EURO TRIP PART III: PARIS

Weekends in Europe Part II: Paris

Intro

Paris is the capital of Republic of France. It is also the fashion city in international scale. And furthermore, the city holds several unique buildings like museums and monuments. I also have friend there and I thought he might provides place to sleep. And of course before I went to Germany, I asked suggestion from Mr. Sule where I should go in the weekends and he mentioned Paris. However he also mentioned that there are a lot of thieves in Paris. Consequently, I was not sure with my plan. But hell no, I visited Paris anyway.

So I ordered my Flixbus, again on the Friday. I actually ordered it on Monday but it seems they had error on the apps because I couldn’t pay the reservations with my sister’s credit cards. All of them were not working although on the previous journey, I hadn’t problem with the payment. But later, my sister created a Flixbus account and she paid the reservation... what’s wrong with my account???

Main Part

March 10^th 2018

So I went to Paris by Flixbus, again, because it is the cheapest one. If I ordered it like two or one month before I may get a lower price, it’s like 19 euro for going from Karlsruhe to Paris. But it’s okay. Back to the story. The bus was late for one hour. And I just realized that the bus is not always green. That time, the bus was white. I entered the bus and half of the passengers are african and people who speaks roman language (im not sure if they are Italian or Spanish). But that time, there was no wifi. We departed from Karsruhe Hbf fernbus station on 12.00 and all I did was sleeping.

I thought I missed the first stop, Kehl. Kehl is the last Germany city for this route before we crossed the France-Germany border which is the Rhine River. In the west of Kehl, across the river, lies city of Strasbourg. These cities are connected by two bridges which the lengths are less than 200 m. you can imagine that after we stopped at Kehl, five minutes later we stopped at Strasbourg. Although the name of the city is very germanic to me, the people speak different language, Francais or Franzosich in deutsch (it is France actually, what did i expect) and way more faster than german even I couldn’t distinct either they speak one word or one sentence. But the language sounds more soft while german is more rough in pronunciation. It was cold there, I decided not to go out.

While were driving to the Metz airport on the highway, the police stopped us. Not only us actually, every vehicle were stopped. Then the police entered the bus, the armies like five men were waiting outside with their long barrels and kevlar as if there was Osama bin Laden inside the bus. Then one of the polices said “passport”, everyone took their passport out, some of them pulled the ID card, and some of them showed a A4 paper like the Japanese lady who speaks French in strong Japanese accent. I showed my passport, luckily it was fine. I can’t imagine if they drag me out and interrogate me. But they dragged two African women instead. I was so sure they spoke French. After one hour of interrogation, one of the police waved to the driver and we left them with the police. I pity on them, but for the sake of the rest of the passengers, we had to go.

The next stop is Metz airport. There is no special about this place I think.

Then when we entered Paris, it was like Pasteur gate in Bandung. Traffic jam. But it was not really like Pasteur where we have 30 minutes of traffic jam just to move for 2 km. In short story, I arrived at Bercy-Seine Station. It was already 21.00, I asked my fellow Indonesian who has been studying there, Kadek Hendrawan Palgunadi a.k.a Palgu for his guidance. He said that I should take metro (subway for France) 14 to Chatelet and go to Pont Neuf where he has been eating Ramen in Ippudo with his friends. Before I used the metro I had to buy the ticket in the ticket machine. The ticket costs 1.9 euro for one trip, and they have special offering if you buy 10 tickets and they cost 15 euro. I came at Ippudo but it seemed that he was having good time with them so I don’t want to bother. Besides, I was hungry and just realized the foods there are expensive, more than in Karlsruhe. Fortunately, there is Carrefour Express near Ippudo And they have 2 euro ready-to-eat salad.

Palgu finished his dinner and met me in front of the ramen store. He asked me if i would like to go to the Bar. I said yes but I wouldn’t drink any alcohol there and he decided not to go there instead of going to hall of Chatelet and Notre Dame, then going back to his apartment.  Chatelet Hall is like regular hall to me but Notre Dame is whole next level. And when Palgu said Notre Dame, I misheard it, sounded like Rotterdam, which actually Noterdam, were we going to Holland already??!

Notre-Dame chatedra or cathedral of Our Lady is a medieval catholic church in Paris. The architecture is terrific and the carving is meticulous. The treasury of the church contains crucial relics from Jesus Crucifixion including fragment of the true cross, crown of thorn, and one of the holy nails. There is park in front of it with a horseman statue.

my inferior smartphone couldn't capture the view perfectly on night

As we were walking to the church, Palgu embraced me to take master degree at Europe, because job vacancy for geophysics bachelor is not in a good shape. He also told how he got his master scholarship in Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), his ups and downs there and the most important, his will to study hard so he could be one of the best student in the class. Finally his hard work paid-off, cause he will continue his doctor study in Saudi and Munich with well-paid scholarship.

Finally we arrived at his apartment, it is located on the Northeast of Paris near the border. He said that I can see the highway which encircled Paris. Inside the room, there is actually Yaseer from Iran, Palgu’s roommate. He is hilarious, he often makes jokes  about Palgu and old people in Iran. Despite of that laughter, he is actually a 30 years unemployment. He finished his study in geophysics but just can’t find job in his homeland. Consequently he has been continuing his study in Paris. And I asked him why didn’t he apply for jobs in banks, because in Indonesia, banks usually welcome anyone with any bachelor degree to work for them. And he said “if I could do that, I wouldn’t be here, the job is top level job in Iran and the salary is good”. That answer made me realized how ungrateful I am that in Indonesia we still have banks for job vacancy, although it is entirely different field. May Allah helps you, Yaseer.

March 11^th 2018

I slept lately on the previous night. On sunday, I woke up on 9.00. Palgu was generous, he gave me an instant noodle as breakfast while I hadn’t eat that favorite food of mine for two weeks. And on 10.00, I was ready to explore Paris, but it was rainy. Palgu said the rain will have stopped on 16.00. well, I guess I had no choice. My first destination of course the Eiffel Tower.

Tour de Eiffel, that is the French name of the tower was built by French engineer, Gustave Eiffel on 1887-1889 at Champ de Mars. The structure which height is 324 m is the most well known icon of France, this is the reason why I had to visit it. Tourist may enter and ascend the tower via lift after buying ticket. But Palgu didn’t really recommended it. Again, it was raining, my shoes were getting more more wet and it was getting cold. But I managed to ask my fellow Indonesian tourists to take a photo.

Happy Andre is happy. the freezing rain is freezing 

random building near the Eiffel Tower

Not far from Eiffel Tower, lies solid structure of Arc de Triomphe de l’Etoile at the Western end of Champ de Elysees. This monument was built to honor the French soldiers who fought in Napoleonic Wars. The arc was built  in 1806 and designed by Jean Chalgrin. I took several pictures of it from distant because it is enormous. Even some crazy Asian tourists were taking their photo in the middle of the road while the traffic lights were red.  Due to heavy rain, I didn’t make it to the top of the arc instead calming myself inside the tunnel which is under the arch.

pardon my super big face

this picture was taken from the same spot with the crazy asian tourist HAHAHAHA

Far in the Northeast, stand a big basilica on the Butte Montmarte hill which name is Sacre Couer  (which is actually near Palgu apartment). Before arriving at this basilica, you have to climbing up the stairs. The stairs is pretty much like Galunggung yellow stairs. The basilica was built in 1875-1914 based on design by Paul Abadie. There were many tourists. But the most noticeable group is the elementary student groups, I supposed they are from England. The most interesting part of this basilica is you can see Paris 180 degree from the courtyard. The rain stopped, while the air was freezing. But I enjoyed today’s sunset at Paris on this hill.

Basilica Sacre Coeur

view from Butte Montmarte hill

The sun goes down, the dark comes. Final destination is the Musee du Louvre. The Museum is the place where the legendary Mona Lisa painting is hung. The pyramid is made of bulletproof glass with frames are made of metal, you can guess why. Yeah of course to protect the paintings because there were many attemps to steal or to harm it. Other than Mona Lisa, this museum holds 20.000 pieces of world wide artwork. Unfortunately the museum is closed when I arrived there…. Got my priority backwards.. should have visited this museum on the afternoon and the basilica, then arc the triomphe and the Eiffel on the night. Even I missed one particular destination, The Grand Mosque of Paris. This mosque has historical moment when world war II. Back then, the imam hid the jews by falsing their birth certificate to avoid holocaust. But the time is tight, I decided to go to Bercy-Seine bus station instead of the mosque.

Musee du Louvre

Acknowledgment to Kadek Hendrawan Palgunadi for helping the Author while in Paris. Good luck with your study! Wish the best for me.

Advice:

1. if you wanna cheap food, just buy it in Lidl or Carrefour Express. foods in Paris are pretty expensive
2. Look at the schedule before you visit certain museum, plus the museums are expensive if you don't have europe student card.
3. if you wanna use metro oftenly, just buy 10 tickets for 15 euro. you will save 4.9 euros.