Paris Leg

Hi Everyone,

I Arrived in Paris at around 1pm of November 4, 2009. It was a long flight from Manila-Abu Dhabi-Paris. Wasn't able to rest much. Plane rides aren't really that comfortable to say the least. Stopped over at Abu Dhabi for a few hours. Had time to Skype with my parents for the very first time. Also read the 'black book' my officemates from NLS gave me during my despedida party. Thanks guys! I really appreciate your kind notes and warm wished for this new chapter in my life.

I prepared a few French phrases before landing to help me communicate better. Like, where the bus station is, etc. To no avail, I never got to use them that day. I was too shy to speak French. I ended up speaking in English. Good thing, they understood.

I stayed at my cousin Lea's studio for a few days. Luca, her friend picked me up from the bus stop at Gare de Lyon. Luca's Italian, funny and nice. We had a few after-work drinks the day after. I met some of Lea's friends too. Aside from Luca, the Italian, I met two of her Filipino friends Ginger and and Mack a Polish guy who loves the Philippines so much after spending just a few years there.

While waiting for JP to arrive, I toured by myself. Learned how the metro system works (not to difficult to learn, just like NYC metro). When JP finally came, we transferred to a hostel. There we met some interesting people. Our first roommates were Canadian girls. They we're fun and friendly. We went out for some drinks a just few minutes after we arrived. We bar hopped or pub crawled our way through rue Mouffetard. Awesome street lined with pubs, bars and restos. I particularly liked a bar called the Fifth Bar. It had a nice underground room where this unplugged band was playing. Thanks to the Canadians, we got some free drinks. We saved around 14 euros worth of drinks that night.

JP and I toured around Paris. We went to some museums. The Musee de Orsay to look at Van Gough's portrait and Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, Medussa, Victory, and Venus of Milo. The joined a free Paris walking tour also. Something I highly recommend to everyone who visits Paris. Apparently they do have free walking tours in other countries where SANDEMAN operate. It's completely free. They just work for tips. The tour was fun, with lots of trivia. Just prepare your legs because you'll go for a long walk. Around 5km. Well paced.

We wen't bar crawling again. We invited Melissa, a girl from LA who's living the same hostel as we were staying in, to join us. At the bar crawl we met some Australians, Austrians a New Yorker and a Canadian. The Australians were lightweights, one of them threw up at the 3rd bar. We were partying until 2am and we missed the metro back to our hostel. We ended up walking because taking a taxi will be too expensive. From Champs Elysee we walked back to the Latin Quarter. 5km walk again in an hour. You can imagine how tired our legs were. Though it was so late in the evening or should I say too early in the morning, we were safe and got back in one piece.

We planned to go on the Sacre Coeur walkig tour but it got cancelled because the group didn't meet quota. We just did our own walking tour instead. Walking the streets of Montparnase gave us time to check the French portrait artists at the plaza. The view from the Sacre Coeur was breathtaking. What I liked more was the mini concert by the steps. Everyone was in a good mood. Similar to Bom Bom's at Boracay. Really steady, feel good music at sundown. To top it all off, we we're drinking a bottle of Heineken. It's just so weird that we're drinking in front of a Church. After Sacre Coeur we wend down to check out the famous Moulin Rouge.

We went to Versailles with Melissa, since she had nothing better to do that day. We took a 30 minute train there. The place was so big. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Talk about a cribs. The farm house of Marie Antoinette was cute also. They're like little hobbit houses. They really must have been living it to have those as her 'play houses'. That night we met up with JP's officemate Jason and walked up the Champs Elysee to the Arc de Triomphe. It was Armistice Day that day and we were lucky to catch some ceremony for it beneath the arc.

We pretty much covered a lot during this trip. After spending hours walking the streets, climbing up stairs, taking pictures. I must say that this trip was well spent and worth every aching muscle in my body.

Patch