Tuesday 19/12/2006
I woke up at around 7am to get tidied up on time for the bus at 10. Aren't I crazy? By the time I got to the bus stop (which is at Cannon Park, a small shopping mall near our Uni with our favourite Tesco supermarket), I had to wait for the bus to arrive for almost 1 hour. Stupid me. Thank God I've got my iPod to company me. The bus finally came, and we left Coventry. The driver was really funny and sarcastic while making journey beginning and end announcements, so the journey wasn't that bad.
Got to London at 12.30pm. Early? Yes. Realised I had to carry a big, heavy backpack, so I can't walk around too much. What a waste of time! I spent my time waiting for my friend, Arena, in KFC reading "Paris" (a travel guide I borrowed from another friend) and having lunch.
Arena arrived at 3+, but she asked me to go Oxford Circus to wait for her, since I could kill my time walking around the shops there. So I left. Due to the much too heavy backpack, and the cold weather, I couldn't walk much. I decided to wait in Niketown like an idiot till she arrived around 5pm. I followed her around, but we ended up in Cafe Nero, and stayed there until 9pm. Left for Waterloo station, but had McDonalds dinner before that (a day of fast food, don't you think?)
Waterloo station was REALLY cold. We found a waiting room, but there was a flight of stairs leading down to the ladies, which smelt bad. Stupid security people asked us to leave at 1.30am when we were already feeling comfortable. We head down to the Eurostar station to wait, since we were only then informed that the station was still opened for us to wait. Sometime in the middle of the night, both of us had to pee, and stupid ruling of having opening times for PUBLIC toilets made us really mad. Thank God I am a guy, so I could relieve myself somewhere outside. We were already getting really tired and sleepy, and it suddenly became so cold in the morning. Before we went through the ticket gates, I bought a hot chocolate to warm myself up.
I didn't expect Eurostar to be SO crowded at such a time, 5am! After going through the ticket gates was the immigration. Much of this was easy, but I was in a queue where an African lady was stuck, so that took time for me to switch lanes, as the other lane was also busy at the time. The train was nice and comfortable. Thing is, the lights were on all the time, and the lights weren't the soft ones: they were really huge and bright from the sides. Crazy people, don't know how to design a good train. Haha..
Wednesday 20/12/2006
Arrival to Paris! We were greeted by Arena's uncle, and brought back to their home. He made us some noodles for breakfast, which was good, since he works as a chef. (You can already expect the niceness of the upcoming food he would be preparing for us). We waited for his children to come back from college and school (a son and a daughter) while we tidied up and rested from the long journey.
His son brought us out for a walk around Paris, an introduction. We visited La Fayette and La Printemps (both popular shopping complexes, famous for the brands they contain, and the internal modern architecture). We decided to go Eiffel Tower (La Tour Eiffel) after that. We took the Metro, and walked. Dear him, he didn't like going to these places, so he was really sure about how we could get there, though he knows roughly which stations we should go. Anyway, the Eiffel was quite difficult to find, but when we got there, it was amazing to be seeing the famous Eiffel Tower stand right before me, standing at 324m (calculated with the flag pole). The whole structure was huge! The whole time hearing about it, it was finally THE time to see it in person. However, a tower is JUST a tower. So nothing much could be done there, except for going up the tower, which costs 4.50 - 11 Euros, depending on which floor you want to go, which wasn't worth it. So we headed off for the famous Arc de Triomphe (Arch of Triumph), which also stands facing Champs Elysees, a road where big brands, especially Louis Vuitton, stands. He wanted to get something in a shop called "Celio", which apparently sells only men's apparels. It was cold on that day as well, so I told myself that I had to get another pair of gloves, since I lost it long ago last year. He had a student card, so I grabbed the oppurtunity to get a small discount as well.
As it was getting late, we head back home, and found ourselves dinner already prepared (the father had to work during the afternoon and the night, so he cooked when he went back for a rest). It was a vegetables hot-pot (otherwise known as steamboat). Difference is, he already cooked it, so it was sort of like a vege soup already. But other than that, it was really nice. It felt like I was already in Malaysia, getting good food all the time. The mother (who was MUCH friendlier than the others) bought us some kuihs for our desert (HEAVEN!!). We all chat a bit (among the mom, Arena and me), and we had to sleep earlier, since we didn't have much sleep the night before.
To be continued...
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