Developing Albania

I haven't been to Albania since 2001 and while I don't have any immediate plans to return, I am glad to see they are slowly making progress in improving and developing the country (if you ignore the massive corruption problem).

They have recently been promoting tourism in Albania with a serious of ads on CNN and now I've seen this video. It was clearly made to promote tourism and investment but is interesting nonetheless.

I think F will be heading to Albania in a couple of months (his mother lives there alone) but I can't bring myself to go. Sitting in his mother's tiny apartment in a dead city where I don't speak the language is not my idea of a fun holiday.

Navigo en Ligne

Now that the Carte Orange is officially dead, I thought I'd apply for a Navigo pass. I don't actually need one because hardly ever leave my quartier, but you never know, I might get the urge one day to buy a weekly travel card and see the few remaining areas of Paris I've yet to visit.

So I go to www.ratp.fr and do a bit of searching until I find the right link. I sign up and then wait for my confirmation email with my password. This kind of thing normally takes a few seconds, right? Well, typically French slow 'service' extends to their crappy websites it seems.

A few hours later I get an email with my password. Great. So now I go to login but there is no link to the login page or their website in the email. Wtf??? So I have to go back to the ratp site which is a PITA to navigate and roughly a billion clicks later I'm at the login page.

French websites are fun!

Then I realise I don't have a decent photo of myself which I can use as an identity photo so I give up. Looks like I'll stick to getting a carnet...

A Week Away

I been wanting to travel around the north of France for a while now as I've never been anywhere north of Paris, unless you count catching the Eurostar to London.

So my plan was to visit Chantilly, Giverny, Mont St Michel etc. The plan was to go away for F's birthday so he had final say on where we were going. He wanted to head west and south. So much for my idea...

So... First stop Chartres. This is an easy day trip from Paris and it's been on my to do list for some time. Chartres has a huge cathedral, worth visiting if you like religious monuments. Cute city, stayed for lunch, next...

Heading west Le Mans is next. Nothing to see there. Up next, Angers. We only stopped here because I was bloody tired and it was late. Of course, all hotels in the city were fully booked except the most expensive one. No choice but to stay there. Angers actually has a few sites worth visiting including an amazing 13th century fortress. 

Tuesday was F's 40th birthday and we continued west to Nantes. Nantes is on of you typical middle sized French cities. Nice for a quick stroll, a few sites, and not much else.

La Rochelle is a small port city on the coast. I'd read that it was really pretty but I wouldn't know as it poured with rain the entire time I was there and I couldn't see anything.

Tried to get a hotel but everything was fully booked except the biggest dive in the city which was no doubt bug infested. I still have nightmares from the bug infested hell hole I stayed in at Republique 2 years ago, so that was out. We had a nice seafood dinner and then continued to the next town where we slept in a nice clean Ibis hotel.

I've been to Bordeaux a couple of times and while I've always liked it, I wanted to see something new so we headed to Toulouse. Toulouse looked exactly like Bordeaux except everything is in red brick. I would have loved to have spent some time there but all hotels were fully booked, except, of course, the 5 star super expensive Sofitel.

No one told me you have to book ahead when travelling in summer!

Has anyone ever been to Andorra? No, I didn't think so. I have! It's a PITA to get to, takes hours through the Pyrenees and then once you get there you see a pretty little village/city with happy looking, quiet, Spanish speaking people.

Thankfully Spain is only 15mins or so from Andorra. We headed to Barcelona and managed to stumble upon the same hotel we stayed at last time. Was it fully booked? No! We got the last room. Lucky at last.

So, 3 nights in Barcelona eating loads and loads of tapas, drinking unbelievable quantities of cheap Spanish wine, and shopping, shopping, shopping, and I was happy.

What I learnt from this quick trip:

1. Andorrans speak Spanish.
2. I'm a city girl and visiting small country towns is bloody boring.
3. Patate Bravas is the BEST TAPAS EVER.

May

I just noticed I didn't post at all in May. Wow, I've lost track of time to the point where I missed an entire month. What did I do last month?

Aside from working my arse off creating 5 new websites and spending $400 on a PPC marketing campaign which earnt me $10, I've been out and about in Paris.

I went to the RTL Disco Show with Leesa and Alex which was a lot of fun. I loved seeing the one hit wonders from the 70s as well as Boney M and The Village People (2 hit wonders???). I never imagined ever seeing any of those people play live, it was great.

Of course I went to see Sex and The City (also with Leesa). Who hasn't? I did enjoy it but it was too long and the story line was kinda stupid. I mean, they can't have had much of a relationship if he couldn't mention his concerns about getting married. It was him who brought up the marriage thing anyway. I know, it's only a movie...

I saw Francaise. Now this movie is worth seeing. I first saw Hafsia Herzi in La Graine et le Mullet late last year. I really enjoyed that movie and she was the highlight. As soon as I saw she was in Francaise, I couldn't wait to see it. She is a fantastic actress and was great in Francaise where she plays a French born Moroccan girl who struggles with her life in Morocco after having grown up in France. Check it out if you get the chance.

I must have done some other exciting stuff last month too. No doubt about it because I live a pretty exciting life. I just can't quite recall what else I got up to.

The Big 4-0

In 2 days time I'm going to be married to a 40 year old. 40!!! That's old!!!

Yeah, I know I'll be an old fart one day too but I've still got 6 years to go to get to that point. I'd better enjoy them because 40 is most definitely over the hill!!!

So to celebrate this milestone, I've hired a car and we're going to drive around Europe for a week. Being the great planner I am, I have no idea where we're going to go - somewhere in Europe.

Maybe I'll just get on the peripherique and keep going round until I can't stand it any more and then head off in any direction I find myself.

Should be fun for me and my old man...