paris | my first solo trip
i started writing this post in october and now it’s march. here we are….stuck inside due to the corona virus. wowie i guess it’s a good time to write all of the blog posts i never got to write last year.
I WENT TO PARIS FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME ALL BY MYSELF AND IT WAS FREAKIN’ AMAZING
the end. just kidding.
like everyone else visiting paris for the first time, i did a lot of wandering. i was fortunate to experience perfect end-of-the-summer weather (it rained the week after for PFW). i didn’t have an hourly schedule but i did base my days on the major places i wanted to visit and hung around the area for the rest of the day. for example, i went to palace d’versailles and since that was an hour train ride away, i went ahead and spent most of the day in the versailles area.
let’s rewind. i was sitting at work on a friday, albeit, a really slow friday and i was just doing my usual round of looking through google flights and i found a round trip flight to paris for a magical price of $350. within 5 mins of informing my co-worker, i had already booked myself a flight in september. heck, i was going whether it was alone or with someone else.
unlike the last few attempts of booking a flight to another country and then flaking (or as many of us young people have experienced…being broke AF), i decided to really commit and make it happen. i successfully booked a hostel just a comfortable distance outside paris and made sure i saved enough to actually be able to do anything once i got to france.
as usual, i packed the weekend before and made sure i looked like a true person who was traveling to another country alone. weirdly, i was not scared or worried at all. i think living so far away from home for the past 7 years has prepped me in many ways…
my day began at 8 am and ended at 9pm. my steps averaged around 10 miles a day. i slept like a baby every night, replaying everything i saw within the day. everyday life in paris may not be a dream but boy they were a dream to me. i napped under the trees in every park, unbothered and roasted in the sun until i felt i was burnt enough. i talked to strangers in french (surprised that i even remembered anything after four years of french). i ate bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner and hardly gained a pound. nobody told me what to do or who to see. i had died and was reborn as eliza doolittle from my fair lady- such life! i could’ve danced all night!
unlike my trip to uganda, i’m not going to write out my trip day-by-day. i’ve decided to preserve the magic of the trip and not overshare. however, there is such beauty in the photos i’ve taken that it would be selfish not to share. as this was my first trip, five days was just the right amount of time for me to explore what i wanted to and also make a list of the places i wanted to visit next time.
