~3 years ago & now (Part II)~

Day 1 (Continued)

[Continued from the previous blog post]

Out of the Luxembourg garden, we saw a map and again we found out we were going on the wrong direction. We finally reached the Panthéon after a few minutes of walking.

We didn't manage to get inside the building though. Tak tau kenapa, the guard refused me in and I didn't understand a word he's saying.

Finally for the day, we went to the Arc de Triomphe. ^^

At last dapat gak pegi situ. It had been a dream for me once upon a time to get there.. and I can't remember why. Not the Eiffel tower, not Versailles but the Arc that I really wanted to go to. Pelik lak rasa.

Izzit just me or am I getting more berisi? =S

The sun set after a while, so I took the opportunity to take pictures of it before calling it a day and went back home with sore legs and an exhausted body:

Sunset in Paris C=

Oh. It also was our first sighting of the Eiffel Tower since we got here, but since it was already late and our legs were screaming in pain, we decided to go there tomorrow.

Eiffel tower berkelip2 di waktu malam.

On the way home, I came across a librairie, and suddenly remembered something. I went inside and asked the shopkeeper for a particular book as a souvenir to a certain bookworm I know of. As expected, they have it. But I didn't buy it yet since I don't know if that certain bookworm already has that book or not, if yes then it would be a waste. So I decided I'll ask la bookworm if she already has one before buying.

Day 2

Last night's sleep made our body feel more refreshed. We went on according to plan and the next stop was: Eiffel Tower ^^. So we went to le Tour de Eiffel station, tak ingat by RER or Metro, but we had to change trains in between. Oh I guess I didn't tell you that one of the trains was a double decker train? Naturally we just HAD to sit at the top floor seats x). Upon arrival, we had to walk a bit before reaching the base of the Eiffel Tower.

2nd floor of RER train.

 The base of the Eiffel tower

We bought the tickets to the 2nd observatory floor (the first has a cafe if I'm not mistaken). Puas menangkap gambar situ I bought another ticket to go further on to the summit. Faisal refused to follow though, since he wanted to conserve his euros and that floor is already enough for him.

 Panoramic view of Paris, with Musée de la Marine at the middle

I got back down to where Faisal was and bought souvenirs before we went back to ground level. We walked on to the Parc du Champs de Mars (on the opposite direction of the panoramic picture above) to get a full picture of the tower (the third photo with Eiffel tower above) and we reached (I think) the Ecole Militaire.

I don't think we can get on that building though.. even though I wanted to. Anyways we then went back and I looked for another Librairie since la bookworm said she still hasn't obtained that book yet. I found the book at a different store, and for a better deal: €0.50 more for a hard cover, brillant. This is the book in question:

I don't understand heck of what is written there except for a few simple words. I bet that particular bookworm is reading these with glee and excitement..

To La Bookworm: Sorry for previewing it already ok? I just want to torture you a bit by giving you a sneak peek and making you teruja dan tak sabar menunggu xP. It will take quite some time before it starts its long journey to Malaisie.

We got back, rest for a bit, solat and I went to the McD for some internet. As the sun set at around 8:30pm (local time) I got back, solat and we went off to see Paris at night. Well more like Eiffel Tower at night:

Day 3

On the third day, our destination was only one for the whole day, Disneyland Paris ^.^

Our 3-day Metro+RER ticket is only valid to Zone 3 and the stop to Disneyland Paris is at Zone 5. So we got off at the edge of Zone 3 and bought return tickets to the station.

And there we were, at Disneyland Paris. ^^ It was FUN indeed. Much better than Genting I would say (and that is to be expected). Rides dia best and the place was magnifique. Unfortunately Faisal has a problem with motion sickness, so he refused to go on any of the roller coasters. So I had to ride on them alone <.< .. kesian gak rasa but... whattodo. He also refused to go on the Tower of Terror (kinda like a Solero Shot but with a theme and in a building) even though I tried convincing him that it doesn't have anything to do with motion sickness since it won't involve any sharp swerves or 360-degree spins. His alasan this time? Gayat. Oh well. The ride should have been better if not because of this group of kecoh french people at the back row bising2 and menyanyi2 at times which ruined the fun <.< Even the staff had to give an announcement to us (which can be translated) to jangan bising sangat. I don't think it's gonna be easy to describe how our trip there was, and since a picture is worth a thousand words anyways, I'll let them do the talking:

More pictures will be posted on Facebook for our Day 3 and Day 4 trips. I'll put the link here after they're uploaded.

Day 4

Our final day in Paris. The train will be departing at 9+ pm so there was ample time to go for another trip somewhere. We checked out of the hotel and went to Gare du Nord to keep our bags in lockers. We then took the RER to Musée d'Orsay, crossed the river there and walked on to the Musée du Louvre. You guessed right, our final destination was to visit one of the largest museums in the world. We planned on visiting each part of the museum before going back.

..but they weren't kidding when they said it's one of the largest museums in the world. After finishing up to the 1st floor (it has floors -1 (LG), 0 (G), 1 and 2) exhaustion and leg cramps prevented us from moving on, so we skipped the whole of the topmost floor. It was TOO. BIG. We actually planned on "ok kita pergi Musee d'Orsay lak kalo sempat lagi lepas habis Louvre". It's not about time, it's about getting yourself killed by nonstop walking. The trip was ok, although the Islam exhibition was closed that day.. Here are some pictures of the exhibition, and again I'll put the album link here after I upload the museum pictures on Facebook.

After Louvre, we visited the Paris Mosque. Heh seronok lak nampak masjid.. Since Cambridge doesn't have one.. We went there for Zuhur and Asar prayers, but we didn't manage to find the place to take our wudhu'. Tried asking the keeper there but he doesn't speak English when we asked him, and he asked if we can speak Arabic instead. At least I studied Arabic during my school years and not French.. so I chose that as our medium of communication with that man, and yeah we got to where the wudhu' place is, performed our prayers and went out for a very late lunch.

The Grande Mosquée de Paris.

When we got back to Gare du Nord, we thought our train was at 9:30 or 9:55 pm and sempat buat benda lain dulu, before we found out it was at 9:13 pm. We rushed to the station, through the counter and through the UK border control in order to catch the train. We got down and realised we were at coach 18, which was 13 coaches away from ours @_@. We had to run and got on in time... PHEW. Got to London around 10:30++ pm and got back to good ol' Cambridge the next morning.

Good to be back in Cambridge. "Yeah where else can you find cows in the city centre other than here eh?"

....the taxi driver was not kidding:

There ye go, COWSSS!! Doesn't that scream KAMPUNG to you?

So that was my 4-day trip to Paris. One thing I'd say is, in my opinion it's a city where you'll most probably want to visit just once in your lifetime. If I do have to go there again in the future, I'll go see Versailles, which we didn't manage to during the course of the four days.

Au revoir Paris.