remember my amazing euro trip blogs which i posted july and august last year? this is the super overdue continuation. it has been a year since i made that trip with lisa. we're planning another trip next month (HK) so before things start to pile up again and while my memory is still good (though i rarely get to have a goodnight sleep since i gave birth to djuan), i'd finish the story.
the adventure of leaving rome
it was in our last night in rome (day 2) that the water heater of the hostel broke down. i wasn't able to clean up myself then. i was already snoozing when lisa finished her endeavor with the ref-cold water in the shower room. come the next day, to our dismay, the water heater was still not working. tsk tsk. our flight to paris was at 10am. we woke up at 6am so that we could leave by 7:30 and be at the airport at least 2hrs before our flight (train travel from the city to the airport is just 30mins). lisa took a (very cold) shower while i packed up my things. then it was my turn to hit the showers. brrrr. when i was done i asked lisa for the time. she told me it was already 8am. omfg! that took us so long?! change of plans. we had to be at the train terminal before 8:30 so we could be at the airport by 9, that would already be the last call to check-in our luggage. fast forward. we didn't bother to eat our free breakfast which we could take just a few doors away from the hostel building. instead, we ate the lucky me instant cup noodles we brought(always reliable anytime anywhere). by 8:15 we were running like crazy to cross the street to reach termini station. it was really a good thing that our hostel was strategically located very near it. we got out train tickets. it was strange because they were still offering the 7:30 trip to the airport. talk about being an IT consultant. thought the train's ticketing didn't undergo QA. tsk tsk. anyway, i still chose the 8:30 trip. then we ran again because we only had 5mins left to reach our train. if we missed it then we were going to miss our flight too. that would surely ruin our paris dream and it probably would cost us a lot to rebook the flight (we only have free tickets from our earned miles). after so much catching of breath and almost breaking our leg running, we were lucky to be the last passengers to board the train. yeah, we were really the last ones. lisa was so disappointed. she was so tired and then she lost the keychain of the bag she just bought from ucb the other day. *sigh*. when we reached the airport we immediately checked-in our luggage. it was really a great advantage to be an elite frequent flyer. we have our own queue which is way too short than the regular ones. when we reach the immigration, uh-oh the queue was uber long. waaah, our elite status doesn't work there. oh well, we just convinced ourselves that we were already in the airport and our luggage were already checked-in. that means the airlines is already informed that we were already there. if ever we get late in our flight, for sure they would know that we were probably stuck in the immigration line. after about 45mins of falling in line, removing and putting back our jackets and belts for the security check, we were finally in front of the gate. whew! it was just about time for boarding when we got there. the stewardess was wearing green uniform. i thought were supposed to take air france (blue uniform)? hmm, we'd probably be in alitalia. they are anyway affiliated airlines. excitedly, we even got to the line first because frequent flyers normally board the plane first. then we were refused to board. wtf?! the stewardess told us it was a flight going to valencia, spain and not to paris. wtf (again)?! so where's our gate? we were so afraid that we still missed our flight after all. the stewardess politely informed us that we were at the right gate and that it would be the next flight. i looked up at the flight monitoring screen and indeed our flight would be next to the valencia flight. and the time.... was only 9am. huwat??!! we double-checked and it was really just 9am. how could have we possibly turned back the time? hehehe. silly. then i almost killed lisa. the time she gave me earlier in the hostel was actually the time in finland, which is an hour advanced from italy. *sigh*. oh well, lisa got her punishment early because on our flight to paris she was sitting beside a carpet, i mean, a guy with bushy arms. and that bushy arm was unintentionally rubbing her arm. yikes but bwahahaha!
the city of louis
i'm already getting tired of making the usual paragraph-style story so i'll just put things in bullet to make reading for me (and the rest of my expectators, hehe) more enjoyable.
* cdg (charles de gaulle) airport - we immediately went to the train station to buy our 2-day pass tickets. back then i think it was 26 or 27 euros. i think we only got the 5-zone day pass ticket because we were only visiting the city tourist spots. i believe zones 6,7 and 8 were already considered paris suburbs area (or i thought so coz those are already in the outskirts of the city).
* metro to paris - the heart of paris is accessible from the airport via the metro (subway). aside from the M sign you would see along the streets that tells you there's a nearby metro, you can also check for the RER sign. that's the same thing. accessibility of the city downtown via train is really a good thing for a tourist-busy city like paris, amsterdam and rome. in helsinki the only cheapest way to to get to the city from the airport is via the bus. side kwento: while still inside the train, three girls board the train and sat in front of us. they were all pretty except for one who has bushy armpits! hahaha. welcome to paris!
* avia hotel - after two train changes, we reached our 3-star hotel. o divah! this time we were a bit sosi. hehe. i would say this was much better than the hostel we got from rome. the room is much smaller though. but at least we got to sleep in our own single beds unlike the double we shared in rome (i was really thinking that probably the receptionist thought we were lesbian couples. yikes!). we were provided with towels and some toiletries (soap, shampoo, tissue). again, like the one we got in rome this hotel is strategically located near the metro.
* chinese resto - sorry i forgot the name. this resto was just a few walks away from our hotel. lisa finally got her wish to eat chinese. hehehe. we ate our lunch in this resto both on our first day and last day in paris. the food and price were a-ok.
* eiffel tower - as usual we had "culture labas" again. we just took pics of eiffel tower anywhere near it but not in it. we didn't bother going up to the tower. either you go by foot or you take the elevator, you still have to pay their entrance fee. and that would still depend on what floor you would like to go to. next time that i'd go to paris i'd do that. hopefully i have more money then and i am with donar. side kwento: i lost the other pair of my big earrings here. if you'd notice in our pictures around eiffel, earlier i still had two on, later i only had one.
* arc de triomphe - on our way to the louis vuitton shop, we dropped by the area in the champs de elyssees where tourist normally take pictures of arc de triomphe. this tourist spot is similar to the rotonda of monumento and espanya (welcome rotonda). but we never got to take good pics of the arc coz the sun was facing us when we took the pictures and it was hard to get a spot where the sun would be hidden.
* louis vuitton - we went to the famous louis vuitton shop not for us to buy our own bags. oh how i wish i could get an lv luggage! hehe. we were there to purchase a bag for our friend's mom (kv's mom). it costed a whooping 900 euros, something like 60-65k in pesos. wow! when we were there, two girls got my attention. one was a chinese who asked for all the handbags in display. she even tried them while walking around the shop. i told lisa that whatever this girl does, the lv bags won't make her look any better. hahaha. the second one was a singaporean who we believed was a model because she was so pretty and thin. i got so fond of her coz she accidentally broke the salesman's ballpen coz of too much excitement. hehehe. shopping in lv was not as easy as going to a regular store then pick up the item you want then pay it in the cashier. here, we had to wait for our turn for a salesperson to assist us. it was funny when we met our sales guy because he looked a lot like our previous co-java developer in ssip. he looked like jacky chan! nope, not the martial arts expert and action star. seriously, i had an officemate whose name is jacky chan. i thought that when we already gave him the model of the bag we wanted we wouldn't stay in the shop longer. i was wrong. as i've said shopping in lv wasn't that easy. lisa had to present her passport. the passport was used to register the purchase of the bag. that specific bag we bought was identified with lisa. imagine that! it was like buying a car wherein you have to have a registration. at least we didn't have to get a license to acquire (in the case of car, to drive) a louis vuitton. hehe. this was our last stop for the day. we were supposed to go back to eiffel tower at night to watch its color-changing lights. but coz of too much exhaustion, probably of waiting in lv that long, we got so sleepy and lazy to go out that night. oh well, again next time, eiffel.
more of paris
second and at the same time last day in paris we woke up at 6am. too much to do, too much to see.
* louvre museum - like eiffel tower, we didn't bother going in the louvre . we just took some pics outside particularly those pyramids that are identified to the egyptians and not to the parisians. again, next time that i have more money (and more time!), i would definitely go inside this museum and see da vinci's works.
* starbucks - we saw a starbucks shop on our way to notre dame and the famous seine river. lisa and i were just so happy that after two months we could have a coffee from that shop again. damn, even if it was too expensive, we splurged! we had a 5-euro (350pesos) frap and a one euro (70pesos) croissant. this breakfast didn't make us full but at least we were happy with it.
* seine river - before crossing the notre dame area, we took some pictures of the canal where seine river is.
* notre dame - again, we only had pictures outside of this tourist spot. next time? maybe. i remember it was in this area that we bought our eiffel tower souvenirs (bronze figures). i think it was cheaper in this area because the tower is nowhere to be seen.
* pantheon - paris has its own version of the pantheon. the place was busy when we got there. it looked like there was some sort of a party for famous people. oh well, we just took some pics then left the place at once. on our way to the metro, we bought our paris pasalubong and souvenirs: keychains (mostly eiffel tower) and ref magnets.
* basilica of sacre de coeur - had to google the correct spelling of this church. here we didn't even get to set our foot inside the church because we were already running out of time. we were so anxious to finish the itinerary so we just took pics at the nearest possible spot of the church vicinity. if i could i remember it correctly we had to take 3 flights of stair before we could reach the facade of the church. so we didn't bother going there anymore.
* moulin rouge - this was the only place that we never got to see. first we got lost when we left sacre de coeur. the street where we were was no longer in our map. after about 30minutes of figuring out where to go, we finally got to a street that was already on our map. the place where we thought was moulin rouge was really not it. it was just a resto where there was a windmill (like the one you'd see in holland). we were disappointed. oh well, that's life so we went on. we got lost again. darn! when i finally figured out the nearest metro that we could take, i tripped over a concrete divider by the sidewalk. damn! i got bruises on my left leg. and i had a cut on my toe thumb. huhuhu. all because of protecting my precious sony camera. it was barely 2 months old so imagine how i crazy i could have gone if i broke it.
ok, dinudugo na ilong ko kakakuwento. so we got back to the hotel. i cleaned my cut and bruises. we're girl scouts so we had band-aids with us. of course we ate lunch in the chinese resto then we already headed back to the airport. coz of too much tiredness we slept on the way. once or twice lisa and i would wake up and check if louis (the LV bag) was still with us. when we reached the airport there was some sort of commotion that the airport police had to ask us to leave the place at once. damn! we were so close (like 5m away) from our counter. we had to pass by the other terminal (which was like kilometers away from where we were supposed to be) just to get to our airline counter. we went in circle. *sigh*. when we boarded the plane i was starving so when the food was served and the cute steward (apparently gay) gave me peanuts, i asked for the yummy chocolate chip cookie. he was so kind (or maybe he just thought i'm matakaw) to give me both the peanuts and the cookie. when we reached rome, we were held by the immigration officer. apparently they were just checking the louis vuitton bag lisa was carrying. pahamak to si louis o! they took lisa's passport and after a few mins they returned it back then let us go. i dunno what they checked. so we went on. i took lisa to the train going back to the city. she was staying for one more night coz the only available flight to helsinki that she got from her earned miles was on the ff day. i was then heading back to amsterdam (my sister's house) where i left most of my things. from there i went home back to manila. so that was it! i hope we all enjoyed reading (for me and lisa, reminiscing) the euro trip last year. up next: bora trip with djuan and donar and.... hongkong trip with donar and the ssip team leads (roselyn, lisa and theo). let's hope for the best for ssip by then.
