he went to paris

those of you who know me well know that i am a parrothead. for those that are unaware, that means i am a big jimmy buffet fan. i had been to many a concert on los angeles and always enjoyed the lively crowd and great show.

it was may, and i had been in paris for just a couple of weeks when i learned that jimmy buffet was coming to town at the end of september. i was quite surprised, because i didn't know he toured in europe at all. but i was also quite happy so i bought two tickets. i didn't know who i would be going with and i didn't know what the note "access libre" meant on my ticket.

suddenly september 24th rolled around. time really does fly, doesn't it? i still don't know many people in paris, and certainly don't know anyone else, american or european, who even knows who jimmy buffet is, so i still didn't have anyone to go with to the show. through a series of events i was connected with a guy in holland who wanted to buy a ticket to see the show.

matt took the train from holland to paris yesterday. we met for the first time when he came by my place to pick me up so we could go to the venue together. the show was held at l'olympia, a small concert hall that is iconic in paris. built in 1888, many great artists have performed there over the years, from edith piaf to bob dylan. my "access libre" tickets were for standing room only, which was the whole bottom floor holding about 1,000 people. another 1,000 people were upstairs sitting in the balcony. i was so happy to be downstairs, even though it meant we were on our feet for hours. because we got there early we were center stage, with just four or five rows of people in front of us. it was thrilling...i've never been to a concert before and been so close to the artist.

yes, some people were drunk and yes, some were just annoying (you know who you are, girl who was flipping her hair in my face while dancing like a crazy person). but after a while most people calmed down and the whole thing was quite enjoyable to watch. most of the crowd was american. people came from the states just to see the show, while expats like matt came from countries all around europe. pretty impressive.

fins to the left! fins to the right! a fine time was had in paris last night!!

i'm a travelin' (wo)man

one of the great things about being a member of the european union is that when you are in europe you can just pick up and go to any other european union country without much planning, because there is no need for a visa. we are all just one big happy family. since i am here, i decided i that i need to take advantage of this perk.

my first adventure was in estonia, which i wrote about in a previous blog. at the end of july i went to london for a quick weekend getaway. i had only been to london once before for just two days, but that was almost twenty years ago. i met my roommate kathryn there (she went for a longer period of time). my first day i did the touristy bus ride around the city thing, just to get my bearings. saw the tower of london and went on a walking "jack the ripper" tour (macabre and fun at the same time). that evening kathryn and i went to see the show "billy elliot" which was fantastic. the next day i met up with an acquaintance from l.a. for breakfast, then kathryn and i went to the tate modern museum (i enjoyed the architecture of the space as much as the art). that evening we saw another show, neil simon's "prisoner of 2nd avenue" with (my future husband) jeff goldblum and mercedes ruehl. did a little clothes shopping (i bought a beautiful cream colored winter coat) and went home.

in mid-august kathryn, natalie and i went to lithuania for a week. why, you ask? first and foremost, it was cheap! and secondly, why not? another opportunity to see a part of the world none of us had been to before. my first impression: it was hot! we flew into kaunas and took a walking tour of the city. i learned that lithuania has more churches than just about anything else. came back to the hotel tired and sopping wet.

we then traveled by bus to the capital vilnius. this city has the most remnants of medieval times than anywhere else we visited in lithuania. took a walking tour of the city, a day trip to trakai to visit a medieval castle, and a visit to the national museum. the photo of the carnival was taken as we walked back from the museum. i thought it was funny to see a picture of uncle sam in lithuania. why is there a picture of uncle sam on a ride called "crazy show"? we also did some general shopping and eating. a favorite thing i like to do when in a new place is to try new foods. i learned that donuts are not sweet little cakes with a hole in them, but savory meat pies (not what i was expecting at all). potato pancakes are popular, which i had a few times. we also had dinner at a hungarian restaurant. i ordered the goulash, but it didn't even come close to my mom's. my favorite food is a "hot chocolate" dessert that is served in a cup with a spoon. it's basically just melted dark chocolate. delish! the three of us also visited a spa while in vilnius. the exchange rate was very favorable to us, so we all indulged. i was scrubbed and wrapped and massaged. what could be better than that?

after vilnius we made our way to klaipeda on the coast. we wanted to take in the ocean, which was quite nice. i didn't have a swimsuit, but decided to go sit in the water anyway because it was quite pleasant. we only stayed in klaipeda for a day because the city wasn't very impressive. we decided to switch plans a little bit and headed north to riga in latvia. the third of the three baltic countries, i have now seen them all. riga is similar to both vilnius and tallin (estonia) because they are all medieval cities. you can just imagine knights in their armor riding through the town causing mayhem and peasants bustling about, doing whatever it is peasants do.

riga was a bit more lively than vilnius but twice as expensive; we were there only one night. we did another walking tour, a boat tour on the river, ate (wasn't sure what some of it was, but that's part of the adventure, right?), and had another spa day (when in the baltics...). we decided to treat ourselves and go to a very beautiful, fancy restaurant. the photo of us (that's kathryn, myself and natalie) is in that restaurant, eating very delicious fancy food. yum.

back to kaunas, then back home. another couple of countries ticked off my list...how many more to go?