Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Euro Trip Part 2: Bonjour Paris!

We arrived late in Beauvais airport since the flight was delayed. Took the shuttle bus to Paris and then took the Metro to head to Porte de Chatillon where we had a booking at the Formule 1 hotel.

Arriving at Chatillon-Montrouge was a bit unnerving. It was just past midnight, the roads were almost deserted, and the place looks kinda dodgy too. We walked a bit trying to find the hotel, but then we thought better of it and hailed a cab instead.

Luckily we didn't try to walk, it was quite a distance away. It wasn't the right station to get off really, since it's nearer to another tram station.

So we got in the hotel and were looking forward to a nice shower and a warm bed, but our hopes were dashed. Turned out, Charis wrongly booked the rooms for November! They were fully booked at the time so weren't able to accomodate us. The man at the desk was helpful though, he called the chain and found out they have rooms at another Formule 1 way across town, nearby Porte de Saint-Ouen.

So us four weary souls dragged our bags to the tram station and struggled to get the tickets since we don't know how to operate the machine and after a while only did we realize that it was broken. Luckily the other machine was working fine. Hopped on the tram and made our way to Porte de Vanves station. We were running by the time we got off the tram since the guy at the hotel said the trains run until 1.30am, and it was already 1am by then. So we got in, bought the tickets and sat down at the platform and waited for the train.

And we waited. And we waited. And we waited.

Then one of the staff came around to tell us that the last train was at 12.45am, and not 1.30am. Now what do we do?

Plan A was to sleep at the station and wait for the 1st train at 5.30am, but they closed it down so we walked out in the cold and started walking blindly.

It was the night before Raya, and back home it's around 8am on Raya morning. Dad and Kimi would still be at the mosque I guess, while mom and the girls would be at home getting ready to head off to kampung after sembahyang Raya. Me, I was out in the cold, literally, on the streets of Paris. Such was the folly of the this traveller.

Soon enough the coldness is taking its' toll so we decided to just hail a cab and get to the other hotel no matter how much it would cost. By 3am we were all showered and ready for bed. I called home to wish my family Selamat hari Raya and went to bed at around 4am. A long day indeed.

Next morning, we headed out bright and early and took in a quick breakfast of warm croissants and hot chocolate before rushing to Eiffel tower. Went up to the top and took in the view (while the wind was threatening to blow us off the tower).

Then, we walked across Pont d'Iena and headed along the River Seine all the way to Place de la Concorde. Then we walked through Jardins des Tuileries before arriving at Musee du Louvre.
From there we walked along Rue de Rivoli heading towards Georges Pompidou Centre. From there, took the Metro to Montmartre, alighting at Grands Boulevard station. After purchasing the customary HRC t-shirt, had dinner before heading to Avenue des Champs-Elysees.

Walked along the length of it until we arrived at Arc de Triomphe. By then it's quite late at night and the shops were closing. We headed back to Eiffel to take in the light show before heading back to Porte de Saint-Ouen, back to our hotel for a well deserved rest. My feet were screaming murder by then.

Next day, we took the train to Val d'Europe to visit the designer outlets. Bought some stuff for mes parents, and extra socks for me (yes, my budget only permits me those sadly). Before long, we're back on the train to head back to Beauvais to catch our next flight. This time, we're flying southeastwards. Venice, we're coming for ya!

Catch that leg of the Trip in Part 3 ;)

15 comments:

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

hey faqroul!
i love ur trip!!! really adventurous! huhu..
can't wait to read what happen in Venice! :D

Anonymous said...

2nd trip is a tad boring,don't you think? the 1st part really set the tone right with that flamenco experience and all,but paris part for me, is just, go here, go there...
a pity for that unfortunate event,but that's one priceless memoirs i daresay. raya eve with virtually no raya atmosphere...man, tears will trickle down my cheek for that hahaha...

godspeed

The Banker said...

jaq: thanks, love that video u made abt us..there's 100++ of us guys and it took a girl to do something like that, haha. thanks again!

kidd: paris was all about nice buildings, pretty parks etc, but honestly i didn't really enjoy it. the people were kinda rude, the city is dirty, the metro stations stank of piss badly etc. barcelona was wayy better imho.

oh well, bila lagi nak raya in paris kan? haha

Anonymous said...

exactly!!takla best sgt pon,i think the only fun bit of paris is the disneyland;p

Anonymous said...

beb...ko xde melawat stadium ke kali ni? walaupon xbanyak berjalan tp aku rasa part ko nak sampai hotel tuh menarik tuh...confirm exhausted giler babi nyer...

The Banker said...

ja: didnt hv time to go to euro disney, sampai val d'europe jah..

life4hire: sumpah adventure beb, tgh2 mlm buta in a foreign city, nasib baik ade geng je. kalau sorang mau aku menangis sayu tepi jalan, haha. aku rase jarak from hotel 1st to hotel 2nd tuh ade la cm ampang nk gi subang kot, punye la jauh..

cacah said...

lega jugak rasanya i bukak this blog after a long time. so i didnt have to wait for the episodes. hehe. i can straightly read them all. hehe.
ke ada lagi part 5?

cacah said...

sayu pulak baca pasal kena berjalan jauh2 dalam sejuk2 di malam/pagi raya tu. :)

The Banker said...

aishah: no part 5, 4 cities = 4 episodes je laa..hehe

haha, memang sayu pon...time tuh la teringat nasi dagang kat kampung, lol

Ems said...

i love this entry. kagum with ur hotel huntings story too. i remember i took a cab from Champs elysees to Gare du nord, its less than 10minutes but it cost me 20eur. gile mahal.

but the best part is how u walked from a place to another. i took Metro in every place i went. tak koser nak jalan. hehe

The Banker said...

miss spoilbrat: we were trying to travel as cheaply as possible, so on foot was the option for most of the time! i don't think i've ever walked that much (during the whole euro trip) in my life! haha

The Banker said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ems said...

i did tried to walk on the first day too. but when i woke up the next morning,i can feel my body aching and hurts. then only after that i started begging my fren to use Metro. ;)

anyway, u always travel huh? cool!

The Banker said...

yes, my feet felt like bursting from all the walking. we took the metro if it's quite a distance away, but we purposely walked to take in the scenery for most fo the time.

whenever i have extra money, i try to travel as much as i can. see the world while ur young, what can be better? =P