PARIS 1

my first trip to Paris was fucked up

I stayed on the north of the Grand Boulevards arch by rue des Saint Denis in a very small top floor walkup apartment that was painted purple. The toilet and shower were in the same room as the bedroom with no door or anything - like they were furniture.

My first night the bars closed pretty early (Sunday) so I got a fifth of vodka and used the wifi of a shuttered bar across from my apartment to facetime friends. I almost fell asleep on the street but ended up blacking out and waking up to broken glass all over my apartment. The bed I was sleeping on was lofted by two ikea bookshelves that held all of the glassware for the flat. I mustve tried to use the bookcase like a ladder and broke pretty much every glass on the shelf.

I couldn't find my phone - I figured I lost it somewhere and went outside to get food because I hadn't bought any yet.

On my descent of the 5-story staircase I found my iPhone 6 glinting in the distance at the very bottom of the stairs - I must've dropped it from the very top because it was shattered to the point that the screen looked like it was made out of sand.

Over the next few days, I kept going to apple stores to get it replaced. No map, didn't speak french, no local contacts. Every apple store wanted me to have an appointment so I quickly learned you have to lie about having one.

I had no phone and my brain was rotten from twitter - I needed something to do so I started drafting things on receipts in bars.

I bought my first teddy bear from a toy store and would take him with me around town. His name is Henri. I slid him down a stripper pole the night I got him and we've been friends ever since

There was only one american iPhone in all of paris - after my 3rd day trying I finally got a phone. The rest of the trip was fun and fucked up and sad in its own way - I'll never forget my first time there.

Afterwards I locked myself in a cabin in Iceland and read Nausea in it's entirety and listened to solo jazz guitar - taking saunas multiple times a day to detox.