Spring time in Paris...

Arc De Triumph


Louvré

We have been in Paris for a few days now and this city is historic and beautiful! I went to the Eiffel tower the first night and it was all lit up! It's friggin huge! All made of metal.

Yesterday was museum D'Orseè, which was full of the Greats such as; Monet, Cezanne, Degas, VanGogh, Gougan and many many more. I was in my element! And they let us take pictures of the art work! Yessss.

Today was the Louvrè. 7 hours of walking through it, and there is still some of it left unseen by me. Today the tables finally turned with me and my mom! She was dragging her heels and she wanted to hurry up because she was getting bored. I usually get like that after we've been shopping for a few hours... she likes to shop for many hours... manyyyy hours... I don't really like shopping at all, so you can see how this has been a problem for me for the past few weeks... but today was sweet revenge! A reversal of roles! Finally... ha ha ha ha... HA HA HA HA... ok, that felt good.

The Louvrè is full of world famous Art from the stone age to the Egyption era, to the dark ages to the Renaissance... etc. It is an old palace turned into a museum; it's full of sculptures, tools, paintings, lavish rooms filled with lavish furniture, tapistries, jewlery, dishes, tombs and a real mummy from Egypt!!! Let me emphasize the hugeness of the building and grounds... HUGE, 7 hours didn't cut it, i needed longer. I saw the Mona Lisa, yes. She is very nice.

Paris is in bloom. There are many parks here and they are well groomed. They have shops for everything with fresh everything and variety like, whoa. Pork shops, cheese shops, olive oil shops!, bread shops, pastery shops, fish shops, fruit stands, vegi stands... etc. There is a stand for everything here. They have crepe stands like how New York has hot dog stands.

I saw the arc de triumph tonight... Napoleon wasn't kidding around when he said build me a monument! BIGGGGGGGG and Glorious!

I'm smack dab in the middle of monument land, I tell ya.

I have walked for about 11 hours today in total, no joke, and my feet are killing me. I'm looking forward to my comfy bed tonight, but first I have to walk home!!!

I choose Atlantis

Here's something I wrote when I was in Crete a week ago:

I sit here on a large slab of stone,
my blanket laid out,
rocks jutting out, everywhere,
I'm surrounded by water and stone.

Land masses in the distance,
they call them islands,
they look like large turtle backs surfacing the water.

Some are no bigger than the "mountain" in the center of Montreal.

They call it a mountain,
I call it a hill.
To each his own.

When I was in Montreal there was a French radio station, which played French music, that I listened to.

I loved it.
I taped it.
I'm listening to it now.
I love it.

I look around me now and I am reminded of the Cliff's of Insanity from Princess Bride. It feels like Wesley is going to rescue me soon, not that I need rescuing, but if he showed up, that's what he'd do.

Or maybe a merman is going to surface out of this sparkling turquoise bliss they call the Aegan sea.

He could pop his head out of the water that is but 3 feet from me now, and he'd grab my wrist and yank me into the water, give me a kiss, which would be the only way I could grow my tail, and we'd swim down to Atlantis.

There is a nearby island called Santorini, I go there in a few days. There is a myth that the lost city of Atlantis can be found in the waters of Santorini. That is where my merman is from, Atlantis. Sorry Wesley, today I choose Atlantis.

My brother has a boat....

So I am back in Athens now. From Crete we ferried to Santorini and stayed there for 2 days where I had a love affair with an Albanian man named.... none other than Leonardo! YESSSSSSSSS I got my Leonardo! It may not have been a DiCaprio, but hey, how can I complain.

The island used to be one, but was split up by a volcanic eruption. So now it is a semi circle of broken land around the center (which is called the caldera, or the volcano). One side is all cliff and the other side of the circle is sea level with black sand beaches.

I met a very handsome man named Leonardo in a restaurant that he was working in and he offered to take me dancing the first night. He came and picked me up with his motorcycle!! I didn't wear a helmet, because he didn't have one... I was nervous at first and then I later relaxed. His bike ran out of gas on route... we sorted that out after about 45 minutes. We didn't end up going to the club that night, but rather we enjoyed some wine and eachothers company...

So he was my island boyfriend for 2 days. He asked me to stay there with him, he told me that I wouldn't have to pay for anything and that he would look after me. All i would have to do is sleep until I wanted to wake up and go to the beach and he said we could be together from 4-7 pm on his breaks and after he was done work... please stay, don't go, when will you come back to see me? When can i see you again? We can go on vacations around Europe! etc etc etc...

Has anyone seen Shirly Valentine's movie where she goes to Europe (I think Greece) and a man tells her that his brother has a boat and that he'd take her sailing. She said yes, ok, I'll go, but I won't sleep with you. And next thing you know she's on the boat, rocking the boat (if you know what I mean)... anyways, he tells her to stay with him and asks when she'll come back etc etc etc. She goes back to America and then decides to return to see him and she goes into his restaurant and sees him talking to a woman saying "My brother has a boat"... ha ha ha... well I wonder about my Albanian man... "Let's go dancing." LOL. Anyways, I was a good girl and we had a lot of fun. It was my European 2 day love affair.

Good Friday. No, Great Friday!!!

It was good friday yesterday according to the Julian calander (which is what the Greek Orthodox people follow). My mom and I went to a small village called Elounta for dinner and then we walked around the center near the water. We went into a church and lit 3 bees wax candles for my deceased grandparents and deceased uncle... it was meaningful and special.

Just outside the church was a procession of about 200 people ready to make their way around the village and back to the church.
The front had a man carrying a wooden cross and he was surrounded with alter boys (I'm a baptised Greek Orthodox, so some of this was very familiar to me. Such as the alter boys and priests wardrobes and the singing/chanting that the priest did as we walked through the village). After the cross was the priest and a flowered chapel was propped up on the shoulders of 4 men (one at each corner) this chapel followed the priest. We'd walk about 40 seconds and then stopped and the priest would sing and then we'd walk again and stop again. The whole time the church bells were sounding out and locals were setting off fire crackers and fire works and periodically clanging pieces of metal that sounded like the church bells.

All store and restaurant owners along with their patrons came to the streets to watch the procession pass by. The all stood with their hands clasped in front of them and periodically crossing themselves in the Greek Orthodox manner... 3 times in a row.

I feel lucky to be here for their Easter. Tonight we are going to another town for more celebrations... soon it is the rising of Christ and that means a big party is coming to town! How exciting!

Spinalonga... sent there to die...

Last night we drove to a nearby village and accross from it sits an island of about 4 city blocks by 7 city blocks called Spinalonga. It was oringially an old Venitian fortress built in the late 1400's and was later turned into a place of exile. Up until the 1950's it was used as a leper colony... the sick were went there to live out the rest of their lives and eventually die there... isolated. The buildings on the island were dull and lifeless... the island reiked of death and suffering... it still gives me a very unsettled feeling just thinking about it. It reminds me of Dachau (a concentration camp I once visited in Germany). It's eerie and sad to look at.

Crete... it's paradise!

We are now in Crete staying at a Greek resort. From my balcony I can see our glorious pool and the grounds and then onward is the emerald Aegan sea. There are islands both nearby and off in the distance.

I see palm, olive and orange trees. The emerald waters glisten in the sun. White wash buildings with arches and small square windows and big windows with blue shutters.

We are in a place called Agios Nikolaus. The best part about our resort other that the view and the breakfasts is our private beach. You must first walk through the hotel and then a winding bush and tree filled path to get there. The hotel has a billiards room and several sitting rooms along the way with lavish couches and chairs. A ping pong table outside and a tennis court too. Trees and birds and white washed private villas for the really wealthy people is all that I pass to get to beach.

There are tiered stone slabs all over looking the sea with chairs and bamboo unbrellas, or you can sit in the sand if you like. The birds chirp away and the waves lap up on the stone and beach... it's absolutley beautiful! I'm in paradise.

Athens... the land of kisses and beauty!

I am in Athens Greece right now and it is beautiful! We went to see the Acrpolois yesterday and my mom took a piece of marble from the ground... very sneaky. It was surreal to see such ancient pieces of architecture with my own eyes, not in a text book.

Greece is warm, it was 28 degrees today. The greek salad, tzatiki and souvlaki is all amazing. I kissed my jewler today. I asked him for a discount on this great necklace (I paid a lot of money for it, but they all tell me it'll be worth it). anyways, I asked for a discount and he said if I give him 2 kisses on the cheek, so I did.

I also kissed a man that was sitting outside the restaurant my mom and I spent quite some time looking for. After many wrong turns and lots of directions given to us by the locals, we found it, so I asked him if this was the place and he said yes, and I kissed him. He told me that he'd sing me a song... turns out he was in the band that played the whole night, and he played classical guitar and sang with 2 other men (one played the bazooki). He was smiling away at me and my mom as he sang... he was charming.

We sat under an orange tree and ate traditional greek food while drinking red wine and clapping away to the music. The greeks danced and a few yelled out "Oppa"! A waiter brought me some flowers that he picked (I kissed him on the cheeks too). The table in front of us bought us a bottle of red wine and I got one of their phone numbers and e mail address too. I think i will call him when I return to Athens next week. Tomorrow we fly out to Crete (one of the islands).

We have shopped like crazy. Bought some jewlery and a few other things too. I can see the ocean from here, can't wait to go swim in it. The Acropolis sits high up on the top of a big hill and it is most beautifully lit up at night. I can see it from the block that my hotel is on... I love Greece! More later!

Love, Amie

Touch down and take off

So I have now returned from Montreal a little less than a week ago and I leave for Greece tomorrow morning and I will be flying for something crazy like 11 hours??

My decision to go to Montreal for the amount of time that I did was one of the best decisions I could have made. I had the most fun out there meeting my brother’s girlfriend, Kristy and the rest of his friends. I also got to spend a lot of time with Mulli and meeting her friends was also refreshing and new. I teared up as Jay and I hugged goodbye at the airport. I’m going to miss him… a lot.

I want to thank both Jay and Kristy for taking me under their wings in making sure I was safe and having fun. You guys were awesome!

About a week ago I danced on a bridge in Montreal and then I came home and wrote about it the next morning. So I want to share that:

Me & The Bridge

Last night I danced on a bridge.
The streets were wet from the rain that poured down earlier that night.

It was only me out there on that bridge. Me and my Discman.
Cars drove by, sure, but who are those faceless cars to me?

The bridge took me past the factory and over the desolate train tracks.
I smiled and jumped in circles with my arms spread out before me.
I was free.
Free from judgment and strange looks.
It was a good song and I wanted to dance.

Scattered throughout the city were church tops and bus stops and church peaks,
and steeples and domes.

Downtown stood off in the distance with its glorious buildings made of stone, glass and concrete. The windows had lights beaming out of them.

Random strobe lights from the tall downtown buildings shone out, circling light onto the city below.

The air was misty and foggy.

The music was pumping through my headphones.
And I danced.
And I sang.

Just me and the bridge.

Hillside beats

I’m sitting here listening to French music and it sounds so nice. The window is opened and the spring breeze is sweeping through the apartment. I can hear the traffic humming off in the distance.

Vonn left this morning and I am a little sad that he’s gone. I had so much fun hanging out with him and wandering the streets with him. Kristy and the sibs and I had a good week. We partied at the university bar on the night of the elections for the Student Union. We partied in a bookstore for a bit that night, which was an interesting environment to be drinking in. There was also beat boxing and free styling. It made for a unique party and a good way to spend my time.

On Tuesday Mulli and her friends and I went to a bar called Jello. It was Rastarific! There was live music (motown), we were sitting with the band and their friends. The lead singer wants me to make him a bracelet like the one I have. So next Tuesday I am meeting him back there (he plays there every Tues.) and he's bringing the beads and I'm bringing the hemp and I am going to make him a bracelet. To ensure that I do this he gave me one of his bracelets (made of wooden beads) and 2 pinky swears!! So, of course I will be going back there to live up to my promises.

Wednesday night was a wrap party and a preview of Vonn and Jay’s movie that they made last summer. It was held at a bar/restaurant. The night ended up back at Jay’s house and the four of us played UNO for hours, it was the never ending uno game, it was full of lots of laughter and fun.

For a short time Vonn was my travel companion and now he’s gone home. I still had a good day in spite of missing his presence. I walked down to this place at the bottom of the mountain (the mountain, being the only mountain in Montreal, which is in the center of the city… it’s actually a really really big hill, if you ask me, but hey, if they want to call it a mountain, by all means…). It is a large park full of grass, trees, baseball diamonds, soccer fields, beach volley- ball courts and bush. At the base of the mountain is a monument and around that monument on Sunday afternoons is an event called Tam Tam. Today was the first of the year, because it is finally warm enough to chill outside and enjoy the weather. Tam Tam is an event where tonnes of people get together with their hand drums, tambourines, and other percussive instruments and they have an all day jam session beating their drums and dancing and sitting and playing. There are spectators all over the grassy mountain- side listening and hanging out. Some people dance, some others lay and read, others throw a football around or a Frisbee, others puff a dubie and others have brought a guitar and are sitting there playing their own tune… it was an experience that I wish I could have again, but this is the last Sunday I am here, so it was my first and last experience for a while, I’m glad I caught it.

I am now certified to teach English as a second language! I received my certification last weekend, which was the last day of my course. One of my classmates is already set up with a job in China! So, that was fast. I’m not going to start applying for a job overseas until I get back from Europe in May.

I’m going to go and read my book, bye for now!