One thing that we really wanted to do in Paris was have a wine, cheese, and bread picnic beneath the Eiffel Tower. So one fine day, we wandered down Rue Le Cler, stopping at the fromagerie, the boulanger, and the wine shop to pick up the necessary items. [FYI… while food generally isn’t cheap, you can buy a fine bottle of red wine for about 1,50 Euros (about $2 CAD) and champagne comes as cheap as 1 Euro a bottle.]
Best. Picnic. Ever.
Maybe it was the wine, or maybe this post from Don’t Ever Look Back was still stuck in the back of my mind, but after our picnic I felt the insatiable desire for some more cheese…of the photo variety.
Everyone wanted some cheesy Eiffel Tower pictures
You know what I mean… those really cheesy Eiffel Tower pictures where you’re holding it or pushing it down? We got a little more creative than most… and had a blast taking them. Luckily for me, Mike was a good sport (and a great photographer!) so we got some my favourite photos from our trip thus far…
Enjoy!
Holding the Eiffel Tower
Push though you may, that tower isn’t going anywhere
Just hanging out
It’s all about balance
A little Eiffel Tower love
Not so much Eiffel Tower love here
Good to the last drop
Too much wine?
Under the Eiffel Tower
Mike thinks he’s King Kong
Pinching the Eiffel Tower
Makes a great leaning post
Uh… fail?
Playing with the wide angle at night
Smoochin’
More smoochin’
Hungry hungry Mike
Cheesy photos aren’t just for the Eiffel Tower… we got the pyramid at the Louvre in on the action
Mike, pretending to be the pyramid
Nap time!
Wow… anyone else notice how destructive Mike is in all these pictures?
If you know me and my love of numbers, you were probably wondering where all the stats were in our one year travel post.
Well, here they are! I never meant to disappoint. I simply had so many wonderfully awesome and arguably useless stats that they needed their own post. And don’t worry… I’ve managed to contain myself to just a single pie chart.
The BIG Number: Budget
We (ok, I) have meticulously written down every penny spent in the past year… the cost of each hotel room, pupusa, dive lesson, tube of toothpaste, bandaid and bottle of water has been carefully recorded in a notebook and then transferred to the nifty little site, budgetyourtrip.com.
So, at any given time, I know our spending to the penny.
Drum roll please…
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Total Spending after One Year of Travel (for 2 people): $20,040.68 CAD (16,013.46 €) Average Cost per Day (for 2 people): $54.76 (43.76 €)
Our original budget goal was $100/day, so it seems we’re doing pretty good spending wise. Obviously, that goal was too high for us. Having realized that about 6 months ago, we decided to make it our spending cap goal for expensive places. Our new budget goal is $50-55/day, but as with everything else on this journey, even that’s a work in progress.
Here’s a breakdown of where we spent the money:
But wait, there’s so much more…
Countries & Transportation
Countries visited:11 (Visited means we spent at least 24 consecutive hours in the country) – Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, USA, Spain, France, Austria
Border crossings:17
Number of times we were turned back at a border: 1 (in Costa Rica, but they let us through after making us spend $50 on overpriced return bus tickets)
Total Distance Traveled: 29,764 km
by plane: 9492 km on 6 flights
by bus/automobile: 9444 km on 98 buses/colectivos/pick-up trucks/vans/tuk tuks
by train: 185 km on 4 trains
by boat: 9662 km on 32 boats
by foot: 923 km
by bike: 58 km
Most memorable mode of transportation: other than walking the Camino, definitely hitchhiking and getting a ride in the back of a pickup with dozen other people in Mexico
Accommodation:
Average daily accommodation cost:$12.94 CAD
Most expensive bed: $78 CAD for dorm beds in Paris (but it included breakfast and supper!)
Least expensive bed (excluding free places):$3.65 CAD for a private room ensuite in San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala
Number of different beds slept in:98 (39 of these were on the Camino)
Number of nights spent sleeping in:
Private Rooms: 146
Dorms: 95(most of these, 52, were in Europe – while on the Camino and to cut costs in cities)
Apartments: 84
Five star cruise ships: 14
Work exchange programs: 11
Friends’ Homes: 5
Couch Surfers’ Homes: 5
Buses: 2
Airports: 2(both in Barcelona… and let me tell you, it’s a lot more comfortable when you’re past security!)
Private Islands: 1
Climbing a Volcano (ok, there was no sleeping), then watching the sun rise: 1
Food
Average daily food cost: $10.51 CAD
Meals cooked/purchased in grocery stores & bakeries: 61%
Meals eaten out: 30%
Meals included with accommodation/tours: 8%
Free meals: 1%
Favourite foods: tacos, Guatemalan pineapple, baleadas; Jewel Cay donuts, gingerbread, banana tarts, and pizza; pupusas, gallo pinto, fried yuca balls, mangoes, cashews and cashew fruit, French Brie, Paris baguettes, aged Spanish sheep’s cheese, lentils (yup, our home province is the second largest producer of green lentils worldwide, and we had to travel halfway across the globe to try our first taste of them), chocolate croissants, dinkelbrot, and really any bread in any bakery in Austria
Health
Weight Lost: 56 lb (Mike – 22 lb, Ashley – 34 lb)
Sick Days: 20 (17 for Ashley, 3 for Mike)
Bouts of Traveller’s Diarrhea/Food Poisoning: 3 (Ashley – 3, Mike – 0… man with the iron stomach!)
Number of Doctor’s Visits: 1 (needed physicals for divemaster program)
Number of Times We Probably Should Have Seen a Doctor, but Didn’t: 3
Surprise, surprise, it’s all Ashley here – 8 consecutive days of Montezuma’s revenge in Mexico (should have self-medicated), nasty sinus infection in Utila (did self-medicate after I realized it wasn’t going away), and food poisoning on the cruise ship (they require that you report all gastrointestinal issues to the ship’s doctor, but I self-quarantined myself while I was sick instead of a forced quarantine)
Unintentional Changes to the Gear List
Number of Times We Were Robbed: 3 (camera pickpocketed in Quetzaltenago, Guatemala; bag stolen from overhead bin of bus in Costa Rica; wallet with ~$15 pickpocketed in Antigua, Guatemala)
Number of Items We Lost: 5 (Ashley’s hat, both our Nalgene bottles, camp soap, Ashley’s quick-dry Northface t-shirt)
Number of Items Broken: 2 (Ashley sat on her Kindle in Antigua, Guatemala and Mike’s (cheap) beard trimmer)
Other Stuff
Money Earned from Working:Mike – $30 (divemaster job = $5, cutting the grass at our apartment in Austria = $25), Ashley – $0
Number of Photos Taken: 6071 (actually, this is the number we’ve kept… many many more were taken)
Books Read: 96 (Ashley – 56, Mike – 40)
Postcards Mailed Home:34
Souvenirs Purchased: 0 When I left home, I fully intended to buy something from each country or region and mail it home. That way, when we eventually settled down, we could have a house full of cool stuff from our travels. I even made Mike promise me that he wouldn’t harass me about the money when I did the souvenir shopping. But, to date, I never saw anything that I just had to have. I’m 100% satisfied with the memories (and maybe a few photos) of our experiences… no stuff necessary!
Number of Times We Paid to Get Our Laundry Done: 1 (Rio Dulce, Guatemala… I’ve never seen it rain so much for 3 days straight… we had no hope of hanging our clothes to dry)
Mountains Summited:4 (doesn’t include mountains crossed on the Camino, as they weren’t summited)
Total Time Spent Underwater: 74 hours, 30 minutes (each)
UNESCO World Heritage Sites Visited: 19
Like these stats? You can find just about all of them, updated year-round, on our permanent stats page.
366 days ago today (no, I haven’t forgotten how many days are in a year… 2012 was a leap year), we stepped off a plane in Cancun, Mexico with no idea what the future would hold. Literally. We had no plan past getting to our Couchsurfing host’s house and even that turned out to be an adventure in itself.
Here we are, one year later, with a totally different perspective on life and travel. If you’ve been following along the whole way, you’ll know what a journey it’s been. Here’s a little summary for you.
Where Have We Been?
After a year of ever-changing plans, we’ve discovered the only itinerary we can claim to have is the list of places we’ve already been. Everything else is up in the air and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Before we left, we posted a rough itinerary that we haven’t really looked at since. So here’s a visual of where we’ve actually been.
Click for larger image
Where We Are Now?
The literal answer to that question is an apartment in Loosdorf, Austria. But you could have read that on our sidebar.
Digging deeper, I can say we are happy. And that’s all that really matters, isn’t it? We now value happiness in a way that we never did before. We wake up each morning excited to experience the day. We hope that no matter what happens, this will be true for the rest of our lives.
We have both explored spirituality to a deeper level than ever before, particularly the ideas and values of Buddhism (Ashley) and Hinduism (Mike).
We are now happy, healthy vegetarians. Contrary to popular belief back home in Saskatchewan (the land of meat and potatoes), we CAN get enough protein, iron, and all that other good stuff from plant-based food. Not only are our bodies not suffering from four months of being vegetarian, they have never felt stronger or more energetic. And our heads are clearer too.
We’ve talked about the physical changes we’ve gone through many times before, but here’s a quick reminder. Mike has lost nearly 20 pounds (9 kg) and I’ve lost about 35 (16 kg). We’ve gained muscle mass. Our hair has grown out and been bleached by the sun. Our skin has a healthy glow, instead of the pasty whiteness of people who spend all their time indoors. Even though we’re a year older, we look and feel significantly younger. (In fact, we have a hard time convincing fellow travellers that we’re not fresh out of university. One lady was sure we had just graduated high school!)
Here’s a little photo montage of us in each country we’ve passed through… notice the evolution from the chubby faces and glazed expressions in the first ones to the happy, healthy people at the end?
Where Are We Going?
This is a loaded question. We have learned a lot about our travel style in the past year. Ask either of us what our favourite experiences were, and we won’t hesitate to list the Camino de Santiago in Spain, becoming divemasters in Honduras, working on an organic farm in El Salvador, and learning Spanish in Guatemala. We saw some amazing things in between, but we always come back to the list above. What do all of these things have in common? Two things… 1. they required us to STOP moving around and STAY PUT for a while (okay, we were constantly moving during the Camino, but we were always on the Camino) and 2. we were DOING something. So there you have it… as we travel the world, we want to stop, do something, and really experience a place.
Which brings us to our next “plan”. On July 26th, we have to leave Austria (and the wider Schengen visa zone). We’ll spend a few nights each in Zagreb, Croatia; Belgrade, Serbia; and Sofia, Bulgaria to break up the bus rides, before settling in for at least a month at an organic farm in north central Bulgaria. There, we will help harvest grapes, learn how to make rakia, play with their dogs, and train in combat jujitsu. Sounds pretty great, right? We think so too.
After that, who knows? We’re not heading home yet. The world is our oyster and we plan to take our sweet time exploring it.
While I don’t intend to reduce our incredible experience walking the Camino de Santiago to a bunch of numbers, I expect there are people out there who are wondering just how much it costs. And, I couldn’t resist jotting down a few extra stats along the way.
The Budget
Total Spent on the Camino (for 2 people): $1548.44 CAD or about 1200 Euros
Total Spending per Day (for 2 people): $40.75 CAD or about 32 Euros
These budget numbers include: food, drinks, accommodations, cost of admission to a few churches, postage from the starting point in France to Santiago for 9 kg of stuff we didn’t want to carry on our backs, storage fees for said stuff, and all the other miscellaneous expenses that arose (like gauze and bandages for blisters, a knee brace for me, and even the little things that needed replacing like laundry soap, shampoo, toothpaste, and contact lens solution).
In reality, you can spend as much or as little walking the Camino as you want. So these numbers don’t mean much without a few qualifiers. Here’s what our Camino looked like… We spent each night in albergues, usually the cheaper municipal albergues that come equipped with kitchens. These cost between 4 and 15 Euros per bed (5-6 Euros was probably the norm). It meant a lot of dorm rooms, but also helped keep our budget down and allowed us to hang out with our fellow pilgrims.
Dorm beds
Roughly 99% of our meals came from the grocery store, but we definitely didn’t scrimp on food. In fact, we kind of went all out… loading up on whole grains, fresh veggies, fruits, lentils or beans, cheeses, nuts, dried fruit, and a little chocolate. If we wanted it, we bought it.
A typical Camino supper for us
We never went out to drink at bars, though we bought ourselves a bottle of wine or cider every second day or so.
Attempting to fill up on red wine at the FREE WINE FOUNTAIN at Irache monastery… unfortunately, the taps were dry early this Sunday morning
Your budget depends on your preferences. A lot of the pilgrims we were walking with easily spent double what we did each day (usually by going out for meals and splurging on the odd hotel room). We also met a few spending less… some carried a tent, camped on the side of the road and bought the cheapest groceries they could find.
The Stats
Total Distance Walked: 897 km
Total Walking Days: 37
Total Non-Walking Days: 1 (in Santiago)
Rainy Days: 11
Blister Count: 14 (7 for each of us)
My bandaged up feet
Church Masses Attended: 3
Hours Spent Walking (not including rests): approximately 180
Hours Spent Listening to iPods: approximately 45
Steps Taken: 1, 126, 632 for Ashley 1, 010, 919 for Mike
(Yep, that’s right… Ashley had to walk 115,713 extra steps just to keep up with Mike’s long legs)
Number of Toe Stubs: 39 or so for Ashley 5 for Mike
(One was a simultaneous toe stub where we each kicked a bit of protruding rock at the exact same time. We thought it was pretty crazy. Especially after we looked around and saw that we had kicked the only two rocks in eyesight)
Our Longest Day of Walking: 40 km in 9 hours, 10 minutes
Our Shortest Day of Walking: 7.2 km in 1 hour, 51 minutes Our Average Day of Walking: 24.2 km in 5 hours, 38 minutes
A little demoralizing to see…
Average Walking Speed including all breaks: 4.26 km/h
Average Walking Speed without breaks: 5 km/h (uphill, downhill, or on the plains… after the first few days, we were usually bang on this number)
Average Number of Breaks Taken Each Day: 1.4 Average Time Spent on Breaks in a Day: 24 minutes Number of Days We Took No Breaks: 9 Most Breaks Taken in a Day: 8 Number of Coffee Stops at Cafes: 4 (once to get out of the rain, twice to answer the call of nature in the comfort of the indoors, and once just because)
Taking a break? on some public exercise equipment
Bottles of Wine Consumed: 16 (plus 2 bottles of cider and a beer) Number of Nights with Kitchens: 29 Number of Nights without Kitchens: 8 (to the author of our guidebook… despite what you may think, a microwave ≠ a kitchen)
Meals Out: 1 (Santiago celebration pizza!)
Tapas/Snacks Out: 3
Victory pizza
Not related to the stats, but just had to share this butt grab with the world!
We can now say that we have walked to the end of the earth together. And what an incredible journey it has been!
Kilometre 0… Nowhere Left to Walk
When we arrived in Santiago, we knew we weren’t finished walking yet. We didn’t feel any sense of finality as we sat in the Cathedral for the pilgrim’s mass – probably because we knew the path continued on for another 90 km to the coast. So we kept walking. The Camino de Santiago or Way of St. James has always been about the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela to see the remains of St. James, one of the twelve disciples. But, pilgrims would often make the one week round trip to the coast to see what was once believed to literally be the end of the earth. And, though we know there’s a little something beyond that point (like the Americas!), it is still tradition for pilgrims to carry on past the city to stand on the rocks overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
The last three days were a little bit challenging and stunningly beautiful. We finally felt a completeness to the journey when we arrived at the ocean. We are also happy to report that we raised another $170 for the Canadian Diabetes Association in the last three days! A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who donated money to the cause. If you meant to, but didn’t get around to it, you haven’t missed out. You can still donate by clicking here.
The last week and a half has been a time of celebrations for us… we walked our longest days, pushed ourselves farther than we knew we could, had a fabulous potluck dinner with our favourite Japanese Camino friends, feasted on pizza after our arrival in Santiago (our only meal out all Camino!), and continued to make new friends as we walked to the end of the earth.
Now, we’ve arrived back in Santiago (what took us three days to walk took two hours on a bus… though we much preferred the journey by foot!) and we’re about to catch a flight to Barcelona. There, we have our second chance of this trip to sleep on the cold and oh so comfortable airport floor, before hopping on a plane to Vienna, Austria. Why Austria? We’ve found an apartment that fits our budget, where we will be kicking up our heels and relaxing for the next month or so.
But… we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Here’s the numbers summary from the last week and a half, and our final reflections about the Camino. If you’re looking for more stats, the cost of the Camino, and our advice, stayed tuned – those posts are coming.
Days Walked: 37 (plus one rest day) Total Distance Walked: 897 km (798 km to Santiago, and 99 km to the end of the earth) Total Money Raised for the Canadian Diabetes Association: $730
Summary of Weeks 5 & 6:
Day 29: Vega de Valcarce – Triacastelos (34.8 km) Day 30: Triacastelos – Sarria (24 km) Day 31: Sarria – Portomarin (22 km) Day 32: Portomarin – Palas de Rei (26 km) Day 33: Palas de Rei – Arzua (30 km) Day 34: Arzua – Santiago de Compostela (40 km) Day 35: Rest day – pilgrim’s mass at Santiago Cathedral
Day 36: Santiago de Compostela – Negreira (22+2 km) Day 37: Negreira – Olveiroa (35 km) Day 38: Olveiroa – Fisterra/Finisterre & Faro (33 km + 7 km roundtrip to Faro)
Santiago Cathedral
Mike’s Camino
So that’s it. We are at the end of the earth. We can’t walk any further west. Without floating shoes that is, but even if we had them, I doubt we’d make it much farther. It’s over. And it feels good. Somehow seeing the Atlantic Ocean allowed my brain to accept the finality of it all, something that I just didn’t get from seeing the Cathedral in Santiago. But I feel it here. And it feels good.
This last week and a half of the Camino has been my favourite. Then again, I seem to say something like that every time I sit down to write about the Camino. Perhaps I’m suffering from the recency effect where everything you’ve just seen or done somehow seems better than anything else you’ve ever seen or done. Then again, perhaps this really has been one of the best things I’ve ever seen or done, and the last bit of it really has been the best part. It’s so hard to tell sometimes…
I think my favourite part of this last leg of our Camino revolved around a Japanese couple that we have been crossing paths with, almost daily, since before Burgos (just before the half-way point). Some time ago, they asked if they could interview us for a novel they intend to write about the Camino. We were very touched at the thought of being asked and quickly accepted.
As we made our way closer to our destination, Ashley and I booked an apartment in Vienna, and airfare to go with it. Because of the pricing schedule the airlines have come up with that offers cheaper fares Tuesday through Thursday, we ended up booking a flight a little earlier in the week than we would have liked, and had to boogie if we were going to walk all the way out to the end of the world. That change in pace was enough that we were no longer going to be in Santiago at the same time as our favourite Japanese couple. We thought that we would have to cancel our interview, or just touch base over email.
We crossed paths that day on the Camino and told them our newest planes and time line. We were already planning to walk further than they were this day, and it didn’t look like we would run into each other again. We took some photos of each other, exchanged contact information, said goodbye, and kept walking.
To our surprise, that afternoon, they turned up at our albergue. They decided among themselves to put in a longer day of walking to catch up with us and take us out for a meal. Again we were very touched. As we had already purchased our groceries for the day, we refused their offer to buy us supper, and instead invited them to join us for a meal in.
Celebrating with Yoshihiro and Miyoko
It was fantastic. We shared sandwiches, wine, cheese, and a lot of information about Canada and Japan. Suffice it to say, it was probably my favourite night on the Camino, and we’re currently trying to figure out how we can get to Japan (and afford to live there for a while). Has anyone had any luck teaching English there?
At the end of the earth
Ashley’s Camino
I truly think that the Camino is one of the best things I have ever done. Walking nearly 900 km, all the while carrying everything I need on my back, is one of my proudest accomplishments. It was challenging, easy, complex, simple, social, and personal all at once. Physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally, I am a different person today than I was six weeks ago. And I have the Camino to thank for that.
Take Day 29, for example. We started the day with a rough plan of climbing the mountain, and staying at the top – unless it was cold at the top, then we would descend and stay at a lower and hopefully warmer location. This meant between 20 and 26 km of walking. Ten minutes into the walk, it started to rain. Within an hour, we were soaked. After about 15 km, our shoes were so far past saturated, they had their own puddles inside of them. And still we walked. After climbing over the mountain, we decided it was cold and wet enough at the top to keep walking (besides, we couldn’t possibly get any wetter at that point). After descending a little ways, we hit our lower elevation target village, which was called Fonfria. The fact that it had the word “fria” or “cold” in its name combined with the chilly weather was enough to convince us to walk 9 km more through the rain to the next place (making it our longest day at that point). And if the wet and cold weren’t enough, we even found ourselves slogging through a river of cow shit, which I’m pretty sure was once a road made of cow shit. Despite what would be called miserable conditions by many, I can honestly say I enjoyed every minute of the day. You couldn’t have wiped the smile off my face – I was walking in beautiful mountains, with the man I love, and the rain didn’t damper my spirits one bit. Six weeks ago, it would have been a different story. If you had put me in that situation, I would have been grumpy, miserable, and spitting venom if anyone tried to talk to me. I expect I would have been picking fights with Mike about nothing, and I definitely would have made us stop after less than 20 km. And I would have missed out on so much.
Mountains in the rain
I could go on and on about all the positive changes I see in myself and my relationship with Mike, but I already feel a little like I’m rambling. So instead, I’ll just end with this…
For now and forever, I am part of the Camino and the Camino is part of me. If you ever have the opportunity to do something like this, don’t turn it down. It just may change your life.
We did it! We put in our biggest week of walking yet (and did it in only six days, to boot) to arrive in Santiago de Compostela on Saturday – a full day earlier than we had been planning on.
Arriving at the Santiago Cathedral
We walked 177 km this week, but unfortunately did not raise any more money for the Canadian Diabetes Association. We were really hoping to reach our goal of $800 by the time we arrived and, since we didn’t, we have decided… to keep walking! That’s right – our Camino is not finished yet. After a day of rest on Sunday in Santiago, we will lace up our walking shoes once again to start walking to the end of the earth. Literally. We will tackle another 90 km to Finisterra.
We can’t wait to tell you all about our final Camino experiences, but first… we need a little help. We’ll be busy walking for the next few days, so we need you to tweet this article, share it on Facebook, and email it to your family, friends, and coworkers to try and get the word out and the money raised, we would be forever grateful. Then, in three days time, when we reach the end of the earth, we’ll update you on our final Camino stats and reflections, celebrate the fact that we’ve met our fundraising goal (wink, wink), and you can share with us the outcomes of your personal efforts in our Camino challenge to you.
We look forward to hearing your stories and sharing our own. Buen Camino!
Paris took me by surprise. I always thought I’d love it when I finally got there, but I never realized just how much I would LOVE it.
Paris is the first city I have ever traveled to that I have always wanted to visit. While I love New Zealand and Central America to death, I knew very little about these countries before I visited them. I definitely never dreamed about traveling to New Zealand or Guatemala or El Salvador when I was a little girl. Hell, I didn’t even really know where they were.
But Paris…. Paris is another story. I have dreamed of going to Paris for as long as I can remember. I wrote a grossly long ten page paper – in French! – on Paris as a travel destination for my Grade 12 French class (sadly, the process of writing a paper that long in a language I hardly grasped was so traumatic, my brain’s defense mechanisms have left me with zero ability to converse in French). I dreamed of sipping coffee at a corner cafe, eating French pastries, wandering through the Louvre, and strolling under the Eiffel Tower.
The Louvre
So when I realized that we could make a little sidetrip to Paris before starting the Camino de Santiago in southern France, I knew we had to do it. Mike knew how much it meant to me, so he readily agreed to spend the extra cash (about 60 Euro/$80 CAD per person) to travel there.
My expectations were high heading into Paris and, I must say, it did not disappoint. It has been the most expensive city we’ve ever visited (blowing our budget at a whopping $107.16 per day, twice what we were spending in Barcelona), but that didn’t damper our enjoyment of it one bit. In fact, we left wanting more. Of course, we saw all the major sites… the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, the Musee d’Orsay, the Cathedral de Notre-Dame, Sacre-Couer, and Versailles, just to name a few. But our favourite moments were spent walking the streets, kissing on every bridge we crossed (thanks, Jennie, for putting this into our heads), picnicing in the parks, kissing every time we saw the Eiffel Tower, and just taking in the Paris atmosphere. Oh, and did I mention kissing on the streets of Paris? The mostly chilly, cloudy, and rainy weather couldn’t even ruin our time here…. though it certainly seemed to be trying to.
People taking pictures of the Mona Lisa in the Louvre
We didn’t spend much money on the sights (with the exception of Versailles, which cost 25 Euros each), as we didn’t feel we really needed to. The experiences we loved the most didn’t cost a cent. And we easily could have spent more time everywhere in Paris. We went to the Louvre and the Musee d’Orsay in the same day (they were both free on the first Sunday of the month, so we took advantage of that) – we sure didn’t see everything, but we got a nice taste of each. We toured the Notre-Dame Cathedral, but decided to forego the bell tower tour that would have meant at least an hour waiting in line. We spent ample time admiring the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, but didn’t feel the need to fork out the cash to climb them (and, again, wait in line).
In the Musee d'Orsay
Our hostel included a French breakfast and a Korean dinner (the owners were Korean), so we splurged on lunches of French baguettes, pastries, cheeses, chocolate, and wine. It wasn’t exactly the healthiest way to go, but it sure was delicious! Every day we tried a new item or two (or three!) from the bakery… pain au chocolat, croissants, all kinds of baguettes and breads, pomme tartelette, macarons, eclairs, flan, and pain raisin (in the draft of this post, I called it some sort of delicious bready custardy raisin thing that probably has a cool French name, but I don’t know what it is – then I looked it up and found out it was… pain raisin).
All in all, Paris has been one of my favourite cities of all time and I expect it will be hard to beat.
Gardens at Versailles
Showing some pyramid love at the Louvre
Thousands of locks locked to a Paris bridge by couples in love
Mike and Ashley Lenzen are a married couple from Canada. They spent 21 consecutive months globe trotting between July 6th, 2011 and March 24th, 2013. After two months of touring their own country, they've set out again.
They are currently volunteering for 12 months in the country of Bhutan. Read More...
Travel Statistics
Last updated January 20, 2014 Statistics kept from July 6, 2011 to present
Countries visited: 20 Total distance traveled: 102,848 km # of different "beds" slept in: 165 More RTW Stats...
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