Prologue - Paris 2004

And so at 5:00 a.m. on Friday, 5 November 2004, I woke up at the sound of the alarm clock but as Aidan woke up too and wanted milk I had to wait before I start preparing myself. I took the opportunity to catnap for a few seconds but then peeping at the clock it was all of a sudden 5:20 and it was rush rush rush! Our plane was 6:50 and we have to be in the airport by 6:20. S**t! why did I ever close my eyes??? Well, by 6:05 we were out of the house and by 6:25 we were at the airport. The flight attendant was even scolding us saying we were already late and they were boarding! Waaahhh! Wait for us!!! We quickly gave our bags but Aidan’s caddy had to be deposited in another counter… Yikes! So run at this corner then rushing at the gate, there were so many people! The lady looked at our ticket and said, “You’re on the wrong gate, you have to go further…” We were sprinting in Cologne-Bonn Airport and by the time we were in front of our gate, I was sweating like a pig! With a wool pullover for the winter, of course I’ll be. The only one who’s not stressed is Aidan who’s enjoying the variety of people and place he’s seeing. Then ofcourse Germanwings does not have seat reservations and being late, almost all the good seats were gone. But luckily we found 2 aisle seats beside each other. I took this time to breathe a bit and say OK we made it! What a way to start the day!

By quarter to eight, we were in Paris but I wasn’t sure if someone was picking us up… but a bit later, a Pinay-looking lady approached and it was our “sundo”, Ate C. and away we go to the hotel near Place de la République. As we came early, we had to wait until 12:00 and seeing that we were gonna manage, our sundo left us. To kill the time, we just went to get some breakfast Paris-style. We ordered a full breakfast meal with coffee, but instead I get an espresso. Geez, I forgot to say American coffee or grand tasse de café. Well, well, always new things to learn everyday. My husband felt bitin with the caffeine dose and the brew too strong so we ordered additional cappucino. The café was your typical Paris décor with ornate details and a mix-match of both old and new things. I could actually imagine people on the early 1990’s having their coffee on the same exact spot except for the fact that there was a huge modern-day coffee machine and a huge TV with Euronews flashing.

After breakfast, we went strolling around the area and it was really very busy. It made me realize how I’ve become a small-town girl. I’m not used to the hussle and bustle anymore. But then, Paris is Paris and no matter how you’d like to express it, it has energy and identity of its own that sort of seeps into your being and energizes you and I just felt excited by it somehow. Also, I had to blink once or twice coz I see and hear people speak French and I can understand what they were saying. I realized that in Germany, I got so used to meeting people on the road and not understand their conversation that I just sort of automatically block my ear to what they were saying. It was nice, I felt some sort of tension disappear as I enjoy the crisp, sunny Parisian morning.

By around 12, we went back to the hotel and when we finally settled on our hotel room, we realized how that flight was so early and my boys just succombed to the charms of the bed and slept. I was also tired but only dozed a bit, waking up from time to time, anxious not to lose the day to visit the city but just too tired to imagine preparing ourselves for the walk. By the time we were able to get up, it was 6 pm and we just decided to visit Champs Elysée for some window-shopping. It was dark when we went out and then the main hassle started… the Metro… the entrance door is just too narrow for the caddy so we have to remove the baby, fold the caddy, pass through the electronic doors, then open it up again and put the baby back in who is already happy to be out of the thing and was not happy being put back again… imagine going down to the bottom of Paris’ catacomb carrying a caddy together with the baby and your shopping bags! Total nightmare! Yup, talk about pumping my biceps! Again I realized how used I am in Bonn where there are some escalators and elevators to make my life easier. And how I’m so used to pampers-changing rooms, which is totally non-existant in the City of Lights… Even the baby-stores do not have one. Oh mi oh my, give me C&A in Bonn please!!! We didn’t have a choice but to change the baby in McDonalds coz there were just no other place to do it. Luckily, my hubby found a quiet corner and plunged into “Operation Pampers Wechseln”. Afterwards, we were just chilling (as in practically chilling kasi malamig…) walking around Champs-Elysée. We saw Eiffel Tower from a distance with its blinking lights. It was great but we were already too tired to walk further so down we went to the bowels of Paris to get a ride from the Metro homewards or should I say hotelwards…