Bitten by the Travel Bug

well, it's happened. i went to paris. and then i bought some colored pencils and markers and made myself a calendar of the time that i have left here. and it looked quite empty. so i booked myself a solo trip to edinburgh. and it still looked blank. so i decided to book a visit to wales as well. and now i'm on a roll. sarah and i are going to newquay this weekend and to bath in early february and i think i want to see york and some of ireland while i'm here. can i be in england and never pop over to ireland?? i think not.

now, let me break it down for you:

1. paris. oh paris. paris was sarah's and my reward to ourselves for surviving our first christmas without our families. we took the train through the chunnel and settled into our "perfectly adequate" hotel before setting out to see the sights. several things that we immediately noticed - paris is FREEZING and also, paris is dirty. we have a joke that the people in london must eat their rubbish, since the streets are spotless and yet it is impossible to find a litter bin in the tube. literally impossible. they do not exist. in paris there are bags for trash everywhere and yet the city is so much dirtier than london.....they obviously do not eat their trash. :)

2. the weather in paris was gorgeous. sunny and beautiful. we walked along the seine for quite a ways on saturday on our way to the eiffel tower and just soaked in the city. sarah is petrified of heights and yet actually made herself take the stairs all the way to the second level! we saw notre dame, sacré coeur, the latin quarter, and the 2nd best bookstore in the world (after Powells) - Shakespeare & Co. and i got to speak french all weekend long. it was glorious. i love that language. i love speaking it and i love having it around me. i was really happy. :)

3. thankfully, sarah and i discovered that we travel really well together. and we share a mutual love for trains. something that we will indulge for a total of ten hours journeying to newquay and back this weekend.

4. pictures! for those with a love of the visual:




next up! newquay! this weekend sarah and i are jumping on the train for a looooong ride to the england of rolling pastures, stone fences, sheep, grey rain and the seaside. it will be beautiful and relaxing and will give us lots of time to read, journal, and be. it sounds absolutely lovely. prosy, if you will. :)

now to explain my calendar: when i was in switzerland, i drew a calendar of my last month (january), taped it to my closet door and marked off each day. it had two purposes for me - one, it was a countdown until i got to go home and two, it reminded me that i didn't have much time left to be in beautiful switzerland. so, i did that again with january and february. the only problem was, once i made them, they looked awfully blank. so i decided to carpe diem and go somewhere that i really wanted to visit. and here's what happened:

1. i booked myself an overnight bus to edinburgh on the 16th of january and coming back on monday the 19th. i'm so excited to walk the royal mile, lounge about the cafe where jk rowling started writing harry potter, visit the castle and ramble around the streets.

2. then today i booked myself a two day weekend in cardiff, wales. it's supposedly really beautiful there.

3. next on the list is a day trip to bath with sarah and possibly another friend. i'd love to visit york and IRELAND! i really hope those work out too.

i just don't want to go home and realize that i was so close to these places and yet never made the effort to see them. i want to explore and discover and learn and browse about at my own speed. traveling alone sounds more exciting and fulfilling the longer i think about it. :)

4. last but not least, today i found, for a mere five pounds, the book "Europe on a Budget." mmm....i'm deliciously happy.

footnote: this summer i read several books about women traveling solo and it's making me really happy to think that that's going to be me soon. it's funny, one of the reasons i told people that i chose london was that it would be so easy to travel from. and yet! i've hardly gone anywhere! but i think making that calendar was a wake-up call. and i am wide-awake. there's no stopping me now. :)