Where has the time gone?

Well, somehow my two weeks have disappeared and I am headed off to Jordan today. Sorry I haven't been posting here, but it has been relatively busy.

I've learned a lot traveling by myself. For one thing, when you are on your own, you have no one to tell you that you should take a break and rest every once and a while. Then, by the end of the day, you get back to your hostel, are exhausted, sit down for a few minutes before you are going to take a shower, intending to write a quick blog post and maybe put up a picture or two and before you know it, you pass out.

I loved both Nice and Paris, but in different ways.

Nice was smaller and less overwhelming. I didn't feel bad if I ended up sleeping a bit longer than planned, taking some time to have breakfast with other hostel homies or if I got lost or distracted for a bit because there weren't quite as many things to do. Just the Chagall and Matisse museums, the waterfront and climbing the Chateau for views. I even had time to make a quick jaunt to Monaco. That place was more than a little ridiculous. (Picture of me+Monte Carlo above, not quite sure how to work pictures yet, so it'll stay up there for a bit)
What? Travel to another country for a few hours? Without even getting your passport checked? Traveling the EU is definitely a nice change from trying to deal with the Canada border.

Paris, on the other hand, took a little longer for me to get used to. My hostel had none of the charm or welcoming atmosphere of the one in Nice-no friendly Australians serving up cheap 1 Euro drinks or running a shuttle into town, no chapel-converted to bar/common area, or other lone travelers looking for a friend to explore with, just a very modern, overly clean, big building with tons of Americans looking for a party.

Plus the town just has too much to do and see. At first, I felt that if I didn't get to everything, it would somehow be a disappointment, but then I realized that I was worried about not doing enough for everyone at home, not me. In Paris, I learned how I travel, and thus, here are JILL'S TRAVEL RULES:

1) Eat a big breakfast. Fill your plate with how much you think you should have. Then double it. You can't walk 15-20 miles in a day with one bowl of cereal without getting grumpy.

2) Accept being a tourist, get over the shame of walking around with a map and plan time into your day for getting lost.

3) Embrace being a tourist and get good at taking pictures of yourself in front of various cliche monuments. It is stupid and fun and the looks you get from people cheer you up.

4) Wear heavy socks from the first day on, don't wait for blisters to appear and always carry a good stock of band-aids.

5) Make best friends with:
a) your i-pod, listen to anything that pops up-even if it is Cookie Monster or Christina Aguilera (both of which happened to me), don't try to fit your mood, because on rainy days you end up getting depressed when you do that.
b) a friendly cafe owner so you don't have to deal with showing your bad French to a new person every day
c) your legs. seriously. They're amazing, I totally should have been on the Oregon Trail, I would have gotten through it in under a month. What up.

6) Give up on seeing everything, especially in a city like Paris. If you could do it all in four days and be satisfied, it probably isn't that great of a city to begin with.

Overall, I loved Paris, though it definitely did get lonely (besides my awesome visit with Gina!), it was perfect for my intense wandering tendencies. Even if you end up getting lost and going in the wrong direction for a while before realizing your mistake, you find something that you hadn't planned to see that may just be better than what you were looking for.

Anyway, I'm going to go in search of some last French treats to tie me over before my plane trip (though I have to say, my best food experience so far has been from a falafel restaurant in the Marais district. I know I should have liked the pastries more, but maybe this is a good sign based on where I'm headed....).

Wish me luck!