Hi lads,

i just came back from Paris yesterday together with Faiz, KA. We safely arrived around 9.30 pm at the doorstep of our beloved house, 26 KPA. really missed the bed and the environment of actual house. :P

In short, i can say that my visit to Paris has been a great experience. Meeting Faris and Adli (Pech's friend) was even better. Those two surely know how to make people laughing out loud (lol) no matter where we are. Safe journey to both of them whom take a different route after Paris. Faris went to Amsterdam for another 4 days of traveling and going to meet his other friends from Germany over there whereas Adli straight went back to Gelsenkirchen after 4 tiring day of journey.

In this entry i just want to share my experience of this trip and also my about this city which is well known as one of the must visit city in Europe.

1st day

We arrived early around 8.40am local time which is about 9.40am in Dublin. Since Ryanair use the Paris Bouevais airport to land, there are buses available to bring passengers to the middle of Paris. The journey alone take about 1.5 hours. As we got off the bus, first thing that we did was finding the metro to get to the hostel. We did found the station but somehow didn't know which ticket to buy as the counter was still closed. Some stranded Englishman and his family keep mumbling and complaining about the service here. how come when it was almost 11am, no one was at the counter? Weird isn't it? finally, i decided to buy from the machine as i remember Abdul Malik and some friend told me to buy the multiple ticket at once. it cost me 11.40 euro for 10 tickets. I then shared it with Faiz and KA. Though we are not sure how to the ticket works, we just gamble by using it to get to the Marie de clichy metro station. Thanks god, i was so relief that as we got out of the metro station there, i saw a halal kebab hut. ^O^. FOOD!!! we had not eaten anything (almost literally) since last night. so i bought the kebab and went to the tourist information center which was still closed!

Nob French! it was 12 something midday for god sake! open please! luckily there were this one man came and gave us the maps. one was Paris map and the other was Clichy map. we went straight to hostel after that man gave us the instruction to walk straight down that lane. we arrived there with a great hope that we can rest for a while before going out to enjoy the city. unfortunately, we were told that there was a curfew hours from 11am until 3pm. they said it was necessary for cleaning purposes but in the website, they mention nothing about this. what a lame excuse, do mention it in your website if you wanna get a good review. i wonder why people who went there gave them a good review? is it because of the good breakfast or the once-in-a-while hot chick at the counter? lol

Then after we kept our stuff inside the luggage room and fill in our stomach with the freshly made kebab, we headed straight to the city. As promised, i tried to avoid those must visit places first because Faris and Adli is only going to arrive at night. after taking some time to decide, we headed to Jardin de Luxembourg. we took some time to find it and it was not a regret at all. The garden was so awesome! Beautifully awesome. we did not cover the whole lot of it. In the garden itself, they have like 10 tennis court, some area for small zoo i think and lots of other stuff. It was huge. we just went straight to the main attraction there, the beautiful area in front of Luxembourg Palace. The weather was beautiful, you can see people all over the garden enjoying the sun. KA mention that it was about 20 degree something that day. no wonder i sweat like it was summer! It was even warmer that the trip that i took last summer. So after taking some picture, we dicided to go to Pantheon which is just nearby.


Garden Of Luxembourg



The flower

We are very lucky that we got to enter the place free of charge. it suppose to be 6 euro. Not just that, we also manage to follow the guided trip to its top and having the first sight of the city from above. It is simply amazing. The view was breataking. Next, we went to Jardin des Plantes. we wnet there simply to enjoy the muzeum really but unfortunately, many were closed or under renovation. it also suppose to be filled with thounsands type of beautiful flower because this garden is going to be the host for some world flower festival or something, but we are a bit too early. The best part was that being there somehow brought us very close to the Grand Mosque of Paris without even realising it in the first place.


Parthenon


Garden of Plants

It was when i tried to find the next pit stop, i ended up realizing the mosque was at one of the corner of the garden. so without wasting another moment after hours walking, we went to the mosque. somehow, we ended up in the Turk's Hamam and from there we had to find the actual entry which a bit hidden i should say. You have to wonder around before you can find it (or just us maybe). most of the tourist (non-muslim) i think just knew the place because of that restaurant that we ended up in the first place. The mosque is quite big. however the musolla (praying area) was simply small. at least not for the whole time. i think when they have the friday prayer, they gonna use the whole mosque area because it is very small. we performed the asr and midday (zohor) prayer there. i also met Tepet (malaysian student from belfast) and some indonesian people. We wondered around the mosque compound and took pictures. the mosque is beautiful but maybe not taken care very well. some area already closed and the garden inside also in the same condition. apart from that, we really enjoy it.


Grand mosque of Paris


^-^

From there we walked to the riverbank and continue walking along the riverbank where we witnessed lots of love in the air as KA said. :P. We ended up somewhere near the famous Notre-Dame. i decided not to enter it yet so that we could go there again with Faris and Adli. So, later that evening, we continue walking in search of KFC. Faiz was so persistent that he wanted KFC for the meal. Then i text Hilmi and ask him for a direction. Thanks to him finally we arrived there in one piece though it took about more than an hour to get there. Unfortunately, the taste of KFC that Faiz is looking for was not available. In fact, our very own Dublin Chicken Hut is much better! However, we did enjoy the whole chicken bucket because we were too hunghy! Its finger licking plainly eadible. lol. Since it was too far to walk back, we decided to use the remaining metro ticket to get to Eiffel Tower.


Faiz and K A


Sunset at Eiffel Tower

The time we arrived was about sunset (around 8.30pm). it's my first time there but honestly, i don't feel that excitement. not sure why. The feeling of watching other people's photos there seems better but when i myself is there, i don't get that feeling of excitement. Maybe because i was too tired after long hours of walking. The tower itself was not that high but still it is amazing. the effect of sunset made it more beautiful. Later, they turned on the lamp that gloriously lighting the tower. They even turned on the lampu kelip-kelip. this one was simply amazing. Its not the tower but the effect that it had on that steel frames. Almost everyone shouted happily or really enjoy the moment. it made the tower look better than just a simple steel frame that is sky high. i took a video of that moment, maybe i'll upload it later.

Then we went straight back to hostel. it was almost 11pm when we arrived there. Faris and his friend were still nowhere to be found. so i waited for their arrival while enjoying some EUFA Cup match between Paris St. German and Dynamo Kiev. Faris and Adli arrived at about 12 something and after they sorted some misbooked date (Faris was too sleepy when he booked the date maybe. lol), we went to the room. Faris decided not to sleep in his room instead he joined the 4 of us. He ended up on the floor only with some thick wool layers of blanket as mattress. Luckily it was warm that night that no one use the blanket and we even had to open the window! What a day.

Phew...long essay eh? lol. The first day ma...detail a bit ye, sorry coz its very long. huhu. so, with that, i stop here first, more excitement of the 2nd day will come next. i try to make it shot okay. There are stories and more things to learn about this city of love. Till we meet again... Bye...