Paris - Day 1

Was pretty busy over the week and so cudn't spend time writing the travelogue. Hmmm.. I had stopped the previous one at getting off the bus. From the coach station we went to Gallieni station and took the underground to St Lazare and changed train to Volontaires.

8:00 I came out of the underground and got my first view of Eiffel.
The first impression of Eiffel leaving aside the fact that I was looking at something which lot of ppl would want to see atleast once was a little disappointing. A rust coloured skeletal structure didn’t impress me that much. The hostel was pretty close to the station. The check in time was 5 PM. So we just kept the luggage in a room and freshened up. I had brilliantly forgotten to take the Disneyland tickets. Thankfully the receptionist was sweet and offered to take the print out for us.



9:30 Had a light breakfast of a few biscuits, juice, chocolate muffins and some Upma that Sangeetha had got, we left for Disney. Took a train from Volontaires. Changed at Montparnasse Bienvenue to Le Halles and from there to Disney land. We seriously couldn’t get the way they pronounce the places... We tried a lot and then started to call it the why we thot sounded good to us.

10.45 reached Disney. Thankfully we had taken tickets online. So we were able to bypass a one hour queue. We were welcomed by a train full of Disney characters... It was like the temple chariot going- Ppl standing on both sides of the road watching it go on tram tracks and lots of ppl following it religiously arnd. Then we went for various rides. The most sought after rides had a system called east pass where you can collect a pass which will have your entry time. This way we can save our time visiting other things we'll have to wait atleast 35-45 min if don't get a fast pass. The three rides that were really good were big thunder mountain, Indiana jones and temple of peril and Space Mountain: mission 2. All three were kinda roller coaster rides. It was like a old mine train riding thru a mine. The Indiana jones one a little more interesting with a 360 degree loop too.

My MBlog ends here. Didn’t have much time after this to type it down on mobile. So hence forth it’ll be from my memory which most of you know is pretty bad. Anyway lemme try my best.

The best one was unarguably the space mountain stuff. It started with a sooper fast rocket launch like take off and followed it with crazy loops at very high speeds. We were surrounded by darkness and soon we were flying thru moons, planets, stars and galaxies. Coz of the darkness arnd and the speed in which we were going, we cud hardly feel if we were going straight up or going down or are upside down... ufff it was jus too good... I and Mukul did Indiana jones and Space Mountain twice. In the mean time we also went to the famous trade mark Disney castle which is actually the castle of the sleeping beauty, just that we were not able to find her anywhere in the castle. I bought a couple of memorabilia in the shops there. We also took some photos with disney characters.

We were very hungry having had nothing since the light morning breakfast other than a couple of chips packet shared and an apple. And there wasn’t anything that looked filling in the stalls too. So I took hot dog for the first time in my life. It was ok. May not take it again unless I’m in the same situation with nothing else to eat.

After that we went to the “The legend of Lion King” show. It was a dance drama kinda stuff and portrays what happens to Simba after the death of Mufasa. Here is the link abt the movie for those unfortunate souls who had missed it. It was a pretty good one. The on stage spl effects were too good.

Then we went to the Disney studios only to realise we hadn’t got the tickets for it. I had booked the tickets in a hurry that day and forgot to select the correct ticket. L. So we went to the Disney village nearby which had all restaurants, shops and theatre. Did some window shopping and then started back.

We had lots of time left in the day. So we decided to do some night sight seeing. We went to the Opera thinking abt the Opera in Sydney.It turned out to be a huge old styled building with huge pillas and intricate statues placed all arnd it. I know it sounds a crude way of putting it but that’s how it is.

Then we decided to go to Eiffel tower area. We took the bus towards Eiffel and it took a route via the Road leading to Arc de Triumphe. It was an amazing sight, Broad road, lit up on both, filled with traffic leading to a Majestic structure in the middle of the largest junction I’ve ever seen (12 roads converging onto the monument). We put Eiffel on hold and got down at the next stop and started walking towards it. Half way thru we started feeling a bit hungry and we cud see only a couple of restaurants serving Pizza and stuff. We thot we wouldn’t get any other choice and went in and ordered for 2 Pizzas for 3 of us. Sangeetha wasn’t hungry. And the waitress was like, “Sorry sir you have to order atleast 4 meals. Atleast salads. (Seeing the size of Pizzas, we had initially thot we’ll take just one Pizza but later thot it’ll be too much for four of us to go and order 1 Pizza. So we had asked for 2). The plain green salads were only about 6 Euros and none of us were interested in eating it. She wudn’t even let us go without ordering anything. Finally she agreed to give us 2 Pizzas and a bottle of water costing another 6 Euros. After half an hour of struggle with the Pizzas, we came out of the restaurant and I was saying how we will feel if we get to see a McD close by. And guess what there wasn’t just 1 but 2 McDs within a space of 100 mts. And to further rub salt, there was one more Mc D in the adjacent road...

Then went near the Arc De Triumphe and were discussing the similarity of it with our own India Gate in Delhi.Only difference being They don’t let you go on top of the India Gate and has a lot of green open spaces arnd it while here you can go to the top (for a price of course) and it’s in the middle of a concrete jungle with a few trees thrown into.



By then we were all pretty tired and we took the underground from there (Took us 20 mins to find the entry to the underground which was just across the road from where we started our search). Reached the hostel, went into the room and opened the window and Voila!!!!!!!!!
There was the Eiffel tower right in front of us all lit up with brilliant orange lights and the next instant it started glittering with hundreds of white flashes like a group of photographers at a red carpet. It was a mesmerizing sight. I later came to know that those glittering lights are on every hour for five minutes post sunset.

It was a wonderful and memorable day... Paris is a totally different one at night and i was eager to see what else it has to offer... see you on Day 2....

Paris Photos

The photos are at

Paris

Paris - Day 3

Thanks to my house owner who had forgotten to pay the internet bill and my Cambridge trip on Sunday, the travelogue is still not complete. I’ve decided I’ll complete it and they should go live on Tuesday at any cost (s/w engineer you see).
Over to day 3
The amount of walking we did on day 2 meant we all got up pretty late. Rushed for the breakfast before the kitchen closes and had some cornflakes, orange juice, a bun as hard as rock with Butter and Jam. It was about 10 by the time we checked out of the hostel. We went to St-Michael Notre Dame or just Notre Dame. It was another huge cathedral with beautiful carvings covering the whole front face. We took a small tour inside the cathedral. It’s one the most beautiful buildings in Paris. It has a couple of scale models inside the church itself. With all the same intricate designs. Even the insides of the church were carved exactly the same way.
Next stop was Louvre Museum. On the way we saw an open area with a couple of short walls and the Eiffel at a distance. I remembered a picture which I saw the previous day where a lady bends down and the Eiffel is seen between her legs. We tried the same but with a bit of fun with Mukul. You tell me how it’s come… ;)Then we walked a looooong way towards Louvre through the Tuileries garden again. I actually wasn’t so interested in paintings and stuff. So I was like it’s so nice and sunny outside. I’ll be outside taking snaps of the Pyramids outside. Dheeraj convinced me to come. You’ve come all the way to Paris. Atleast for namesake come and see Monalisa. You can later tell your grandchildren that you saw Monalisa. I decided ok wat the heck, lemme see what’s there in that one painting which has made it soo famous. Again yet another disappointment. It was nothing gr8 or probably I didn’t have the artistic sight to appreciate it. I felt the carvings and statues on ceiling were much more beautiful. Took a few snaps with The Lady as a proof of my visit. Then was roaming about the place staring at the paintings. Kazhudhaiku theriyuma Karpoora vaasana kadhayathaan irrundhudhu. Finally we decided enuff is enuff and four of us: Me, Mukul, Dheeraj and Sunetra came out and did some sun bath.
Then we decided to go for some Perfume shopping which Sunetra was so determined to do since day 1. Finally we got a chance and we went to Champs-Elysees (We had for a long time thot it was some building and finally we realized it’s the name one section of one of the broad roads leading towards the Arc De Triumphe) searching for Perfume shops. We found a few and most of them were wayyyy beyond her budget. So she returned empty handed. We then went back to the hostel (Even though we had checked it out in the morning, they let us keep the luggages in a room), collected the baggages and came back to near Eiffel tower to again try our luck with the Seine river cruise. Someone must have cursed us. We again missed the cruise by 15 min. But it was late for us to wait for the next cruise that was about 45 minutes later. We had to start to the coach station by then. We spent some time on the banks of the river and started our journey back to the Gallieni station. We reached there half an hour b4 the scheduled time, stood in yet another queue to get our boarding pass and came to our bus hoping to get a good sleep. Disappointments were the order of our tour probably. First the bus was already full and we had to sit separately, then this bus also didn’t have the Xtra leg space that was promised at the time of booking and even worse than the onward travel, the WC was also not working. It didn’t end there. There was another chatter box sitting in front and she was talking when I slept and was still talking when I woke up at the port for the ferry.
This time the wait for even longer. But we settled down and slept quickly in one the sofas even before the Ferry started and continued the sleep back in the bus. We were welcomed in London with a COLD morning….. We didn’t have much time to relax as we had to go to office. So that was my Paris trip. We did have a lot of disappointments. But still the Trip as a whole was very good. Thanks to everyone who had made it very memorable trip.

Paris - Day 2

Dheeraj, Subbu, Rk, sadheesh and sangeetha(this is another sangeetha, sadheesh’s wife) too joined us. We had quite a few places lined up and it was 9.30 by the time we left the hostel. We went straight to Montmarte. It was a cathedral on top of a small hillock which supposedly gives one of the best views of Paris. We got down at the station and we had a choice between the stairs and the elevator (Was watching Matrix today.. the choice and stuff, effect of Morpheus;)). Given that usually it’s just about one floor, we took the stairs and it was spiraling on and on and on… at one point I thot ok the station is right under the hillock and the stairs takes us directly to the cathedral on top of it. But after about 4-5 floor equivalent of climbing, we reached the ground level and realized Montmarte was about a quarter mile ahead.
Montmarte by itself was a very beautiful one. And coupled with the fact that it was on top of a hillock with a green carpet, was really a wonderful sight. There was a winch to the ppl up to the cathedral, but we preferred to walk up the incline. Atleast this time we knew when it’s going to end. ;) After having a look at the cathedral, (btw what’s the diff between a church and a cathedral???) and taking a lot of pics, we came down and started towards Tuileries garden. Got down at the station and saw a pair of beautiful fountain and an obelisk. It had some hieroglyphics, we didn’t know what it was for, thanks to our knowledge of French. And after debating which direction the garden will be, we asked one person who pointed to a gate just behind us. We were in for a disappointment. Still being winter, the whole place was covered with trees devoid of any leaves… The way the trees were set surrounding 2 ponds, and a path thru the trees, it wud really be a beautiful sight when the trees are in full bloom. Spent some time in the garden and our next stop was Arc de Triumphe, this time in the day time.
On the way we also filled up our stomach with some burgers and fries from McD. They had this offer for ppl between 16 and 25. 25% off for young ppl. I thot someone who’s 25 doesn’t get categorized along with a 16 year old. 3 Euros less. Good for me. Coming back to Arc de Triumphe, again here we had to climb a spiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiralling set of stairs all the way up to the top… Ufffff cudn’t they just have built it a little shorter… From the top had a nice view of the concrete jungle arnd. J Somehow the view from Top is always wonderful, even if we looking at the same thing from different places. But this was a little special with the 12 roads converging onto the monument. It was a wonderful sight.
Then we got down thru another set of similar stairs and the sun was shining brightly… Experienced that kind of a sunshine after a loooooong time. Actually first time since I came from India. So had a short sunbath ;) and slept for sometime. Then started towards the Eiffel Tower.
There was a hugeeee queue at each entrance to the Eiffel tower. Eiffel tower is basically divided into 3 Floors. The first 2 floors are pretty close to each other and to the ground and can be reached by stairs while the 3rd is on top of the tower which can be reached only by a lift. Just as we reached halfway thru the queue, they closed the entry to the third floor as there were too many ppl in the top floor. We were so disappointed and rued our luck. But thanksfully the lady at the ticket counter said you can go to the second floor and buy tht etickets for the third floor from there and that by the time we get there, they wud’ve opened up the third floor. Just as we got to the second floor, the sun was about to go behind the cloud cover over the horizon and by the time I took out the camera, it was gone. L. Anyway just like the lady at the counter had told us, they started letting ppl onto the third floor and after one queue for the tickets and another for the lift, we started our upward journey to the highest point in Paris. By the time we reached there it was getting dark and soon the city was glittering with the lights. I’m going short of superlatives for the view… It was like a carpet of all types of strewn with gems. After taking a lot of photos from there, we came down.
We decided we’ll go for the cruise but our bad luck, the last cruise for the day left just 15 min b4 we went there. Then we got to know from a Bangladeshi street vendor that there were quite a few Indian restaurants at some place on line 4 which sounds like Starbucks. We referred to the map and found that it was Strasbourg Saint Denis. We had to change a couple of trains to reach that place and it was already 10.30 and most shops were closed. Thankfully we found one Pakistani restaurant which was just abt to close. We went in and that guy made us rotis out of fresh dough and we had it with Rajma masala. After 2 days of starvation, we had a sumptuous meal and then came back home. Mukul and Dheeraj were not done by the amount of walking we had done and wanted more. So the four of us including Subbu went out for a mid night walk thru the empty streets arnd the Hostel. Came back and fell in the bed and that’s it for Day 2.

Paris Trip: Travel

I was thinking about carrying my Laptop and writing a live travelogue, but then decided against it. It was too heavy for all the walking we were about to do. So I tried to write it down in my mobile notes. But after half a day it proved to be too tedious to type. So till the first half of the day from my mobile.

21st 8.30 PM: Ufff finally after a really long week of working really late everyday, here I’m in the bus station waiting for the bus or coach as they call it here. It’s got delayed by 15 min.

8.45: We are called upon to another bus which was scheduled to go before ours. We went into the bus only to realise that it was almost full and we got the last but one seat. It wasn’t so comfy. Not even as good as the Volvos and the executive coaches back home. It’s ok. I’ve travelled in worse buses for longer durations. For a 48£ return ticket, I don’t have complaints.

11.30: We reached the port of Dover, got the passport stamped and have been waiting for the alst one hour for the ferry that will ferry us across the English Channel. Why can’t they just dig another tunnel for buses also just like they have it for trains?

12.30: Where is the Goddamn ferry???????

22nd 1.00am. Finally the long wait is over and I got into the ferry or rather the bus got into the ferry. When they said ferry, the thing that came to my mind was the one in Goa. The small one used to ferry ppl and cars across the water. But this was like HUGEEEE. There were about 4-5 busses and 6-7 trucks apart from lots of cars in one of the 2 decks available for vehicles. There were restaurants, coffee shops, a book store, a perfume shop and lots of sofas and chars to sit and sleep. After a small tour of the ferry, we settled down for a short nap. It was a 1.5 hrs journey across the channel.

3.30: We got into the bus again and touched the French soil. (Thanks to the 1 hr time diff, it ended up being a 2.5 hrs journey.)

7.00: Arrived at Porte De Bagnolet half an hour late. We were welcomed by French, French and more French. Maps, directions etc.. I realised we should have tried learning a bit of it before going.

Paris Trip - Preperation

After sitting at home for quite a long time, thanks to the weather, I decided I’ll have to go somewhere. Mukul wanted to go to Paris as he’s going back to India in March. So we decided to take up the 3 Day star tours package to Paris. Then we checked out the itinerary of the package and realised we’d have just enuf time to look at Paris thru the windows of the bus. So we decided to go on our own. A few more ppl(Dheeraj, Sunetra, Sangeetha, Subbu, RK, Sadheesh and his wife) were also interested in the Paris trip. Only Sunetra and Sangeetha cud take a day off on Friday (22nd). The others were happy with a 2 day tour.

Once we decided we are going. We started the wid the prepns. To get the Visa we needed our travel, acco, travel insurance, bank statement, employer letter – everything to be ready. It was hardly one month left for our trip. So flights and Eurostar was costly. So we booked in National Express for the Eurolines coach. Cost us abt 48£ return.

Acco we booked it in Aloha hostel, thru hostelbookers.com. It had pretty good reviews and it was well connected to most places. Cost us abt 23 euros per pppn.

Travel insurance booked it thru insureandgo.com. 33£ for annual multi trip. Ppl got it for about 15£ from a different insurance provider.

Booked an appointment for Visa on 12th Feb. It was very easy getting it. Have all your docs ready and you will get the Visa in Half a day.

So everything was ready 10 days in advance. Then came the worst 10 days in UK. Suddenly so much work came up and I even had to take some work home and work till 12 to finish off everything before I leave.

In the mean time did a little shopping as I hardly had any casuals. On 21st did all the packing and I had one bag which was too small for all the stuff I had and one which was too big for a 3 day trip. So I ended up carrying one bag with clothes, one with fruits, biscuits and water, my camera bag and my tripod.