Sunday, May 15, 2011

Paris

I've always wanted to come to Paris ever since I was young. I mean who wouldn't after watching romantic scenes of Paris on TV and in the movies. I finally had my dream came true :)

On my first day, after walking around I start to realise, hmm, Paris doesn't sound as romantic as it was pictured to be.. smelly walkways, rude French people (May couldn't get help at the ticket counter. Is it because we're Chinese and can't speak French?). Thank god for friendly tourist who showed us how to buy tickets at the subway (There is option for English!)

So our first stop was at the Lourve. We came straight from the underground, so we were in the museum straight away rather than coming from the triangle top entrance (thank god, if not we will be lining up in the sun). After we got our tickets (10 Euro) we headed in to join the crowds

Below are pictures of famous sculptures and paintings

Mary Magdalene

The Dying Slave by Michelangelo

Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss

Winged Victory of Samothrace

and the famous Mona Lisa

To find this painting is simple, it's the spot where there is a HUGE crowd gathering around it just to get a picture of it. This famous painting was protected in a glass window and tourist could only view from 3 feet away.

Consecration of Napoleon

Liberty leading the People
I remembered this picture because it has always been on my piano book covers.

After fighting through the crowds in the Lourve for 2 hours, we had enough of it, and went up to take picture of the famous triangle.

After taking a few pictures here, we started walking around to find another metro we could take.

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

The Luxor Obelisk (an Egypt monument in Paris?)

Next stop, the famous landmark, Arc de Triomphe


This Arc has a great history behind it. To read it, click here.

Names of all the French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surface. And like the Westminster Abbey, has an unknown warrior tomb as well (Which I forgot to take because I was out of breath from climbing the Arc) It costs 8 Euro to get in.

We were tricked! On the brochure it says that we will be taken upstairs with the lift, but we ended up climbing 284 steps to the top! Heart attack! (The lift turns out to be for the staff -.-)

View from the top. Can you see every street is aligned that it looks like every revenue radiates from the Arc

Eiffel from the Arc
After the Arc, we decided to just head home cause it was already 8pm and tomorrow is going to be a full day in Disneyland

There's a Arc near my hotel! Anyway, the next day, we woke up SUPER early for Disneyland.

Mum Snoozing

Mum awake!

Disneyland Entrance

Entrance into Disneyland Park.
A little tip, before you come, BUY your tickets online to avoid the queue and buying it online is cheaper. We bought tickets for 51 pounds each for 2 parks. Score!

Oh gosh, it was only 10am and the crowd... so..many..people

View of the Castle near the entrance

Frontierland

Phantom Manor

Later we headed to Main Street to catch the 1st Parade. Took a short clip of it coming


Yipee!


Space Mountain: Mission 2 (scariest shit I have ever taken) queued for 2 hours to ride it. Worth.It


Looks like the red apple Snow White bites into

Adventure Isle

met Captain Hook!

and Alladin. Drool..

Rapunzel

Snow White

Later, we headed to Main Street to catch another parade

Mickey and Minnie

Chip or Dale?

Goofy and Pluto

Alice in Wonderland

Pinocchio

Toy Story

Winnie the Pooh

Peter Pan and Wendy

Mary Poppins

Lion King (Simba's head was a little weird, it was jiggling side to side but the body was unmoving)

Little Mermaid

Princess and the Frog

Beauty and the Beast (more like the Prince)

After standing for 2 hours just to get a nice spot to take pictures, we took a break and ate some snacks. (I think we skip lunch because we wanted to catch all the rides and take shots with the princesses which I won't put up because the shots were bad -.- and we only caught 1 princess)

Cheezy Hot Dog

May with her Ice Cream

It was our bad, coming here during the holidays. The crowd was so humongous that we needed to wait in line for 2 hours just to catch a 5 minute ride and an hour long just to take pictures with A princess. Forget it! I'm coming back during a week day AND not a holiday(There's a train from London straight to Disneyland Paris :D)


Next, the last show of the day. A show with Mickey and the Princesses with their Prince.



Introducing, Rapunzel!

Later we went home exhausted and looking forward to the next day :)

Next Day, Eiffel Tower. Oh.My.God. The Crowd again... It took us 4 hours to queue just to buy the tickets. And when we reach the counter, they told us the top was FULL, and we could only buy tckets to the 2nd level. So we paid out 7.80 Euro and headed up



Mum bought us ice cream so we wouln't complain. We took turns to sit down and rest during the 4 hours of lining up. It was mostly me lining up and Mum and May sitting down..

Below are pictures taken from top






After the Eiffel Tower, we went to find the Notre Dame Cathedral known in Disney movie, Hunchback of Notre-Dame.

The Fontaine Saint-Michel

the Palace of Justice

and lastly, the Notre Dame Cathedral!





4th pic of May and Yin!


The Cathedral during sunset

For dinner, we decided to eat something simple. Mixed Grill!!


Lamb Chop

Next day, we headed back to London and to reality :( Bye Europe!

Zzz

LOL, Mum