Thursday, April 12, 2012

Travels

Since I arrived in the UK, I didn't do any blog on my travels.

The first pit stop I did was Paris with my dear friend who flew all the way here for a month's holiday with me.Paris is beautiful as every tour book tells you and lives up to all the pictures I've seen on tv, brochures etc etc. We did everything touristy and took loads of pictures.

For me, my favourite place in Paris would be Versailes. The palace was just gorgeous and grand. Best part was, because I am a student in the EU, I got to get in for free, saving €14.


The 5days 4 nights trip was walk walk walk, take pics, walk walk, more pics and dinner + a bottle of wine every night. Yes, wine is so cheap; cheaper than a bottle of Evian. We stayed in an apartment in Trocadero, one of the high end residential areas in Paris without even knowing about it when we book. Although the room was rather small, it was sufficient as a place to camp for the night after a long day out.

However, the downside of Paris is the price and the weather was really cold when we were there. On pictures, it might seem warm and nice, but in reality it was about 2 degrees everyday and we have to walk 10-12 hours a day out in the cold. Everything in Paris was relatively expensive. Trains, food, entrance fees and accommodations too. And talking about trains and metro, they are old and poorly maintained although punctual and efficient. Gets you where ever you want.
There are 2 themes park at Disneyland. We booked our tickets online for a bargain price. Disney never fails to amaze me but it was toooo cold + wind + rain...making it a not so fun day. Queue for most of the rides were really long and took up to an hour or two which made it really difficult to bear in the cold. But Disney is Disney none the less <3

The trademark of Paris... Eiffel Tower. We went up the tower the previous night and came back for a photo the next day. As with all attractions in Paris, queue is always long, unless you choose to walk up to the observation deck which did not have any queue. But it was an experience being up in the tower. Great view of the entire city. The Sein River just right below the tower. Everything looked like it was from the 50s when blended together.
This is escargot. I love it! One of the best entrees I have had. We loved it so much that we had it 2 nights in a row.

We went to a lot more places but I'm just too lazy to post pictures. Arc de Triumphe, Champs Elysee, Notre Damn, Sacre Couer, Montmartre and Louvre. The architectures are awesome especially Notre Dame and Sacre Couer.

A side note, entrance to churches are free i.e. Notre Dame and Sacre Couer but Sacre Couer doesn't allow anyone to take pictures because they sell photo books of the place as an income to maintain the church. If you watched the Disney movie, Hunchback of Notre Dame, you might remember the bridge above the church. That you have to stand in a queue 100m long and pay €8 to go up; which of course we didn't go.

On a different note, I now understand why it's called the most romantic city in the world and where the word french kiss got its origins. The french are surely romantics and kiss a real passionate kiss where ever they are... you'll understand when you step foot in Paris some day ;)


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