Sunday, August 17, 2014

Paris 15/8/14-17/8/14

PARIS! Contrary to what many have said, this place is actually pretty beautiful and I don't find it overrated. "Paris Syndrome" didn't happen to us, or me at least. Arrived and settled in to our private apartment (smaller one this time round; like a studio apartment without bedroom). Headed out to the Grand Palace, Eiffel Tower (and "love bridge" which wasn't the original one but a nicer one in my opinion cos it has the tower on its background; we also locked our love there!), and Arc de Triomphe, and also found a nice Chinese restaurant to have dinner in between (didn't wanna get discriminated so we decided to eat with something we are familiar with the first night). Oh, and Churros... That weren't very nice. One thing I don't like about Paris: there's no English anywhere!

Next morning was grocery time! Wanted to nua till 12pm for our sushi buffet but we woke up too early and had too much time to idle around so we headed out to the Louvre and saw some fun fare nearby! Got scammed by a lousy gelato but oh wells. Decided to not see yet another Notre Dame and also driven by our hunger, we headed back for a very worth it (Europe sense) sushi buffet just at the alley of bars under our apartment! Haven't had so much food in quite a while (one week actually, cos self-cooked dinner in Florence was awesome too). 

Headed out again to the St Ouen Flea Market that turned out to be a gathering point for the homeless (and the African community). The streets were chaotic (especially the "slums" under the bridge) but the alleys of Marche's were pretty interesting, selling antiques and old stuff; even got my postcard of an old Eiffel Tower there! (Didn't manage to send it out cos Le Poste are all closed during the weekend and the Tobac shops seem to all have sold out their stamps). Since the day was early, we went over to the Love Wall and played spot-your-languages since they have all sorts of different languages' version of "I love you" on the wall. Streets around this area was also nice and we even found the flower petal gelato cone! 

Headed back home to cook our dinner and yep, it was awesome again thanks to master chef Tey. Haha! Two good meals in a row; kinda not what real backpackers can afford (and that's if you exclude next morning's breakfast, otherwise, 3!)

Bars underneath plus long weekend (oh Friday was some public holiday) meant noisy and sleepless night. On the train to Brussels now so Bon voyage et bonne nuit! (Rare few French terms that I still remember)