It's 2:43 a.m. in Paris, my first night here. I can not sleep at all.
The hostel where I am staying in Montmartre is nice, clean, safe it seems, but quite stuffy. I share a room with three other people, a smallish Asian male, a nice Iranian guy and a girl from Toronto. I checked in around 9:30 this evening after getting off the train from the countryside and then went out to dinner with my uncle's friend Nicolas.
It was a perfect Parisien night, picturesque even. It was the City of Lights as it is envisioned in dreams. The outdoor cafe we went to was filled with beautiful young people laughing, cigarettes burning, the smoke drifting up into the moody light. Nicolas and I had a light dinner and drank a bottle of wine and talked about the weekend I spent with my uncle whom I've never really spent time with on my own. It was a refreshing visit. I learned more family secrets than my dad would probably like me to know.
Tonight would be my first night really on my own. After dinner I returned to the hostel expecting to find my bunkmates up and bonding and giddily talking about their own adventures. Instead I walked into a pitch black room with three people breathing heavyily in their bunks. I felt my way along the side of the bunkbed, stumbling into the corner and blindly seeking my toothbrush and T-shirt to sleep in.
After changing and getting ready for bed, I climbed into the top bunk as quietly as I could, the bed creaking and moving beneath my feet, only to drop my bottle of water loudly upon the floor. The girl from Toronto flipped on the lights and the two boys in the bottom bunk all groggily inquired what I was doing.
"I have work tomorrow you know," said the Canadian. "Don't break anything."
Yikes. It's freaking 11:30!
So now I sit up in the computer room unable to sleep and disappointed I will view Paris tomorrow through dejected eyes.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
The heads of saints
For my uncle's 66th birthday today, we and two of his friends drove into the Picarie ville of Soissons for lunch and a stroll around the town to view a beautiful and old abbey and cathedral. They will likely be the first of many beautiful and old buildings I see during my time in Europe.
The Abbey of Saint Jean-des-Vignes, a 9th century gothic church, stands at the center of Soissons towering above the residential community. Both the residences and the abbey were the victims of several wars. Though settlement of Soissons dates back to prehistoric times, most of the buildings that stand today were constructed in the mid-twentieth century following the decimation of the town during World War II. The abbey was reduced to just a façade during the French Revolution when soldiers took target practice shooting off the heads of saints.
Nearby the abbey stands the Cathedral de Soissons which dates back to the 11th century. It was also a victim of war; one of its towers was destroyed in World War I. It, however, has been mostly restored. Among the artwork that line the walls is a 15th century tapestry depicting the martyrs Gervasius and Protasius, the patron saints of the cathedral. The saints are both seen in the moment before their deaths, one by clubbing and the other by beheading.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Day 1: Bienvenue to my blog
Bonjour and bienvenue to my first ever attempt at blogging. It's starting out somewhat rockily as I endeavor to compose properly spelled and grammatically correct sentences on a French keyboard. No QWERTY here. It is more like AZERTY. And I can makes these things: é è ç à!
Just to briefly introduce myself, my name is Maggie, I am a 24-year-old journalist and just yesterday I embarked on a brief jaunt around the world. I left my job, bid farewell to my boyfriend and gathered up my life savings for the trip. In my head, the departure would be romantic and epic. In reality, it was hectic and rather sad.
Leaving the job was not easy. I worked for two and a half years at the Connecticut-based company Hersam Acorn Newspapers as a reporter and later editor at papers that served the community in which I grew up. I learned a lot at the job, way more than I ever did at college, and I came to enjoy telling the interesting and exciting stories of the people from my hometown. However, living at home and writing about the same people and the same issues every week became tiresome. On slow weeks, we often had to scrape the bottom of the barrel for subject matter to fill the paper. More than once, I ended up writing page one feature stories about close friends and relatives because there was nothing else going on in town.
Things started to feel claustrophobic. I wanted to get out of town. I wanted to be the one with the interesting and exciting stories to tell.
I started thinking about a solo trip around the world about a year ago, but really did all the planning over the past two months. After leaving Hersam Acorn about six weeks ago, I kind of forgot about the whole concept of deadline. I was still running around buying my gear, canceling my phone and panicing right up until my dad ushered me into the car for the drive to the airport.
Leaving the boyfriend was horrible. Austin and I said our hasty and teary good-byes yesterday evening at a commuter parking lot near the Merritt Parkway in Stamford. My dad who waited in the car, reminded me that we had to make it quick. It was rush hour after all.
Despite heavy traffic, I made my Air India flight in time. After a turbulent seven hours over the blowy Atlantic, the plane landed at Charles de Gaulle this morning. I write this now from my uncle's farmhouse in the tiny village of Lhuys, about an hour and a half drive from Paris.
Over the next two months, I'll be traveling around Europe before flying to Delhi at the end of October. The plan then is to see Nepal, Thailand, Hong Kong and places in between before coming home sometime in 2009. I will be updating this blog as frequently as possible with photos and stories.
The aim of this online project is to offer readers the perspective of a young American woman traveling alone internationally and reporting on things going on in the world beyond Connecticut. I'm especially excited to find out what the international community thinks about our upcoming presidential elections. What I've heard so far is the French don't like McCain but are somewhat leary of Obama. Well, that's how my uncle feels anyway and technically he's American. So I'll get back to you on that one.
In conjunction with the blog, I'd like to meet you all out on the road. Anyone from one of Hersam Acorn's coverage towns who might be traveling or now living abroad or who knows someone else who is and who has a compelling story that folks back home might enjoy, should feel free to get in touch with me. If I happen to be in the same area at the same time, I'd be happy to sit down for a coffee and a chat. I'll try to keep my upcoming travel plans updated. I may be reached by e-mail at Maefly2008@gmail.com.
I'm off for now. Bon soir.
Just to briefly introduce myself, my name is Maggie, I am a 24-year-old journalist and just yesterday I embarked on a brief jaunt around the world. I left my job, bid farewell to my boyfriend and gathered up my life savings for the trip. In my head, the departure would be romantic and epic. In reality, it was hectic and rather sad.
Leaving the job was not easy. I worked for two and a half years at the Connecticut-based company Hersam Acorn Newspapers as a reporter and later editor at papers that served the community in which I grew up. I learned a lot at the job, way more than I ever did at college, and I came to enjoy telling the interesting and exciting stories of the people from my hometown. However, living at home and writing about the same people and the same issues every week became tiresome. On slow weeks, we often had to scrape the bottom of the barrel for subject matter to fill the paper. More than once, I ended up writing page one feature stories about close friends and relatives because there was nothing else going on in town.
Things started to feel claustrophobic. I wanted to get out of town. I wanted to be the one with the interesting and exciting stories to tell.
I started thinking about a solo trip around the world about a year ago, but really did all the planning over the past two months. After leaving Hersam Acorn about six weeks ago, I kind of forgot about the whole concept of deadline. I was still running around buying my gear, canceling my phone and panicing right up until my dad ushered me into the car for the drive to the airport.
Leaving the boyfriend was horrible. Austin and I said our hasty and teary good-byes yesterday evening at a commuter parking lot near the Merritt Parkway in Stamford. My dad who waited in the car, reminded me that we had to make it quick. It was rush hour after all.
Despite heavy traffic, I made my Air India flight in time. After a turbulent seven hours over the blowy Atlantic, the plane landed at Charles de Gaulle this morning. I write this now from my uncle's farmhouse in the tiny village of Lhuys, about an hour and a half drive from Paris.
Over the next two months, I'll be traveling around Europe before flying to Delhi at the end of October. The plan then is to see Nepal, Thailand, Hong Kong and places in between before coming home sometime in 2009. I will be updating this blog as frequently as possible with photos and stories.
The aim of this online project is to offer readers the perspective of a young American woman traveling alone internationally and reporting on things going on in the world beyond Connecticut. I'm especially excited to find out what the international community thinks about our upcoming presidential elections. What I've heard so far is the French don't like McCain but are somewhat leary of Obama. Well, that's how my uncle feels anyway and technically he's American. So I'll get back to you on that one.
In conjunction with the blog, I'd like to meet you all out on the road. Anyone from one of Hersam Acorn's coverage towns who might be traveling or now living abroad or who knows someone else who is and who has a compelling story that folks back home might enjoy, should feel free to get in touch with me. If I happen to be in the same area at the same time, I'd be happy to sit down for a coffee and a chat. I'll try to keep my upcoming travel plans updated. I may be reached by e-mail at Maefly2008@gmail.com.
I'm off for now. Bon soir.
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