Photography

Paris, France

I wound up having some truly amazing adventures in Paris, but I have to be honest and say that some of the days were hard, especially the very first one. After my trip, I'll write a post about my reflections on solo travel (for the most part, great so far) but I think these posts with all the pretty pictures tend to glamorize my travel a little bit. Which is not to say that I'm not having a really amazing time, most of the time, but I'll also try to be honest when it's not as easy as pie.

My first day in Paris was a toughie. Going from travelling with your best friend to travelling alone is HARD, man. It didn't help that Paris was sticky and very, very hot. Plus, lets not mince words: Paris, while beautiful, can also be very overwhelming. Luckily, Snapchat! Honestly, I can say that snap chatting with my friends and sisters was a lifesaver when I felt really lonely that first day, and other days since. But that first evening I dragged myself out to Sacre Coeur, the gorgeous cathedral on the hill with views of Paris spread out in front of you, and ate a horrible tourist sandwich (it had fake eggs in it, I'm not joking..) and drank Fanta (which I had never been fond of before Paris but which I drank an obscene amount of while there…so refreshing!) and felt a little better but still lonely. Then I stumbled onto an absolutely amazing soccer juggling and acrobatics street performance that I can hardly describe (see the second photo from the top) which I watched three times and inexplicably made me feel much better.

And not all my days in Paris were as hard. My French exchange student from high school lives in Paris now and we had a lovely evening drinking rosé and eating gazpacho and zucchini gratin in her tiny, adorable apartment. I caught the end of the Tour de France with a few Australians I met on a tour, which was busy and fun. I wandered around by myself and had the best fallafel, and then sat in a park and figured out the rest of my trip. I knew two coworkers from Montreal, and met up with both.. it was so lovely to see a friendly face both times. I got to get driven around in a car and see lots of different castles around the outskirts of Paris. I tried macarons from two different shops and a croissant from one. I had a lemonade at the cafe Les Deux Moulins from the film Amelie and it felt so cool! I got to (sort of..) learn how to dance West Coast style swing on the quais of the Seine. On another night I felt a bit lonely (ironically the night I got upgraded to a hotel room from a 12-bed dorm due to an administrative error..ironic because it was so cool at first! And then I felt isolated..) I did what I do best: sought out food. This time from a very popular food truck that serves, strangely. burgers and fries. I figured I'd eaten enough Camembert sandwiches and French picnics, plus I was in line among exclusively Parisians, it was not a tourist attraction in the slightest (so I must have been doing something right).

So I got to make a lot of really fantastic memories. I got to talk to real Parisians in French. I got to experience solo travel while I still had friends nearby. I slept in my first hostel, and in my first hotel room alone. I made friends. Even though there were lots of ups and downs, the general trajectory was up, and it was the perfect place to start my trip.

I am now in the absolutely stunning San Sebastián, Spain and loving it completely.

Favourites:

  • L'As du Fallafel: I don't even like fallafel normally, but this one was so good I went back the next day. So tasty, not expensive (for Paris), and tucked onto this adorable street in Le Marais neighbourhood. Can we talk about how their caramelized eggplant was the first eggplant I think I've ever enjoyed??
  • Pierre Hermé: I tried both this shop and Ladurée, and although I think I was more charmed by the actual shop of Ladurée, I think I liked the macaron from Pierre Hermé better. It was a close call though, so you'd better try both just in case.
  • Shakespeare and Company bookstore: an adorable English bookstore close to Notre Dame, it is so quaint and has such a rich history. Despite my tiny bag, I bought a souvenir. (I am officially much too much of a sucker for books..)
  • Place des Vosges: the perfect little park in Le Marais. It's clean and quiet with beautiful fountains and is the perfect place to eat some fruit and enjoy la belle vie.
  • Montmartre: the most charming area of Paris in my books. Just wandering down the streets or checking out the amazing street art, or exploring the big, old, beautiful, creepy cemetery, it's just wonderful.

 

Berlin, Germany

Oh, Berlin, you were lovely. We were *still* a little bit sick when we arrived, but we were so excited to experience the city and meet up with our friend that we hardly even noticed.
 
We were staying at our friend's charming apartment in Mitte, which was very central and in a beautiful, quiet neighbourhood. The train system in Berlin deserves its reputation of being fantastic – they are clean, efficient, and the main S Bahn line has all these wonderful, high-ceilinged station platforms. We quickly mastered the system, and spent the rest of the week taking advantage of the fast, great trains.
 
One thing we noticed a lot: the food in Berlin was really great quality. Even in the subway stations, you'd have little cafe storefronts serving fresh sandwiches and salads. And outside of the metro too, the street food and restaurants we went to were all top notch. Our first night we made a trek (we switched trains 3 times..even with German efficiency that was a bit much) and ended up in the most beautiful neighbourhood, in search of a highly rated restaurant that we found on TripAdvisor. After two weeks of Croatian food we both had a hankering for something Asian, so we tried this Vietnamese place. The owner was so friendly, joking around and sitting down with us at the table to advise us on the best fresh juice and appetizers. It was a really delicious meal that we enjoyed on the bustling sidewalk terrace as the sun went down. It was so great.
 
While in Berlin, we did a lot of touring and I guess you could say paying homage to the history of Berlin. One of the things that I find so interesting and amazing about the city is how much it is in touch with its past. Our guide for our first tour explained that many Germans are extremely aware of their history and the image that other countries have about them. He said that Germany truly believes that expression: “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.” The city is rich with memorials and museums (almost all of which are completely free) and I think that's one of the things that makes it so amazing.
 
We wound up going on a tour to the Sachenhausen Concentration Camp. That trip was very, very surreal. It was almost impossible to wrap your head around where you were standing, and the atrocities that happened there. Our tour was very informative, and more importantly, very respectful. It was a powerful day, and a completely beautiful one, weather-wise, which made the experience even stranger for me. I couldn't bring myself to take a single photo that day, even though many members of our tour group were taking many. I guess I felt that taking photos makes it into a “tourist attraction”, which, I personally feel, cheapens the suffering of the people who were trapped and killed there.
 
But Berlin has a lot to offer in terms of the present day as well. We ate well, sat in beautiful parks at dusk, drank grapefruit (?!) beer, toured the absolutely stunning architecture, visited the famous Pergamon museum and saw parts of the Babylon Gates (I was blown away), visited beer gardens (delicious food, great beer, and very cheap), went for walks, lay with our heads together on the stelae (concrete slabs) of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and discussed the really powerful museum we'd just experienced (you can do anything but stand on top of the stelae), cooked a yummy homemade dinner, and explored the cool East Berlin. Berlin reminded me somewhat of Montreal (although with grander architecture), and I felt happy and calm in the city.
 
Favourites:
  • Sandemann's New Europe Tours: we used this program both for their free tour and for the Sachenhausen tour, and both were really great. The guides are all really passionate about history, friendly, and respectful when it counts.
  • Saigon and more..Das Original restaurant: the Vietnamese place with the very friendly owner. We loved the food and the service. Their bathroom is very cool too, completely stocked with anything you might need (and I mean anything) all for free.
  • East Side Gallery: a section of the Berlin Wall that was left standing and has been painted by various artists. The art is wonderful and it's such a cool outdoor exhibit.
  • Ritter Sport shop: where you can make your own chocolate bar. Enough said, yes?
  • Berliner Dom: a wonderful cathedral. We climbed ALL the stairs up the very top lookout and the views were amazing. The inner church is totally stunning as well.

Split, Croatia

Split, our last stop on our great Croatian adventure. Unfortunately, we both rolled into Split with nasty head colds – boo – which meant we were tired and just a bit under the weather, even though the weather was awesome the whole time we were there. We still made the most of it, just took it pretty easy and took advantage of the numerous fresh juice and smoothie stands in the old town of Split!

Our second day, we took a great tour to Krka Falls National Park – it was completely stunning. We were both very sleep deprived that day, so taking a tour by minibus was perfect, since we didn't have to make any decisions ourselves and we got to see so many gorgeous sights we wouldn't have made it to otherwise. We had lunch at a very rustic tavern in the park, near a small waterfall. They brought out water, wine, fresh bread, homemade goats milk cheese, fresh tomatoes, olives, olive oil, a meat platter (which I refrained from) and…homemade liquor. It was all you could eat and drink for a very reasonable price (especially for the vegetarian..). They had us take shots of the VERY strong alcohol before lunch and we were positively giddy by the end of it. All throughout, the tour guide and the owners of the tavern hung out a little ways away from the table and played and sang Croatian folk songs – not on our behalf, but we got to enjoy it anyways. It was a lovely atmosphere.

In Split we also tried the most intensely chocolate gelato of all time, explored the local fish market (really cool) and quaint fruit market, went up the bell tower at Diocletian's Palace (and it scared the living day lights out of me, those things were not built to be climbed I'm telling you), explored faraway beaches that we needed a kindly old man to lead us to down a fairly sketchy path to show us the way to, and explored the old town. We walked the promenade almost every night at sunset, eating ice cream and people-watching, and went to bed early every day to help heal ourselves. Despite our sickness, Split still gave us some fun adventures and delicious treats.

Favourites:

  • Konoba Matejuska: we came here our last night based on the wonderful reviews on TripAdvisor and it was amazing. Incredible service and even better food. We had a really nice time.
  • Slasticarnica Tradicija: this is where we found the delicious, intense chocolate ice cream. It was amazing.

Hvar, Croatia

Our time in Hvar was wonderful. Our apartment was so centrally located and our hosts were so helpful with their recommendations – all of which were completely amazing. Hvar is a beautiful city, on a beautiful island, but I was unprepared for just how much of a backpacker/party destination it was. I guess I should have known, what with the famous Carpe Diem club being there and all, but I didn't realize Yacht Week was such a big part of the culture there (it's a program that is in essence a big party on a boat that stops in at different cities to party) – the boats would come in almost every afternoon to drop off a big group of very drunk people, some of whom, as one local told us, “don't know how to behave”.
 
Trust me though, I'm not complaining. We still had an incredible time. It was just up to us to make our stay in Hvar our own, and we went about it in a slightly different way than those folks. On our hosts' recommendation, we spent most afternoons at the beach on daybeds (when we could get them, they were often reserved!) at the further away and less crowded Falko Bar beach. All the daybeds on all the beaches were technically owned by the individual bars nearest to them, but happily you didn’t have to buy anything to use them.
 
One day, we rented a car, and I drove (eek!!) on the narrowest mountain road with extremely few road barriers (double eek), through narrow tunnels that looked to be simply chiseled from underneath the mountain, along gorgeous cliffs with amazing vistas, all around Hvar island. On a whim I pulled into a driveway off the narrow old road, and found an abandoned old house with colourful beehives alongside. When we were wandering around, we heard a bell ringing and decided to follow it (all the while wondering if we should be creeped out or not..). Eventually we turned a corner, and a donkey came over the hill towards us!!! He was the friendliest. It was such a good omen for the rest of our trip. That day we also bought 1.5L of red wine from a roadside stand for about $5, where the winemaker recommended a beach (Ivan Dolac) to us that was just beautiful. We sang and toured and found fresh figs and abandoned houses. It was a great day.
 
A couple days later, we rented a boat! A tiny little one, which I kept messing up the steering on in our initial (very casual) tutorial (nobody was overly concerned we'd never driven a boat before). Adrienne mastered it though, and we were off to explore the islands! It didn't go very fast, but we were fine to putter around, letting the ginormous yachts pass us. Another good omen – on our way out of Hvar harbour, we passed a little Island with – you guessed it – a donkey on it! Donkeys are the mascot of our trip, we have decided. After touring around a bit, we pulled into a little secluded inlet and went swimming around the boat in the blue blue water. We eventually took off again, with me driving this time (yep, managed to master it!!!) until I felt a bit seasick.. After I sun burned my back and ended up throwing up overboard (whoops!!!), I felt better and we had lunch and dropped anchor at a beautiful little beach (Robinson Beach) where we spent the rest of the afternoon reading and swimming. It was magical. Those two experiences were enough to make me feel like I experienced more of Hvar than just the harbour and nightclubs – though we definitely experienced those too! It was really fun to walk down by the main strip and ogle all the enormous yachts parked right up alongside.
 
Hvar was a mix of adventure and relaxing beach days. We ate some amazing restaurant food but also packed a picnic lunch of snacks most days, since the produce from the daily farmers market in Hvar was amazing. Unfortunately, we both ended up with head colds, which we are still fighting as I write this, a couple days later in Split. They're almost gone though, hopefully with one more good sleep we'll have kicked them!
 

We loved our time in Hvar. We loved walking around the city and soaking it all up.

Favourites:
  • Restaurant Marinero: this is located right around the corner from Kiva Bar, which is a really fun bar (pretty crowded) for dancing – they play great music – and right downstairs from a hostel. But the food is amazing (we went back a second time) and very reasonably priced.
  • Restaurant Luna: literally almost right beside our place, the food here was delicious and the service was excellent.
  • Falko Bar: great vibe, really relaxed. There were always dogs around, and good music. We never tried the food, but it looked great.
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