• Day 3 – Paris (a.k.a. the last day I enjoyed wine)

    Start by going to the Arc de Triumph with the group then ditched them and explored the entire Champs-Élysées. Of special note was the amazing pastry in the back alley. Then from near the Louvre took the Metro to Bonne Nouvelle (Good news). I got out and seen 2 amazing Arches. Then want to the Musée des Arts et Métiers. The place was amazing. I saw a Kilogram and a satellite. After that I walked down to the Hotel de ville and the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris. Caught the Metro again and went to Rodan’s house but ran out of time so walked back to meet the coach. Then went up a lot of steps to the church on the hill. Then the Parisian dinner where thought it was a good idea to polish off 4 bottles are wine. The fish dinner and onion soup was great. Then went to Nouvelle Eve and was very drunk, had a few glasses of Champane. When clapping I spilled a glass on Catherine. When show was over, we went to O’Sullivan’s but I was too drunk to be let in so I went to the hotel. Where I passed out and woke up with vomit all over. I then slept in the shower.

    Continuation of a series from a Travel Log I found from my 2013 Contiki trip.
    Me at the Arc.
    Me at the Arc.

    This day is by far one of the most memorable that I have ever had while travelling, I would say of this trip as a whole but this was also the trip that originated “the Amsterdam story”. Let’s start with the beginning, why did I ditch the group at the Arc? Mainly because they wanted to wait in the line to go to the top to take pictures, and it was a long line that had not opened yet. I do have photos, just not from the top.

    From there I did walk down most of the Champs-Élysées, before cutting through a building to go to the back alley (Rue Ponthieu) where I found Boulangerie du Colisée. Going back to Champs-Élysées I took a picture from the middle of the street looking up to the Arc, before jumping on the Metro. I was taking the 9 train from FDR to Strasbourg Saint-Denis as “The Plan” but the plan did not exactly work out because I seen the “Bonne Nouvelle” station when the train stopped and I just had an urge to get out and see it, and mostly take a picture of the sign.

    Me at Notre-Dame
    Me at Notre-Dame

    I just looked up the Arch that I told myself I was fortunate to get off at Bonne Nouvelle or I would have missed. As it turns out was “Statue St Denis” at the Metro station I intended to go to and would not have had to walk an extra 10 minutes to the Musée des Arts et Métiers.

    If you have not seen this museum, it is amazing and totally nerd fest, but with amazing art. There were measuring things to measure anything you could imagine and every type of technology that made possible the last two hundred years. Ther building itself is an old church and is one of the best attractions that no one tells you exists in Paris. Google Street View also has the entire inside of the museum.

    View from Basilica of Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre.
    View from Basilica of Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre.

    The church with a lot of steps was The Basilica of Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre. This is an amazing view of Paris and filled with con-artists and pickpockets. There are 222 steps to get to the top, it was windy, cold, and wet both times I was in Paris to see this.

    After this we went to a restaurant for a fancy dinner. I do remember that we sat at a long table and had an amazing dinner. There were five sets of bottles of white wine, red wine, and water on the table. The water and white wine were well enjoyed. I came up with the mission that we should not be wasting any of the wonderful red wine, so I finished off the remains of all five bottles of red wine. This was going to be a huge mistake.

    Unknown restaurant in Paris.
    Unknown Restaurant in Paris.

    As I left the place I remember getting feeling a bit intoxicated and started stumbling down the street with the group headed to take an obligatory photo in front of Moulin Rouge before going to the Cabaret show at Nouvelle Eve.

    At the cabaret show there was free sparkling wine included in the admission, and despite better judgement, I drank some more. I don’t remember much of the show after the first number, I have two blurry pics that show nothing, and I do remember spilling wine all over Catherine who I was seated next to.

    Upon leaving the show the group headed to the O’Sullivan’s Irish Pub, that I remembered from the 2010 trip to Paris, although this time I could not get in. Surprisingly, the bouncers don’t let in “very polite” over intoxicated people. My group convinced me to get into a taxi. I remember that this taxi driver was not very French, and I had insisted that drunk me only spoke French, so it ended up being a 35€ taxi ride back to the ibus Budget hotel. I remember saying “45 Rue du Dr Babinski” over and over at the guy in a drunken French accent.

    When I got into my room, I vomited all over the bed and cleaned the sheets and slept in the shower. So nervous that I was going to be charged an extra cleaning fee since I also vomited on the roommate’s bed.

    Picture at Moulin Rouge
    Picture at Moulin Rouge, also last picture ever in that shirt before it was succumbed to previously consumed red wine.
  • Day 2 – To Paris

    Continuation of a series from a Travel Log I found from my 2013 Contiki trip

    Got up early and started the bus journey. Met the ferry and had breakfast.

    Finally made it to Paris. We did a city tour by bus, had some snails then spent the night going up the Eiffel Tower. I took the stairs. It was difficult, but easier than the 1st time.

    I did not want to go to the very top but like what the hell and did it anyways.

    Then it was 12:30am by the time we got down and took a taxi home.

  • Europe Trip Travel Log 2013

    This morning I was cleaning out some old notebooks and I found a travel journal I started during my 2013 Contiki trip to Europe. This was the trip that I added Monaco and Liechtenstein to my list of travelled countries.

    Day 1 – London

    Great flight. Heathrow went quite quickly. I thought that I had food poisoning on the flight as I was very gassy.

    Then I went to the Royal National dropped off my bags and then explored the city walked across Westminster Bridge seen the London Eye and Parliament. Then went to Canada Water to pick up a few items at the mall.

    Went back to the hotel & checked into my room. Then I met my roommate Probin from Regina, SK. Went to see Westminster and Buckingham Palace. Then back to the Royal National for the meetup and drinks at London Pub.

  • Deaf Difficulties (one of two: General Difficulties)

    This was written in the early 2000’s this segment was recorded over and I no longer have the video. It originally aired on Rogers Television on a news program called Focus NB.

    Lead: There are many disabilities faced by New Brunswickers. One of the most noticeable is cultural deafness. Our Reporter Charles Frees-Melvin brings us the difficulties faced by the Deaf in day-to-day life.

    Stand-up: Deafness is a condition faced by several hundred residents in this province. Many people are unaware of some of the difficulties faced by these people. Gerald Frazee stressed that the biggest concern is the need of interpreters to be present.

    Gerald: (48:47-48:59) 12 sec

    “Culturally I am deaf and a lot of what goes on in the world I perceive with my eyes, so probably the biggest concern for me would to make sure interpreters are present”

    VO: Mr. Frazee can’t stress enough the troubles he would faces trying to cope with day-to-day life without an interpreter.

    Gerald: (49:08-49:21) 13 sec

    “Oh, Gosh it’s chaos, the communication breaks down, writing back and forth isn’t adequate enough only having an interpreter there are we able to interpret adequately.”

    VO: Joanne Burke also agrees with the need for interpreters.

    Joanne: (49:24-49:55) 31 sec

    “Without the interpreter present I have to rely fully on my Children, and it’s not their responsibility they’re not professionally trained so we have to hire a professionally trained interpreter. and then we can communicate and make designs that we need. For us English is our second language, and not necessarily do we know it so by having the interpreter present, being able to communicate in our language of American sign language we have the confidence to make the decision we need to make.”

    VO: Another difficulty is the lack of Public Tele-Type devices so the deaf can make phone calls. Mike Clark definitely thinks that stores and malls should be equipped with these devices for their deaf patrons.

    Mike: (59:15-59:41) 26 sec

    “A lot of deaf people go into stores or into companies and they have absolutely no devices for us to make phone calls. We must have a teletypewriter. It is a device that deaf people use to make phone calls we need to make in public.”

    VO: (Insert Name) and (Insert Name) say they want to see devices installed so that they can become more independent. And that New Brunswick is far behind other provinces in meeting their needs.

    Group 3: (04:29-05:21) 52 sec.

    “In Ontario they have a lot of services for deaf individuals, flashing alarms for fire in public places, TTY to make calls. When they are in the public however in Saint John there is nothing isn’t anything like that for deaf people, no fire alarms, TTY, every time I have to go to the mall, I have to get a hearing person to make a call for me, but I want to be independent. I don’t want to have to rely on someone else.”

    Stand up: A special thanks to Interpreter Shelly Williams for assisting us with the interpretations. In Saint John, I’m Charles Frees-Melvin, for Focus NB.

  • Hartley Steeves Covered Bridge

    Hartley Steeves Covered Bridge

    Hartley Steeves Covered Bridge – Built 1923

    Weldon Creek #3 Bridge, built in 1923, is 18.3 metres long.

About

Covered bridge inspecting. Join me for my travel, things I enjoy, happenings in my community, or read about my battle with GBS.

Green Hosting Badge