Paris , city of Love and etc....

Personally, if I would compare romantic, I would prefer Venice by night.THat's really romantic. Eiffel Tower by night was totally beautiful too, with all the bright coloured lights, for my personal choice, I would give the title to Venice.

That was my best Autumn hols so far! Out of 4 weeks, I was away for 3 weeks! WOO!! Paris was a great experience, went there with another friend.We stayed with 2 hostfamiles during our stay due to AFS rules saying that we are not allowed to stay in hotels without a Swiss accompanying us. THanks Mum and Lin Lao Shi for helping me and making this trip come true for me! =D THANKS!!!!!!

THe ride to Paris was about 6 hours from Zurich. I was my first time going to a foreign country WITHOUT being chaperoened by someone who knows the country. Everything was from zero. Despite the fact that we had no idea which trains to take(at the beginning lah), we manged to navigate through Paris and reached Versailles, our hostfamily in France. THey are a nice bunch of people. Really friendly and warm and welcoming.=) Nice of them to host us during our stay.

According to weather forecasts, the week would be rainy and cold,etc. To my amazment, the weather was great! Warmth and sunshine, all week long! The weather was so perfect that I was infact quite 'dissapointed' coz if it was cold and windy, at least I had an excuse to wear my overpacked Autumn clothings. After Venice, I decided to bring more thick clothes to Paris, but of course had never the chance to use them. Darn.

The weather was great for sight seeing and touring the city. We decided to go to Disneyland on Tuesday as it was a great day and a weekday. A tip for all students: Always bring along your student ID. YOu really save $$$. For our Disneyland ticket, I saved saved 20 euros by just presenting my student ID. Lourve was even better. The lady misread our birthdates and decided that we were under 18 and we managed to go in --without paying a single cent! Therefore all students out there, no shame in presenting your student ID to get cheaper bargains.

It was a good thing we decided to check out Disneyland Studios instead of Park first. The Disneyland Studios was really great. I enjoyed myself really much there. We even saw how they shot stunts in films. Damn geil! U know those kind of action films where the bad guys on motorcycles riding really fast while the good guys chase from behind, and then 2 cars crash causing a huge a fire and this bad guys end up going through the fire, body burning with fire. THat was the kind of stunts we saw. Geng leh?!

It was a good thing we decided to check out the studios first. Let's just say that everything was well planned. We practically walked into every ride WITHOUT waiting. The longest we had to wait was 25 minutes for 1 ride. Considered not bad liao. REally. Imagine the ppl waiting such a long time just to get on a less-than-5-minute ride. I really cant imagine that. As how Mark Twain once said : Waiting(Golf was actually what he said. I changed it to waiting=P) is an easy game. Just hard to play. THink about it.

Disneyland park was an ideal place for reminicsing our childhood memories. Despite the fact that I'm already 18, I'm not ashamed to say that I'm a 100% Disney fan. However, I think that I may appreciate Disneyland Park more if I was younger. But anyway, I had a great time!

Eiffel TOwer was great. Started off at some palace and walked all the way to Eiffel Tower. Turning part Swiss, we decided to walk up the Eiffel Tower.(Swiss LOVE walking.Trust me.A free time or holidays, they'll go off some random moutain to do trekking or walking.Take it from someone who has been doing tons of trekking and walking in Switzerland.) Ok lah, to save money was also one of our reasons lah.Not cheap ok to take the lift all the way up. Anw, it's good exercise to burn off the fats we accumalated from all the biscuits we ate during our travel.

The weather was so clear so sunny. HAd a great view of Paris city from the top. It's something one will never forget. Of course I was partly proud to find Malaysia's flag in the sign board up at Eiffel Tower. Dunno why, but spending time in a foreign country somehow makes one more patriotic in a way. I even too a picture of it. Call me 'jakun' but, yeah, what the heck.

Arc de Triomphe: All roads leading to this arche.

La Defense: Modern version of Arc de triomphe. Opposite Arc de Triomphe too.

Lourve: Glass pyramid and Lourve musuem. THey make money coz ppl juz crowd to catch a glimpse of Mona Lisa. THEY say that with the Mona Lisa, u can see that she's looking at you at every angle. Who's that 'they'? Btw, I didnt find it true though.

Centre Pompidou: Modern art. If you arent interested in art like Picasso, or some other modern or abstract art which can easily pass as a 3 year old kid's drawing, no point wasting money and time to go in. As I had that 'some little bit of art knowledge' Mami had imparted in me, personally it was worth the entry for me.

Notre Dame: I think Walt Disney made it even more famous than it used to be.

Sacre Coere : Another pretty famous church. Dont ask me why these churches are so well-known.

Jardin de Tuileries: Beautiful gardens. A must for all tourists.

Musee d' Orsay : Once an old train station. NOw a museum. One place worth going.

Picasso Musuem: A must for all Picasso fans. A no-no for ppl uninterested in art. Maybe an interesting place to go to, just to see how work that seem like a 3 year old kid's doing can be so famous. I won't be surprised when ppl comment that they can propably draw better than what they see. Or maybe I'm just too 'art knowledge-less' to appreciate Picasso's work.

Versailles: King Loius the 16th's palace. U'll be amazed how huge the place is.Esp the gardens. They can practically change it into a new residential area when one day Paris run out of land to build anymore buildings and can only build high-rise buildings(just like Singapore, or Hong Kong)

Lyon: Ok lah. Travelling 2 hours from Paris, I expected more.

Tourists + Camera = Power -------------- Equation no.1

Scene: Lourve Musuem by the Venus statue.
The Chinese tourists crowded the statue. They held some small silver box which looked like a digital camera. Dunno how many mega-watt lights flashing off simutenously. Blinding one temporarily. Unfatal though. The French or white tourists overpowered by the Chinese tourists sat pathetically by the side as if they've given up hope in catching a glimpse of the well-known statue.

That was 1 scene we saw in the musuem. I don't mean to criticize, but really they acted sooo bloody jakun! Really pai seh u know! No wonder my Swiss friends automatically stereotype Asians as phototaking humans. I dont mean not to act touristish, but there's a limit to it, doesnt it?

Tourists are really interesting ppl. They can be oblivious at times. For example they can also choose to be blind whenever they want,esp when there's a huge board saying photography is forbidden at most churches. In Notre Dame for example. There's practically no tourist WITHOUT a camera in hand, WITHOUT their cameras flashing off INSIDE the church. If there was some invention where electricity could be generated by flashes by cameras, Notre Dame would be the perfect place to generate electricity.

As I said, touristS with cameras = power. No one does anything about it.Or maybe they know that it's no use trying to stop them. It isnt as strict as the churches in Venice, where it is really vorbidden to photograph. Japanese tourists standing by the altar, two fingers holding up forming a 'V'....*click*

The French are a nice bunch of people. Really friendly and helpful. Learnt one thing. If u dunno, ASK. We are borned with a mouth for a reason.

Paris wasn't the place I imagined where there were only perfect mowed lawns, posh French women with perfect manicured hands with equally perfectly shaved poodles. It was just another touristic spot with many tourists. HOwever, I really enjoyed my stay in Paris and it was a good thing I had a chance to travel there too. Learnt a lot. Really. Met new people who I think I will never forget.

Paris

In Jardin de Tuileries opposite the Lourve......beautiful gardens... =)

Arc de Triomphe

In Disneyland Studios......FUN!!!

Eiffel Tower!!!!! That guy was supposed to help take our picture, but he ended up in our photo too......haha!

At the glass pyramid by the Lourve Museum

Speazialschulwhoche -- Venedig

Venedig, the German name for Venice. Venice, the city above the sea in Italy. When ppl mention Venice, gondolas come to mind. Venice, the destination I would defnitely want to visit one more time.

It was a good thing I chose Venice for my Spezialschulwoche ( special school week, it's compulsory to choose one of the items stated in the list. Things like ' Physics is fun !' is defnitely a no-no for me.So sue me) coz I really had a great time there.

I LOVED EVERY SINGLE MINUTE IN VENICE.

This time, I decide to cut my blog shorter coz (1) I'm too busy (yeah rite!) (2) THe 1st was just an excuse. I'm just to lazy, ok not lazy, but having spent 2 hours on the comp is not very healthy for my eyes ,ok?!

The 1st two days in Venice was not THAT exciting. It rained. For the 2 WHOLE BLOODY DAYS-- continously. Non stop. Never trust weather forecasts. Ok, not NEVER, but always play it on the safe side, coz I didnt bring much thick clothings for my Venice trip. I ended up having a buy a scarf(it was a must, it was freakin cold! WIth the wind, the rain and wet feet, you'll agree that the scarf was a must) and shivering my way through the 2 freakin cold days!

We were at San Marco Basilika, despite the rain -- & the flood. Not the real flood flood, but maybe more than ankle-deep flood. As floods are really common in Venice when it rains,they were all prepared. All of us had to walk on wooden panels or some kind of 'bridge' along the way. The Americans and the Japanese who had plastic bags with them tied them on their feet, walking boldly through the more-than-ankle-deep-flood. Ppl like us with normal sport shoes were vulnerable to the flood. Therefore the shops selling plastic or rubber boots were making tons of money, esp from the tourists. Infact, I accompanied a friend of mine to a shop to buy her boots and the sales girl was telling another couple that personally, she finds it not necessary to buy those boots.

Well, as European tourists are rich in a way and touring the city with wet feet isnt that comfortable, her advice was merely like wind passing by their ears. I bet the shop owners were showing mega-watt smiles coz tourists were willing to pay at east 15 euros for low quality- uncomfortable- not suitable for touring rubber boots. Tying coloured-waterproof- plastic bags on each foot is really not that flattering for most ppl. Therefore, it wasnt a surprise that the sales went up on that particular rainy day.

The weather for the next few days were better. It wasnt summer great or summer warm, that kind, but at least it wasnt raining. We toured the Doge Palace, Rialto Bridge different musuems, etc. OMG. The Doge Palace was magnificent. Really gotta see to believe. We visited tons and tons of churches. I think I''ve been in more churches in 1 week than I have been in temples for 6 months. The churches were really great. As in the decoration. Unbelievable. U see all these architecture and gold plated-less than 2cm square mosiac pieces all being built together to form those huge churches, all I could say was 'wow'. To show respect, we werent allowed to take any photographs in churches.

Venice is really a city above the sea. Instead of cars, taxis and buses, we travel by boat. There's boat taxi, police boat, ambulance boat, vaperretos (bus on water). Instead of seeing parked cars on perfectly mowed lawn, there's boats parked outside houses on poles.

Traveled through the Grand Canal. Beautiful. We were at the Campanile (big ben of Venice), San Giorgio Maggiore( great view of the whole Venice from the top), Murano (world's most famous glass making centre, damn expensive), Burano (each house has its own colour) and Torcello ( once, 20000 ppl live on the Island. 2005: less than 50 humans), Santa Maria de Salute, etc. Had a great time.

Oh ya, we were also at a fish market too. Well, being Malaysian, it wasnt anything special to me. For the Swiss, it was like a whole new place to take tons of pictures.As Switzterland has no sea, they have no fish markets like the ones in Venice. It was no surprise when they started taking tons of photos--of sea food! Well, cant laugh at them though, coz for me, I take photos at almost every river, every mountain I see in Switzerland. Therefore, it's just the same.Maybe the only thing worth taking photos in the fish market were the cute fish mongers. REally! HOt, young ones too.

We had a really great group. We spent most of our time together as a group. Doing stuff together. A tight 6 gal group. For our last nite in Venice, we went to a piano concert by Arcadi Volodos. I didnt know that he was THAT famous till I got home and Mami was like ' U went to a piano concert by Volodos? He's like world famous!' Ok, now I know paying the price doesnt always reflect the popularity of a musician. Prices sometimes are misleading.

After the concert, we decided to go once more to San Marco place again. It was such a romantic place to be. really...ahhh..... Classical bands were playing in some of the cafes. So romantic (and expensive). I really swear by this place... =)

It was really a memorable and enjoyable trip to Venice. The place was great, the group was great, the weather -- soso( I cant be always bitching bout the weather considering the fact that I had a great time there=P). In all, it is one experience I will never forget --ever.Unless I'm old and grey, or I have amnesia or something like that... choi ! choi! =P

Venice

Our Spezialschulwoche group...a really great group! =) Had tons of fun with them !

Christina and I by the cafe...... Rialto Bridge across the Grand Canal

Venice...Beautiful Venice.....

Santa Maria de Salute by the Grand Canal