2nd episode of Paris trip (beware: EXTRA LONG!)

As promised. The second episode of my Paris trip.

24 June 2008 (day 2)

We woke up around 730 ish am. All fresh and bright. Almost 100% recovered from yesterday's trauma. Huhu. We were all geared up and excited. Disneyland is waiting for us! Yay!! Hehe. I hopped off my bed, rushed to the shower. The thought of Disneyland just brings a smile to our face. Haha. (I know, I am 23. But hey, there's always a kid in each and everyone of us. No matter how old we are!) Silently, I prayed that today, things will turn out better than it was yesterday.

However, surprise surprise, it seems like my prayer was not granted.

Ok, lets start from the very beginning.

We were busy packing our stuffs, while munching on the croissants that i had brought from tesco before we flew to Paris. We were in our la la land, probably already imagining ourselves having fun in Disnyeland, until Munirah asked me a question. A question that killed the excitement. A question that abruptly changed our mood. My mood in particular.

"Akak, tiket Disneyland ada?" She asked.

I stopped whatever I was doing at that time and stared at her. Blur.

"Eh, bukan ada ngan awak ke?" I answered.

"Eh mana ada. Saya ada tiket saya je. Kan saya dah email kat akak tiket akak. Akak dah print kan?"

I was dumbfounded. Argh. I did not have my Disneyland ticket with me! (We printed our tickets in IC a day before flying off to Paris. She had shown me a ticket with Disneyland picture on it, and at that time, I thought she had printed off the tickets for both of us. I absolutely had no idea that we had to individually print off our tickets!)

Munirah felt extremely guilty and I myself felt guilty for making her feel guilty! Huhu. It was my fault, not hers. So, to make her feel less guilty, I put on a smiling face and said "Its ok. We try and find a place to print the ticket. Mesti ada cafe internet kat sini. Kalau takde, akak beli je la tiket baru"

I was determined to buy myself a new ticket. I am already in Paris. Heck. It will be a loss not to go to Disneyland! I did not mind raking out another 50 euro for the tickets.

So we headed out of the hotel, trying to find any internet cafes. There were actually quite a number, BUT, it was only 830 then, and NONE of them were open. Huhu. We walked quite far off from our hotel, but to no avail. Hence, I decided that I will just buy myself a new ticket. So, we tried to get ourselves to the metro station, only to find ourselves lost (again!). As usual, we thickened our face and asked help from the locals. And alhamdulillah, we managed to find our way.

As soon as we arrived Disneyland, smiles were plastered to our face. It was an automatic reflex, I guess. Haha. We snapped some pictures and headed off to the ticketing booth. My jaw dropped to the floor when my eyes saw the price for entrance ticket. It was almost double from the price that i had paid for the ticket when i bought it online! Crazy! I was seriously in dilemma then. Thinking if it was worth it to spend that much money just to see Mickey Mouse and friends. huhu. But, I was not going to let Munirah down, so I headed off the counter with her and asked for the price confirmation. I explained to the lady that i forgot to print my ticket. And alhamdulillah, she told us that they provide printing facilities! Yayyyyyyyy. Happy i was. Seriously. Hahaha. We printed off my ticket and happily went into Disneyland. Hehe.

We snapped and snapped and snapped. We even bought ourselves a Minnie Mouse ears. Hahaha. We wore them, pretending to be cute! Hahaha. It was fabulous. But, that was not for long. Huhu. We were happily taking pictures after pictures after pictures, when suddenly, the camera just stopped working!!!! Huuuuuurgh. For whatever reason, it just refused to work even after turning it on and off for the umpteenth time. Devastated, not knowing what to do. We had to roamed and called a few of our friends back in Sheffield for help but to no avail. Lastly, we decided to take the suggestion from Mr Jo. We bought ourselves 2 disposable cameras! Huhuhu. Sad huh?

We refused to let that ruin our mood. We thickened our face and snap and pose and snap. Hah. We could not care less what others think of our manual disposable camera. Haha. We want our memories in Paris to be captured in pictures. So be it if our camera is not as superb as the others. Hahaha.

We spent a splendid 6 hours in Disney and we were damn knackered! Hot, sweating, sticky with unpleasant odour! Huhuhu. We stank. Hahahha. But it was worth it. Hahaha.

Later that evening, we decided to go to Eiffel Tower. We know it looks more gorgeous at night, and seriously, it does! We waited for almost an hour to get up. It was well worth the wait. We climbed up all the way to the first and second stage. And, oh man, was I exhausted! I was panting, and sweating like mad. I felt like i've just ran a marathon! Huhu. But, it was all worth it. The view was superfabulous. Frustrated though as we were not able to capture our memory at Eiffel in pictures. Oh well, the memory will always be engraved in my heart. Hahaha.

Anyway, by the time our feet touch solid ground again, it was almost 1030 pm. We decided to hang around at the park across the Eiffel tower, just so that we would be able to get a nice view of the tower from far. The park was packed with people, lying around on the grass. We joined the crowd for 30 minutes or so and then decide to leave around 11 pm.

We get on the metro to St Ouen metro station and arrived there around 1230 am. We walked to the exit, simply taking our time. When we reach the exit, I could feel my whole body froze. I could not believe what I have just saw. Oh no way. You have GOT to be kidding me. This CAN'T be happening!

We found ourselves LOCKED inside the metro station.

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh. Seriously, I panicked and almost cried! Panic, we walked towards the other exit, only to find the exit to be closed as well. Oh gosh. We were actually trapped inside the metro. For god sake, sleeping at the metro was not on my things-to-do-in-Paris list! Huhu. Frantic, we rang some random bell, and alhamdulillah, an angry faced security guard came to the rescue. We explained what happened and he let us out of the building with an irritated look on his face. Huh.

Our story did not end there.

We somehow managed to get lost again. And this time, we were REALLY lost! We walked around in circles, completely clueless of our whereabouts. We asked a passerby, followed his direction, and half way tru, we get lost again. And again and again and again. Can you imagine, it was almost 2 am, and we found ourselves walking in the middle of the street of Paris. Unsure of where to go! All I could think about at that time was Why. There has got to be a reason for this to happen. I took it as a punishment from Him. Huhu.

I was so stressed out that i refused to talk. Poor Munirah. Sorry girl. I was so stressed at that time because as your senior, I held the responsibility of looking after you! She kept talking, probably trying to ease the tension. But I kept walked in silence. Huhu. Seriously, I was scared.

We somehow ended up finding our way to the Hotel around 2.30 am. Crazy! Tell me about it. Huhu.

Paris (1st episode. hehe)

I am supposed to be doing my clinical case presentation for Monday, but I am running out of ideas. Hence decided to give my blog a visit. It has been ages since I last updated my blog! Sheesh. I guess I have been s00000 busy for the past few weeks, that I completely did not have the time to scribble a thing or two in my blog. huhu. And now I plan to put aside my presentation for a while and write about my incredibly and ridiculously unforgettable yet fun trip to Paris.

Me and Munirah went to Paris for three days on the start of our summer holiday. Well, little did we know that we were about to embark on an 'amazing' journey! A journey that was filled with so many ridiculous and unexpected incidents. Too many absurd incidents that it is just almost impossible to forget.

Well, lets start with day 1.

23 June 2008
I had a doctor's appointment earlier that morning. My blood results were fabulous. I was happy! Headed straight to the train station as I had promised to meet Munirah there at around 1 pm. Went to the designated platform, Munirah arrived just a few minutes after I arrived. Our train arrives around 130. The train was packed! We had to sit on our handluggage in the corridor near the toilet as all of the seats were taken. Thankfully it was only a 30 minutes journey. As we arrived Derby, we left the train and waited for the shuttle bus to take us to the East Midlands Airport. The bus arrived a bit later than the scheduled time, but alhamdulillah, we did manage to get to the airport on time. Everything was going smoothly then. I was content. Thinking that alhamdulillah, this is a good start.

I guess everything started when we were in the airport. Alhamdulillah, I had no problem checking in, but that was not the case for Munirah. Apparently, her hand luggage was TOO HUGE to be fitted in the airport cabin! Ridiculous!! The size of her bag was actually smaller than the bag that i always bring for hand luggage, and yet her bag was claimed to be oversize and had to be checked in. And for the bag to be checked in, she has to pay an extra 14 pounds or so! Urgh. That was simply unfair. But, who are we to argue? Huhu. Defeated without a battle, she headed off to the BMI Baby office to pay the fee.

Later, we headed off to the security check area. My liquid stuffs were not placed in a proper transparent bag ( i simply put them in the tesco plastic bags. huhu) since my house ran out of supply. Confident that the airport will provide them for free at the entrance of the security check area, we walked to the security check area. We were about to reach the area when we realized that there were no plastic bags provided! Panicked, we walked out of the line and tried to think of what to do! I was panicking; stretching my neck, frantically trying to see if we had missed it amongst the crowd. My eyes, somehow, managed to caught this vending machine, standing proudly near the entrance of the security check area. I did not know what caught my interest, but something was not quite right with the vending machine. Oh gosh. No wonder. That was a vending machine for the transparent plastic bags! Huhu. It costs me 1.50 pounds for 2 plastic bags. Huhu. Thankfully the bags were good in quality!!

So, after putting my stuffs in the plastic bag, we headed off to the security area and alhamdulillah, no problem there. We went to see the main screen if the boarding gate has been announced, and it was not. Oh well, it was still early then. No problem. We lingered around and bought myself a sandwich and had my lunch. After a while, we checked the screen again, and still the gate number was still not announced. It says "Relax and shop". Ok. Fine. We will relax, but maybe not shop. huhu. Every 10 minutes or so, we checked the screen, and still it said the same thing. It was already nearing 4.30 pm and still no gate number. Our flight was supposed to board at 4.30! We started to get restless. We stood in front of the screen, staring at the screen, as if that will change a thing! We paced around, irritated. Oh come on. If the flight is delayed, just announce that it is delayed. At least our mind will be at ease. It was already past 4.30 and the screen still says "Relax and Shop". Urgh. How annoying.

Later on, we heard a couple saying that the gate number has been announced. All of us rushed to the boarding gate like a flock of bees swarming a field of honey! I think our flight departed about 30 - 40 minutes later than the scheduled time. And that, cost us our plan for the night! Huhu.

We arrived Paris ( can't remember what time) and headed off to the Metro. Happy, we were. Yay. Finally, I am in Paris. Hehe. We got on one Metro and get to Saint Michael Notre Dame station. There we had to change metro to get to St Ouen station (that's where our hotel is). We somehow, brilliantly managed to get on the wrong metro and found ourselves heading towards the opposite direction! After asking a passerby (who was also clueless and had to ask the metro driver for direction!), we managed to get on the right metro and headed off to St Ouen. As we arrived St Ouen, that was when a new problem arises. We had NO idea how to get to Formula 1 Hotel from the station! Huhu. To make things worse, it was almost 1130 pm and it was completely DARK! We asked one of the workers in the metro and he told us the way to get there. And yet, we managed to get lost. Me and my bearings! huhu. Then, we simply walked through the darkness of the night. To be honest, I was scared. To be in a foreign place, where nothing is familiar in the middle of the night. Every time someone walked by, I can feel my heart beating faster. I cling to my rucksack as firm as possible, as if that would protect me from danger. Huhu.

Alhamdulillah, after walking in circles for almost 20 minutes, we later managed to bump into a group of ladies. They walked us off to the hotel. It was almost 12.30 when we were finally there. Crazy. I know! You have no idea how I thank Allah right after we bunked into our room. Our first day was already a disaster! We naively hoped and prayed that tomorrow will be better. My body was aching, my stomach was grumbling. And yet, I managed to sleep through the night like a baby.

Fuh. There's more to tell. I will continue in the next post. huhu. Till then, ciao.