Though I Walk Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death

“This hill though high I covent ascend; The difficulty will not me offend; For I perceive the way of life lies here. Come, pluck up, heart; let's neither faint nor fear. ” - John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress

The other day, I decided to go to La Basilique du Sacré Coeur, which is a famous landmark here in France. It's a Roman Catholic Church and it's name in English translates to The Basilica of the Sacred Heart (of Jesus).

Unfortunately, I had to walk through Vanity Fair to get there.

aka: Paris' Red Light District.

You know you've ended up in the sketchy zone of Paris when you step out of the metro and are instantly greeted by this.

and this

Because I'm so brave (read sarcastically) and because it was still daytime, I walked around to see the neighborhood. It's my first red light district, so you can't blame a girl for being curious.

I found the famous Moulin Rouge!

 

History 101: The Moulin Rouge is the famous cabaret founded in 1889. Moulin Rouge means ''red windmill'' (look* at photo). It is best known as the birthplace of the modern form of the can-can dance, which was a seductive dance performed by the courtesans. Moulin Rouge continues to perform musical dance entertainment (no, I didn't stay to watch).

Speaking of can-can, I found a cemetery (Montmartre Cemetery) nearby that contains the burial place of Jacques Offenbach!

Appropriate place to be buried

Others buried there included

Edgar Degas, the painter

Literally walked between it and the plot on the right while searching
Genius, Sherlock...

Adolphe Sax, the creator of the saxophone

I'm not a sax player, but WOWW SO COOL!

 And Hector Berlioz, the composer of Symphonie Fantastique!

After my walk in the cemetery, I started my way up the hill towards Sacré Couer. The entire city is built on a hill with the basilica at the pinnacle. The main road is basically sex shops, strip clubs, and adult movie stores. How pleasant.
Once you start walking up the sketchy smaller roads, it's actually not as bad (or maybe I'm just too clueless). There were a lot of little stores, cafés, bars, and who-know's what all the way up. As you get higher, the streets get quite busy, with tourists and scammers everywhere. I kept my bag close.

That's a lot of stairs...

At the base of the stairs to the Bascillica, you notice these black guys hanging around with coloured string in hand. (BTW I am not racist. They were all black. I am stating a fact.)

I noticed that some girls had stopped and the guy would be making a bracelet out of the string. I started to walk past them, trying not to make eye contact. Not sure if that makes me less noticeable or makes me more of a target, but I figured if you intentionally don't look at them you're sending a signal that you don't want to be bothered.

Either way, it didn't help. One guy was very pushy trying to get me to stop. I said ''No, thank you'' and walked past him. He then grabbed my arm and said ''Respect me.'' I turned, looked him in the eye, bared my teeth, and hissed.

Full out cat hissed.

That's right. I'm a cat. Or a vampire. A vampire would explain a lot.

I pointed my finger at him and very loudly said ''Do not touch me.'' He stepped back and put his hands up in the air at that point. I looked hard at him and then turned and walked up the rest of the way.

Don't mess with the little white girl.

Made it up the rest of the way without any issues and had a great view of the city. Huzzah!

You Know You're in Rome When.....

There's the obvious stuff

The Trevi Fountain...

                                            The Pantheon...

The Colosseum...

                                           and, of course, The Vatican

I forgot to do a selfie!!!

 But I've got a better list as to how you know you're in Rome.

1. Street signs are made of marble.

Yes, stick a slab of rock on a pole. Let's see if it'll stay up! oh...

 

2. There's gelato on every street.


















.... that have some interesting flavours

Fig and Cinnamon. Yummy

This is Siciliana Cassata
It's basically fruit cake and chocolate in gelato

 

 
























3. You're transported back to when it was okay for a man to wear a skirt and carry a sword.

Gladiators!

Paparazzi shot! hehehe

 
This one is interesting because they are scammers that will try to take pictures with you and then force you to pay them. They'll even physically stop you so that you pay them. It's like they take their job too literally.


4. It's an honour to dress like a clown. Swiss Guards!

Yeah...the black beret makes them seem all that more menacing

5. You drink from sketchy fountains.

They use a bathtub in the Vatican

6. You see dead popes.

That's his actual body...covered in wax...
kind of brings a whole new meaning to "wax museum"

7. You walk on ankle breaking cobblestone.

And yet the Italian women wear stilettos all the time

8. You can eat a whole pizza by yourself! The crust is so thin, it's not as much as if you were eating pizza in Canada.

9. Everyone drives Fiats and Vespas.

Even their taxis are Fiats...

 






10. This.

Squishy ball toy thing that makes noise...I don`t understand it either....

Stop to Smell the Roses...or Not

So I got scammed.

I honestly thought I'd be smarter than that, but it happened. In Rome, there are quite a number of people that are out there just to get your money in sneaky ways.

I was taking pictures at the Piazza del Popolo (I think it's English for Plaza of the People) when an older Indian man came up to me and shoved three roses into my hand. I kind of stood there awkwardly, very much confused.

He's going on saying "beautiful flowers for the beautiful signorina" and at first I'm flattered though quite confused. And then he asks me where I'm from and I say I'm from Canada. He then started to rave about how wonderful a country Canada is and how nice the people are....and how generous...

*warning bells*

But it's too late. I'm stuck. Flowers in hand, words about how wonderful Canadians are, and I'm paying the guy 3 euros for roses I didn't really want. 

You know that things grownups say to you as a kid: don't take candy from strangers? Guess it still applies.

At least I got some pretty roses.