paris | My Camino

Four months to the day that my dad has been gone and it feels like a lifetime.

We made it to Paris last night and we leave tomorrow morning.. which would be tomorrow night in California… I think. I’m confused what day it is and isn’t in California and here. Our flights were long but we managed to get some rest. We were the very first people to arrive for our flight leaving San Diego which was pretty hilarious. We made friends with the bartenders. They were really excited when we told them our plans and it made us even more excited about them, if that was even possible. We felt like kids on our first day of school. This picture is kind of dark but it is officially our first picture of the trip!

The bartenders gave us celebratory glasses of champagne which was really sweet.

Teaching my mom how to use the camera.. as you can see, the champagne didn’t last long.

Twelve or so hours later– a friendly welcome to Paris from our luggage cart..

How does she look this cute after twelve hours of flying?

This was the view from our window when we got to our hotel. I mean, yeah– we are a little starstruck. Needless to say, we ate dinner from our balcony last night.

I’ve been lucky enough to travel around Europe twice this year and the more time I spend here, the more I want to return. I feel like I can’t get enough of it. Everything is just SO different than the states. The people have a certain confidence that no American has. The architecture is so old and beautiful, everything down to the street lights has character. What I think I love most about Europeans is their style. They wear the cookiest outfits, mismatching and mixing patterns but I love that kind of stuff. I love when things clash, it gives it an edge.

My mom and I are definitely suffering from jet lag. We slept on the first plane, got unbelievably tired at around 3 PM yesterday, stayed tired until 9 PM when we arrived at our hotel, didn’t fall sleep until midnight, woke up at 4 AM and basically started our day. The only upside to that is that I caught the sunrise this morning and… there are no words.

It was totally vacant! At one point the skyline looked like a scene from Aristocats, that one amazing cartoon movie about talking french cats. I almost thought I imagined a stray cat jumping from one building to the next… and I hate cats.

K, see ya!

This is officially our last day in the states! We leave today to London and then get to Paris some time on Wednesday. We’ll stay in Paris a couple days to get used to the shopping—I mean time change! From Paris we’re literally taking trains, planes and automobiles to get to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and then… we walk!

I’m packing for basically two different trips. When we’re done with our trek, we’re going to head back to Paris for a couple weeks to celebrate all our hard walkin’. I’m packing a backpack for the Camino that is strategically filled with necessary things like ponchos, flashlights and a sleeping bag. My other bag (That isn’t coming with us on the walk) is rather large and jam-packed with my usual traveling necessities like skirts, scarves and heels. So this should be pretty interesting.

I spent most of yesterday downloading and listening to music for my humungous play list, packing and repacking my backpack and trying to not cry over having to say goodbye to my dog. She spent most of the day moping around behind me, acting like an Eeyore. I’m pretty sure she knows I’m leaving and it breaks my heart every time we make eye contact. Whenever I’m packing for a trip, she tends to find the highest pile of nicely folded clothes and conk out on them or she conveniently snuggles her way right into my suitcase.

Yes—she’s that dog. The one with the huge puppy eyes and the sweetest little whiskers you’ve ever seen.

I always say that she’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Thanks to some amazing people that love us almost as much as they love our pups, I know our girls will be left in loving hands so I’m not worried.

As hard as it is to say goodbye to everyone I love for a short two months, I’m beyond excited to start this journey with my mom. She’s such an amazing woman. I’m hoping some more of her will rub off on me during these next two months.

My sister and my brother-in-law got me a Nike Fuelband for my birthday so I can count my steps each day. I might be more excited about this wristband than the actual walk itself. I’m excited about it because it is such a great way to document the trek. It was such a thoughtful gift and I’m so thankful for them in general.

I think the idea of a Nike Fuelband is really inspiring. The second I put it on my wrist it kind of lit a fire underneath my butt to get out and be active. I turned it on and before I even put it on my wrist it was already yelling at me to “GO!” If a little robot on your wrist that tallies your steps doesn’t motivate you, nothing will!

Alright… I get it. Enough anticipation. It’s time to start moving.

Au revoir, friends!

My Camino

Tag Archives: paris

Bienvenue a Paris

Au Revoir !