Thursday, June 10, 2010

Paris Summer Trip

I am back! From the beautiful city of Paris for 6days 5 nights trip.
Summarize and French in my own words:

EXTREMELYCROWDED, dirty air , 50% of the french I met were arrogant and rude, hot like Msia during summer time, Food and transport are extremely expensive. You QUEUE for everything for at least 30 mins, longest may be 1 and half hours or more...
Beautiful city without the assholes, magnificent night views from Eiffel Tower, artistic, fashionable, many branded shops and many slim, tall, sexy or really beautiful women can be seen everywhere.
This is Paris!

Day 1:
Arrived Paris around 1 or 2 pm. Sunny day! around 28 or 30C I think. Hot like Msia and we were totally cooked under the sun. Went Primiere Classe Hotel which is around 6 mins from airport by RER but 45 mins from Paris town. Located in Parc des Expositions, surrounded by commercial areas. Used my GPS and map function of my phone to guide my sis and her bf to a shopping area which was 1.1km away. There we had our lunch at Quick Burger Restaurant ( offers unlimited refill for drinks =D )。 Was supposed to buy my dinner at Carrefour, but found out it was 41 mins away. Had just another burger from Quick and Macaron from IKEA as my dinner. Slept early tat day (around 8pm) coz everyone was tired.

Day 2:
Woke up around 700am. Had a buffet breakfast for 5 euro with only not more than 10 choices of food. Kena scam by the advertisement. ZZZ. We were asking for info about how to buy the RER ticket to Paris town. It was like chicken talking to duck. Language prob... Hard to communicate... It took us about 30 mins to get the right tickets to get to the town. We reached the RER main station which is Chatlet le Halles. It was quite complicated down there and we kept looking for SORTIE (exit). But everyone halted when we reached the right SORTIE (there were many). The sky was extremely dark, raining cats and dogs outside and thunders roared. But we mo chak! Walked outside and turned on my GPS to look for the right direction. Our first stop was Louvre Museum. Luckily we reached there early and got inside when the queue was still short. There I saw many piece of arts and sculptures. Breathtaking! Amazing! Impressed! and the legendary Mona Lisa was there too, framed in a protective glass. Quite disappointed becoz I couldn't find the paintings that were filmed in Da Vinci's Code. I couldn't find the scene where the Guardian of the Holy Grail was murdered. It was extremely crowded eventually we decided to leave because we had spent 2 hours in it. Went D'orsay Museum and we gave up going in because the queue to go inside was EXTREMELY LONG! Strolled into smaller streets and had lunch at a chinese shop somewhere near Eiffel tower. The tauke was friendly and I was convinced to buy a whole roasted chicken from him. The lunch and the chicken costs me 15.5 euro! Bloody purse for the first day. Reached Eiffel after 10 mins walk from there. The tower for me was just a rusty pieces of metal under sunlight. Nt Good at all~
Went Arc de Triumphe and strolled down Avenue Des Champs-Elysees. An extremely straight street with trees and BRANDED shops all the way down to the Concorde, which is a famous landmark in Paris.
We went separate ways after that. I went east to the Notre Dame, where the legendary Hunchback of the Notre Dame lived. It was sunday and they were having service when I went in. But still, there were visitors everywhere. It was really lucky to have my Sunday service in such an old & sacred place.
I went Eiffel tower again around 8pm, waiting for the sky to turn dark and have a look at Paris at night. I went in the queue around 9pm, reached the ticket counter around 945, went up to 2nd floor around 10. Bought another ticket to the summit and QUEUE again for the elevator to the summit. I reached summit around 1030pm. It was cold up there, but the view was BREATHTAKING. PARIS at NIGHT!!. I reached the ground floor around 11pm after a long queue AGAIN! I was sandwiched in the elevator all the way UP and DOWN. ZZZ.
Walked to my RER station which was about 40 minutes away. Took pictures all the way and I thought I managed to get on the last train back to hotel. But it stopped halfway and telling every passenger that it was the last stop and everyone had to leave. I was stuck in the middle of nowhere. I asked the police patrolling but they gave me no useful answer. I hop onto the train back to the previous main station and ask the girl who sold the ticket to me. Only then SHE told me that I had to take a bus somewhere else to get to my destination as the line was closed late night. When I reached the station as told to get the bus, the bus driver told me that the bus would not be going to my destination as it was late night already! Everyone couldn't even help and the security guard of the station told me it would be the best to hop on the last bus to the airport as it wasn't safe there as the train station was closing as well. It was 1.40am and I was in the middle of nowhere. When I was about to call a taxi, a man came and offered me a ride. I recognized him as one of the train station workers. Maybe he overheard my conversation with other people when I was asking for help. I accepted his help and he really did send me back to my hotel. I gave him 10 euro and really thank him x infinity. God answered my prayers when I asked him for help. The worker from station Aunley-sois-bois (forgot the spelling but it was pronounced as Onleh Su Buah), I will remember you always. God Bless You =).

Day 3:
Went Disneyland, the outdoor park. The weather was very hot that I got slight sunburn at the end of the day. It was extremely crowded and we had to queue for at least 1 hour just to play a game. The first game I played was roller coaster ride which you can't see from the appearance of the building. I went through dark tunnels and found out that it was roller coaster. The ride brings me into a imaginary world of space with aid of audio devices. The graphic was nice and the ride was FUN. I had 2 times 360 spin and spent the rest of my days with dizziness.

Day 4:
Went to Disneyland Village and the Studio Park. Village is a place full of Disney Store, restaurants and it is a perfect place to shop. The Studio Park was small for me as part of it was closed for maintenance. Studio would be a perfect place for kids as there were many amazing disney shows that tingles your eyes and ears. The best part of the Studio will be the hollywood hotel tower. Try it yourself.

Day 5:
Went to city centre again to visit the remaining famous landmarks. I went solo again and walked for about 10km the whole day. It was raining whole day and I was under my jacket for that day. Sad.

Day 6:
Flight was delayed for 1530pm which was about an hour and half from our scheduled flight. jet2.com.. remember that. Cheap flights, low quality. And we waited for another half hour at leeds bradford international airport because there was no bus to transport us from the plane to the terminal. How amazing was that. I wonder how they get the international title.

Conclusion:
Do not speak to strangers or anyone approaching you. They always ask for money as i had the experience when I was at disneyland and 5th day of my trip. Esp the dark skinned people selling things on the street. It was a fun trip full of adventure !
Will upload pics on fb and some on blog during next few days.

No comments:

Post a Comment