.:a sUdDeN sLiP:.

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 J

That night, I dreamed of the

Eiffel

 

Tower

, looking down upon me, smiling…..

To be continued

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