Going back in time - Paris Day Two

Taking a little long to post the pics. Really tired...especially after the stockholm trip...I'll post the pics from stockholm in a while. Nothing much there really. :P NOTHING MUCH IN SWEDEN ACTUALLY, at least for now. Anyway...here's day 2 in Paris, starting off at the Pantheon of Paris. Bad weather in the morning, so not really nice pics even after intense photoshopping..:S

After the Pantheon, we went in search of Jean Nouvel's Institut du Monde Arabe. And so we found it. Nothing interesting at first other than the misleading entrance. It was later that we realised, the facade was really something that's worth mentioning.

The entire facade of the institute was made up of these automated patterned designs squares. They rotate within themselves to change the pattern. Every square are set at different pattern so as to make the building look more dynamic rather than a uniform change all at one go. Interesting, but I bet expensive.

Next, we headed to Musee de Orsay, think its the 2nd largest museum after Louvre in Paris. Lotsa interesting stuff but I think it will take me 1 day to upload everything I took, so just a glimpse of the place.

And yes, someone familiar spotted hibernating in this museum..

And of course, something that I thought everyone should see. Wonder if it was a real life experience from the artist. :P

Then we headed for the ever popular, 2nd to probably that 100 over year old huge metal thing, the Arc de Triomphe. Pic of the Arc was uploaded previously, so I shall just show you what you can see up on the tower. By the way, its quite a bit of non stop spiral staircases to climb before you can reach the top. But I can assure you, its worth the climb.

Eiffel Tower can be clearly sighted up there as well. In fact, with my 70-300mm, I've managed to capture a pretty close up of the tower's tip.

And yes, remember what the Arc de Triomphe was used for before becoming a tourist attraction? No..not during the Roman period, during the time where Paris was still in a mess. Yup...a watch tower...can't remember if it was for watching for crimes or fire, but after seeing this...yup. FIRE!!!

By the way, I can hear the sirens of police cars or fire engines..whatever...EVERY SINGLE DAY IN PARIS....tough job to be a police or fireman in Paris.

After the arc, we headed towards the direction of Champs Elysees. Really happening here I tell you. But the best part for me was the car showrooms. We visted Peugeot, Mercedes, Citroen and Toyata. Basically that's all along the street. You get to get in there and snap freely. Unlike Singapore, some ah chek will come to you and either tell you cannot shoot, or ask you this that north south east west....:S Something we should improve ay?

Some radical free form facade of a shopping centre by Champs Elysees. The Parisian really try everything don't they.

And so that's day 2, and there's already so much to see. What can I say, even after spending 6 days in Paris, I think I'll have to go there again cos there's just so much to see there. If there's anywhere on earth that you die die have to go, it has got to be Paris.

Going back in time - Paris Day One

Paris is known for its rich culture and really.. I do mean REALLY liberal society. Its a place where u can see street performers almost everywhere; Architectures are built seemingly without much restrictions or red tapes; Great historical streets and architecture; And not to forget, the ULTIMATE SUBWAY SYSTEM. You'll probably not get lost in Paris thanks to its legendary Metro stations which are always available within a walking distance of 400m. I'm not kidding you. I seriously don't recall myself losing my way. But then again, its not entirely a 'disabled' friendly city. You don't get escalators very often within their subway, and there are crazy amount of stairs for you to climb up and down just to transit from one line to another. Guess you just have to be rich enough to get yourself a chauffeur if you happened to be physically unfit.

So much for a brief intro, back to the pictures. Guess what...I NEVER TAKE ANY PHOTOS OF THE AIRPORT...HOHO. The earliest picture I got was the 1st railway station we got off. Gare du Nord, which literally means Station of the North. Interesting thing to note is, the station is like a shopping mall itself, with eateries, fashion boutiques and bakeries that amounts up to a hundred or so. Guess what, you can EAT, SLEEP, BRING YOUR DOG into the station as well as the train. Hoho... anyway, here's some pics.

And so we got to our Hotel...and again..NEVER TAKE PICTURE OF THE HOTEL...so...hoho again. Nothing spectacular anyway, especially when you have to share the toilet with maybe another 6 people on the same level, and the shower room with the FREAKING ENTIRE HOTEL. Anyway, the following pictures are the places we visited during day one, somewhat in order. So enjoy~

Notre Dame, Paris. Aki people, this ain't a bit unfamiliar to you guys. heh. This picture was taken a few days later at night though, but we entered the cathedral in the day.

Yes..the FLYING BUTTRESSES!!

The River Seine






and finally...Pompidou Centre

And that's few of the main attractions we went to for day one. Not too many as we were still damn tired from the 10 odd hours flight...plus lugging those crazy luggage around. Shall upload more when I come back from Stockholm on Monday!

More of my properties in Lund...

As most of you already know, I'm in the little University Town of Lund in Sweden. Here, Almost everyone owns a bicycle. You can say that's their main form of transport in some way, but there are still buses and vehicles roaming the streets of Lund. It is also probably the cheapest way to move around the town where every bus ride would set you back by 12-15 kronas(that's more than S$3!). Getting a bike here, well...is NOT AT ALL CHEAP though. Its quite a steep start up cost, but in the long run, you'll save more for sure. All I can tell you is, for some brand new bike, it will cost you up to S$1k OR MORE. Beat that. I think can get a cheapo Vespa or something back at home. Well....I got myself a used one. How much...I really don't feel like talking about it. More so the trouble we went through to get this stupid 2 wheels on a piece of rusting metal frame.

As usual, another pic of the meal I cooked today. :P

My Room...for the next 4 months.

Yup, my room and the view I get from my room. Nice view eh...comes with a hefty price ...dun even have a personal toilet...oh well.

CONNECTED!

After almost a week...I'm finally connected with a proper internet connection. Give me some time and I'll sort of the pics of my trip to Paris, followed by some in Sweden. Before that...another pic on my dinner...ya..live's really boring here...the most exciting thing is probably preparing my dinner. Well, this is a little different as I had 2 out of the 3 people who came to Lund with me cooking together for this meal. Wondering where Juliana is? She was having a good time and dinner with her handsome Swedish neighbour. She did ask us to join her though, but a little too late. Guess its not too nice for us to disturb them too ay. :P

When Garlic costs S$1/piece...

And so I thought I can cook fried rice for dinner...went to the local supermarket and bought at 100+kronas worth of grocery and happily went home. In the end..forgot to buy garlic...or maybe it was a subconscious effort that was stopping me to purchase the garlics here. S$1 per piece....what did they use to grow these garlics????

So without the garlic, I only had that bunch of spaghetti to mess with...but I was really quite sick of these italian noodles wannabe....so the poor student chose to fry some french toast with a few 1 day expired breads plus some sausages for dinner. Not entirely suitable for dinner but filling the stomach was the main priority here when money is ALWAYS the issue...:S

Well, lets hope I will really cook something decent tomorrow....really sucky not eating any greens. And yes, might be heading for Amsterdam coming thursday...well...might..haha...bleah..

BABES FOR SALE!!!!

Can't help but post this sneaky shot of these 2..erm...wonder if they are straight..babes during our visit to Malmo today. Hoho...wonder how much they cost..? hmmzz.. ...slurp..:P Hungry hungry...and so I was motivated to cook my 1st dinner in Lund...took me an hour..NOT BECAUSE I CANNOT MAKE IT...but the freaking electric stove took damn long to cook things...

Perhaps the simplest Spaghetti you can find....cos no money to buy the ingredients...what do u expect when it costs more than S$1 per garlic in this crazy land of the vikings...:S
Here's the recipe:

Ingredients
- Some pork slices marinated with some wierd Japanese brand Soy sauce and my beloved Garlic salt.
- Some cheapo sausages I bought cut into small chunks
- Some fresh tomatoes cut into small chunks
- Spaghetti enough for myself :P
- Tomato puree with 3-4 cubes of sugar(cheapo sugar cube, no money to buy the granulated one..)

Directions
- Throw the meat n sausages into a hot pan with some oil and fry, add garlic(salt) to taste.
- When cooked, dump in the puree with water added (remember to add the sugar)
- stir the sauce until you think it looks like those you find in the pasta eateries..
- While doing this, throw a handful of spaghetti into a huge pot of boiling water to cook it.
(add a little salt in the water)
- When spaghetti gets cooked, drain out the water and add some Olive(dun have) Oil and a little salt into it.(prevents the spaghetti from sticking together)
- Put the speghetti into a plate n dump in the sauce. Add Pepper(dun have) to taste

Total Time: less than 30min (But I took 1 hr thanx to the stupid electric stove :S)

Wala...El Cheapo Spaghetti with tomato and meat sauce.
Bon Appettit

Part of Mont Saint Michel within the Island. I shall try to upload again...takes really damn long..:S

Pilgrimage...

Taken along the way to Mont Saint-Michel. Never knew the existence of this thing until I started planning for my Paris Trip. One of my favourite picture. More vivid pictures of the place coming right up after I get a proper internet connection...It took me 10min to upload this pic with the possibility of disconnections...haiz...enjoy.

ok..it works..enjoy.

Greetings from Paris

And so here I am trying really hard to type on the french version keyboard.... and I cannot upload my pictures....crap...will do it once I get a decent connection.... :S