Tag: Single Mom Travel

Christmas in Paris: A Dream Come True (Part 2: The Louvre)

Our visit to Paris, though short, was magical. There were several places we wanted to visit, and were determined to make this a reality. Three nights and four days? No problem!

The Louvre Museum

Since the Louvre would be closed on Christmas day as well as the day after, we knew that we would have to go on Christmas Eve.  We didn’t have to wait long to get inside, and there was no line at all to get tickets. Children get in free, so I only had to purchase one ticket!

The Louvre originally opened on August 10, 1793 and at the time only housed 537 paintings. The Louvre Museum is now said to be the largest art museum in the world and has approximately 38,000 exhibits. It is said that even if someone were to go to the Louvre for 100 days straight, and only look at each exhibit for 30 seconds, that you still wouldn’t be able to see everything that this incredible place has to offer.  Knowing this, I made a plan.

Our Map and Plan

After we got our tickets, I looked at the map, and we made a B-line to the The Mona Lisa exhibit. This is easily one of the most famous paintings in the world, and I knew I wanted to see the original and relish in the work. There was a guard at the foot of the steps and we weren’t allowed to go up. We were told that they were taking extra precautions because of an “unattended bag.” (I am learning very quickly that the United States isn’t the only country to take extra security precautions.)

At first, I was a bit disheartened, but we tried to find another way around. The entry way eventually opened up, and we were able to find The Mona Lisa. There was a crowd of people, but I took Scarlett’s hand and we gently maneuvered ourselves around the side and up to the front. I wasn’t going to leave without getting a decent photo.

 

 

I have to say that The Mona Lisa has never been one of my favorite paintings. However, there is something surreal and magical about seeing such a notorious work of art up close. The original is actually much more beautiful than any of the reprints I have seen, as they don’t do the painting justice.

My heart did that fluttering thing it always does whenever I see something majestic, or meet someone interesting. I couldn’t help but marvel at the fact that Leonardo da Vinci painted this with his own two hands! It was the same feeling I got when I was 20 years old and shook former President Bill Clinton’s hand. At first, I just wanted to meet him because he was the president; I wasn’t expecting to feel anything but a normal nice to meet you feeling. When it hit me that I was shaking the most powerful man in America’s hand, my stomach got butterflies. But, I digress. I relished in the fact that we had a wonderful view of The Mona Lisa and then I moved to the side in order to give others a better view. I now have another thing to check off of my bucket list. 🙂

This place is massive!

After perusing more exhibits, we realized that we couldn’t find our map, and were lost in a labyrinth of Greek sculptures. My bladder was not happy, and when we finally found one of the exhibit employees, he didn’t seem to find my dry American humor about being lost in a labyrinth of Greek artwork humorous. Oh well. I’m not here to make him laugh. Seriously though, at one point I thought we were going to run into David Bowie’s ghost and he was going to show us our dreams.

One of my favorite sculptures of Hercules

 

 

This statue of the Sphinxes reminded us of The Neverending Story (I’m not quite sure why the Greek exhibits kept reminding us of 80’s fantasy movies)

After we found our way to the restroom, we looked around a bit more. After three and a half hours, we were exhausted, and we still didn’t make a dent! On our next visit, we will check out a different area that we didn’t get to. In the meantime, here are a few more photos for your enjoyment.

 

To skip the line or not

If you ever get the chance to visit the Louvre in the winter, the skip the line pass will most likely be unnecessary. I did some research, and several people said that the lines aren’t that long in the winter, so I opted to save the extra money. Don’t get me wrong, the museum was crowded, but from what I understand, not nearly as crowded as it can be. I imagine that if you choose to visit Paris and the Louvre in the spring or summer, the skip the line tickets would be a good investment. Either way, you should try to get there at least once in your life.

 

How to Embrace the Holidays While Living Abroad

Christmas is my favorite holiday, and I love virtually everything about it.

I love the constant holiday music that can be heard at most retailers, and the vast array of decorations and lights that can be seen as soon as you step out on your front door and into your car. I never seem to tire of it. As soon as Thanksgiving day arrives, this marks the beginning of the Christmas season for me and my family. Some years we put the tree up Thanksgiving night, but we always aim to have our decorations put up by December 1st. This has been my experience pretty much every year except for this one.

Christmas in a different culture

I knew that the traditions would be different while abroad, but I wasn’t expecting to miss the Christmas traditions in America as much as I have these past few days. After all, I wanted to experience the different cultures of Europe, and get away from some of the commercialism that has taken hold of Christmas.

What can you do to get in the Christmas spirit when living overseas?

In order to combat some of those homesick feelings for Christmas, Scarlett and I decided to visit one of the famous Christmas markets in Madrid at Plaza de Mayor.

As you can see, the market opened a couple of days prior to the advertised November 27th date. There were already several people looking around at the Christmas ornaments, nativity scenes, and array of Christmas hats and gag gifts that were for sale in the red Christmas themed shops that have been set up for the season.

   

Watching favorite Christmas movies

Another way we have tried to keep our traditions somewhat normal is by watching a couple of Christmas favorites on Netflix and Amazon. Isn’t technology great?

 

The best thing to do is to embrace the experience and opportunity you have and immerse yourself in a wonderful new experience of colors, language and food. 

Aside from maintaining a certain familiarity with your normal traditions, venturing out to see how other cultures experience the holiday season is the best way to get involved. It is easy to get sucked into the gloom of being homesick and apart from what you are normally accustomed to, especially during the holidays. The best thing to do is to embrace the experience and opportunity that you have and immerse yourself in a wonderful new experience of colors, language and food. Tis the season!

Christmas lights on the streets of Madrid, Spain

 

 

 

 

Visit to Buen Retiro Park and Mercado San Miguel

Here is a video of our recent visit to Retiro Park and the San Miguel Market in Madrid. We decided to venture out a bit more on this Saturday afternoon.

The weather was wonderful, and everything was free! Let me correct that. Everything was free except for the the four macarons we purchased from the market. 😉

 

http://https://youtu.be/vozOo9IwnDk

Nice to Meet You!

Hello: My name is Amie, and it is my hope that my experiences will not only entertain in some fashion, but will also serve to compel those who may feel stuck in some way to realize that it is possible to live life and be happy. My daughter and I will be moving to Madrid, Spain in a few weeks, and it has been a stressful and exciting process, but one that I hope to share with you.

A Little Family Background: I have three children, two that are now legal adults, and one that is always by my side.  My relationship with my daughter, age 12, is synonymous to that of Rory and Lorelai Gilmore of “The Gilmore Girls.” Honestly, that is usually the best similarity I can come up with when it comes to describing our mother/daughter bond.

As many before me have done, I got pregnant at 19, married to my son’s father at 20, got pregnant with his brother three years later, had our baby girl six years after that, had a whole lot happen in between, and got divorced in 2010 after 13 years of marriage.  Whew! Say that ten times! Without going into too much detail in my intro blog, let me just say that it was my choice, and it was something that needed to occur. My ex and I are completely opposite people, with opposite views on virtually everything under the sun. With that being said, our working relationship regarding the legalities and custody arrangement of the children has always been stellar for the most part, and I consider myself very fortunate.

Work and School: I went to college later in life and graduated in 2013 with my Bachelor’s degree in journalism. Thinking that since I free-lanced for a couple of news publications and a foodie magazine in Austin, TX before graduation, plus reporting for the criminal courts in Middle Tenn., I just “knew” I was going to get flooded with job offers. Flash forward to today, and well, here I am, and I am still not reporting for a newspaper on my way to winning a Pulitzer!

After graduating, I worked for the State of Tennessee for almost a year, then took a job working from home as a customer service agent, and within that year and a half got a promotion as an escalations supervisor. I decided to apply to law school as this is something I had been working towards for a while now after having taken the LSAT a couple of years before. I got accepted, and went for a year, but the tuition got the best of me, and student loans weren’t an option this time around. During one of my summer breaks, I took a job at a law office that did eviction law, and that was hands down one of the most awful jobs that I have ever had. I thought that having a job at any law office would be great experience, but I was sadly mistaken. That wasn’t the type of law I wanted to practice at all. I wanted to be a criminal defense attorney, and after leaving that job, I started thinking long and hard about how I wanted to spend the rest of my life.

Embracing My Free-Spirited Nature: My first instinct as I was looking for another place of employment was to start packing and put our belongings in storage when our lease was up so that we can move to Europe. However, after doing more research I soon found out that you need a visa and can’t just move to Europe without a plan.

The light bulbs began flashing as a more realistic approach to traveling on a budget began to take form in my thought process. How do I obtain an ESL teaching certificate? There are several ways, and I opted to try the online course. I will go into this more later, and explain the pros and cons of both, but so far it has been positive and I was even offered a teaching position in Vietnam but I turned it down. My heart and spirit have been yearning to visit to Europe, but it is much harder to get a job in Europe if you aren’t an EU citizen.

I was, however, able to find out how to apply to become a teaching assistant in Spain. My next few posts will delve into the application process and interview as well as all of the excitement and stress of this process of moving to Madrid.

Stay tuned for our crazy, non-traditional lifestyle!