Sixty-Nine

Day Sixty-Nine:  European Memories Series #1

I’ve decided to start this Memories Series today and to continue it for the rest of the week.  These memories are things that I probably haven’t included in my travel blog (jessiegoesabroad12.tumblr.com if you’re interested to look back on my travels last term) but to write about the very small, interesting, maybe even mundane moments that have profoundly changed the way I think about people, the world, and my own life.  I hope this is interesting for you as it was for me actually experiencing them.

Our First “Sane” Walk Through Paris – August 2012

There are a lot of things about Paris that not a lot of people know about, even AJ doesn’t know every thought that went through my head (although we talked enough those four days that I’m sure he knows many) but there is one very defined moment that I will remember forever as our first walk.  This was not the walk on the day we landed in England, took the chunnel to Paris, Metro to the Latin Quarter, and then around there looking for food before passing out of heat exhaustion (and exhaustion in every other form possible) that evening.  This was the next morning, after we had actually slept (finally) and we were going to head to the River Sein and Notre Dame after the zoo.  It sounds like we were two disillusioned five year olds, and in a way I guess we would’ve seemed that way.  Not speaking for AJ although I can make some assumptions I myself was in complete bliss.  We were in Paris.

After leaving the hostel we walked down random side streets he had found on the map and there was one in particular with white townhouses and the smallest cars I’ve ever seen in the oddest colours and there was absolutely no one else on the street but us.  We had stopped talking (might be shocking to some but we did not constantly speak for two weeks, I would’ve certainly driven him crazy) and I remember just thinking how absolutely incredible this street was.  I can’t exactly remember if it was before the zoo or after, but I remember it was so hot, and I had been so excited for this moment of being free and exploring one of the most prestigious and fabulous cities in the world that I just knew this was the best thing ever.  I remember smiling whole-heartedly, without worry, because it didn’t matter what happened that day or the next, this trip was going to be infinitely better than anything I had expected.

This brief moment had truly shaped my positivity leading into this incredible trip.  It was so simple:  a soft-coloured quiet side street in Paris, and yet to me it was the newest, most strange and amazing thing I’d ever seen.  After this street we had erupted into the city, the River, Notre Dame, the people the noises the everything.  I remember just after this moment we found the Sein, and I remember keeping my sunglasses on because I was crying, I didn’t want AJ to see (although again I’m sure he knew, he’s too intuitive that one) because I had made it.  After walking down the streets and coming up to a city where the most incredible people in the world have been, the most amazing historical events, the most beautiful sights, and here I was right there, looking and listening to the water, and seeing the people around me, and it was just perfect.  I cannot describe a better moment in my life where I realised that I was more comfortable, more happy, more interested in my own life than then. 

I’m tearing up thinking about this, because it was the true beginning of the adventure that has now ended but in all honesty I can’t believe it has.  I may not be in Europe anymore, but that moment began a drive for me to see everything, experience everything, do everything.  I want to feel that feeling every time I open my eyes, not just on the side streets of France.  I remember thinking how I’d made it.  I’ve made it.  I could do this, I can do this, I am doing this.

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