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 :)