Turning 23 on the 23rd of March, 23.03 –it has two threes, get it? 23 = two threes – on the earliest Easter Sunday for another 277 years was fantastic! To top of this blessing, I celebrated it in Paris!

I went there by Eurolines bus on Saturday morning and got to see the countryside for a good 4 hours. Upon arrival, I dashed straight to the metro and check in at my hostel on the northeastern side of Paris before dashing out –I was actually jogging- heading to church services the other southern side of the city.

I was a tad late, and the sermon lasted … for a VERY long time. In French.

Once in a while Daniel Philippe helped me do the translation so that was helpful. I suppose I was overly ambitious in using the French Bible that Clement gave me so I swapped it with an English one from another church member.

Sat at the back so we wouldnt distract other ppl with him doing translation so I took this picture while they were singing in French.

They had a group picture after the service, so even though I was not even an ounce French they graciously invited me to stick my head in the picture.

DeePee (Daniel Philippe) introduced me to a lot of people after that and we went to a youth meeting together. They discussed the meaning of the communion service and what it meant to them.

It was past sunset when we left and raining a bit, but DeePee brought me to the Sacre Coeur at Montmarte by night.

We went by metro and saw these two guys dressed up to support their rugby team in a rugby match somewhere that evening. They would blow the airhorn and shout at certain metro stops. Pretty interesting.

Anyway, we reached Montmarte and we could have walked up, but we decided to take a short cable car instead (it was free!). 

The view of the Sacre Coeur was beautiful at the top! We did a quick tour of the cathedral and absorbed the view of Paris by night after that. It was absolutely gorgeous!

Popped inside for a quick tour of the place. They were having mass but I managed to snap this picture of the beautiful interior

The view of the city of Paris was even MORE breathtaking!

Check out the vertical ray of light in the distance

I liked this shot of the Eiffel Tower and its beam of light! I was told that between 8.00pm - 8.10pm every night there will be flashes of light around the tower, but sigh... I guess I missed that.

Then, we walked downhill and I bought some postcards –12 for 2Euros! – before we jumped on the metro and went to the Arc de Triomphe.

I only took a few pictures there because I  thought I had to get back to the hostel by 10pm –it was actually ‘silence from 10pm onwards, reception open 24 hours’ but oh well. Called it an early night anyway.

I tried to stay up until 12am by planning my next day but the latest time I recall reading was 11.45pm.

MARCH 23RD 2008

I woke up to the gorgeoustest day EVER! The sun was shining, there were only a few clouds, the weather was great and it was going to be the perfect day out!

This was a double blessing because I have been asking lots of people to pray for good weather as the forecast was rain/snow/wind for the entire weekend and how fun would that be, right?

Anyway, I gobbled down the free breakfast and hit the road –I had a big day ahead!

First on the list: Notre Dame Cathedral

The place where Quasimodo rang the bell and lots of other famous people did lots of other famous things...Thought I’d pop by for a Sunday morning mass but I ended up just doing a tour of the cathedral during their mass. The towers were closed –so sad.

Anyway, here are some sights from the inside

A priest conducting Easter morning mass

The beautiful stained glass windows

The beautiful details of the building

Oh well, more time for other things then.

Off I went to walk along the Siene River on the island in the middle of Paris.

This is the Notre Dame by the River Siene.

Absolutely lovely view of the river with the beautiful blue skies in the background. Look at the skies -this couldn't be anything other than a miracle given that the weather forecast was rain/hail/snow/winds.

A break in the island

Lots of boats by the bank

Second on the list: Musee d’Orsay

One of the must do things in Paris, and why not? It’s a wonderful museum and I really enjoyed myself there.

This was what greeted me when the museum opened at 9.30am.

The crowd just before I entered the museum

Surprisingly, the que of a few hundred people in front of me my the time I got there at around 10am disappeared fairly quickly! So efficient, the French…

Here are some snapshots of the insides of the museum.

The entrance hall of the museum

This one is called Hell and it's scupted in white.

One of the gallery rooms

Check out the details in the clouds...

Gotta love love love impressionist art!

Another one by Monet

Anyone who has watched Mr. Bean would know this! I smiled at once when I saw this!

Check out the miniature version of Paris underneath the glass floor!

The view outside the museum. That's the Sacre Cour across the Siene River in the distance

Third on the list: Musee Rodin (pronounced hro-dahn)

Since I bought the museum pass for two days, decided to make full use of it. This was apparently another famous museum full with sculptures.

I must admit I’m more of a painting fan (especially impressionist art!) than looking at sculptures, but since this was a must do, I decided to check it out.

The beautiful garden, which is pretty much the museum with the sculptures in it, made it worth it, if anything...

Here are some of the attractive sculptures there.

The famous 'The Thinker'

I know this is another famouse sculpture, but I can't remember the name right now...

The black version of Hell... I know it doesnt look black in this picture, but believe me it is...

Fourth on the list: cross over the Siene River to the Musee d’Orangerie

This is a picture of the museum with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

This museum was one I really wanted to go to and recommended by a French intern because it has Claude Monet’s collection of his water lily paintings. It did not disappoint.

I could just sit there and stare at his work for hours –I really do like Monet’s work! –but so much to see, so little time, so off I went…

By the way, I’ve covered quite a significant amount of area by foot by now, so I was getting hungry. Decided to get one of those famous crepes to munch on besides some snacks I brought. There were sweet crepes: chocolate, strawberries, apricots, etc and savory ones: cheese (and believe me, LOTS of it on a thin piece of pancake!), ham, chicken, etc. I had a nice strawberry one

Fifth on the list: Musee d’Art Decoratif

Yup, this was a decorative art museum.

Digression: managed to get a glimpse of a statue of Joan of Arc while walking to the museum.

Back to the museum: I walked around, but generally was not very impressed with the museum:

1. The layout of the museum was confusing

2. The doors don’t open correctly and there's not sign to ask you to push or pull

3. The signage of how to get from one exhibit to another was bad so I had to keep back tracking and it was just generally frustrating to walk around.

Or maybe I was just getting tired.

Anyway, it was the only museum where I decided to use an audio guide. This one was free...

Check out the different kinds of chairs!

Sixth on the list: People watching at a park!

Got myself a seat on the lazy chairs at a nearby park and watched children push their boats around the fountain, tourists take pictures, lovers stroll along, etc etc. It was a nice thing to do.

Walked back to the Place de la Concorde after that –Oh, by the way, the Concorde is pretty much the beginning of Champs-Elysées (pronounced shauwm-peh-lee-say). This avenue is like the Fifth Avenue of Paris with all the posh, expensive shops and the Arc de Triomphe is at the other end of the street, and after that the street continues on to the Arc de la Défense.

Anyway, this is how the Place de la Concorde looks like from the Musee d'Orangerie

It has a nice fountain there and something funny happened when I was there. There were loads of tourists sitting around the fountain posing nicely for pictures when suddenly an excessive amount of water squirted out from the foundtain and got them all wet. Hahahaha... good thing I was still a ways away... (more like had no one to take my picture then...)

The huge monument that looks like a miniature version of the Washington DC monument

From here, you get to see:

the Eiffel Tower on the other side of the river

the Champs Elysées and the Arc de Triomphe,

the park where I was and the Musee d’Orangerie. It was quite a central place.

Seventh on the list: Arc de Trimphe

I admit I could have just walked down Champs Elysées from the Concorde but it would have taken forever so I took the metro there instead.

At the bottom of the arch was a memorial to an unknown soldier who died defending the country.

Walking up the 164foot monument was a ginormous task and I was panting by the time I reached the top.

The view from the top was all worthwhile though.

There was an area for exhibitions/souvenir shopping just before the peak and there was a sculpture there of one of the carvings of the arch.

Check out the Eiffel Tower...

...and the Sacre Cour

...and the Arc de la Défense, right at the other end of the Arc the Triomphe

Decided to hang out there as there was no way I could watch sunset from the Eiffel Tower that day –my camera battery was dying and I wasn’t going to risk queuing for 5 hours and climbing up the Eiffel Tower just to have my battery die on me there.

Eight on the list: PARIS FLEA MARKET!

The St-Ouen markets was a top 10 must see in some website, so I took the metro there to check out some more sights.

Didn’t take a lot of pictures because I didn’t want to flash my digital camera around but it was BIG! I only managed to see a tiny bit of it, and that itself was rows and rows of streets just selling clothes/jewelry/touristy things.

Apparently there’s even a map JUST for this market, and there are different sections for clothes, antiques, military trinkets, etc…

Got myself some sort of Arabic kebab and another crepe –this time, a cheese and ham one –while walking around.

Ninth on the list: Back to the Notre Dame Cathedral

I wanted to start buying some souvenirs as I may not have enough time tomorrow and I remember a guy here selling some nice Eiffel Tower keychains pretty cheap.

Unfortunately he wasn’t there but I clocked in for a look at the Evening Mass and got a picture of the lovely candles in it.

Then I decided to walk from here to the other island in the heart of Paris. Found the famous ice cream parlor that was another 'must do' in Paris, but it was closed –and I don’t think I was quite in the mood for anything cold anyway.

Walked back across and along the River Siene and saw the Eiffel Tower's beam again.

Also saw a nice river cruise come down the river

Walked around, passed the Hotel De Ville, which is a supposedly nice place and walked along Rue Rivoli (Rivoli street) which is apparently a nice famous avenue to stroll down.

Tenth on the list: Back to the Montmarte

I went back to the row of shops selling super cheap postcards and decided to get my souvenirs there instead. Was totally pooped out by this time, but I so wanted to check out the La Grande Arc de la Défense so I decided to head there to at least get a look a feel of it by night.

Last on the list: La Grande Arc de la Défense

The trip there was totally worth it! I mean, yeah it was pretty late and quiet so was a bit scary, but it was so so pretty by night!

With my back facing the Arc de la Défense, I could see the entire avenue of Champs-Elysees before me. Totally gorgeous!

Now, it was time to head back and rest.

The two other girls in the dorm were already asleep and I was dead tired myself but, it has been a terrific birthday. The only thing that would have made it better was that if my family and friends were here, but oh well, -great weather, lovely sights, fantastic experiences –what more can you ask for?

A good night's sleep.

Day 2 as a 23 year old

Seems like all the decisions I made today were the wrong ones, but it was nevertheless an interesting day. I wanted to get up and leave the hostel early so I could arrive early at the Eiffel Tower and beat the morning rush.

So did not happen.

Decided to take my time at breakfast as it was going to be a jam packed day.

That extra few minutes probably costed me a longer que at the Eiffel Tower

Decided to choose a locker to put my backpack in while I spend my day galavanting

Lockers were uncooperative and the hostel staff had to help me out. More time wasted.

Decided to go back to the Notre Dame –I know, I’m such a stubborn person, yes? –again!

No keychain guy and that detour cost time. Anyway, rode on the RER (Rapid something something) which was pretty fast (...duh...) and had two floors!

Decided to take my own sweet time to snap pictures of the Eiffel Tower as I was walking towards it

Bad, bad call. Result: More time wasted.

These are some of them anyway... as you can see, weather wasn't that great but it didn't rain (yet) so that's great.

Decided to get in line to take the stairs to the second level (not the peak –you have to buy a separate ticket to go there) instead of the elevator to the top because

1. it was cheaper, had a MUCH MUCH shorter line

2. would give me a bigger sense of achievement

3. seemed more fun than being cramped into a lift with 10 million other tourists.

This was actually a correct decision –for now.

Speaking of lines, this is only on one of the Tower's feet. There are lines at each 'foot' and it drags on and curls till no end...

Then again, I guess there's always been lines...

Anyhow, I was still stuck in line for some time so I decided to snap away...

Can you spot the people on the stairs on the way up?

Decided to stop at the first and second tiers of the tower and snap away at every possible angle like some compulsive histrionic tourist.

Bad, bad decision.

Ran out of memory and wasted time while other smarter tourists first headed to the peak and then made their way down leisurely - I  would have done that anyway if I could turn back time.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the first and second tiers...

Packed Paris..

After that, I decided to stand at a corner and delete bad pictures

BAD DECISION! I don’t know how long I spend doing this, but that I could have done that while standing in line to go to the peak from the second level. But noo… I was happily wasting time deleting pictures.

Decided to get in line to buy the tickets to the peak.

Well, no choice, yeah? I’d kick myself if I made it halfway across the world to Paris and didn’t go to the peak.

Decided to just follow the group of people in front of me assuming they were buying tickets to the peak too.

In my defense, we were originally in the correct que. My fault was following them when they realized they didn’t need to be in the ticket que anymore and when they went straight to que for the elevator. Thank God I didn’t spend too much time in the wrong que there so I had to go all the way back to the end of the ticket que AGAIN.

Spent about the next hour or so shivering in line to go up to the peak. Brrr… it was super super windy up there… I was just glad it wasn’t raining like the original forecast said it would be.

Anyway, guess what was the first thing I saw when I got up there?

ICE.

So, yes, it was VERY cold up there, but I was going to freeze my fingers to the bone if I had to to get some shots at the peak.

Check out the Siene River.

I think that's the Arc de la Défense with all the tall office buildings around it. I think there's a GE office in that area there.

More of Paris

The view of the peak of the Tower.

Made my way down again and headed away from the Eiffel Towerand this is how it looks like from the bottom

And, it seems like I was finally rewarded! One of those guys came along jiggling bunches of Eiffel Tower key chains! I was so pleased! He even let me negotiate from the already cheaper than market price! I was so happy!

From here, I took the metro and went to the Louvre museum –THE thing to do in Paris, probably on par with the Eiffel Tower.

It was a good thing I got a museum pass the day before because the Louvre that day was so crowded. Think of the Center Court of Mid Valley Megamall on Christmas or Chinese New Years Eve. That was EXACTLY how the Louvre was. TOTAL CHAOS!

Good thing I managed to weave my way through and visit the exhibits without queuing forever.

They say you can spend a lifetime in the Louvre and never see everything. That’s true. I probably managed to only see 10% of the museum, but that was such a wonderful time for me.

I mean, it’s not everyday you get to take a picture of/with the Mona Lisa or the Feast at Cana. No pictures yet, but they're coming, I promise (xanga capacity filled for the month).

Anyway, walking about this ex-palace was simply awesome. And, unlike the previous museums I visited, they don’t care if you use flash or not. I thought that was interesting –such a world class museum allowing the use of flash photography and all these other museums in Paris being all nervous every time you pull out your camera.

Anyway, I had to leave the Louvre –it was already 3.30pm and my bus leaves at 5.30pm.

However, I wasn’t quite done yet. Needed to walk down Champs Elysées.

For the most part, not a vast majority of the stores attracted me (their prices had a lot to do with it), but I did go in one shop, where I was so so tempted to buy this one top which was on sale and would have fit me really well.

Looking back, it was a good thing I didn’t. Here’s why.

I would have so needed that cash to buy my Thalys train ticket back because I eventually missed my bus back to Brussels.

Yep, me deciding to take a risk and wander off for just a tad longer costs me a good 41Euros because I had to run (I was literally sprinting along the streets, in between trains at metro stations, to and from my hostel) because the trains on Sundays aren’t as frequent.

And me, trying to be all smartypants, thought that taking 2 different metro lines which would save me ONE stop would be faster than sitting on the same line with just a little extra loop. ARGHHH.

Long story short, I missed the bus, the next one was fully booked (or so they said), and the next available one would be in the afternoon on the following day. Not much of an option there, so I had to go to another station to buy a train ticket back to Brussels.

At least I can now say I've taken the Thalys.

At this point, I was just praying that I’d have enough cash to pay for the ticket, but thank God I did. I was thoroughly exhausted from all that walking and running around and standing in queues so I completely knocked out on the one hour ride back home.

Overall, it’s been a fantastic trip and I can say that I have been so blessed to have had the opportunity to travel and to have a birthday in Paris. The perfect weather added to making it all the more wonderful (snow greeted me in Brussels and EVERYTHING was white the morning after that) so what can I say?

I am so BLESSED!

It was totally accidental, really...

I came out from the metro to take the tram back to my apartment yesterday when I saw a crowd waiting. It would have taken another 5 minutes or so for my tram to come, but I figured I might as well enjoy the tiny bit of sun and the lovely sunset so I'll just walk back.

So off I went trotting down Avenue Louise past these posh high boutiques, coiffures for men and separate ones for ladies, trendy chocolatiers when I got distracted by a really lovely church building down the end of another street. I decided to turn down that lane to take a closer look. I managed to just snap two pictures –that wasn’t exactly a touristy part of town – before heading back to the main street –Avenue Louise.

While making my U-turn, I got distracted by another tiny lane on my right with some vans and tents at the end of the lane.

Well, curiosity killed the cat. I went down to that mini square and guess what I found?

A pasar malam!!!

Here in the heart of Europe where things close at 5.30pm and you get halaued out if you stay a minute later, I found a place that was full of people and vendors and food after 6.00pm!

It was really great just walking about and looking at the food people buy.

There were small cuts of waffles going at 2.50EUR for 7 pieces, HUGE slabs of cheese, a variety of quiches, your usual meat and greens vendors, and even –get this- their version of lok-lok except that this was a tad more posh. There was a small pasar malam like tent with tall stools and tiny tables for customers to sit and socialize while their LOBSTERS and other expensive seafood simmers.

And interestingly, just across the stall was a booth selling wine! By the cup, by the bottle, cold, room temperature (which was about 3C) or –and get this- BOILED! I kid you not –vin chaud, they call it. which literally means wine hot.

So there sat two huge pots of red wine simmering over a stove and as you walked past it you could smell the aroma of wine all around you –very very different than a typical Malaysian pasar malam.

What was also different was the variety of flowers! They were all so colorful and you could find several stalls in a row selling pots or bouquets of flowers at pretty decent prices! Was so tempted to buy some myself!

Oh, and another thing I found surprising was that they had mangosteens there! There was this stall selling ‘exotic’ things like lady’s finger and mangosteens. There were also other Arabic stall with their sweets, nuts and spices. For a very tiny market, they had quite a lot of variety! Wish I took some pictures, but the people there didn’t look like tourists so I thought I’d just try to blend in this time.

Anyway, I left with a kilo of strawberries, and such a nice feeling knowing that I accidentally discovered local night/evening market! Must go back next time to try some of the local food…

My visit to the Tervuren and Africa museum is rather dated as I went about 3 weeks back after dropping by the Grand Place, but the scenes are just so unforgettable I just had to share them!

I’ve actually never been to this part of Brussels on my own before and the directions I was given were, "Yeah, go to Montgomery station, get off and get on tram number 44 and you’ll get off at the museum –it’s gorgeous and there’s a lovely park and pita place there."

Sounded pretty easy to me, until I got to Montgomery and realized I had no clue which tram direction I should take … because I had no idea which stop I was heading to!

Anyway, decided to just get down at the stop that gives me a gut feeling that there would be a park and museum nearby. I ended up sitting on the tram until the end of the terminal, b that WAS the correct stop!

So off I went and explored the area leading to the museum and the gorgeous park with lakes right around the museum.

This is the first thing you see as you walk towards the premise. Nothing outstanding, but the greenery of the area really relaxes you in 2 seconds.

This is actually the front entrance of the area. Isn't it just lovely?

If you keep on walking, this is the site that greets you…

Makes you feel like you can just burst out in song!

So, what do you do? You walk down that path and see if a museum pops up.

I couldn’t help taking a picture of one of the statues on the way down towards the lake…

Finally, when I reached the brink of the lake, I saw that the whole stretch of land to my left and right was just green, and green, and green with bits of lake in between.

Quite a few ducks in the pond

Along the way I met the darlingest couple who kept volunteering to take pictures for me. I would have obliged more, but they kept holding my huge screen digicam right to their eyes -like the old time cameras where you have to peer through those windows. So just taking ONE picture of me with the scenery took much too long so I politely thanked them and went on my way.

If you can imagine walking down the path, the lake would be on your right, and if you were to turn to your left... you'd see the gorgeous museum from afar!

So, what do you do? You take pictures as you walk along the sides of the pond towards the museum!

Spring was in the air -or so it seemed with some of the trees

There were even lovely statues leading up to the museum as well. This is just one of many.

Me getting closer to the museum...

And finally there!!

These are the elephants that you see leading towards the entrance of the museum. In this one, you can see just a tiny bit of the gardens near the museum.

And these shots give you an idea of the short distance you've walked from the lakes.

Me having some fun with the things in the museum

Spotted face -like me!

More sculptures...

Heading back... this is the view of the gardens from the entrance

And this is the view of the museum when you're way off in the gardens

This was another building a bit away from the museum bit I didn't go explore that time.

It was time to go back, so off I went to catch the tram back. The tram station looked rather pretty so here's a picture of the tracks just ahead of the station.

It was a good day out and I was glad to be back on the metro heading home.

Have a good weekend, all!