Le Refuge des Fondus à Paris

Last nite I discovered a very fun restaurant in Montmatre, right by the metro Abbesses. Cheap food, loud/familiar/young ambiance, Le Refuge des Fondus offers only 1 menu for 17 euros. You start with a tray of starters (olives,potatoes,peppers,cheese,ham etc) and later continue with a meet or cheese fondue. For 2 extra euros you can get a dessert ( a lemon icecream goes perfect after having eaten an entire cheese fondue). And you even get a small alcoholic drink with your startes. What differentiates this restaurant from others is that your wine be it red or white is served in "baby bottles". The place is small and has space for only two large tables of around 20 people each. So to get to the other side of the table you have no option than to jump over the table. Definately recommendable to go with a group, relax and have fun.

17, rue des 3 Frères 75018 Paris

Tel.0142552265

Today I have painted the eye of my Daruma. Daruma are japanese dolls, which serve as a sign of determination. In fact you make a wish and you fill the right eye of the doll. Once the wish is accomplished you fill in the left eye of the doll. You can buy them in various sizes although they tend to be red, but ive seen white ones too. Technically you buy them in a temple and then you can bring it to be burned in the temple once your wish has been fullfilled. Mine is from Kyoto, bought it last summer. So, I guess now that not only my wish must be fullfilled but I will also have to go back to Japan. Hoping that within a while I can fill the other eye of my precious Kyoto Daruma.

What to do on a Saturday morning with a sunny sky?
First sleep in till late :-)
Have a nice breakfast and go for a walk. I took my camera to see if I could get some nice shoots, but at the end I only ended up with 10 which werent even that great. Sacré-Coeur, I like the place, you get a view of the city. But, what can I say? I stood there remembering the view of Prague from the Prague Castle, and i think that the view of Prague just cant be beated. Prague has magic in its streets and from the views of the "eiffel tower" (Petrin tower) and the Castle, which cant really be beated by the Sacré-Coeur. Also the tourists at Sacré-Coeur drove me nuts. It had been a while since I hadnt mingled through all those cameras, kids running and maps (although I was caring one myself, but well hidden). Shouts "mira que bonito" " siamo a parigi" " gehen wir" " mooi...leuuk" enough! I took the funicular to which I had access with my orange card (monthly train ticket) and went down the hill. I wonder why they put that funicular, afterall its such a short ride. I guess in case you got leg problems. The funicular was packed with dutch people. Felt good to actaully understand what they were saying, and I wondered if they missed their bikes :D It made me want to get the Thalys and get off at Den Haag HS, afterall I see the thalys everymorning when I pass with the metro by Paris Noord.
So, its time for a change. Ive been told this for the past 22 years, well maybe for the last 13 years... "you have to do some sport" and although I have taken action lots of time, i really hadnt in the past years. The situation is getting a bit out of hand with doctors telling me " its obvious you havent done any sport" and with my neck and back hurting too much. So I went and signed up to the gym. Its going to be hard to keep up with it, i know myself too well. Not only do I not like the gym but I dont like to do sport. ISP Volleyball was probably the highest point in my sport carrer, our tournament in Vienna to which we lost, but the trainings were still fun cuz we had our banana power and the best setters in the team :-) How im meant to keep up with the gym I sitll dont know. It will be a matter of relating it to the trip, I need to loose 20kg if I want to go on my trip. That should be the goal! :-)

What do YOU do on the weekends?

BARCELONA

I és que just estava pensant que volia ficar una foto d aquesta nit i d aquests tres personatges...sobretot de la senyora Itxotien o com se suposi que es diu hehehehe perque em va fer gracia coneixela. Doncs, vaig al pq_vull i em trobo la foto! Doncs mira "copiar"...."pegar" Com és que sempre que vinc a BCN em presenteu a nous individus??? Aquest cop però n hi van haver hi molts, nuria, geo, i Genis!! Ja sabeu que podeu comptar amb mi, encara que sigui per obrir portes a les 4 de la matinada :P

Time Flew - Good bye HEC

I have had this blog abandoned for too long! Too Too long... I left it on my way to Australia for Xmas...

--Had an amazing time in Sydney!
--Then came the trip back to Paris!
--Interviews and more interviews!
--The end of studies at HEC!
--Leaving my room in the HEC residence!
--The finding of an internship!
--The hectic search for an appartment!
--Two trips to Spain!

All this happened in 8 weeks, not to say the less quite a stressfull time! To which I could have dedicated a 10 page explanation of the cause of stress and its moments, but well, I completely forgot I even owned this blog! As you see im a true journalist....

But now, im fully installed in my new little 11m2 studio in Paris, working on the week but enjoying my weekends in the city and trying to discover this city more and more. And ladies and gentlemen I got an idea, im going to go on a trip!! To reply to what one of you has told me "you have seen it all" NO I HAVENT! I still havent been to the african continent, I still have a lot of countries in Asia that I want to see, there is still that part of me that wants to take the transiberian train, I still want to go to RapaNui(easter island) .... so the truth is that while I will live the moment in Paris I have decided to start planning a trip. A trip that will take place once I have graduated from university. Hopefully march 2009, in the worst case june 2009. The planned itinerary for now would be Paris-Buenos Aires-Easter Island-Sydney-South of India-Nepal-Tibet-Bhutan-Burma-Inner China (yunnan province)- back to Europe by transiberian... but god knows, this is nothing more than a rough itineary. And for now im all on my own, so if anybody wants to join you are more than welcome...Dates are also unsettled but the plan would be to start in April 2009 and the return date to be no early than September 2009, maybe October. Who knows! Just wait for me to do a bit of research and you will soon be seeing more names in that list :D So here beggins another adventure, the one of planning the next trip!!

I havent forgotten xiximundis, im back on track! Take Care Mates! Im leaving you with the picture of my HEC Marketing Class!