Posted on by Blainey's Blog

A Change of Luck

For me the charm of Europe has a lot to do with the preservation of it’s history. Where else can you drive over a 300 years old bridge,  walk down cobblestone street paved with rocks collected and set by the workers of centuries past or lodge in a building older than the country of your birth? It is very hard not to walk down the streets of Europe and miss the bits and pieces of the cultural legacy left by generations past.

I have always had an affinity towards old buildings. Back home in New York City my favorite neighborhoods in which to walk are not the contemporary well lit ones such as Time Square, but the ones were the facades haven’t been altered in favor of a more modern look.  So I love walking down some of the forgotten streets of lower Manhattan that still maintain their old world charm. Read more

Posted on by Blainey's Blog

Paris without French

Paris July 2015

For some reason the only country on my itinerary that I was a bit skeptical about coming to was France. There was some irony in this because it was also the country that I wanted to visit the most.

For as long as I could remember my mother gushed on and on about France. Even before she first stepped foot on French soil she was a Francophile. She read books about France, took French language courses and was a Juila Child fan who owned her own copy of the Joy of French Cooking. When we were kids my sisters and I thought our mother’s obsession was pretty hilarious and we would often tease and laugh at her. The thing was, my mother’s passionate about all things French was infectious. So, how could I have grown up in that household and not want to visit the country that placed my mother under its spell? Read more

Posted on by Blainey's Blog

Writing From the Toilet

  This is not a real post. Or at least not the post I I intended. It is more like an update since I have been missing in action for over 48 hours. I arrived safely in Paris on Thursday as planned. After putting the finishing touches on my post “Kayaking While Channeling Nicole” I was both physically and emotionally exhausted, so I took a little break from posting (I say posting and not writing because I am always writing something most of which I do not post) to explore Paris.

Yesterday I was out and about early determined to beat the lines at the Eiffel Tower (you will read more about that later). I spent the rest of the day sightseeing and walking the street of Paris. At the end of the day I was tired, but I was determined to post. That was the plan until…. Read more