Paris (7 Dec 2006 - 10 Dec 2006)

This weekend's destination is Paris, the city of lights. When I was a little girl, I heard so much about Paris through the television shows, books and magazines and how romantic the city is. I had always wanted to go there and fall into deep, passionate embrace on top of the Eiffel Tower with my Prince Charming. As I grow older, I wanted very much to see the Lourve Museum in Paris. I am not those arty-farty type but because I heard about many attempts made in history to steal the paintings from the Lourve, it made the place sound so mysterious. Can you believe the excitement in me when Da Vinci Code came out?

After arriving in Europe and hearsay from other people, Paris doesn't seem to be as perfect as I once thought but nevertheless, a trip to Europe without going to Paris seems like a sin. For this long holiday of 4 days, I decided to see Paris for myself.

Day 1:

When we arrived in Paris, it was raining heavily and the wind was very strong. Our brolly almost got blown off! The metro lines were a terror. There are the inter-city lines and the intra-city lines. There are at least 2 different metro companies operating in the same train station. It took us a while to familiarize with the understanding the metro system.

We walked several blocks from the Marcel Sembat station to our hotel under the rain and wind and with our 4 days of luggage. The room was really small. I guess most hotel rooms in France are tiny. After drying ourselves, we started on our first stop in Paris - Notre Dame.

It is just a cathedral like any others we see around Europe. I think the Milan duomo looks nicer than Notre Dame. Guess it is so famous because of the show "The Hunchback Oak of Notre Dame". Seriously, I never see the movie before but since it is listed in one of the must-go so go there take a few photographs to show BTDT (been there, done that).

Next stop - Lourve. The walk from Notre Dame to Lourve made me realized how beautiful Paris is. The cars are better maintained, the people dress more elegantly, the French are fairer... ok, maybe the fairer part doesn't make Paris a better city. Ha! We started cam-whoring everything from the graffiti, leaves to the dustbins. Lourve was a palace before it was converted into a museum so you can imagine how bloody big the museum is and how many thousands of paintings and artifacts there are in Lourve. Saw the prism shown in Da Vinci Code and began to fly my shutters away. Somehow after watching the movie, you feel like you came all the way from across the globe just to see this prism thingy. Walked around and towards the direction of Mona Lisa. I don't find her portrait fascinating but then again everyone heard of Mona Lisa so must also go and see. If you don't know where is her portrait placed in the museum, just go to the place where many people gather and you will see Mona Lisa behind a plastic cover. We were speculating if it is bullet-proof. Haha! Spent about 4 hours in Lourve and we still could not cover the entire place, given the fact that we really zoom past each paintings and artifacts except for photo-taking.

Went to see the night scene of the Eiffel Tower and it really took my breath away with the dazzling lights which lit up the entire tower at every hour. With the cool breeze and warmth of the beautiful Eiffel Tower, I almost would marry anyone who proposes to me at the moment. Ha!

Day 2:

Fulfillment of childhood dream. Paris Disneyland! I am not into thrill rides except for ferris wheel or the carrousel. My main purpose there is to take pictures and buy those cutesy souvenirs and to see the princess castle. Paris Disneyland castle is the Sleeping Beauty castle. I have that fairytale in hardcover somewhere in my storeroom. I think different Disneyland in the world has a different castle. As it turns out, Disneyland was really pretty. The atmosphere is very much alike in the storybooks. And with X'mas round the corner, the place is even more magical.

There are a couple of interesting thrill rides but due to the strong winds, many of the outdoor rides were cancelled. Too bad for those who came for the rides. Haha! I bought a lot of stuffs from the stores. It's a crime if I don't bring those Disney tins of candies home! Despite spending the whole day in Disneyland, we are still not able to cover every corner of it.Day 3:

Lucky to have nice weather today as we are going to the famous Eiffel Tower. I wonder how many movies have their setting in Eiffel Tower. The structure was humongous! It was a Saturday and the place is infested with people. We spent like 2 hours in the queue to purchase the ticket. In the end, we either bought the wrong ticket or went into the wrong entrance; we climbed up the stairs of Eiffel Tower instead of taking the lift up! We climbed the 1st 2 segment of the enormous mega-structure and took a lift up to the highest part of the tower. The view there was magnificent. Had our lunch at the Eiffel Tower - how cool is that but it's freaking expensive though. But it was worth it, given I was on one of the most talked about structure in the world.

We went to the Arc de Triomphe next. The purpose of an arc in Europe is mostly to commemorate the bravery of the soldiers who has died in a war. Sometimes, it is also a structure for victories won on battlefields. I thought it was just like the other arcs I'd seen in Europe. But this arc is way bigger and most importantly, it is situated at this big roundabout with 12 exits around the roundabout. No wonder it is one of the must-go places in Paris. It would have made a nice picture to take from the top of the arc but it was getting dark and the queues are never-ending.

When night comes, we had dinner at this typical French restaurant and tried the French cuisine, foie gras and... I dislike it. They say either you love it or you hate it, just like durian. Ok, so it has proven that I belong to the group which hates it. After which, we went to the famous Champs Elysees, a high-end shopping street at one of the exit from the Arc de triomphe. It has trees on both sides of the roads lined with X'mas lightings. But too bad, we came too late and most of the shops are already closed but the crowd was still mingling around all dressed in Hugo Boss suits and Prada dresses. Bought a NIKE tee with "Paris" written on it, which I think is only available in Paris. Love it, Think more international brands should have such a concept just like hard rock cafe tees.

Left Paris to catch the plane back to Milan in the early morning. I will miss Paris. Think it is one of the best city so far I have visited. They say Rome is nice but I say Paris is stunning.

Innsbruck (2 Dec 2006 - 3 Dec 2006)

Austria - A country which I always have this impression of dull and dark mass of land, filled with soldiers wearing those hats that covers the ears (Argh! Forgot what was it called?) and had a history of century-long battles. Boy was I wrong!

We drove like 5 hours to this famous town Innsbruck. First thing that impressed me were the very organized streets with CLEAR road signs. This is exactly the opposite from Italy! The street names were nicely displayed in manuscript fonts. But the street names were kinda difficult to pronoun. There were 2 parts of the town on both side of the canal. Most of the accommodations are situated on the other side of the canal from the town centre where the buzz is. Our 2-star hotel (Innbruke Hotel) is a small pink building with a very warm feeling and there is a pub at the ground floor. Our rooms were very clean and there is a basin with a mirror in the room too. The toilet and the showers are in the corridor and was very well lit up and most of all, clean!

After putting down our luggage, we began our exploration in Innsbruck. We crossed the canal which was lined with colorful low-rise buildings on one side and a bustling X'mas market on the other and halfway on the canal there was snow-capped mountains ranges in front of us. What beautiful scenery! Took a couple of pictures and we walked towards the much talked about X'mas markets in Europe.

The X'mas market is already alive in the day. With the cooling weather and the glittering and colorful decorations on the buildings, it was awesome! All the shops are selling things related to the X'mas season. There are stuffs like candy floss, cookies, nuts, X'mas tree decor, scarves, beanies, etc. We grabbed wurstel sausage burgers and a hot cup of cappuccino before proceeding to visit other places of interest in Innsbruck in case night fall.

We were walking across the X'mas market and unknowingly came to our 1st attraction, the Golden Roof. It was situated just inside the X'mas market. You will not know it is so famous unless you see people snapping photos in the air. It was merely a small roof which is gold in color... why is it so famous? The roof is not so high up to be any lookout point? A quick google check reveal this: "It was constructed for Emperor Maximilian I to serve as a royal box where he could sit in luxury and enjoy tournaments in the square below" Ok, now I know... after I went to the place. Haha! The next few places we went were the exterior of the Hofburg imperial palace. It looked very modern with what looked like a fresh coat of white paint recently splashed onto the building. I was still expecting it to be some old tall castle with fort and ropes thrown down from the top for the soldiers to climb up in the past. As the night was starting to turn dark at 4.30pm, we went briefly to this museum next to the palace. The museum was so small! One look and you can see the whole place. It was actually a small church which still houses the tombs of one of the king and queen of Innsbruck in the attic.

We went to this Swarovski shop in the town center and spent like an hour shopping for crystals there. The things are not exactly very cheap there but there are some small jewelries which range from 15 euro to 100 euro. There is this triple-layered cake displayed on a table with 2 chairs and all of them are made of crystals! I spent like 80 euro buying gifts for friends as well as a pair of earrings and a necklace for myself.

After we came out of the Swarovski shop, the night is already dark and the streets are filled with lots of people. We began strolling along the X'mas market. They always say "Save the best for last". We came to this stall with a long queue selling apple cider. As the weather was turning chilly, we also queued to buy a mug of apple juice. Though I think there is nothing fantastic about the apple juice but drinking something hot under the cold starry night is really amazing. The feeling is so comforting. Ahh...

Came across this colorful shop selling woven or knitted stuffs. Since I did not attach my hood on my jacket, I bought an Austrian-style beanie. A 100% woolen beanie cost 25 euro! So I settled for this half wool and don't half what material beanie which cost 10 euro. Couldn't find the perfect design in the 10 euro range but I bought it nevertheless since I probably won't be wearing it ever again. (I will not travel in winter and I will definitely not come for such long overseas training again unless it is on short business trip.)

The next day we went to Stubai Glacier about 40 min bus ride from Innsbruck town. We past by many small, quaint houses along the way and one thing I noticed are that the windows panes are either nicely decorated or they draw some designs around their window. This makes their houses looked really cheerful. It reminds me of those images from Enid Blyton storybooks. Skiers with full blown ski gear started coming up the bus. At the beginning, they looked so out of place wearing ski equipment in the bus. But as we are nearing the foot of the Stubai Glacier, we are like one of the few people in the bus without ski gear on and it is now time for us to feel so so weird. The view to the bottom of the glacier had me engulfed with excitement. There are snow flakes on the grasses and trees and soft snow at the side of the road. I was hoping it would snow.

We took a cable car up this ski place where there are beginner slopes. The place is infested with skiers of all ages - kids as young as 3 years old to grannies and grandpas. We went to this ski rental shop where there was a superb range of ski equipment available. I did not ski though cos partly I feel 4 hours is not enough for me to master the art of ski and I would not have enjoy the whole ski thingy and secondly I want to try skiing together with Superboy as both of us have never ski before. This set me to reminisce of the times we had in Melbourne during my graduation tour to Australia. We had wanted to ski at Mt Buller in Melbourne but I was running out of money that time. Anyway, the rest of spent like an hour there trying on the sizes and learning how to lock and unlock the ski. After which they walked like a duck from the rental shop to the ski slopes. But after gearing up, they looked pretty cool. As they try to even walk or stand up from the falls, I took the cable car to the highest point of the glacier. The slope at the top of the cable car station was just steps away after you alight from the cable car. I think the temperature there was like sub zero! Cool right? Haha! And I was only wearing my thermal top and my jacket.

Austria is really neat place. I would definitely visit it again if I have the chance.