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Published: July 13th 2012
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I have been working two jobs for the last few months in order to save some money for my (hopefully) pending trip to Canada. The waiting for news about the progress of my visa application has been stressing me out and it's been hard to plan with such uncertainty. A friend of mine was heading to Paris for the weekend to meet a friend and extended the invitation to me too. I thought the break would do me some good and give me a chance to recharge my batteries and give me a break from my daily life in Germany.
I flew out to Paris on the thursday night and returned on monday morning. I've been to Paris a few times before and enjoyed revisiting some of my favourite places. My friend had never been to Paris before so it was a great opportunity to experience it through the eyes of a first time visitor. Our focus was on having a relaxing weekend break, so although we did see some of the major tourist attractions, we weren't really in the mood for long queues and hoards of tourists. On the first evening we got some dinner and had
a relaxing evening with a bottle of wine. Breakfast the next morning was unhurried and enjoyable (no one seems to make fresh eggs like the French). We spent the first half of the day in the Louvre Museum. Free entrance for those under 26 was a pleasent surprise for me and my friend was equally surprised at the size of the famous "Mona Lisa" Portrait. We heard many comments about the differences between the actual museum and it's representation in a Dan Brown book to movie adaptation (I don't know which, I haven't seen them). The second half of the day was spent pleasantly walking to the Arc de Triomph, The Eiffel Tower and then along to Notre Dame. It sounds like a long way to walk, but we did in fact cheap and use the Metro for some of the distance. Our evening was spent picnicing and drinking martini at the famous Sacre Coeur - watching the sunsets and checking out cute guys! We stopping at a small cafe-come-bar and had a very expensive beer. Paris is definitely more expensive now than the last time I was there!
Our second day way spent looking for bargains in the
second hand and vintages stores outside of the centre of Paris. There were some very unique (!) pieces there and some that can be found in every second hand store in any part of the world. The trouble with shopping in second hand stores is that the pieces you usually want to buy are either a) too small in size or b) too expensive to justify purchasing (maybe I was still in money saving mode for Cananda?). Nevertheless, I managed to find a white vintage leather handbag for a bargain price of €10 and a very ugly blue shirt with ducks, ladybirds and plastic red heart button details (perfect for making cushions or coin purses). In the evening we went for a moderately priced three-course meal and then on for cocktails. You definitely can't go to Paris (or France for that matter) without eating a steak and some Creme Brulee at some point. Definitely the best meal of the weekend. All too soon it was time to head back to the airport and back to the daily routine of life. Long weekend away in Paris was tiring (in a good way), allowed me to recharge my batteries and I came
home with a positive outlook on my Canada visa application.
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