Tag Archives: wanderlust

a hell of a town…

I left New York for a few days, which I love to do because I have severe wanderlust. When I said I was from New York (City), it was an event. Most people want to visit New York…and I am always trying to escape.
New York is the kind of place that makes you want to travel. Since every culture is represented, you can have a conversation with someone from another country and learn about it. It was in a Starbuck’s with a luscious view of the Empire State Building, that I met a gorgeous Ethiopian woman. As a foodie, I had to ask her about the cuisine there. She told me to order the doro wat in an Ethiopian restaurant, which she said was eaten for special occasions.
Traveling dwarfed New York a bit for me. There is an entire world out there and though a lot of it is represented in New York, it is not all here. It is my mission to seek it out.
Savannah where I wrote this post on its waterfront, is nothing like New York. The Savannahians responded to me nicely, and very proud of their city. Some thought I expected more as a New Yorker, because Savannah is not a “big” city. My response was that I loved the calm, and the smaller size. Since it would have been cool and raining in New York, the heat there was refreshing. The smaller size is nice for a person like me who has wanderlust, but no sense of direction. Honestly my New York life was, and will continue to be so fast-paced, I was more than happy for the break…
The irony of my severe wanderlust, is that I saw Rockefeller Center on weekend Today as I was getting ready for the day and thought that is where I live. My favorite restaurant near my hotel, reminded me of a place in Brooklyn I love. Home is home, it is inside you. I could live somewhere else–I know a few places offhand!–but I will never lose New York…it’s a hell of a town as the song says!

photo taken by f dot leonora from her plane before landing in new york city

Paris

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New York is the perfect city to live in if you are going to travel the world, it is incomparable to any place else that I have been. I feel proud and happy when it is my destination after a trip somewhere. My love for New York was completely full and undivided…

…until I went to Paris.

I wanted to go to Paris since I was a little girl, doesn’t everyone? I wanted to go, was always planning for the potential trip and finally I went last year after Eroticon 2013. London was another desired destination, but there was no way I was going to be that close to Paris and not go! After the conference, I hurried to bed for an early train to take me to Paris. In my taxi from Gare Nord, with my charming driver who knew very little English, my eyes were so wide. I kept expecting to hear accordions in the background (when I did on a train I would have tipped the accordionist if I had change).

I was afraid to go to Paris in a way, because I was so in love with it already I was afraid the reality could not live up to that sentiment. The first thing I discovered was that it is a real city, not a museum. People live there, and I tried to be very respectful of that even though I was gawking at everything I saw. Paris is smaller than New York City. As weird as it sounds as a native New Yorker, I hate crowds. I cannot imagine living in a very small town, but sometimes New York is overwhelming. Paris meanwhile is not empty, but you can walk down a street by yourself and hear yourself as well.

On every corner there was a cafe, restaurant, chocolate store or art museum. The things I live for…Sadly there are a lot of bookstores too, but my French is very light. I know how to say perfunctory things, but cannot elaborate the way I do well…here!

I stayed at the same hotel for two separate trips to Paris, and I am planning to stay there for the third trip as well. I love the arrondissement where I have stayed, which is bad-mouthed in all of the guidebooks and good! I want it to stay that way. I have barely eaten outside of the neighborhood, and the last time made friends with the bartenders who served me free snacks. There is a cheese store across the street from the hotel, and I still dream of the cheese I bought there…

Paris is for me a lovely place to exist and be hidden at the same time. As a visitor who is not fluent in the language, I am not an active part of the scene so I can be a voyeur. I enjoy it intensely because Paris is beautiful. On my second trip, I started to see how I could walk from place to place instead of taking the Metro. I started to feel like I was getting the hang of things.

Of course, the erotica editor and writer in me had to go to the Musee de l’Erotisme. I went to Pigalle on a rainy Saturday, down the block from the museum is the Moulin Rouge–with Starbucks across the street! You are not allowed to take pictures there, but my best memory was on the third floor I think, with a wall that told the history of prostitution in Paris. I walked that whole floor so intrigued, reading everything that was written.

Someone asked me why was I going to Paris again, and I answered because it is Paris! I was incredulous that a person could ask such a thing. The only thing about Paris that is a challenge for me is the language barrier, but someday it will not be a barrier either. I am a communicator, I cannot let it be a barrier…