Torontonians heads to Paris – 2012 – Part 4

As per my readers request, I finally made few collages for the foods we tried in Paris and Brussels trip and would like to share with you all. All these pictures were taken by my Iphone 4S and then uploaded to Picasa and made a collage of 8-12 pictures at a time, so we could see clearly what we ate.

Food Collage 1

I have to admit, food in France is amazing especially other cultural foods. As you guys know, I am very picky with food but overall I had mind blowing foods, may it be soup or dessert. Most of the time, we ate at cafe’s, and we tried 3 high end restaurants and maybe 3 mom/pops restaurants – and all of them were awesome.

 

Food Collage 2

I would rate food in France/Belguim 9 out of 10; the reason is, I disliked their tea and coffee, so I used to have Cafe au lait or mocha instead, but I missed my tea from starbucks/timmys for a while.

Food Collage 3

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Torontonians heads to Paris – 2012 – Part 3

Before I move on to the next part of where I went, I would like to share what are the 10 things I remembered from my trip.

10 things about Paris…

1. COINS – They tend to have lots of coins, definitely beat the Canadians on this one. Check the picture below, they have 0.01, 0.02, 0.05, 0.10, 0.50, 1.00, 2.00.
2. WASHROOMS – they have washrooms at intersections and their cost of use is 1.00 Euro, and restaurants charge anywhere between .50 to 1 Euro to use their washroom if you are not dining. The funny thing was when we got to the Grand Central in Belgium, we had to go the washroom, it was 1.00 Euro and it had a change machine right beside the washroom lol.
3. SMELL – I never thought I would say this, but Paris stinks like diesel or burnt tobacco; at first I thought maybe I am not feeling well but my hubby mentioned it too.
4. FRENCH – I love when people speak French, since we were in the tourist area we did not really need to speak in French, everyone could understand and speak English especially at the Museums and bus stops, so if you speak English, you will be fine. Even the restaurants had two menus, one in French and one in English.
5. LOUVRE – TIP: first Sunday of every month is free, you don’t have to buy the tickets. The wait was about 20 minutes and you really need a day to complete 50% of the worlds largest museum.
6. SHOPPING BAGS – you have to purchase them, they are 0.06 Euro each.
7. STREET NAMES – not located on poles but on the building close to that intersection.
8. STARBUCKS – taste is very weak, and definitely not fond of the coffee or teas in Paris. I definitely missed Toronto Starbucks.
9. FOOD – is truly really tasty in Paris whether it be Italian or French cuisine. The things I will never EVER forget are Croissant and Macarons, trust me when I say this, they are the best thing ever.
10. SHOPPING (expensive for moi) – I did not do a lot of shopping there because I thought things were more expensive there i.e., H&M, Marks & Spencer, LV, so if something cost 20 Euros, I could get the same for $20 here and/or 1-2 bucks cheaper. So why not buy here? For example, my starbucks tea cost me $3.20 and the same tea cost me 3.20 Euros, wierd eh!

Stay tuned for part 4!

Sick during a vacation

“Ahhh I am sick and vacation is about to start…” – that is the worst thing that can happen to you. Trust me when I say this, IT CAN HAPPEN!

I got sick the day I was leaving from Toronto to Paris (the romantic city), and my throat was killing me, I was feeling down, nose was stuffed and coughing had begun. So I decided to go to the Pharmacy for help, where they told me that I am coming down with a flu (hence the symptoms , and it was true. They suggested taking Advil (every 4 hours) and Ricola or Halls for coughing, but when I got to work my best friend suggested getting something that has antihistamine so it will put me to sleep in the plane instead of making other people miserable on the plane.

I was desperate so I got Tylenol Day and night cold/flu tablets and strepsols, and I must say those were the best thing ever. I was up and better in two days. Plus I drank soup whenever I was hungry and nothing else and it seriously worked wonders for me. Also, don’t eat JUNK food, stay away from anything that is high in sugar and THINK POSITIVE!!!

TIP: Pearson Airports duty free shops do not sell drowsy medications since I wanted a drowsy gravel just in case or drowsy allergy meds but they do not sell it. Be prepared!

Have a great Weekend everyone!

Torontonians heads to Paris – 2012 – Part 2

Part 2 Continues…

We arrived at the airport, picked up our luggage and headed towards the Metro but it was not working due to some technical issues so we took the bus to Opera (it runs every 15 mins and I believe every 30 mins over the weekend); if you cant find it ask around because the station is busy like Bloor and Dundas for Torontonians. The cost for the bus trip was 10 Euros each and we arrived at Opera in 35 minutes, there was so much traffic and since we didn’t get seats, we were standing the whole time. We were alittle tired so we decided to take a cab from the Opera station which cost us 12 Euros (this includes 2 Euro because of our luggage, the driver had picked up our two suitcases and dropped it in the trunk and took it out at the end lol).

TIP: They charge for everything so ASK if you have questions i.e., when the cab dropped us back to the airport at the end of our vacation, their meter started at 12.40 Euros (instead of 2.40 Euros, so they charged us 64 Euros in total, even though I think it should have been 54 Euros. I believe the reason for that is, since we ordered a night before, it probably started its meter when it heard from their boss to come pick us up, so the whole way gets charged, weird but maybe true.

Back to Day 1 in Paris, we arrived at our Apartment and the Property Manager was there and spoke English very well, he helped us with our luggage, showed us around and told us he will be back the last day (of our vacation) to check out the apartment and grab his keys. Our apartment was located at Villa de Segur street and our balcony could see half of the EiffelTower, how romantic!

TIP: The street names are not hanged over lamp posts or poles, it is glued to the building closest to the street; the first two days our minds would not understand why a street would not have a name but we realized after they were glued to the buildings.

Capturing pictures from the cab

Capturing pictures from the cab

Oh by the way, I was sick the day I left for Paris, for that I will write another blog since this blog is all about my vacation to Paris, so stay tuned!

Torontonians travel to Paris – 2012 – Part 1

Note: ‘Torontonians travel to Paris’ will be about my trip in details, so if you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you guys.

As I mentioned earlier, I was on vacation the second week of October; we went for 9 days which included 6 days in Paris, 2 days in Brussels and 1 day of travelling. We took Air Canada direct flight to Paris on a Friday evening, and arrived there in 7.5 hours, during Paris’ breakfast time. I loved the fact we arrived in the morning.

We had two suitcases in total, Air Canada allows one suitcase per person, but an additional suitcase would cost about $100 (Canadian). I believe we were allowed 50 lbs per suitcase and we were way below that. Let’s talk about the flight, I am surprised but we had a great time in the flight and the crew was really nice. I had picked the vegetarian meal (it consisted of a cookie, bean type salad, rice with lentils and a bun with butter), and even though I was full, they came over to ask me if I was still hungry and I asked if I could get a brownie because everyone was eating one, so she did brought me one at the end, so sweet, thanks!.

What else? They had new and amazing movies, dramas on their system (even international ones), and we came across 15 minutes of turbulence in total but we were always informed by the pilot, since we were crossing Iceland and the weather was not great. The point is, Boeing 880 coming and going flight to Paris (CDG Airport) was excellent.

TIP: When you do not have lot of time off, try to get a direct flight to your destination (if available), it saves time and your energy.

Stay tune for my itenerary and much more!

An aquarium with small boxes instead of fishes located at the Pearson Airport

Steps to book a Vacation (Part 2)

Step 6: Now write down all the countries you want to visit and make four columns beside them:

1. Countries you want to go to?
2. How long is the flight?
3. Approximate cost of the flight?
4. Is it safe to go there?
5. What is the weather like?

I know these questions are so simple but they do matter.

Step 7: Thinking about the questions above, pick a place where it will have less or no rain and more sun, depending on your choice. Keep in mind, weather channels/websites are not always accurate, so try 3-4 different websites for weather update, and don’t get disappointed if it does not turn out the way you wanted. Also, check out if it’s safe to go there (i.e., the government websites), and the approximate time to get there (Google it), if its too long, are you willing to spend 2 days (or more) in travelling?

Step 8: Also, check which flights leave on your first day of vacation and lets you come back on your last day of vacation because it’s important to make use of all your vacation days unless you really need to stay here to complete something.

Step 9: Another focus is the budget, you also need to know how much you are willing to spend on this trip including everything, always take money out for food and miscellaneous items bought at your vacation spot (i.e., souvenirs) and then see what your left over is for flights and hotel.

Step 10: BRAINSTORM and more brainstorm, you have all your research done and now cut down your list as per your priorities.

So after our brainstorming, we picked (drum roll please) Paris, romantic/relaxed with a bit of adventurous, it was hard to pick one so we decided to pick two that are close to each other, the second country is Belgium — our brainstorm is now complete phew!

So here are the 10 steps for picking a vacation spot, hope this helps you guys. If you have any questions and comments let me know. I will update soon in regards to my vacation.

Steps to book a Vacation (Part 1)

Thinking about booking a vacation but dont know where to begin, then this article is for you!

My husband and I have been planning to go somewhere for a while but it’s been so hard since we have a lot going on. I might have said it 100 times but trust me we have a lot going on, the last big trip was to Cuba in June and a small trip to Quebec in November. This year we did not do anything and it’s already been a year from our last trip, well almost a year.

Now that we are bit less busy with our work and lives, we have decided to plan for our vacation. I love the whole process of picking and planning. In my opinion, everyone should take a vacation every year to get energetic and refreshed, because when you have kids, it gets harder and more expensive, so why not enjoy the days when you don’t have additional responsibilities.

Step 1: Check your calendar for the weeks you are free, which means the weeks you have no important prior commitments i.e., cousin or best friends weddings, big birthdays, baby shower etc. Now that you have picked some weeks out, move on to my next step.

Step 2: Check with your boss in terms of your vacation and as to how many days you can take off i.e., 1 week, 2 weeks or more. In my case, I have 5 business days of vacation left.

Step 3: Decide when you can take off from work i.e., if there are any holidays that take place in your vacation period, so you save 1 business day or you can make your vacation longer or take less vacation days off from work.

In my example, I picked second week of October, where October 8^th is a thanksgiving weekend, which means I only have to take 4 business days off, and I get total of 9 days of vacation including weekends.

Step 4: Now ask yourself what type of vacation you are looking for, do you want a relaxed or an adventurous trip? If you have been working hard for the year then I assume you will need a relaxed vacation where you don’t t have to cook or clean and relax on the beach and read a book. This is an important step.

We have one relaxed vacation every year to calm us down lol; but this time, I want both so we have decided to pick a place where we can do both.

Step 5: If you pick a relaxed vacation, I would definitely prefer the Caribbean islands with all-inclusive deals, because it’s so much easier and plan any excursion when you get there as they have tons of them. Plus, the research consists of the place you are going and the resort you are picking. Keep in mind; there are so many external websites that can provide you reviews for that specific place and resort. One of my favorite website is the trip advisor, definitely very USEFUL!

Before I move on to my next step of this process, I would like to share the resorts I have been to in the islands.

1. Mayan Riviera, Mexico – Excellence Resorts
2. Punta Cana, Dominican Republic – Majestic Elegance
3. Cayo Coco, Cuba – Melia Cayo Coco

They are all five stars in the Sunwing book, which I picked up from the flight centre and they had great reviews on the Trip advisor. I would definitely recommend them, and trust me I am picky.

Stay tuned for the last five steps.