Today I Met...

Today I met two lovely girls, I’ll fake their names ‘cause I didn’t entirely ask if they wanted to be named in this blog, so for now they’re called Alicia and Harriet. I was staying in a 4-bed dorm with 3 other girls, which beats a couple a nights ago where I was on my own and lonely! The first girl was from Korea named Umi, she couldn’t speak much English but from a little game of charades I got to find out that she had just arrived in Paris from London and she had been to see the Phantom of the Opera! Something I still haven’t done and really want to do, but that’s not the important thing. The important thing I found out from my little exchange with Umi is that laughter transcends language and nationality. For a good half an hour we were just laughing at each other because we couldn’t understand what the other was trying to say. Despite not having much to talk about, neither of us had really spoken to anyone else and we both understood that just having the company and having someone who wants to try and talk to you is heart-warming.

Next comes Alicia, a beautiful woman from Brazil and I say woman because she was 32 years old but looked like she was 25! If the Brazilian lifestyle can shed nearly a decade off you I know where I’m heading next! She was stunning, in personality and looks but the most not-worthy thing about her was her passion and love for life. You could tell, even just after a few minutes conversing with her, that she had a very positive outlook on life and planned on living that life to the fullest!

Harriet was the last girl to enter the room, a fellow London lass! She was from Lewisham and had just visited Disneyland Paris but instead of returning to London with them she decided to take a detour and explore the French Capital! OHH and just so you know, if you work at a Disney Store in the UK you get free entry into Disneyland Paris and the one in Florida (or L.A, I forget) but not only that, half price on hotels, food and drink! I know now what job I’m aiming for if my career plans fall through! --------Aww I have to cut in between my writing now to tell you something sweet! I’m currently on my train to Amsterdam and the lovely gentleman next to be, from Belgium, saw that I was squinting at my screen while I typed and he tapped me on the shoulder and said (after I said I was English) “Darling, you should enlarge your screen it would be better for your eyes.” *Squinting, Cheshire Cat smile* How cute is that! See meeting more nice people by the minute! But back to the main story----- We got talking straight away and like me she had never been on her own abroad and, like me again yesterday she was depressed because she was on her own and hadn’t met anyone. Fortune must have been looking down on us because she said suddenly the girl on reception asked her to change rooms which ended up her being my bed bunk buddy. We must have just kept missing each other because she’d visited the Eiffel Tower and the Notre Dame yesterday like me. But neither of us had visited the Musee du Louvre as it was shut so voila that was this morning’s mission sorted! After talking with Alicia who also hadn’t been that was out trio sorted!

Walking up to the Musee du Louvre which hosts the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, the Venus de Milo and a few paintings by Monet, it’s truly beautiful as it basks in the French sunlight. The reflection of the glass pyramid was blinding, not only that but it was ginormous. It’s probably the largest building I’ve ever set foot in. There are 5 floors stretched across a huge ex-Palace, we (Alicia, Harriet and I) did the 10,000 quota of steps a day in that place…in 2 and

a half hours! Of course, everyone goes to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, again I researched online and heard the stories about it being so small and the crowd’s so vast that you can’t get close. Well I got pretty bloody close! And it only took a tiny bit of shoving and a few minute’s worth of dodging but it was only half 10 in the morning. I’ve heard that around midday it would be a total bitch to see so if you want to go I’d suggest going as early as possible. What’s more if you’re from the EU and under 26 (so you fellow youths in the UK, hurry up before Brexit!) you get free entry into the museum! I won’t go on to describe the Louvre because I don’t want to give too much away but honestly it’s incredible and you all should go (I say all, there’s probably only one person following this blog haha).

But honestly, today has been a great day! I made two mates and we spent a good few hours admiring the pieces of art and cracking jokes about all the small penises on the Greek statutes, bearing in mind I was the youngest and Alicia was cracking the most! (Shows maturity doesn’t come with age haha). Me and Harriet left Alicia outside the museum as she was spending a few

more days in Paris – I go the tightest hug ever – whereas Harriet and I (luckily enough) had our separate trains to catch around 4 from the same station. So we headed off together and got to know each other a bit better. She was a costume designer for theatres up London, was the youngest sibling of 3 but was still a child at heart as she’d just spent her 26th birthday in DisneyLand.

We parted ways around 3 this afternoon and didn’t exchange facebook or numbers at all because why would we? We both have our adult lives and are happy with where we are. Subconsciously I think we both knew that we probably wouldn’t be friends in the real world, and we probably wouldn’t have space or the time to properly get to know each other back in London. However, having said that we probably would never forget that we met. We both did each other a favour and made our last day in Paris memorable because we shared laughs, ideas and chitchat. Which made the time fly by and lifted our feeling of isolation for which I know, I at least, will forever be grateful for.

#travelling #travel #solo #traveller #travelblog #aforeignerabroad #paris #monalisa