Paris Day 0
Why day 0? Because not yet reach Paris ma. Still in London :P Our train was at 5.25am and because we're not in Malaysia and none of us own any form of vehicle here, not even bicycle, we had to overnight at the station. Imagine, you have to overnight at Pudu Raya just to go for holiday? Will you will you? We did lah, because we had no choice and also Kings Cross is A LOT better than Pudu lah. Hehehe. It's a better version of Duta. So, we reached the station around 12am and we had 5 hours to kill before our departure. This is not Malaysia where we have mamak all night long, and we can just order ONE glass of air kosong and sit there till our butt ache. To see a shop opens at wee hours of the day is an amazing sight, and amazingly Costa was 24 hours in Kings Cross. Where to find 24 hours shop in London? Tesco 24 hours also close at 10pm on Saturday and 4pm on Sunday lah. Clinic closes at 1pm on Thursday. Stupid country We ordered coffee to keep us awake the whole night, or at least until we are up on the train. We sat, drank, yak and yak and yak until it's time to check in.


Wooohoo! We're leaving for France! and get our passport stamped the word "Paris" =)



Not cheap okay this paper? It was 84 pounds (I think) for two miserable tickets. But, it was fast lah. 3 hours only. And also, no traffic jam and sufferings for 9 hours like what happened during Scotland trip.



Eurostar!


Staying awake for the whole night and I thought I can sleep all the way but no, I was wrong. I think everyone slept for approximately 30 minutes or so only. With Anwari sitting beside me, lagilah cannot sleep. He and his nonsense. But without him, not fun lah. No one to entertain us with his nonsense-ness.


Paris Day 1

We reached

Gare Du Nord (Paris version of KL Central)

and our misery of not being able to speak French began. Even the staffs at the ticketing counter don't really speak English. Thank God we had Anwari with us or else we will really ternganga there. We were on a budget trip (as usual lah) so we booked the cheapest and probably the furthest hotel, from the station. We had a hard time, finding for the right train to stop at the right station. Their system for trains are crappy okay?


Let me cheong hei a bit about their system lah. In Paris, they have a board hanging on the platforms with ALL the names of the stations. So, we THOUGHT lah, if the names of the staions are on the board means the train IS going to the station lah. We happily hopped onto the train (bear in mind we just arrived and we're having our backpack with us!) and thought we'll be reaching the station in a while (just 2 or 3 stops away). BUT, the train we were on DIDN'T stop at the station, instead it passed by the station and continue moving like it's not going to stop. Ever. We got down at the next station (which is damn far) and then asked the worker and he said hop onto the next train. Yes, we trusted him lah. We also took the next train. Manatau, this train also DIDN'T stop at that station. We kept passing by that station but we're not stopping AT it. So near yet so far. Sigh. After a couple of times just passing by the station, we finally realized that there's a small white box at the side of each station's name on the board. If the white board is next to the station you want to go, then you get onto the next train. If not wait until the white box appear lah. How are we supposed to know right? So damn complicated for tourist okay? Why can't they just use LCD screen to make our lives easier?


Okay, I digressed. When we finally reached the station we wanted to after wasting like an hour or so, we had to take buses before reaching our hotel this time we stayed in HOTEL okay? No more HOSTEL. Berlagak kaya But, because we don't know the way, the route of the buses etc we got lost. Again. Took another bus and then ingatkan dah sampai manatau, we need to find the hotel some more. And we didn't know where to find, we just walk lah. Walk walk walk, finally..... after 30 minutes we saw our oh-so-cheap-but-oh-so-far-in-an-industrial area hotel.


Our hotel was situated in such an ulu place, where all we saw was worse than Penang. Those, kampung areas in Penang or worse than Sentul area in KL. First impression of Paris was bad. Bad. This is Paris, we expect to see nice tall big gigantic amazing buildings. Not this.


Look at the blue flat. Turn left, right, front, back, all I can see was that kinda flat!


We practically wasted 4 hours sesating, where ever we go. What a start to our journey. Rested for awhile and off we went to explore the wonderful city of Paris!


Maps don't really help us, you see. Although over the following days, we pretty much mastered the train routes in Paris despite the many lines they have. Hehehe. Oh, they have like 14 Metro lines, 5 RER and 4 dunno what line (I think) which is almost 5 times more than London! Amazing, amazing.

First stop: Arc de Triomphe


This arch is very famous because it's a monument for those who fought for France during some war. There's also this erm, burning flame which is in the middle of the arc, even with strong wind it will never blow off. The night view is a lot better, so we thought we will come back here later at night, when it's darker.


The wind was so strong that our hair were flying away like some Rejoice moments but the flame was still burning. Amazing.

Next, we went to..Musee du Louvre
Does this pyramid looks familiar to you? :)
It's the one you see in Da Vinci's Code lah. Hehehe.

We purposely waited until 6pm so that the ticket is only €6. Once we paid, we went in and jalan jalan. Initially quite excited lah.

"Wah!!" *snap*


Walk walk walk.

"Wah!!" *snap*

Walk walk walk.
Not long after, we got bored.


Hehehe. The boringness + tiredness.

We're not into paintings and sculptures lah. We paid and went in for ONE reason only,


My sister MONALISA!
I was eager to see her, lama tak jumpa ma but when I saw her, I was disappointed. I don't see what is so great in that drawing lor. It's so small if it were to be compared to other drawings in that room. And they had this barrier like 2 feet away from the picture with two body guards guarding the picture. Want to get a clearer view also cannot. Want to snap picture also so hard. Can some artistic people tell me what is so great about the drawing?
Because Anwari asked the body guards, "can you tell me what is so great with this picture?" and they answered, "no we can't" LOL.

But, the sculptures and paintings were all very detailed. Which was pretty amazing, to me lah.


Like this, there was even blood on it. Near the nail and wounded area. It shows how much thoughts and effort they put into building it.


By the time we left, it was quite dark already lah.


I like how the pyramid was built. Looks damn gaya. Impressive.


We went back to the Arc and took picture.

Now I know why is it called city of the lights. I personally thinks that Paris looks a lot better at night. With all the light. Such an amazing view. And also because they used a lot of yellow lights lah. Which creates the romantic feel. Romantic city ma, hor?



No, it's not the hotel we stayed at. The hotel we stayed was NOWHERE near this.

It was about 10pm when we left this place, and we had to take trains and buses and then walk for another 25 minutes before we can reach our hotel. Long journey, okay? And we didn't sleep for the whole night, so yea lah everyone was very tired. We got back to the room about 11.30pm and then slept till the next morning.


Next up...

=)

It's gonna take at least 2 more weeks before I update the second day of our trip. Exam lah. Sabar je lah, as usual :P