Adventure Accounting

Most people spend a lot of time dreaming and planning how to get there. As I stated at the beginning of this Europe Series , “A goal without a plan, is just a wish”. I spent and I still continue to spend a considerable amount of time reading books and blogs how to motivate myself and keep my vision, my dreams. How to get there. The plan was just a plan, not so long ago. But I was not prepared how to ease myself out of a dream. Most people dream about buying a house, a car or getting married and settling down and all that. Well, you live with that forever. This dream of mine took two years of saving and planning which took place for three weeks. So how do you ease yourself out of a dream? What do you do when you finally hit the ground? I can’t stay in my dream. It was still a cold morning. But I revered in the cold moment. My next morning will be warm (if not hot and humid). I dragged my luggage and myself to the tram station. I was fortunate enough to witness a canal g...

It was a scenic ride going back to Amsterdam. I had 3.5 hours to kill. Memories swirl my mind as I recalled what happened during the last three weeks. I landed in the Amsterdam Centraal Station with memories in tow . I located GVB’s building outside the station to purchase a day’s worth of pass. I was leaving in 18 hours. *sniff**sob*

Arriving In Paris I’ve heard and read a lot of horror stories about the pickpockets in Paris. As a solo traveler, I opted for the more costly option of booking the ParisShuttle to pick me up in Paris Orly Terminal and drop me off to the hostel for only €18. Their regular rate is €25 but I got a discount because I flew using Easyjet. Alternatively, Paris Orly Terminal has a train connecting the airport to the main line. But I didn’t want the hassle of reading maps while being alert with my luggage in a new city.   Getting Around You can buy a carnet of 10 tickets for €12,50. The carnet is valid in zone 1 only. There is also the Paris Visite Pass comes in two options: a pass valid for zones 1-3 or zones 1-5 which can be valid for 1-5 days.  Plan your itinerary in such a way that the adjoining areas can be reached by foot. You can use one ticket to go there and another one going back. Maps are useful. A pen would be a handy accessory. Don’t be afraid to use t...

Everybody knows that Paris is an expensive city. I had a difficult time choosing a hostel. Most hostels offering the basic necessities costs €35 a night, and it only cost me €25 a night in the other cities – well, except for my accommodation in Venice . Choosing an area to stay in Paris was difficult. Every traveler recommends a certain spot. But each city's corner is just near a metro stop so you are not really that far from anything. The hostel's rules

Well, here we are. The last day in Paris. I knew it was going to be a somewhat depressing day.To jumpstart my day, I headed out to Galleries Lafayette. It was a couple of blocks away from my hostel. It probably took me around 30 minutes to get to the mall on foot, but I didn’t mind walking. After all, it was my last morning in Paris. I wanted to inhale the neighborhood as much as I can. I reached the mall at a quarter past 10:00am and hurried to the Longchamp store. Longchamp became such a craze in the Philippines. I’ve been wanting to buy one online but I can’t distinguish the real one from the replica. I held off buying any LCs until I reached Paris.

It was another gloomy morning in Paris. The blue skies that I enjoyed in the other cities faded into the clouds. The sticky phlegm since Italy is more evident in my throat. It was one of those gloomy days. Perhaps its was the cold weather, perhaps it was the phlegm, or a big perhaps goes to the realization that it was my last full day in Paris. Tomorrow, I will head back to Amsterdam to spend the night. A day after, I’m flying back to Manila. My Europe trip is ending. The Plan: Musee D' Orsay/Rodin Museum/Napoleon's Tomb What Happened:  Basilique du Sacré-Cœur (Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris), Day Seine River Cruise, Mass, Tuileries again. I decided to skip the museums even though some are covered by the Paris Museum Pass. I wasn’t leaning towards an art appreciation day. It was a blah day in Europe. The morning began with an uphill walk to Basilique du Sacré-Cœur. Rode the metro and got off at Anvers station – which is just two stops away from my home b...

Most of the sights during my Europe trip consists of visiting architecturally “eye-candy” churches and museums. I love admiring their architecture and their details. But admiring them can be handful at times, and I crave the haven offered by nature - in the form of parks. The grandest garden I’ve been to was the Gardens of Marie Antoinette in Chateau de Versailles . After exiting the castle, I tried to look for a place to eat. There a decent restaurant but I didn’t really want to shell out €20-30 and eat for the next two hours. It was almost 1pm and I have to eat or my big intestine will eat my small intestine, if that is even possible.   Good thing they have a cafeteria to cater to the more budget conscious people like me. I got a salmon sandwich at €5 and a bottle of water for €1.50. Geez, the water was probably purified out of a golden purifier.   A bit of history as I understood it. France was ruled by a rich and powerful family using the taxpayers money to...

I learned about Chateau de Versailles before I learned how to multiply fractions. Not at school, but from this thick blue book entitled “How? Where? When? Why?”; I think it was a supplement book from of encyclopedias that we had.  Yeap, you read that word right – encyclopedia.There was the good ol' encyclopedia those days where you could lose your thoughts into. Probably what remained in my young mind when I read about Chateau de Versailles was that castles were real. The castles of the Disney cartoons were just...moving pictures. This picture in the book was real. In the far country of France in a continent called Europe, there lies Palace de Versailles. It didn't become my dream goal at that moment, but it was rather a pipe dream of sorts back then. Childhood and castles Today,Imma see a castle. Palace, castle, whatever, I'm gonna see it. I’ve seen Doge’s Palace in Venice and Palazzo de Vecchio in Florence but this is the one that palace that I was really...

I know, I know. A title can’t get any cornier than this one. Everyone has an ultimate dream destination. Mine is Europe. Where in Europe? The iconic Eiffel Tower. From the movie G.I. Joe I walked from Arc de Triomphe going to the Eiffel Tower. I still had a couple of hours of daylight left. My plan was to enjoy the view at the top at night.    "Paris. Somebody pinch me." Almost there.

I had only two planned metro rides that day. One going to the Louvre , and the other going back from the Eiffel Tower. I walked going to everywhere else. You can plan your day out so that you visit the sites that can reached by foot from another tourist spot. It was already past lunch time when I exited the Louvre . I think there is a cafe inside the museum but I wanted to eat in the cold outdoors. Weird, but the atmosphere outside the Louvre is just...inviting me to stay in the area a bit longer. A smaller version of Arc de Triomphe just across the Louvre.  I have gloomy cloudy skies in Paris. No crystal clear blue sky.

Boujour Paris! It was another cold morning in Paris. Although I was in one of the most beautiful cities on earth, I wasn’t exactly springing out of my bunk bed when I woke up. Felt like I was waking up to a morning going to Simbang Gabi – read: anlamig. I had a lazy morning. Took my time in eating my breakfast and getting ready to conquer Paris. The Louvre is also covered by the Paris Museum Pass. So I can skip the line to buy tickets. However, there is still the line to enter the museum – which can be quite long, if you enter the Pyramid entrance. If you want to skip the long lines, use the side entrance in Passage Richelieu. Get off at metro stop Palais-Royal Musee du Louvre. I’ve gotten hold of the metro by now. I still need to consult the map of course, but as long as you have your destination in mind, you’ll eventually figure out which trains to ride and which stops to get off. It is like solving a puzzle every time you  ride the metro – finding the easiest route from po...

Guided by a map, I walked to Jardin du Luxembourg or the Luxembourg Gardens. I’ve been using the map for less than a day and it seems like I’ve been using it for a week already – it was already tattered around the edges. Jardin du Luxembourg is a public park – no entrance fees, yay! I was doing self-portait shots when a lady jogger took pity of me. She stopped and offered to take my picture. And I thought that Parisians were snobs. But some are actually nice! Kagalang-galang pose

Replete withfood , I headed out walk to Cluny Museum a.k.a. National Museum of the Middle Ages. I’ve mentioned many times that I am not a fan of museums but heck, I am in Paris! Time to do some art appreciation. I bought the 4-day Paris Museum Pass for €50. You can get the pass at the airport and some shops mentioned in their website. How to use the Paris Museum Pass : Fill-out the name and “valid from” fields at the back of the pass. The date is the first day that you will use the pass. You will show your pass every time you enter a museum covered by the pass. It is important to plan the schedule of your museum visits. Some museums are open on some days of the month so it might be cheaper to get a 2-day pass if you visit some museums on their free days. For an art enthusiast, this is a good choice – you can just go back to the museum as you fancy.

I am taking such a long time sorting out which of my Paris pics to share. Rome was already difficult enough, but Paris is even more difficult. You can’t take a bad angle of this city. I enjoy looking at them again and again that I get lost in reminiscing, and I keep forgetting that I am sorting out pics for a blog entry. ============================================================== My alarm went off at 6:30am. I wanted to play snoozefest with it right away but I had to consider my roommates. It is annoying when someone plays snoozefest with her alarm in hostels. I took a peek outside the window. It was still dark, and there were water droplets in the window. Uh-oh, it was raining in Paris . I did my morning routine and then I was bright and sparkly, ready to conquer Paris. I stepped outside my hostel... and I stopped. It was cold, but still manageable. Right then, I knew I made the wrong decision of shipping a lot of my clothes back home whenI was in Rome . I needed them...

From Rome, most tours would pass by Milan, Nice or Switzerland before heading to Paris. I could have spent a night or two in Switzerland or Milan, but I felt that Paris would be an interesting city that I needed to spend a lot of time there. I decided that I would spend 5 nights in Paris – the longest time I stayed in any city. I booked a 3:15pm flight with Easyjet which arrives in Paris Orly airport at 5:15 pm. The ticket cost me €60: €45 for the basic fare plus an extra luggage (20kg) for €15. Easyjet operates in Rome’s Ciampino airport. Terravision offers shuttle services going to Ciampino airport. I already bought a one-way   ticket in their ticketing booth in front of Rome Termini for €6 (I think it is cheaper if you buy online) the day before my departure. However, I cannot find the ticket on the day I needed it. It was just one piece of paper. I guess it must have fallen off somewhere OR I included it in the box I shipped back to the Philippines . I resorted to ...