Eurotrip Part 3 - Paris #1 The Garden and The Mosque

The next day, I woke up really early to pray Subuh (4AM) and the sun was well up! It was still late spring in Paris, but my tropical-adjusted circadian rhytm was not used to the sun at 4AM. Still, I prayed, hoping that I'll be forgiven, and plan the journey for the date. I'll be leaving at 23.00 from Gallieni to Amsterdam again, so I need to squeeze everything in the limited time.

Learn from yesterday's mistake, I walk for about 1 km to reach the neraest zone-3 RER train station, so then I could use the tickets I've already bought. The walk is long and steep, much longer than it seemed on the map (I walked crossing zones! can you believe that?) Fortunately Paris is pedestrian-friendly, with its wide trottoires (yes, the Indonesian word trotoar is French in origin!) and neat old buildings along the way.

cute parks like this are just around the corners

lots of public space, even in the middle of the city

une maison like this must cost a fortune

love the flowers

cars are parked paralelly, which must be troublesome for slacky drivers like me

My first destination was... guess what. Eiffel again! I wanted to see the day-version of the tower as well as the evening one. Hey, I came from half-the-globe away, why not savor everything while I'm here? :D This time I came nearer than last night, so that I am practically under it. And eventhough I just sat there, enjoying the air, people-watching, it seemed to be a dream comes true! No matter however I look at it, Eiffel is still too grand to be taken for granted. I took a lot of pictures, while being on guard since lots of scammers were roaming the place. 

Then I continue to walk along the river Seine. It reminded me of Ciliwung near my kost; the water is the same gray, although the river is wider and the banks much more cleaner. People were sitting on the river banks, playing musical instruments, having tea, or just chatting to pass time. If only the Jakarta Governor has taken Ciliwung matters seriously, i'm pretty sure someday we can enjoy it -nearly- as much as I enjoy Seine. But something about Paris sure contributes to the tranquility of Seine, maybe the air, maybe the people, I don't know. 

I spent like 5 hours alone around the Eiffel and Seine! How time flies when you are in Paris. I could not afford to miss my bus, so I canceled the original plan to Louvre. It is a must, of course, but I'll come again before my flight back to Indonesia! A solid reason to come back :)

 So instead I boarded a metro to another part of the city, which is Quartier Latin. My plan was to pray in the Grande Mosquee de Paris. I got off at Censier Daubenton station, and then.... I was lost! The area map in the station did not include the mosque, and eventhough I was holding a map in my hand, I must agree with whoisit that said women suck at map-reading! I turned at wrong alleys, and the street names is nowhere to be seen in my map. So I approached a random young monsieur in the street, time to put my francais to the test!

Me: Excusez-moi monsieur, ou est Grande Mosque de Paris?
Monsieur: Oooh, ^&!^@!$ *point )(&&$#& *wave hands !@^%%#
Me: Oui, oui, merci monsieur!

I did not understand a word! Real French were much more throaty than in my practice. Well, I know that Parisien were not very good at english, and they did not bother to learn. And they dislike tourists approaching them in the middle of their business, out of the blue asking "do you speak english?" because they do not. It may not look so, but manners are very important to Parisien, and they hold the principle "where in Paris, do as the Parisien do" which is parlez francais! Put manners aside, this is  great time to practice my french with a native, and altho I pretty much embarassed myself, at the very least I could hear the original French tongues and that is priceless :))

I tried my luck turning here and there, till I saw the familiar-looking door. Voila, the mosque was there! Not very grande, but I did not expect much from a city where muslim is not a majority. The mosque is decent, with a secluded garden inside where I can hear another young monsieur reciting Quran in a way I never heard before. The wudhu place is much more complicated to find, it was in the basement level, the ways are winding, and there were staircase at the most unexpected place. Fortunately, a kind madame greeted me and showed me the way. The prayer room is nearly empty, only me, Dina, and another madame. This is the first time I prayed in a mosque where muslim is rare. The atmosphere is somewhat different, but I liked how it is more peaceful than outside.

the corner door of Grande Mosque du Paris

The garden inside the mosque

The Prayer Room

French Calligraphy

After prayer, we walked a bit to the Jardin des Plantes which is just around the corner from the mosque. It was a the main botanical garden in Paris, inside it was Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle. (I currently am reading a book about it, "All The Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr"). Unfortunately it was closed, but the buildings is just as photogenic from the outside. So I strolled along the cypress-lined path, sat at a bench and breathed the afternoon air. The sun was still high, like 3pm in Indonesia. People, couples and children, all walking peacefully among the bushes. Behind my bench was a pretty rose garden filled with roses in any color you can name! It's It felt so good just to be there. I lied on my back on top of the green green grass and stared at the bright blue sky. My thoughts wandered of home. So strange, I was million miles away but I felt as peaceful as if I'm home :)

roses

a lady in waiting (?) this is one of the museum of natural history's building

 a picture of me

yet another picture of me

the main building of the museum

so green and fluffy  i wanna lie down

blue sky

last picture of me, grinning, remembering home

And before I knew it, my hour is up! I need to move fast to collect my things in my friend's place and back again to board the bus to Amsterdam. So many things I have not seen yet, but Paris, I'll come back!

A weird story as I pace along the metro platforms: there was this weird creepy guy who seemed to be following me from Chatelet station up until the last station before Gallieni (my destination). He was tall, dark skinned, wearing a hoodie covering his head, and followed every step of mine. Even when I changed metro at Republique. I stood as far away as I could from him inside the metro, throwing a side glance from time to time. He definitely stared with somewhat greedy eyes! How scary! But then he got off at Porte de Bagnolet, which was just a station away from Gallieni. Huftness.....

Eurotrip Part 2 - Paris #1 The Desperate Attempt

Why Paris#1? Because There's gonna be #2 of course! One visit is obviously not enough to discover the city of light. I think my #2 will be some years later, but turns out I'll just have to wait a few days before visiting this city  again! :) More on that later...

This is getting ridiculous since this trip is almost a year ago, so please forgive me if I left out details that are already buried deep in the back of my brain. Nevertheless, Paris left an impression so strong that there are still much to tell from what's left of my memory :")

So where did I? O yeah, in my aunt's house in Brussels. I woke up with a happy mind, knowing that I'll finally get to see Eiffel today. After the usual morning hassle, a cabbie came and Galis (my cousin, remember?) join in to see us off from the bus stop. It was a windy, chilly morning, I'm still not used to the dry coldness of Europe. I walked as fast as I can to the warmth of waiting room. The bus, like everything in Europe, came on time. Paris, here we come!

The highway is dull, just greens and grays and blues like any other highway. We stopped once in a rest area, and after a 4 hour the bus pulled in at Gallieni Terminal. What I like about European transportation, it's all integrated. The terminal is directly connected with a metro station (Gallieni). We already arranged to stay in an Indonesian student, and she already messaged the metro route to her dorm. And here's when it all got real messy.

We get to the destination metro station okay, we got off from the metro, we walked to the check-out gate, we tap our tickets... but the gate denied our tickets. It said ours are not valid. Curious, we let people pass us and tried again, but it stubbornly refused to open for us. That's when a kind madame advised us to.... just crawl under the gate. Ha ha ha, merci madame. It was not easy with two heavy luggages, but fortunately there was no guards around. We then walked out casually from the station, acted like we belong :D

Turns out, our friends' address was a good 1 km away from the metro station. Imagine carrying luggages down the sidewalks of Paris suburb. Cool, eh? NO! I was sure we looked like two lost girls. We asked a random demoiselle once, then finally we get to the address.

...Then we figured out our friend has not left the info regarding her building or her room. She stayed in a campus dorm, but it has, like, 6 buildings, and I did not know where her room was. Worse, all dorm buildings are locked and can only be opened by registered residents. Worser, there were no Wi-Fi connection in the area and neither Dina or I had any pulsa to call her. It was already afternoon, we were exhausted from a long journey and a long walk and a heavy backpack (a big, heavy suitcase for Dina).

I left my backpack with Dina in a bus stop in front of the campus, and ask around to get in. I tried asking the security man about a student named XX, from Indonesia, I am her friend and want to visit but she has not left the room number. He did not speak English. Hmmm, I learned some Decent French back then but i was not confident enough to explain myself to him, especially when I looked suspicious asking a room of a student. Then I tried other plan, which is to "slip in" to each dorm buildings everytime someone come in/out (again, act like I belong) then checked the lockers'label in each dorm hall, searching for my friends' name, hoping that I'll find her in hundreds of rows of names. Nothing.

one of the building

bus stop in front of the dorm

Time for desperate attempt. Every dorm has a living room when students gather to study. So I tried explaining myself to a young Arab guy, hoping that at least he should be able to speak English. Fortunately he did. And better, he lent me his phone to contact my friend. He even walked me to the right building and the right floor until the very door my friend lived in. I forgot his name, but whoever you are, Monsieur, i wish you a happy day everyday and after and ever! :D

My friend has cooked us chicken soup, which was delicious. After a meal and prayer, she explained us where we got wrong with the metro. Her area is in the fourth zone of Paris, and apparently our regular ticket only cover 1st-3rd zones. Pity, since we already bought 10 tickets (because it was cheaper than singles!) But maybe the tickets will be useful later for our trip in the city. It was 8pm, but the sun was still high. We decided to go back to the city, maybe see Eiffel in the evening light. She reminded us that in the summer, sun sets at 10pm and maybe we'll have to wait until late to see it. She was okay with us coming back late, though (very kind of her!) and without further ado, we set off!

Navigating Paris is super easy!

A random pictures of a dental surgeon name-plaque

And there it was, magnificent as ever: The Eiffel Tower! You know that feeling when everyone is talking about one beautiful thing, but you cant believe it until you see it with your own eyes. And you're very curious about it to the point of you're dying to see it (well, not that extreme), but here I was. Seeing the most-talked-about tower earth-wide. Maybe the urban legend or the legend or anything, but Eiffel is no ordinary towel. It stood there, waiting to be included in our every pictures:)

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Then we waited until the sun fully sets, and the tower lit itself. It was a view to remember :)