monet in giverny

[ june 19, 2014 ]

what's up? i'm finally home after a whirlwind of adventures and have a desperately large amount of photos to publish (and i find myself watching an entire season of orphan black within 24 hours, ok julia ok). so everything will probably be out of order, whatever. we'll talk about my feelings and thoughts and lack of organization later - here are the photos from my day trip out of paris to monet's gardens in giverny with my lovely ladies kaya and cibel. (oh yah, i lived in paris for a month and a half) june 19th was quite a dramatic day in retrospect (things that happened include: my stolen phone and pretty flowers and discussing how we would let monet tattoo our asses and waiting for all forms of public transportation), and perhaps the only way to tell it is with a list~

1. woke up and made my way to gare de st. lazare from victoria's place (16th arr) to meet kaya and cibel (who were in town from their month long europe adventure) to go to monet's gardens in giverny, a little bit outside of paris
2. due to the train strike the next train leaving to "vernon" (the elusive destination the website told us to go) wasn't due for another hour and a half so i decided to take us to the nearby galeries lafayette for an a+ rooftop view (i am now a pretty qualified parisian tour guide, wooh).
3. got to roof and took cute selfie (hey kaya where is that selfie?) and then realized that my phone was not in my bag!?!? (wallet and mark ii were fine and untouched thank god)
4. remained calm due to disbelief (don't worry i felt the trauma later) and retraced steps back to train station and called my french number. phone went straight to voicemail - so reaffirming that my phone was indeed stolen and not mistakenly thrown into the trash.
5. boarded the train to vernon, there was no point in wallowing and missing out on giverny too.
6. kaya and i, being seasoned travellers, assumed that since giverny is a touristy destination and since paris is one of (if not) the most visited places in the world - figuring out how to get to monet's gardens should be easy? well. on the contrary things got slightly awry...
7. arrived at vernon and looked for way to get to monet's garden. ah! there is a bus! good! that does not come for another hour! ah! no longer good?
8. decided to walk the 5km because it was a nice day out, and found a very badly drawn map (which we then photographed with kaya's phone) as a guide
9. grabbed food at carrefour and then proceeded to get lost because we have (apparently) an impaired sense of direction
10. realized we walked a circle after a decent amount of time and finally found the seine and walked the right path to giverny
11. arrived at giverny and fawned over how god damn picturesque the whole damn place is.
12. consumed ice cream at the nearest truck because it was hot as balls.
13. proceeded to have our minds and eyes blown at the wonderful beauty of the original water lily pond.
14. kaya and i then suddenly realized ("seasoned travellers") that we did not look at any of the transportation times back to paris. ah. and since there was a train strike (thanks sncf :*) it would've probably been wise to do so.
15. scrambled out of monet's garden and waited at the bus stop that did not look like a bus stop while eating the rest of our cheese and hummus.
16. made it to vernon only to have the next train arrive in....two hours.
17. passed the time telling wild stories and acting them out (in which is just stood there and laughed at kaya and cibel because i can't act because i'm not fun) as the sun set in the background (paris is literally sunny until 9PM, it really fucks up with one's mental clock)
18. finally made it back to paris and victoria's room and then ate a large stick of butter jana procured earlier that day.

europe 2012: paris - day four

our fourth (and last ): ) day in paris was dedicated to the lourve! it was seriously jaw-droppingly amazing. i just wanted to sit there forever to let everything sink in. you see something and you're like SERIOUSLY. how? what? jesus. after adventuring around the lourve, we had "flam" for dinner. it's basically a very thin tortilla with food on top. kind of like a pizza? we had one withe cheese, bacon, and onions and it was literally one of the most beautiful and deliciously light but yummy foods to grace my mouth.

after dinner, we gathered up our belongings and set out for the train station for barcelona. the train was....much smaller than we imagined. it's alright, we all squished into one cabin and listend to la vie en rose as we watched the french countryside roll by our window. in those few moments of time, everything was perfect. when the beds were put down, we climbed on top and gossiped and told stories until we were shushed to bed.

the train ride was overnight and around 8 hours. i slept on the top bunk and i seriously feared that the luggage would squish me before i fell off. but neither tragedy happened, and it was suprisingly relaxing to fall asleep to the lull and rocking of a train.

europe 2012: paris - day three

probably my favorite day of paris. the day started out with the notre dame, paris street wanderings, & the bookstore "shakespeare & company." i finally got to try the infamous parisian macaron, and i shall tell you it was worth the wait. oh, an the gelato there? better than life. the afternoon was spent up in montmarte perusing stands of beautiful, stunning artwork of paris. i couldn't help myself, i bought a few pieces. i didn't photograph much in montmarte, just out of respect for the artists. it amazes me how one city can inspire so many different, but equally amazing pieces of artwork. of course we had to visit moulin rouge and pose by the one too many sex shops. the day concluded with a boat ride on la seine and the amazing eiffel tower. climbing it was the workout of the month but the view was worth everything. you know how paris is hyped up too be one of the most beautiful/need to visit places in the world? well it's safe to say it lived up to every single word. the view was beyond beautiful. upon our descent from the tower (in which my knees forgot how to descend stairs. i'm not kidding) we devoured the most satisfying nutella crepes to grace this earth.

my camera started loosing battery somewhere during the boat ride, so i tried to conserve battery life and borrowed my friend's point and shoot for a few shots.

i was tempted to make posts based upon location. one post on the notre dame, one post on the eiffel tower.....but i dunno. that would be wayyy to many blog posts for my liking so you get giant 100+ photo spams.

europe 2012: paris - day two

i couldn't bear to cut any more photos down. it went from 1,000+ --> 300 --> 70. so i put the rest under the cut! (i've realized a reason why a lot of my photos feature profiles, it's because when working with first time models and you need to get the shot (right then and there) i've discovered that people are most comfortable with their profile because they do not need to make eye contact with the camera. yup.) anywayyy:

day two started out with a bus tour of paris, in which only half of us were conscious for. we made a few stops, did touristy shit. including stopping in front of the amazing eiffel tower. there was this open, stone pavilion where people gathered to photograph one of the best angles of it. i remember sun, laughter, and feeling utterly and blissfully happy. and from there, we adventured around paris with our free time and shopping along l'avenue de champs- élysées. (it was amazing) we didn't have enough time that day to climb l'arc de triomphe (yeah, all french and fancy) but we stood under it - and holy shit. (by the way, i took spanish in high school so i consider myself adequately fluent in it.) i was able to communicate pretty well in spain if i must say. but french? i didn't know a single word of it. we say the greatest H&M ever and went to a fragonard perfume factory...in which i purchased some. i usually never buy perfume, so i thought - WHY NOT I'M IN PARIS.

the evening included crepes, disgustingly sour wine (hey, we're legal in france!), and a trip to the bar. drinking in europe is much more.....calm. it's less RIDICULOUS then it is in the states. here it's like ohmygawd drinking yay!! but since we're all legal there, i felt like the atmosphere was more...."chill?" like it wasn't some big deal it was here.

europe 2012: paris - day one

day one consisted of 13 delirious children who haven't slept in over 30 something hours. the plane ride was this awful experience full of numerous attempts to fall asleep in various positions. it was a night flight and it was 7.5 hours. we arrived in paris around 7 in the morning and immediately got ready to start our first free day. me, being the dumb ass that i am, brought my dysfunctional 50mm on the first day. i learned from my mistake, so the rest of the trip is shot with my 28-135mm lens.

NOTE: a lot of the photos i took were personal and lots of silly pictures of friends. for the sake of brevity, i will only include a few snapshots from they day - but do know that i took 500-1000+ photos depending on the day. and many are cute and goofy. :) (i just hate it when i go through vacation pictures and all the photos are all formal looking, just me?) oh, and i edited the majority of these photos too. I'M A CHAMP!

it was cloudy and we were tired beyond belief, so the day was a blur of walking around the perfect streets of paris and visiting the courtyard of the louvre.