paris travels continued

day 3 going up the eiffel tower

we decided to wake up early and get to eiffel tower as early as we could cos the queue was sooo long the first day we went. unfortunately though the queue was short because we reached there around 10am, but it was so misty!! the peak of eiffel tower was covered with fog. sigh. but since we were there already, might as well go up la.

the foggy eiffel tower


a kiss for my tic to go up


the view from the elevator while going up


on the 2nd level, about to take a second level to the highest level


at the highest level, yes the view was horrendous..what view actually? there's no view! still..there's a certain kind of thrill just being at the top.


that's how far singapore is from the eiffel tower!






going down by the staircase. my bf is fearful of heights, so it was a little drama-mama for him, but otherwise for normal people like me, haha..it's nothing much.


the view from the 2nd level, much much better!


paris from the top

the tower from a distance away

le lourve on a second visit

the inverted pyramid










the second most sought after reason why people go to the lourve, to see this sculpture. the first reason is to see..the mona lisa, photography isnt allowed, and we didnt try to take any pics illegally too.

la fayette

the interior design of possibly paris's largest shopping mall? it's a whole building dedicated to women's wear and stuff, and they have another for the men. beautiful clothes they have, unfortunately they are verrry expensive, the only reasonable range they have is zara, which cost the same as that in singapore.

day 4 - last day in paris
chateau de versailles

we went there very early in the morning and there were hordes of people on their way there as well. the versailles was where the louis XIV, the sun king of france lived during his regime. it's...grand and ostentatious, no wonder the french revolt against this monarchy rule.


all gold and glitter, all posh and grand, beautiful paintings and sculptures decorate the palace, as with all the palaces in france..and in europe for that matter


the garden was enormous. the king must have had one hell of a time staying there. singapore just doesnt have this sort of space.

rome-antic

heyhey

it's slightly past midnight in rome now. was debating whether i should blog and then i thought it would be cool to leave a post in every city i visit.

rome has been enriching. i feel like a sponge, absorbing the city and all it has lived through for the past thousand years. every few steps you take, you see history, you read history, you breathe history. i have never seen so many imposing churches and grand fountains in my life. although admittedly, after a while all the piazzias do look identical to one another, and i'm really suffering from churches' fatigue.

more about these later on. not the right time to blog much now.

am staying in this funky hostel 5 mins away from the train station. it's a small apartment with 4 rooms, with which the landlord rent 3 out. there is a tiny kitchen and a small hall. extremely cosy and you could tell 3/4 of the furniture came from ikea, which explains why it looks so funky. the computer is 3 steps away from my room, so it's really convenient. anyone who is ever coming to rome, i highly recommend this place! it's called MAIAN.

okok just a few short notes:
1. THE service in italy is practically non existent. i'm totally PISSED OFF with the sales people and waiters here. just makes my blood boil.

2. i have graduated!!!! but oh in my hurry, i forgot to check my grades, and the results were only available for viewing online for a day. anyways..the important thing is i've passed. that's all that matters. whee~

3. we managed to get a hall room in london for just 15 pounds a day!!! thanks to rachel hoong...and according to her the location is very convenient and central. YAY!!

4. working for LG in this year's communique asia exhibition from 19 - 22nd june, 2 days after i come back from europe. but the pay is a little disappointing, sigh.

it's back to eindhoven tmr evening and i'll start uploading all my pics, which go by the hundreds! gonna have a tough time getting them organised and edited.

europe europe....i'm enjoying loads so far. :)

italy so far

heyhey

am now in the internet cafe opposite our lao pok hotel in florence. the hotel we're staying in is pretty horrible. it's only 1 star but it costs an astronomical sum of money for the quality of the hotel! firstly it is on the 3rd floor, and it has no lift, so we had to carry our luggage up several flights of stairs. good training for the legs. 2ndly, there is absolutely no sense of security, anyone can just go in and take the keys off the rack and steal stuff from our rooms. 3rdly, nooo teevee, no entertainment at night. but oh..it's clean. so..good enough, no complaints. just that we paid so much, i expected better.

there really isnt much in florence, just plenty of churches, cathedrals and museums, just like everywhere in europe. we finished exploring most of the tourist attractions today. went to the accademia museum in the morning to see the very much renowned sculpture of DAVID by michealanglos. it's cool really..it's big, and the details of the sculpture makes you go..wow, how on earth did he manage to make it look so life like?? then then...we went to duomo, the biggest church in florence. it was grand! and lastly the uffizi museum, more paintings and sculptures. seriously after visiting soooo many museums, they all look pretty much the same to me haha. shall not pretend to be atas and say i really can 100% appreciate european art cos i dont! still..it's goooood and educational, so...ya haha. but honestly, after queueing close to 2hrs to enter the uffizi, i was a little disappointed. it pales in comparison to the louvre.

venice was hot and sunny, florence is erratic. yesterday was pretty alright, but today it rained and it was freaking cold. and dammit i wore only a spag strap and a skirt, was freezing!!! i was probably the one with the least cloth on the body on the streets haha. but i got by..it's not thaaattt cold.

we made a trip to pisa last night and saw the famous leaning tower..it was seriously...LEANING! ok totally bimbotic comment hehe. pretty cool..will upload the pics when i'm back in eindhoven on thurs.

leaving for rome tmr morning. looking forward to the vatican city, spanish steps, trevis fountain etc etc. hopefully rome would be more exciting than florence!

i love venezia!

just a short note for now. i am currently in venice, using the hotel internet. first 15 mins free but additional 10 mins for 1 euro! damn ex la.. i love this place!! but it is expensive..just like paris.. leaving for florence tmr morning. take care all!

ciao!

it's paris!! BONjOUr!!

well well, we left amsterdam for paris on sat afternoon and reached paris 50 mins later. it was no longer than a bus ride; it seems as if the plane was starting to descend soon after it took off haha. i cant believe i was in PARIS!! paris is like THE city. the city of lights, the city of romance, the city of eiffel tower, notre dame, the louvre, the city of fashionn....it's...THE CITY to be at.

unfortunately my first encounter of paris didnt leave a fantastic impression. we landed at charles de gaulle aeroport. it is..OLD. i guess i've been watching too many movies. the paris i had imagined it to be was all posh and glam and the devil wears prada-ish. i found out later that the scene from the movie was filmed along champs-elysees, a vibrant street similar to orchard road, where all the lv, guccis and diors are.

we stayed at classic hotel, which is close but not that close to the paris central, but it was 20m away from the charonne metro station, so it was rather convenient. there are strangely very very few cabs around, and i dont really observe anyone taking them. most people take the metro and rer, which goes practically everywhere in the city. even buses are rare. paris has a verrrry complex and haphazard metro system. it's convenient..but complicated. there are multiple lines that connect with random stations everywhere. it gets rather irritating sometimes when you're tired, and still have to take out the map to figure out which route is the shortest to take to your destination. singapore's mrt system is like the infant-stage in comparison. paris is no place for people who cant WALk, because...they have no escalators and lifts at the stations! what the hell manz..cos we took the train from the airport back to the hotel, and i had to drag my ultra heavy luggage case halfway across europe, up many flights of stairs. and on the RER, they dont announce the stations. how do the blind people travel? what a strange city indeed!

paris is expensive. everything is expensive, just like everywhere in europe i guess. it's honestly what everyone says, the same as in sg but in euros. one mcdonald meal cost $11, and that's like the cheapest meal you can get. i told andre i miss the cheap and easily available food in sg and he didnt believe...it's true!! i feel hungry all the time in europe cos it's cold and it's damn irritating because i cant just pop by old chang kee to buy food haha. they have crepes and waffles everywhere but it's ex la. the water from the tap tastes weird, so i have to buy evian to drink. evian, and not the other brands, cos we bought one other weird brand before and it tastes terrible that it makes me want to puke. haha.

expensive macs meal..cost close to $50 for 4 people, and the tax is 20%!

let me tell you what is cheap in paris............WINE!!! they cost 1 euro in the supermarket.

the french are nice and friendly people. what with all the the french refuses to speak to you in english, or pretend not to understand you..or the french despise people who speak to you in english instead of your mother tongue..aiyo all stupid myths la. where got...this is the modern world we're talking about man. hhaa.

i've heard a lot of scary stories abt this place from friends too. friends going to street bar, girls were 'sent' to 'entertain' them, nothing was done, but before they left, they were demanded to pay 880 euros! extortion. or another incident, this black man was stopped by the conductor for not paying, in the end the argument attracted all his black friends. they whacked the metro station and the station had to be closed down for a week! in germany, apparently someone threw himself on the tracks to commit suicide. the stories we hear here.....it's just amazing. makes you appreciate singapore more, dont you think so?

the days are long and the nights are short. the sun rises at 5am and sets at 10pm. it feels a little weird that the sky is so bright at 9pm. the shops are all closed by 8pm. boring boring..no shopping for me. but the restaurants close really late, like till midnight, and the metro runs till 1am, so it's really convenient.

for all the complaints i've made, all in all, i must still say i love paris, simply because..it's paris! i love the people, the weather, the architecture, the palaces, the museums, the art, the culture, the clothes, the eiffel tower, the churches, the streets, the bars, the cafes...

all i think about everyday is really just where we should go to visit next, whether the photos i took will turn out ok, where to find cheap food...that's all. like i've told alex, i live in denial here! and it's a good feeling..haha..

day 1
Place de la Bastille

well well, believe it or not, this place used to be the prison stormed by the revolutionary mob in 1789, that sparked the french revolution, but nothing remains now. the bronze Colonne de Julliet stands in the middle of a busy junction, to honor the victims who died in the revolution. there was a carnival going on when we went. there were a lot cafes around the area and we had most of our meals in this area.

tour eiffel

it's verrry cliche, but i must say that if i have to choose one object i love most about paris, it has got to be the eiffel tower. everryooonne knows about eiffel tower, but honestly you cant appreciate the beauty of it until you've finally seen it with your own eyes! photos do not does it justice at all! it's...grand, it's majestic, and it took my breath away. it's HUGE, but it is really a very very huge steel structure, but the photos make it look puny. i marvel at this gigantic piece of art..it has got to be one of mankind's most beautiful creation.

it looks prettier at night..we went to it a second time on day 3's morning, and went up to the top. more about that later on.

Place des Vosges

this is basically a symmetrical square surrounded by brick houses. can see a lot of parisians sitting on the grass and chatting. how nice if we have such big, empty pastures in singapore. it would be a good meeting place (hopefully not just of Filipinos maids..:p)

day 2
the arc de triomphe

napoleon ordered this to be built after his greatest victory so that his men can "go home beneath triumphal arches". the view on top is supposed to be spectacular at night. it stands in the middle of 12 aves, radiating out like a star.

la defense

la grande arche..it's a very very huge hollow cube. again, it's difficult to judge the size just by looking at the photo. you got to be there to see it to know how big it is!

just look at how small the people looked climbing the stairs at the top left hand corner pic. it's a business district now.
le grand palais

paintings and sculptures..and more paintings and sculptures......and more paintings and sculptures...

le louvre

THE DA VINCI CODE!! to be honest....eh...it's just a gigantic glass pyramid. okok it's grand..


we got there pretty late, and the museum closes at 6pm, so we went in on the 3rd day instead.

notre-dame

pardon me for the weird expression on my face..it was raining! but you cant tell of course..

a model of the notre-dame


this is a beautiful photo that my bf took. for 2 euros, you can take away one of the candles..for what..eh..i'm not sure. for blessings? probably..


the cathedral feels very..holy..sounds like a dumb thing to say but i never felt so 'holified' in a church before, even though it was raining and the whole place was swarmed with tourists.


the worship takes place every hour. i cant help but feel it's nothing more than a form of entertainment for tourists......maybe it's just me, the natural skeptic.

random pics along champes-elysees

the cleaners in greenies! they looked..cute!


out of nowhere of the street pops out a peugeot showroom

i'm getting very side of photos at this point of time...you've no idea how long it took me to complete this post..haha.. anyway we're heading to venice, florence and rome tmr, back to holland on the 31st, so it'll be some time before i can blog again...and the photos are just gonna accumulate! *headache*..

au revoir!

sincity

amsterdam is..

- big big big..
- flat, that explains for the zillion of bicycles everywhere
- windy
- cosmopolitan, the city central was verry crowded even in the afternoon, and you can tell it's made up largely of foreigners, esp the english during the weekends, as my bf said.


- runs very efficiently, particularly their train system. the dutch are very particular about punctuality, if the bus leaves at 9am, it leaves on the dot at 9am, not a min fast, not a min slow.
- rampant with intersecting canals and boats parked alongside


- squarish, boxish buildings
- dutch chilling out with a beer everywhereeee....their fav pastime has got to be sitting in a cafe by the road side, drinking and people watching.
- the dutch are TALL, i feel dwarfed
- the red light district is happening, the sin city smells of sex, and they're not shy about it. women clad in lingerie displaying themselves in the shop windows like mannequins, beckoning at the men to take them away...apparently an average girl would cost 50 euros for '2 times'.
- the so called coffee shops sell the strongest weed. apparently the dutch themselves dont take much weed, it's the foreigners who really go for it. to them, there's simply no kick in taking something that is legalised. and so we got to admire why this city is so free of drug-related crimes even though marijuana is legalised.
- there are no such thing at free toilet usage, except at the airport. got to pay an average of 20euros to use the WC. basket...so inconvenient.
- expensive..the prices are the same as those in singapore, except in euros.
- weather is moderately cold, i wore slippers there the first day and everyone thought i was crazy. but the cold was bearable..

behind me stands the 17th century koninklijk paleis, the dutch's town hall.

horse carriage! HOW COol is that!

there were plenty of small alleys and streets to walk. we walked for a few hours and were shacked out at the end of night. more the next time round, didnt really spend a lot of time in amsterdam cos we were heading to paris the next day. there really isnt much to see in amsterdam unless you love drugs.