Here I am, stuck in Heathrow Airport in London. I have been here for 13 hours until my flight leaves in the next three hours. Just my luck, but that’s okay! I actually feel fine. Or, maybe I am just delusional from my lack of sleep. LOL. My last destination for my spring break/Easter break is Nice, France.

Why are you stuck at Heathrow?

Well, as my host from London said to me, “We Brits are forever joking about how the French are always on strike and sadly there is a grain of truth in that particular stereotype. I hope the airline or the French government is going to handsomely compensate you with free flights, delicious food and comfy pillows.” (Isn’t he adorbs.) So yes, the French air traffic control crews are on strike disrupting over 1,000 flights! No worries, I am safe. Heathrow is a nice airport and has free wifi for four hours, then you have to wait for another 5 hours for more wifi… You know, home is where the wifi is. I’m kidding. It isn’t too bad. I needed this time to do work anyway. While we are on the negative news… I also ran into problems while traveling to London! I arrived an hour before my train to London from Paris and still missed the train, along with many others. The security line was just too long. Gare Du Nord Station was a teeny weeny bit confusing to navigate around as well. I met a family from Oregon who were also waiting in line for the next train, but fortunately for her, she bought business class tickets and got a seat right away on the next train. This caused anger among the other patrons who were waiting in line for the next train. I was in the middle of the queue, struggling to listen to what was going on. Then this handsome British guy, Sebastian came up to me, took my ticket and gave me a seat on the next train. Thank you, Sebastian. (Coolest name ever)

I only mention my problems to let you know that traveling isn’t perfect. People put things on the Internet all the time and make their life seem flawless, but honey, we aren’t all like Beyonce.

Part one of my spring break will be about Paris, the city of lights.

I started at Montmartre, which is further away from the Seine River in the 18th arrondissements. Paris is separated in 20 different neighborhoods called arrondissements. Montmartre is a hill. On top of the hill is the Sacre-Coeur Basilica, a Roman Catholic church. There is a lift to get to the top of the hill or you can climb up a couple flights of stairs, which I did. This neighborhood is also famous for notable artists like Salvador Dali, Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Pablo Picasso (to name a few) who used to work in this area.

Fifteen minutes away from where I stayed is the Eiffel Tower (La Tour Eiffel in French) and boy, was it awesome to see it in person. The Eiffel Tower was painted bronze since 2013. I wonder what the next color will be—I hope it will be navy blue! My favorite part is Parc du Champ de Mars. I don’t think the Eiffel Tower would be that exciting without a space for people to interact with each other. I really wished at that time someone was with me to have a picnic under the sun.

Here is a tip: When you are visiting the Tower during the day, the line is very long to ascend it. However, at night, there is barely a line. You might not be able to view the skyline, but you get to skip hours of standing in line. Plus, there are plenty of other places to get a skyline view. I did not get a chance to go, but the girls that I met at my hostel did and told me about it.

After the Eiffel Tower I crossed The Seine and walked to Arc de Triomphe. From there, I continued walking down Avenue des Champ-Elysees, a shopping street. The Louvre. I did not get in to see the Mona Lisa. I am a little impatient with lines. I did not want to stand somewhere for the whole day when I could be using the daylight to see other things. Being at the Louvre was already a privilege.

My favorite part around this area is the Tuileries Garden. You will come to notice that I love parks and green spaces. Look at that man chillin’! Those green chairs are set up all over the green spaces for tourists and locals to lounge in.

I get sidetracked and would roam to other random places. This is an antique flea market.

After a long day of walking, I rewarded myself with a crepe in bed. hehehe the best.

Day 2.

We went to Shakespeare and Company bookstore and bought a book by Bill Bryson, The Lost Continent. I even got a stamp! :P If you like travel books, I recommend Bill Bryson. He talks about his travel in a very humorous way.

Did a little reading at the Jardin du Luxembourg/Luxembourg Garden. I love the green space here as well. A lot more people were on the grass in this Garden.

That night, I ate with the girls I met at my hostel. A place called A La Tour Eiffel.

I also had white wine, Côtes de Gascogne IGP, which I loved a lot! It was sweet and lovely. Originally, I ordered Salers beef tartare, thinking that I should try something new, but then the waiter asked me if I knew what that was. Tartare is raw beef. So I passed and ordered a Simple pan-friend, home-made french fries. However, the waiter explained that that was also mostly raw, but the outside is cooked. So I tried that instead and it was good.

We shared escargot, and it was delicious. It had my favorite ingredient, pesto. Snails aren’t slimy, but chewy! I used to eat them a lot when I was visiting Vietnam.

That was most of my Paris trip. A lot of people say the Parisians are snobby, but I encountered nice ones. One man was walking with a little boy on a scooter and started to say something in French to me. I figured out that he was saying that his grandson’s form on the scooter was ‘bello’, since he keeps pointing at his grandson on how he was riding the scooter. The boy had a good form indeed. We conversed for a little more during our walk to the same direction. Only he did not know English and I did not know French. A lot of hand gestures were involved but he made my day less lonely.

Exploring alone is liberating, I gotta say. In fact, in my mind, you are never alone. You meet people along the way! Have you travelled by yourself? If so, did you like it?