

Paris Day 3

Today started off with beautiful hot sunny weather. (Oh Paris Day 2 became much better as the day progressed. There were times of hot sun, and not a single drop of rain fell. Woo hoo!) We went to find this pretty park called Place des Vosges. It was in a beautiful neighbourhood, and there were many pretty things long the way too. Sat in the sun, took some artsy fartsy pictures, lived life on the edge.. of a fountain. :D Good times!

For lunch, we went to a cafeteria catered for students (it was around Raha’s school area), and I say catered for students because it had amazing cheap food. I got a whole meal for 3 euros, with salad, bread, main course, and dessert! It was awesome and yummy too! And then we got macaroons!! Well, we each had one because each tiny little macaroon (yes the mini ones) were 1.70 euros. It’s funny because we got a whole giant meal for 3 euros and spent more than half on a dessert the size of golf ball. It had to be done though, can’t go to Paris and not eat macaroons. :) I got the pistachio one and it was such a good choice. It was AMAZING! Raha got rose petal, which was too sweet for me, but my pistachio one was the perfect blend of awesomeness. :D After eating the macaroons and taking photos to document this monument experience, Raha went off to babysit and I started my solo missions. 

I first went to the Louvre, and sat at the fountain for at least an hour. It felt so good to hang my feet over the edge and feel the dripping cold water in the hot heat. And to be sitting at the fountain of the LOUVRE! On such a fabulous day! I could not believe it! :D Oh and I started this trend (I highly doubt I started it in all of history, but I started it that day because I did not see a single person sitting that way and then tons after I did it). Basically, there’s the large edge around the fountain which everyone sits on, and then before the water starts, there is a bit of empty space. Now because my legs are short, I was able to squeeze them into the space and so my feet were dangling hidden inside the fountain and then the water would drop from the fountain into the underpart of the fountain and wet my feet. It felt great! AND after I did it, I noticed a couple other people follow suit. :D

Next up, I walked down Champs Elysees, taking photos of the craziness that is that street. There were cars and people and stores and vendors and everything EVERYWHERE! There was barely any space of openness at all! I did get an awesome picture with the Hollister models. ;) My plan was to walk all the way down the street and get to the Arc de Triomphe, but the street is sooooo long and it was so far still, so I gave up about halfway and decided to take the metro (benefits of a 3-day-pass). I got on and the last stop on the line, which was about 5 or 6 stops ahead was Arc de something. At this point, I didn’t know that it was called Arc de Triomphe, so I figured that was it. Turns out I was quite wrong, and ended up in an extremely modernized part of Paris. It felt like I had travelled back to Toronto with the large buildings and business men/women everywhere. I ended up at La Grande Arche de la Defense. It was pretty cool too, just not at all what I expected to see when I got out of the metro. From the top of the stairs in front of that arc, in the far far distance straight ahead of me, I could faintly make out where I was supposed to be. :D I sat there for a while just enjoying the view of the Toronto-like people, and then decided to check Raha’s book for where I was actually supposed to get off. Even though this one turned out pretty great, I didn’t want to take another chance because my feet were not happy with me and my adventures. Haha

Found the arc and Raha soon after that (there’s a whole crazy getting lost story in there that involves two h&ms, getting off at the wrong subway stop, talking to strangers and asking to use their phone, but I don’t really want to recall that horrible hour and half, so I won’t go into all the details…).

After us getting reunited, we celebrated with fancy milkshakes from McDonald’s and figured out the rest of the night. We decided to go to the best falafel place in Paris (once again, Raha’s words), but this was actually one of the greatest things I have ever eaten! So I think I’ll agree with her on that one even though I’ve only eaten at one of them. :D 

We then went to quickly see a friend of Raha’s as it was his birthday and they were having a celebration chilling on a bridge over the canal. There are tons of bridges that go over La-Seine, and they allll are chilling spots. Actually anywhere along La-Seine is a chilling spot, I mean, it was a Wednesday evening and past 11pm, but the city seemed crazy alive and filled with energy. 

We ended the night with a visit to the Louvre fountain at night, so I could take one of those must-do holding the top of the pyramid pictures. :) Such missions I tell you! OH AND LASTLY, we frantically ran for the subway to make it into the station before 12am and before the expiration of my 3-day-pass. 

Paris Day 2

Woke up to find clouds looming yet again, HOWEVER, NO RAIN, and so clouds were totally fine by me! :D That day we went to Versailles, which is the name of the city, it’s about a half hour train ride from Paris. It’s home to the Palace of Versailles. It’s a beautiful royal chateau, and honestly that building overflows with royalty from ever nook and cranny! This guy King Louis the 14th, who lived there, was super intense and EXTREMELY self absorbed! Nevertheless, he had an amazing house. Actually amazing is an understatement, I don’t even know how to describe it!

After this, we travelled back to Paris and Raha had her babysitting again. This time she was gone for a couple hours, so she left me in the Eiffel Tower vicinity, where we decided on a time and place to meet up again. I then walked around the park and sat in random places around the Eiffel Tower for a few hours. I concurred that this thing looks cool from all angles. :D Also, saw a newly married couple having a photoshoot in the park and superman made an appearance as well. So, on the way home from Versailles, I was craving fries. I guess I missed home comfort food, so I went into this fancy cafe and ordered a plate of fries. It was quite amusing because the group of students a bit over were eating escargot and being cultured and all. :) I was just munching away and genuinely enjoying my plate of fries. 

When I met up with Raha again, we took lots of photos of me and the Eiffel tower. And the best part, we also attempted to get ONE good jumping picture in front of the tower. We luckily found this really cool guy, George (I think..?) who must have taken 15 or 20 photos of us with failed attempts. He was just as intent as getting as a good picture as us. It was awesome! And we did get a great one, if I do say so myself. :) 

After this, we went to eat dinner at this crepe place which is apparently the best crepe place in Paris according to Raha and seeing as I’ve only eaten at one, I can’t say that I agree with the comment, but it was a FABULOUS crepe. :) I’ve never had a savory crepe before and it was super filling and super delish. AND BEST PART, the place was owned by Muslim Turkish people so the meat was halal!! :D I GOT TO EAT MEAT! I had turkey for the first time, it was pretty good, but there were so many other flavours in the crepe that I didn’t exactly taste it that well, it just felt good to be eating some sort of meat. :D 

After the crepes, we decided to go to Notre Dame and a world renowned English bookstore in Paris called Shakespeare and Company. On own way, we did see a cool fountain (I forget its significance) and saw loads of pirates.. not sure what they were doing. But it was cool I guess. :) So the bookstore was absolutely the funkiest store. It was so old and smelt like a million books, I loved it! And there were notes written by people from around the world that were posted in places. I thought it was so cute! Raha and I wrote a note that said “May your life be filled with as many adventures as there are in these books. Cheers from Raha and Bushra. :)” Quite cute huh? Thought of it on the spot. ;) I’m preeeeetty cool. :D And then Notre Dame was super pretty as well. We couldn’t go inside because there was a big event going on, but the outside of the building, as well as, the space around it was beautiful. :) And we got a very “postcard-esque” (not my words) picture in front of La-Seine. 

Our night was still young (our feet very tired, but our energy high as the sky :D), so Raha took me to another canal, Canal Saint Martin, and we just sat there for a bit and talked about randomness. We had some pretty deep and intriguing conversations over the course of this trip, I enjoyed all of them! I managed to get over my fear of dark water for a couple seconds to take a cool picture sitting on the canal’s edge with my legs over the egde. :D Kudos to Raha for giving me the much needed motivation. Haha :D 

Last, but definitely not the least, we went to Montmartre, the basilica at the highest point in Paris. We picked up some snacks for the top (very yummy nectarines, but unfortunately, tasteless cherries haha). The view from the top was absolutely amazing. You could see alllll the lights from all the buildings of the entire half of Paris. It was stunning. :)

Paris Day 1

Woke up in the morning and saw cloudy weather outside. No biggie! We can still see the city if it’s cloudy. We had a whole elaborate plan. Anyway, get ready, go downstairs, and turns out it’s POURING!! So Raha had to change plans on the spot.

She decided today was a good day to visit 104 (a cool contemporary museum/exhibition type place). It took us forever to get there, got completely drenched in the rain. We got lost a few times, but finally made it. Only to find out that it’s closed on Mondays… :( Not a great start to my Paris trip. At this point, I’ll be honest, with the pouring rain and cold and letdowns, I was pretty disheartened.

Raha being her awesome spontaneous self, decided to take me to this really cool museum/art gallery/library/computer lab/all round funky place. It was called the Centre Georges Pompidou. Had a great time making fun of the “art” and imitating the people looking at the art. Oh and attempting to stalk hipster kids. After that, we metroed across the city for Raha’s babysitting. The kid, Lucas, is a total cutie. And his smaller friend an even bigger cutie! We took them to tennis, watched these kids play for a bit. SO adorable when they would fail and SO awesome when they would play well. :) Dropped them home, where I squished into possibly the smallest elevator of life. Somehow we got four people in there, but it honestly was the tiniest compartment I’ve ever been in! TINIEST!! 

After dropping the kid home, we once again metroed across the city to Raha’s friend’s going-away indoor picnic (indoor because of the rain). The night was AWESOME! Her friends were all so friendly and funny, and we all had a great time talking about total randomness. Laughed loads. :)

I noticed it stopped raining, so I suggested to Raha that we go to the Eiffel Tower tonight, so I could see it light up at the hour. At this point, it was 9:45, so we decided to leave around 10:15 to make it for the 11pm light show. And then I got the great idea to ask everyone to come with, and to my surprise, nearly everyone agreed. A couple had plans or early mornings, but almost everyone came which was super awesome! Then commenced the crazy clean up session to get us all out of there on time. We left his place by 11:20 or so, and then halfway through our journey we realized that we probably wouldn’t get there with enough time to spare to see the start of the lights show. SO THEN at our next subway change, five of us decided we were going to make a run for it. We told the rest of the kids, and then ran as fast as we could. None of the others followed (oh well, their loss). When we ran for the subway, we actually got there just as the train was getting there. We contemplated waiting for about 3 seconds, and then they were all like SCREW IT! WE NEED TO DO THIS FOR BUSHRA! :D So maybe it was the wine that everyone had been drinking or the great time we were all having, but then started a crazy subway surfing competition, which then turned into a hop on one foot, then hop off the subway and hop back on, then there was dancing and a accordion involved. It was an extremely entertaining subway ride. Note to self: I have to upload the video from Raha’s facebook!! :D And then we made friends with some old ladies who got one one stop before we got off, because they started dancing with us.

ANYWAY GRAND FINALE! We made it on time with 3 minutes to spare. There was definitely more running involved somewhere in there. Even before it started sparkling, the tower blew me away. We turned the corner and all of a sudden it was there, and I honestly let out a gasp and stood on the spot for a bit. I could not believe I was standing in front of the Eiffel tower, the beautiful amazing Eiffel tower. It hit me that I had actually made it to Paris. :) 

Day 6 - Turking Mehendi, Turkish Dancing, Turkish Food, Newly Acquired Turkish Friends

Day 6 - City of Bingen am Rhein, Amazing views, and Ice

Ice is what they call ice cream here :) The first time (the day after I got here I think) the kids were like “LET’S GO GET ICE TO EAT!! YAAAAA!” And I was like “Okaay… sure.. we can go eat.. ice..?” And then I realized it was ice cream. 

The view from the top of hill/mountain like place was absolutely stunning. :) And the little town is very cute too. Everything here is very cute, it’s honestly straight out of those old Bollywood songs. :D