(Dear friends, because of some problem with uploading pictures in friendster blog,I decided to link the pictures instead.If u wanna see the picture, just click at the links I provided, or instead log on to http://photos.yahoo.com/angel_us_85 and click "Le Tour de France" for my full travel album there)
Gare Du Nord is a magnificent place…. If only Zambrie (my friend who lives in
Aix-en-Provence , our next destination) didn’t tell me that Gare is French for “Station”.. I wouldn’t even expect it to be a station at the first place
The exterior looks like some fine Gothic architecture building, with some Borocco influences. The front wall is decorated with carved statues …I don’t know any of them, but perhaps it might be the 12 Apostle… or some other important Frenchmen.
Don’t let the traditional architecture fools you, in the interior, Gare du Nord (The North Station) is just as modern as our present KL Sentral, in fact, it’s a whole lot more… It is the center of Grand Lignes ( Main Lines) train system.. which consists of TGV, Thalys, Eurostar and other bullet-train-standard transportation system. When we arrived there, there were 4 Grand Lignes train just arrived.. undeniably it is fantastic view for me… Ok, I’ve never seen a bullet-train before.. couldn’t I be “Batak” for a little while??? I mean, it’s not KTM Komuter… The other part of the station, we could see all the grand European boutique.. with all sorts of Discount & sale.. but tell me mom, who’s gonna by Gucci latest fashion in a train station??? Well, the French do….
Soon, Izwah’s Eurostar arrived in Lane 4, and I’m waiting, prepare to record the “Jejak Kasih” scene …. U know, the hugging, kissing… between siblings. 
Before I could even refocus my lens, someone ran towards Atak, hug him, and all the first-time-meeting words “Ya Allah…Atak..” .. guess I need to be a lamp post at that time…It’s so wrong for me to be present at that time….. this is soooo not proper to be interrupted..
Atak broke the ice.. He introduced me to Izwah’s, and my first reading.. well ,she’s nice…and even if she is not.. she has to be nice.. I would be dealing with her more within this few days.. it turns out that she is REALLY nice… ok, no.. I’m not pumping anything up…this is my sincere opinion to someone sister (with some doubt and worries that I might be beaten if I would say otherwise … no la!!! Just kidding) J
Later, just after Izwah checked in, we found the three of us walking around the area not far from our hostel to find place for dinner… so many restaurants!! From the cheap café, to the extravaganza restaurant which I didn’t dare to even pronounce the name. After comparing some 5 restaurant we ended up at the all time favourite – “Le McDonald” J .. The services is so much better compared to both in Moscow & Kuala Lumpur, that I decided to leave some tips despite my poverty there J… don’t ask me about the menu.. yes!! Correct… the same “Le Fillet-o-Fish” and “Le Fries au French” J
Dinners over, it’s
9pm and we still wandering around… not knowing what to do. Maghrib will only be an hour later.. so how should we spend this precious hour??? Then the brilliant Atak came up with an idea “Let’s go to EIFFEL!!!!!” …. And with the excitement of just arriving in
Paris , plus some small amount of adrenaline left, we made our way to the subway station.. to, at last, bear witness of the magnificent
Eiffel Tower
When we arrived in the station, all three of us were running like crazy, to be the first to witness the
Eiffel Tower . Ok, u can expect who’s the loser… yeah..that;s it…it’s me… Even before I passed thru the exit, I could hear Izwah’s excitement.. and thus I quicken my pace…
And then… standing before me….the
Majestic Eiffel Tower … the proud of
France , the landmark of
Paris , the symbol of Love & Romance,…my dream……
<<my first view of
Eiffel Tower >>
Despite the huge size, making it felt so close to us, the actual location is actually still several hundred meters away. This is the first time ever, I felt like chasing something. I kept walking despite the resistance of my own body limits, induced by the majestic tower, calling me thru the gentle
Paris evening breeze…
I didn’t even aware when, but the next thing I realized, rain poured down heavily. But even when I was wet all-over, nothing could stop me from reaching my dream.
Along the way to the tower, some sellers (I guess illegal) of African-origin offered us all the souvenirs they brought along. It’s so much cheap from the usual souvenirs shop found around the tower, so I didn’t let go of the chance. I grabbed some nice-looking Eiffel keychain, while Atak got himself a miniature of the tower. I soon found out that this tradesmen usually keep themselves invisible, as they didn’t have any permits for business.. So guys, if u want to meet them, be at Eiffel around dusk time..
Eiffel tower actually stand on sand square. Underneath it, many teenagers and adults (mostly with their other party) just sit, holding their chin up, to see the tower’s peak from under. Some even lay down on the sand, (and that’s include me and Atak). The tower is lit with thousands of bright scarlet colour spotlight, even enhancing the majestic view of the tower. At the peak, is a a kind of high-watt voltage we usually see in Batman’s movie … and the spotlight rotates slowly like those in lighthouse by the sea… lighting the whole of
Paris with it promising gentle shine.
I couldn’t remember how many pictures we took that night. One problem of making pictures with Eiffel is that.. it is a tower… so how could we fit it in into our small lenses when we were in such short distance? Then I thought of some photogenic picture of Eiffel I had seen before this. By directing the lenses vertically upward, it would give the view like we’re holding our chins up to see the tower’s peak. So, we took turn to lay on the sand, while two of us pose and the one who laid down then captured the memorial photos of us with Eiffel as the background.. Here are some examples that I manage to publish… (others are kept as personal collection J )
At
11 pm then, we’re already walking quite some distance from the tower. Right at that time, I heard people all around me screamed with excitement. I turned my head around and I saw on front of me , another unbelievable view of the tower. More than hundreds of flash-light were switched on, and all are blinking with some nanosecond interval, giving a diamond-like view of the whole tower. At this time, I saw some couple hugging each other, cheeks to cheeks, and both of them seems drowned in the wonderful view, while in other corners, a couple is kissing each other, with the lady seems extraordinarily excited. My guess is that, perhaps the guy had proposed to her a minute earlier, and while she was in doubt whether to answer “yes”, the Eiffel lit the flash-light on, whispering to the lady the right answer…. Another happy ending love story by the Eiffel. (I wish I could do the same to my lady when the times come… but until now, I need to find the person first before arranging the plan)
I thought we should call it a day, and we started our pace back to the subway station. But in the middle of our walk, a thought come to our mind. Why don’t we go to the top of the tower?? “Alang-alang dah sampai..” said Izwah. So all of us agreed, and the next thing we knew, we were in the lift carrying up several thousand feets from sea-level.
The view of City of
Light from this height is more and more fabulous. I could hardly find a word to describe its beauty, and while I savor each of the view, the gentle night breeze of
Paris kept me from overheating with the warmth company of people around me…
Soon, we really called it a day, and at
1 AM , we finally reached our hostel. All the restaurants and food-stalls were already closed, so we found ourselves filling our stomach with the cupcakes I brought from
Volgograd before we laid down exhaustedly on our bed.. It is either I was really that hungry, or that because we’re in
Paris , the cup cakes taste a little more better than usual
That night, I dreamed of the
Eiffel Tower , looking down upon me, smiling…..
To be continued
“Ladies and Gentlemen:, we’re arriving the Charles-de-Gaulle airport. The local time is
2.40pm ..and the weather is predicted to be clear. Thank you for boarding on Aeroflot, and enjoy your stay in
Paris
the announcement from the Russian air-crew, with all the stressed “R”..woke me up from my nap. And from the small airplane window, I caught my glimpse onto something which I would remember forever…
My first view of
FRANCE !!!!!!!!!!!!
The green land looked welcoming…even before I could touch my foot onto the soil, or practically breath the French air.. the atmosphere simply looked welcoming.. and on that particular moment, I knew… it’s gonna be a great adventure… far from the disgusting memory of
Moscow
One great thing about being a commonwealth citizen, is that u don’t need any visa to get access to any EU-members country… and in my case,
France ..
It’s like being given a special treatment, they greet u with the popular “Bonjour monsieur.”, they looked once at your promising Malaysian passport, recognize the emblem, trusting u with your heart, welcoming you with the well—known French smile,.. and before u even knew it, the let u pass…
It’s only after my 3rd step did I realized about the drawback…. We wont have any stamp on our passport indicating we’ve been in
Paris …….. ooooooooooooooo……..that’s bad.. I mean, this might be my only chance coming to
Paris , at least I want something to mark the event… (even though it’s only a passport stamp)
But its ok..at least the smile of the officer in charge could be a good marker for this historic event..in comparison to the treatment one would get when they pass thru
Moscow passport control… this is heaven
After we got our luggage, we head directly to the Gare (Fr: Train Station)..I mean the train terminal inside the airport..but then, the airport is huge. So we head to the nearest map instead and try to find any sign that might look like train station. This is when the 2nd miracle happened.
“Bonjour, monsieur…parles vous anglais?” a voice caught our attention, asking whether we speak in English
“Oui..” – the least French I knew
“So..how may I be of any help?” a 20+ lady was standing next to us, and she offered us her assistance in case we might need any.. and of course at that time we really did. Well, my feelings at that time…I was shocked… ok, it’s no big deal.. but since I leave
Malaysia , I rarely got such offer from any Russian, so I was simply shocked by the high level of mannerism shown by the French towards its visitors.
When we reach the “Gare”, I was shocked by the number of people lining up to buy the billiets (tickets).. I went to line up.. but what happen 5 minutes later was more shocking to me.. The staffs worked so efficiently ,that in around 20 minutes, we already have the ticket to Marseille (where my friends live) , and plus, a discount card which might give us discount up to 50% the next time we book a train to any destination from France… OK, it might not sound very useful to me…but then, it’s a priceless souvenir from
Paris
Its
3pm ..and we still haven’t leave the airport.. It’s bad.. due to the plan, we should already on move right now to our hostel, then checked in, and then head to Gare du Nord (The North Station) where we would meet Atak’s sister, Izwah which will arrive all the way from UK via the express line train, Eurostar.
So, the next 30 minutes, we managed to get our train tickets to Ile-de-Paris… (lit: our Airport is located at zone 5..while our destination is zone 1..so, we need to take a train there).. along the journey inside the comfortable RER interzone train system, my attention was caught to both the beautiful scenery of
Paris outskirts, and the colorful Grafitti painted almost in every wall available.
After 40 minutes journey, we reached our destination, the RER station Barbes..somethin’ (atak, fix me up with this one!!)… We searched for our hostel “Friends Hostel”.. The online document told us that the hostel should be only around the corner..but we spend around 1 hour going up and down along the road to find it… Disappointed and tired, we decided to stop by one muslim shop and asked the shopkeeper.. That;s really our first joke in
France ..the hostel is practically in front of the station’s exit gate!! And we actually had passed it several times…I wonder why we didn’t recognized it at the first time
(it didn’t took me long to realize why I faced such difficulties.. influenced by how a hostel should look like in
Volgograd …my vision was blurred by this images, and I never imagined our hostel could really be this nice and cozy..at 20euro per night..it is really worth it!!!) Friends hostel – Recommended
the owner of this hostel is a muslim.. next to the hostel is a muslim restaurant..and it is located directly in front of the RER station.. owh.. couldn’t it be any more strategic??? Thanks Atak for spending so much time searching for this one!!!
We checked in, do our prayer…and before we even managed to catch a nap, it’s already
6.00 pm … only an hour more before Izwah’s train arrive in Gare du Nord.. and we didn’t plan to keep her waiting.. so, although tired, we desperately made our way to Gare du Nord
To be continued…
After a brief shower, (well I meant it..it’s early in the morning and the water heating system was still on halt), I dressed up into my gear, just to find out at the last minute, I lost my watch!!!!!
The next 30 minutes, I was tossing my things here and there, hoping I’d find my watch, but to no avail. This really ruined my mood, and so I skipped my early-morning breakfast..almost (would u consider a piece of cracker as a breakfast??)
Sharp
5.00 AM , (I supposed so, I’m not really sure actually as I had no watch), all of us were already downstairs; ready to depart to the airport. Hahahahahahaha!!!!at last!!! Goodbye
Hiroshima !!!! The masyrutka we booked earlier drove slowly down the , through the silence and haze of dawn in
Volgograd …..
We arrived at the airport around
6 AM …shit!! It’s too early for me..while my other colleagues will be leaving via the
6.45 am flight, my flight to Shermyetevo would only depart at
7.10 am ….well, guess what would someone do to spend their time in the mundane
Volgograd airport…yes, indeed…nothing..
After we checked-in through the ancient safety-measurement gate (I wonder if it could detect anything at all), and being scolded several times by the officers in charge (with unknown reason..told u…Russian sucks!!)..at last we reached the airplane. At first glimpse, u would simply feel blessed if u could reach u’r destination safely via any Aeroflot plane.
After a tiring 3 and a half hours flight to
Moscow , we landed (safely, told u..I’m blessed) at Shermyetevo-1 terminal. Thanks to the one piece of cracker I consumed earlier, I still be able to walk despite the fact that we can’t eat the breakfast served in the flight. Well, it’s a ham sandwich…I suppose that would explain…
There’s still a plenty of time when we reached Shemyetevo-2 before our next flight to
Paris . It turned out that we’re a little bit late to order muslim food on the route to
Paris ..we should do that a day earlier.. Well, seems that we have to take our lunch before the flight, so me and Atak went to this one suppose-to-be exclusive restaurant,.. but like I said earlier, nothing can be exclusive in
Russia … along with the so-so tasted food, the service was unspeakably bad.. my flight was leaving any minutes, and when I asked the waiter for the bill, he kept stopping at the CD player, doing some stupid configuration like changing tracks!!!! In the end I had to get up to the cashier by myself, scream (joking) for bills, paid it, and leave the 4 roubles balance as a “tip” for the “service”..
Alas, we board the plane to Charles-de-Gaulle, the major international airport in
Paris . It’s gonna be another 3 and a half hour flight.. and while this plane was relatively more comfortable compared to the Volgo-Moscow plane, the presence of some boastful, selfish, noisy Russians on board made things just as bad as it could be… (ok Atak, u have to admit this one too…I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling like this)
Meal was served, after I finished the bread and butter (which was actually the only food I could consume)… I spent the rest of the flight wondering how
Paris would welcome me.
Is it going to be a nightmare like when I first stepped my foot on the
Russia soil?
Or – as I hoped it would be – a sweet memory which I will keep forever???
I’m not sure when….but eventually I dozed off into my own daydream…
To be continued…..
5th July 2005 - 3:00 AM
I can’t sleep the whole night. Ok, I admit, I’m too excited about the next day, that I’ll reach Paris, the land I had dreamed for soo long,…and for another reason too,I havent finish packing up.
at 3 AM..everything is ready to go..I glimpsed at the clock, and it seems I still have another 1 and a half hour to wander around doing nothing..I’m too afraid to sleep,worrying I might wake up late the next day…I couldnt take any risk
so I sat down on the floor (which I had removed the carpet earlier that evening)..and recall back what had happened the past few days
***************************************************
I believed none of us can ever forget the dreadful weeks of preparation for biochemistry final examination..it’s a mind-torturing,physical-restless,and metabolism wasting period…it’s biochem day and night, everywhere,everytime,..not a single moment passed without any biochem things in my mind…
For 3 weeks I had to isolated myself during daytime in biochem department, facing the big awkward METABOLISM CHARTS..and worrying that I might need the map back at hostel, I did one of those crazy people did..no, I didnt blend them into a drinkable mixture,…I did something worse…copying up almost the whole chart into pieces of A4 papers glued together…me hate biochem
The good thing is..I wasnt alone..here and then, either Atak or Rita accompanied me there..of course there’s time when I was all alone, and all the lab assistace stared at me like saying "look at that nerd" or "is he the new cleaner???"…fuck!!! I hate ‘em (and I said that in the most ‘genera’l" way..including all the Russian I had met until now)
the examination day came…and despite of my result, I cant hide my disappointment on what happened to Atak..fuck!! that just add up to the "sum of all hatred" I have on those Russians….what does Zaitsev suppose to mean when he said "that’s really u’r real marks"….it cause even me to fell soooo down..I even started to think back..whether I really worth the mark I got..or simply bcoz of all the corruption, so I got to be the lucky one, and someone had to take the unfortunate place…f**ck!! (no, I’m not covering up those letters for these Russians..FUCK u!!!)…ok, I’m going over the limit…would someone hold me down??
******************
despite my disappointment, the preparation to France must go on…within 5 days, we had make sure we have everything that we need…down here I would like to enlist my thanks for those helping me out ..
1.Blue - for his bagpack and digital camera…u’ve been so much help…and really I’m proud walking around with the bagpack and claiming "It’s Helmi’s bagpack"..although the Helmi I referred is you
2.Bone- for his handphone all the time when so suddenly my baby Nokia 3650 swtiched off for good
3.Azali- for his mobile phone that I carried all the way to France…hey, u’r phone had touched the French soil (I said that in the most literal way..u got what I mean?)
4.Atak- ok…he did most of the work..especially those online booking things…the whole thing won’t happen if he didnt sort things out
5.Ezzra..for lending his Video Cam…that;s really enlisted in my "Top 10 deeds people made to me"…..thank you..tq…tq….tq….tq….tq….tq…..tq…..tq….(couldnt this screen be any more bigger?)
6.and another bunch of people which I didnt have the chance to enlist here..ok I’ll promise I’m gonna mention u;r name at the end of this travel journal…yes…in the acknowledgement part 
I couldnt help but laugh when we received our flight ticket…it was hand-written..could u believe it!!!???..it just confirming how the Russians really love their ancient method of bureaucracy
by the way,have I told u all how hard is it for us to get our visa…ok…its better for me to stop here..I think u all can already guess what happened between us and the f**Cked up Larissa..I give the chance for other people to lay their curse on her
the luggage ready..my room had been all clear up…passport and visa..the pressed shirt for next day…6 video cam tapes…empty memory card…..ok..everything checked!!!
kRinGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the alarm from Azhar’s room woke me up from my day-dreaming (well…to be more precise..it wasn’t day actually)..it’s 4 AM…time for me to get to the bathroom and change into my travel gear..
to be continued….
A lot of people questioned and even doubt my dream of travelling to France, given the high cost,and alien environment for those studying in Russia (like me)..but none of that cause my hope n dream to tremble…
so, how does it start? and why France??
Suffice to say it started because of a friendship…
My best friend further his study to France (more exactly, Aix-en-Provence)..and realizing my dreadfull 1st year in Volgograd, remembering how badly I need my friend at those time, I decided not to let him felt the same, and the least I can do (did I say "least"?)..is to go there and visit him…..
ok,that’s the first, major factor..now the additional factors
whilst all the time, another circle of my friends, those studying in Volgograd, were also excited with the idea of travelling to France during the summer..but all with their own exclusive reason :-
a) Atak - "aku mmg nak berjalan pun"
b) Ran Zhi - "my sister studying there….I suppose I could hit Paris while visiting her"
c) Theenesh - "nak ikut Ran Zhi la…"
d) Zack - "nak ikut Theenesh la.."
e) Azzad - "kita jadikan bintang kenang-kenangan mau enggak???"-terpikat ngan cerite Eiffel I’m in Love
so, that’s it….6 friends with all different reason share the dream to visit Paris, the City of Light
___________________________________________________________
winter 2005, Volgograd
during the one week winter break, we started our hunt for the low-cost travel route to Paris. Our first hit is the Star Travel..but, typical of Russian standard customer service, our request for information is totally neglected, with the reason that it is "too early for u to plan u’r trip" (hello???isn’t it better to start something early…it’s so typical of Russian style of last-minute work)
so we try different approach…online purchasing, several others Travel agency…I couldnt even remember how many time I had spent just to go hither and tither , and to navigate through all the travel tips web sites.
the hunt still continued when suddenly….
"Aiseh…my sister goin’ back to Malaysia early laa…I think I’m not gonna go to France..who gonna be our tour guide there?..its gonna be a total waste to visit Paris without a tour guide, coz we’re gonna waste a lot of time wandering around just to reach the Eiffel Tower….."
and with those words, the "brotherhood of Paris" was crushed….one by one the member left, forgetting their dream, and the hope just whisked away..
yet, I was so determined to go, that I said to myself (and to them)..no matter what happen, as long as I was given the strength, I will struggle my way to France
And I wasn’t alone…its a bless that Atak still wanna go (or does he decide to go because I’m going?)..
so, there left two of us……..with less people to do the job, we have to all the work round to plan our trip, find all the information, book the hotel (hostel), etc
to be continued….
