Paris I: 7 to 8 September, 2013

Dream. Come. True.

When Vien, a girl from HK that I met during orientation, invited me to go to Paris for the weekend, I said yes instantly! Who would say no? We booked a hotel for one night (I know, I know, too short) and got ourselves train tickets to Paris! (And bus tickets back to Lille).

We booked a hotel room for 3 people, but there were four of us, so the Hong Kong girls checked in while I waited outside for a few minutes so we wouldn't get charged for having an extra person. Hehe. Another sneaky thing we did in Paris was we bought 4 whole-day passes for the metro & bus, and used 2 a day (two persons shared one every time we got on the metro). On the second day, the 2 unused tickets weren't working for some reason, so we snuck in the metro with the help of Parisians who were used to people not paying for tickets. Haha!

The first thing we did in Paris was eat, because we were starving. It was a Sunday when we arrived, so almost every restaurant and store was closed. We found a kebab resto near Galeries Lafayette and settled for that. I got the cheapest meal (around 8 euros) while the other three got the most expensive one. Haha! They had wine with their meal plus tea after, while I just said no to the offers of the store owner. He took pity on me and gave me a cup of tea, on the house. Yay!

Then, we met up with Vien's friends, Shan and Lily outside Galeries Lafayette. We walked from there to Arc de Triomphe. Phew!

*Entrance to the Arc was free for us students, and going to the very top of the tower was discounted. Yess!!!

Paris, view from Arc de Triomphe

  

When we got off Trocadero station, I literally 'Wow'ed out loud when I saw the tower up close! 

Awesome shot by my friend, Vien

Chillin by the Seine

Looong line to get to the top of the tower

Going up!

View from the top of the Eiffel Tower!

Took the stairs to get down the tower

Midnight picnic in front of the tower :)

The next day, we went to the Louvre! It was raining so hard, but we still waited in line outside for an hour and a half!! Didn't know that you can queue indoors. Oh wellzz.

The crowd in front of the Mona Lisa was more amazing than the painting itself.

To end our first Paris trip, we treated ourselves with Lunch at a French resto

Real French Lunch! [L-R]: Karen, Vien, Koey, Me

Of course, escargot!