Finally, I am about to catch up with sharing travel photos and blurbs.
Last week, it was my petit ami‘s birthday and we decided to do a spontaneous trip somewhere. We checked our cheap flight apps over coffee one Saturday (shameless plug to the WizzAir and EasyJet apps), and played around with various destination options. You may or may not have noticed – most flights from Kosovo take you to Germany … which is a fine destination, but seeing as I’ve studied in Germany for years, it’s quite an exhausted destination. We thus decided to (for the first time ever!) check flights from Tirana … and lo and behold there were some attractive Paris tickets waiting to be booked 🙂 *
* In retrospect, flying from Tirana was very very far. I do not think I will do it again.
And so – we booked a spontaneous trip to Paris and Disneyland (again)!
01 PARIS CHAPTER
Paris is always a fun idea, and especially when seeing it through someone’s eyes for the first time, it becomes apparent how very impactful Paris is on not only culture and art and architecture – but also on pop culture, in a way. Walking to one of the sights, when you see it for the first time, feels very surreal. It feels like you’re stepping into something you’ve seen countless times in the media.
This time in Paris, we did all the big sights as per usual: The Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Notre Dame, and the Louvre (albeit, we didn’t manage to get in this time, as the lines were too long). Something quite special about this time around, was that we accidentally booked around the same days as our friends Hana and Rilind! We had a blast touring the city with them (psst: we met in Disneyland … more on that later🧸).
We also did the smaller sights – and by that I mean, we simply walked around the cutesy streets and enjoyed ourselves to some yummy foods. I will say though, inflation is real, people! When we were here in March with my family, prices were at around 10 – 15 Euros per meal; this time around, they had gone up to about 20 Euros per meal and … I couldn’t even. But anyways, I digress.
Perhaps one of the coolest things we saw this time around was the Pantheon. I had never been before (and in fact, I mistakenly assumed the Sorbonne was the Pantheon but okay … 😅). Inside the Pantheon, there was artwork, but more interestingly there was a pendulum installation (called a Foucault pendulum) that was used to prove that the earth spins.
The Pantheon’s underground crypts house the remains of many important French figures. Eerily – and a little in the spirit of Halloween – the crypt has several unoccupied spots, presumably for future French figures that will be buried there. Most notably, the Pantheon’s crypts open with the caskets of Voltaire and Rousseau facing opposite each other. My informed tour guide petit ami Ermir said this was symbolic, because they had opposing philosophies whilst alive.
Perhaps one of the coolest areas we saw this time around was Montmarte. Last time I came here with my family, I wasn’t impressed – but I think that was because we didn’t take the right path to the Sacre Coeur. This time around we went by metro, and after a bunch of spiralling stairs to get out of the metro, and more stairs to get to the top of Montmarte, we coped with our exhaustion by doing the cutest couple thing ever: we got our portrait sketched by a very talented artist! This was such a unique experience and we now have a very memorable memento from our trip. As we took turns to sit and have ourselves drawn, I noticed how rarely I get to sit still nowadays. People kept coming by and taking pictures of what was being drawn, and of me … I felt a little like a celebrity! It was very funny and very fun.
02 DISNEYLAND CHAPTER
And now that I’ve written about Paris, I finally get to write about truly my favourite part about Paris – ever since I was a little girl: Disneyland. You know by now that I love Disneyland. Yes, I’m a Disney Adult and there’s no shame in my game.
We got our tickets to Disneyland for Ermir’s birthday – which is truly the best way to spend your birthday, in my non-biased opinion. Hana and Rilind had booked their tickets for the same date as well, and we got to all go on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride together.
This time around, Disneyland was all decked out in Halloween decor. We even got to see two parades: the Mickey Mouse Halloween parade, and the usual Disney parade. The weather was perfect and everything was so much fun (minus, maybe waiting in line for 40 minutes for a popcorn-adorned ice cream [see picture above]).
It was very special getting to share this childhood dream of mine with Ermir! 🙂 I can’t wait to go back again someday, hopefully soon!
Thank you for reading, as always!
Rrita
shenime.com 