Paris, je t'aime

Paris' most famous icon.

Paris can be considered as the last leg of Europe for us even though that wasn't supposed to be the initial plan; if you remember, we winded up in Basel, Switzerland, instead of Brussels, Belgium, due to a big phonetic misunderstanding between F, I and the train ticketing lady who sold us our train tickets. We didn't see too much of Brussels apart from the railway station, our hostel and the airport and I sometimes forget that we've actually been to Belgium.

F and the Arc de Triomphe.

If my memory doesn't fail me, we spent a grand total of 3 days in Paris. And most of it was great. I probably spent the most money here (in the whole of our UK/Europe journey) on shopping at Champs-Elysee (for the Guccis and Miu Mius that Mumsy's colleagues got me to buy on their behalf), Mumsy gave me the go-ahead for my first Gucci over the phone and I visited Disney for the first time.

Laduree's pretty (delicious) macarons. We finally tried PH's in Paris too.

Here are some pictures (and descriptions) of the places that we've been to in our really short stay in Paris:

on our way to Disneyland

There are many ways to get to Paris' Disneyland and the metro (i.e. subway) was one of them. It was really empty when we boarded so we weren't really expecting (such) a big crowd when we arrived.

pretty castle... from Sleeping Beauty maybe?

must take picture with pretty castle.

stained windows depicting the story of Sleeping Beauty.

I realize as I'm typing this that I've never watched this Disney cartoon in its entirety before - only bits and pieces when I was in kindergarten back then.

love these hanging lamps that can be found at the entrance of the Arabian streets (Aladdin!)

It was like the start of the summer holidays in Europe when we were there so every corner in Disneyland was packed to the brim; quite a pain to move about but then again, I've never been too fond of massive crowds.

Woody greeting his fans

Lilo makes an appearance

We tried to catch the parade show on the main street but due to some technical errors (faulty speakers or something like that), the characters only came out for 5 minutes before the cancellation announcement was made. Meh. Bummer.

I've always thought that Minnie and Donald have something going on behind Mickey and Daisy's backs :p

That's about it for my Disney adventure; I kind of regret not taking more pictures and getting put off by the sweaty crowds (so I shall snap more pictures in future travels!).

We didn't visit too many places due to time constraints, but we did visit the Notre Dame Cathedral as well as the Louvre. More pictures!

didn't have a clue what the cathedral looked like before arriving; slightly under-exposed in this picture.

Notre Dame Cathedral with much better lighting.

lone pigeon taking a lovely sun bath outside the cathedral

and a boy who kept very still to feed the little birds found at the cathedral's courtyard. 

Outside, there were quite a number of gypsies roaming the cathedral grounds and most of them held cards that said something like "Do you speak English?" and "I need your help urgently with (something) please. Please help me." and they seemed to mainly only talk to tourists (or people who looked like tourists). It can be a little disorienting at first, all the flurry of activity going on around you but things get much better once you get inside.

interior of Notre Dame Cathedral.

Once you've managed to shake off the crowd at the entrance, the inside of the cathedral is in comparison, much more cooling and peaceful due to the dim lights and you'll manage to reorientate quickly.

tea lights put up by the some of the believers.

The next few pictures will be the last for Paris, and they've all got the pyramids of Musée du Louvre in them some way. I strongly feel that Dan Brown did a pretty damned good job at making people become interested in the museum.

the inverted glass pyramid.

F (candied) and the big glass pyramid

my noob attempt at a symmetrical shot; see the number of people at the bottom of the pyramid?!

enlarged so now you'll see them.

I can't remember now what was my fascination with the triangles (hence the numerous pictures of the pyramids) back then! 

It's been close to to a year (probably just 1-2 weeks away) since we've completed this UK/Europe journey and while I am amazed by my own inefficiency in posting this entry, I am really glad that I'm finally done with it and it's now up! Looking back, I really do miss the times the two of F and I had back there - not too much trouble but lots of funny episodes and great memories.

Now that F's younger brother is in Tokyo (and will be for the next 4 years), I'm really looking forward to doing some travelling with her again, to Japan sometime in the near future!

ps. all pictures taken by my trusty (close-to-2-years-old) G10.

Switzerland - Zurich and Lucerne (most expensive city of this trip)

From Rome, we boarded an overnight train to Zurich (after a one-hour transit at Milan). A cool breeze greeted us when we got off the train at the station and it was definitely a nice change from the crazily warm hot weather in Italy; sort of like the weather we had in UK just before we left.

Zurich was the 'neatest' and most organized (in terms of layout) city that we visited thus far in Europe; badly vandalized train carriages were few and far, streets looked clean and litter-free and the place just seemed to be giving off a healthy glow despite the occasional chilly breeze and mist. Oh, but it was definitely the most expensive city too.

We met the friendliest old man at the tram-stop when we were buying tram passes; there are different types - per-day passes, per-trip passes, half-day passes etc but all of them were in German and we were at a loss deciding which will be a better option for us. The old man came over with his walking stick, asked if we spoke English, and went on to describe the different passes that were represented in German words even before we asked for any help. What a nice uncle!

Of all the places that we've been to in Europe and UK, we had the easiest time finding our hotel in Zurich; and that's probably why I said Zurich is an organized place earlier.

Most expensive Big Mac meal I've ever eaten in my ; that's about S$17, we didn't even ask for up-size and this was shared between F and me.

I've been reading some food blogs and French pastry brand Ladurée's always been greatly raved for its sweet treats, macarons especially. While wandering, I spotted Ladurée in the corner of a street soooo, we headed in excitedly and got ourselves a few pieces of these world-famous babies.

Sweet (but only subtly so) tastes bursting in your mouth when you take a bite into any one of them. Loved them!

Continued to take a walk down the streets with F and here are a few pictures of our wandering:

This reminds me a little of the Grand Canal in Venice hur; only it's much emptier - void of boats and signs of activity.

 

On our second day, we visited Lucerne, and paid for the golden round trip that included a cruise along Lake Lucerne, a ride on the world's steepest cogwheel railway to the top of Mount Pilatus and a cable car ride down from the top. My very first visit to a Swiss mountain (okay any mountain for that matter)!

F & I on the ferry.

b&w.

in colour.

it was quite a long ride and there were quite a few stops along the way.

My impression of the type of houses and places Swiss live in; this picture looks like it's come out straight from my social studies textbook in secondary school.

I wonder what the people living here do for entertainment - definitely not shopping, probably trekking/mountaineering... and making rosti?

the spectacular view that greeted us when we finally reached the top.

I am swa-gu max, this is my first time at the top of a mountain and I wasn't expecting the temperature to be very different from ground level, but oh dear, that was a big mistake. It was freezing! I wish we had our Primark coats with us.

Beautiful view. There were people trekking along the trails you see above; thumbs up for their effort! I hope I'll be one of those trekkers some day.

Descent, cable-car ride; the trees remind me of enchanted forests that I used to read about in Enid Blyton's fairy tales.

And we spotted another shop selling macarons; Luxemburgerli's a Swiss brand though.

These were much lighter and 'fluffier' compared to Laduree's; I'm talking about both the filling and the shells. They look really cute here, but looks aside, Laduree wins hands down in terms of taste - I'd very much prefer the firmer texture.

Nonetheless, I'll never say no if you were to offer me one of these cuties.

Zurich was over for us in a mere 2 days but I hope I'll be back in Switzerland someday to see the Matterhorn and the Bernese Alps!

Up next: Paris!

Florence - Oh the heat

(No great story to tell, just the nitty gritty bits)

After our 2 short days in Venice, we travelled southwards to Florence. Florence, was the only part of our half-Europe trip where we stayed at a backpacker's hostel. I thought we got a really good deal for the price we paid; meals are provided, free-flow drinking water (bring your own bottle), free wi-fi (just had to get the password from the receptionist), computers at the lobby with free internet access, and free walking tours! It's such a pity that we couldn't make it for the walking tours because of clashes with our schedule.

Basilica of Santa Croce

Santa Croce: dome's interior

close-up

closer-up

While in Florence (for a night), we only managed to visit some of the tourist sites that were located in closer proximity. We were only staying in Florence for a night so time was a bit of an issue for us. Apart from the Basilica of Santa Croce, we also passed by some other smaller churches and visited the bustling open-air San Lorenzo market/bazaar. The market is lined with shops hawking all sorts of leather goods (e.g. belts, satchels, jackets, boots, key chains) and interesting handmade souvenirs for the tourists to take home. After bargaining (I really suck at this) with a shop-owner for 5 minutes, I got myself a tiny leather bag... and a pair of leather sandals from another shop in the market!

The heat (32 degree Celcius when Singapore was only 28-29!) got to us and we decided to seek temporary refuge in the Macs near our hostel. Got such a wonderful surprise when I tasted the salty fries (just like ours! UK's fries are not seasoned with salt at all). Did a little more walking before we finally decided to head back to our hostel for dinner. We were going to Rome the next day.

I apologize if I've made Florence sound like a boring place, it is not... it's just that we spent a really short day here and I'm not really into all that arty farty stuff. You'd probably do a much better write-up of this place if you can name another work of Michelangelo apart from David (I'm that lousy when it comes to arty stuff). Or if you have a deeper interest in Leonardo da Vinci than I do. Other than knowing nearly nothing about art's local big names and their works, I kinda enjoyed my stay in Florence; loved the buildings that had an old-charm to them, loved the bustling streets and markets, and I loved the 'discovery' of salty fries in Italy!