today is our last day in Paris. First, we went to Sacre Coeur, a cathedral on top of a hill, which looks like a mosque to me but a cake decoration to one of our teachers. We went there at around 8 and had a stand up breakfast of typical Parisian breakfast (i think) consisted of a croissant and a cup of coffee. Then we went up the hundreds of steps of stairs to the sacre coeur and all of the sudden a group of africans stopped us. I thought they were doing magic tricks for a few centimes or at the most an euro or two. All four of us were asked to put a finger into a loop they've made Then the did their 'magic trick' and hey Presto! a bracelet... of string (it looks like a very low quality friendship band). Then they asked us to pay. I thought it was up to us to decide how much to pay them. Then the guy said 5 euros. What the.... I was so angry that i even cursed the French government for not protecting the tourists from this bunch of leeches sucking people's money by selling a stupid bracelet.

After taking pictures at the Sacre Coeur, we went to... i forgot the place. It was something like Tornado or Toledo. We went there to take pictures of Eiffel Tower because from there you can get the whole tower as the background and not just the four feet of the tower. After that, we went to Toh's Roland Garros Stadium to take some pictures. He bought a cap there as a souvenir. As usual, it took him almost 45 minutes to decide which cap to buy.

Then we went to Notre-Dame. Somehow, we managed to see the cathedral from the exit of the metro station. So we went round and round to find it.I think we've managed to round at least half of the island. Since some of us (read: I) was so tired we just took some pictures outside and didn't go in.

After lunch at Quake (again), Brian went to his quartier that he wanted to go. I wanted to go to Cite de Science et Industrie, but i know 2 hours was not enough for me to explore everything there. So I decided to stay with Toh and Khairul to stroll up and down Champs-Elysees (again). We went to the swatch shop. Suddenly i felt like buying a watch. Furthermore, i just got my own savings money from malaysia. So we walked around the shop and a salesman approached us. His English was like our French at that time. He explained to us about the different types of watches and he even said something that showed he watched too many teen movies. Then i decided to buy one and he said ' You pay by cash or credit card'. I said ' I'll use my Carte Bancaire (it's a debit card, only people who stays in France have this)'. He said 'Oh, you mean credit card'. I said 'No, I mean carte bancaire' and i showed him my card with the Credit Mutuel logo in front. Suddenly his visage changed from happy looking to embarrassed. He just put the watch at the counter and left.

After meeting Brian again, we had coffee at one of the cafe there just to have the experience of drinking coffee at Champs Elysees. It was fun (notice that i only use the adjective fun which doesn't describe the fun'ness' of doing it).

We left Paris at around 11.30 pm by train. At first I decided not to sleep. We played cards (and i was not pleased by the rules they set). But after a few games, we slept and woke up the next morning in Strasbourg, to catch the train back to Colmar

La Tour Eiffel... Il y a 5 ans...

In front of Sacre Coeur... after spending 5 euros on an unneccessary stuff

this also starts to bore me out. Disneyland that is. This is also my third time in Disneyland and my second in Paris. Nothing has changed very much. We took the RER to Marne La Valee, and arrive there at around 1030, because SOMEONE decided to wake up late. We bought the ticket from FNAC in colmar. We thought that we could just go in without queueing since we already have the tickets. It turned out that we need to change the ticket to passes at the ticket counter. The same counter where you can buy tickets-cum-passes. So what's the point of selling the tickets outside the park? And so we queued a long queue.

First we went to the haunted house. It was exactly the same. They should at least change the displays or even the characters. Then we went to the Thunder mountain, a roller-coaster ride. It's been 2 years since my last roller-coaster, I don't know why, but i just cannot stand it. I had to scream all the way from the start to the end. I was screamin, not because i was enjoying it but because i was really scared. And... just when we arrived back at the station, the ride broke down. Can you imagine that?

I went to almost every single ride. Went, not rode every ride. I didn't ride the indiana jones thingy and also the space mountain. And again, the malaysian rain came. After Space mountain, Brian and Khairul went to watch the Lion King theater. Not that i don't like theaters, but the idea of queueing for 2 hours made me feel like giving up, and so i did. So me and toh went around the park on train and we shopped around. He bought a sweater. I didn't buy anything but a bottle of Coke. The sweater was suppose to have a square in the middle with a mickey shape in it. He was busy looking for a sweater that has the most perfect square. And it took him about 20 minutes to find it.

We met each other again and we saw the parade. Ughh... that music they played, it's stuck in my head for days and days. We went back to paris at around 9 pm and arrived at around 10.30. Though it was tiring, it was a great day!

Paris ~ first big trip

okay.. this starts to bore me. Paris that is. It's my third time here. We arrived at around 6.40 in the morning. After having breakfast, we went straight to the hotel. I booked this hotel online. It was said that it's a 3 star hotel. I was expecting something like Seri Malaysia. Splat! That's how i felt when i saw the hotel. It was in the little india of paris where each and every shop must have an indian city name like Madras Saris or Pondicherry Boucherie. But that was not the reason, it's the hotel itself. I have to agree that its location is good. Near to metro... very near actually... too near, and also near to two train stations. The room was... urghh.. you have to experience it to know it. The bed was made so that you can only sleep straight and not be able to move left or right. The bathroom was facing the main street, so you have to choose either to open the window to let the fresh air in or close it to have your privacy. Then when we were leaving that morning to explore Paris the guy behind the counter said something like " You.. Leave Key Here.. You Understand?.. Key.. Here!".

So we went up and down Champs-Elysees, and somehow, Toh and Brian managed to convince me to go to the Louvre Museum.. which was surprising since even my mom didnt manage to do it when we came in 1999. Oh i just love being underage. I dont have to pay to enter the museum. All i need to do is show my passport and presto! i can get in. We went to see Mona Lisa and tried our best to act as if we enjoyed all the other paintings on the way to and from Mona Lisa.

Then we decided to go to Quartier Latin, where, our professors said the things there are cheap. I don't know where they got that idea. Or perhaps they were just trying to test us, to see how far they can con us ;) And unluckily, we were trapped in a supermarket there, because all of the sudden there was a heavy downpour. Maybe what John Dindlebeck said in 1999 was right. We brought the malaysian rain to france.

When the rain stopped, we went back to the hotel to smayang and rest a little, and we went to Moulin Rouge. Ahahaha. We just took pictures outside and rushed back to the Metro because i felt unease with the atmosphere there. It's a kind of place where you can even get AIDS by just breathing the air. But then, 'some of us' four decided to hang around for awhile. So only me and toh went back to the hotel. We had a nice little chat that night. And when the clock showed 11 pm, we got quite worried since the 'some of us' were still out there somewhere in Paris, in the dark. But they got back safely that night.