.: November 18, 2012 :.
They're having a sale! Yay! After much sniffing all the testers, the winner is the Himalayan Blue series. I love the subtle smell… and of course the lovely packaging. It comes with the shower gel, hand care set, body lotion and body mist.
.: September 29, 2012 :.
Good morning Paris!
We had one free day in Paris, so we started early to hit the Eiffel Tower again, but first thing first… French breakfast! There was this nice cafe near the train station and only a few blocks away from the Eiffel tower, we stopped by and ordered cappucino, hot chocolate *sooo creamy, loved it*, cold fresh orange juice, croissants, omelette, and panini. Say yes to a hearty breakfast.
Then off we went to Eiffel Tower for our little photo session haha
Initially we wanted to go up the tower but geez, the line… people had been lining up since really early in the morning and it would probably take us like one to two hours queueing and we only had one day to see most of Paris, so we ditched the idea. Will go up there next time.
Alright, next destination… my favorite, Notre Dame. I've always wanted to visit Notre Dame ever since I watched the Disney movie, Hunchback of Notre Dame. The intricate details of the building is so beautiful, and of course gotta see the gargoyles :D
~ Notre Dame from the back ~
Yeah lunch time. We found a place near Notre Dame and picked a table outside facing the street.
~ A yummy omelette for me ~
Next stop was the famous Louvre. Again, we only took pictures from the outside and didn't entered the museum *smacked myself* Hhh... the same reason, long line just to get in and we hadn't even shopped yet in Paris, and all stores close at 8PM!! So the option was either getting inside the Louvre or going to Lafayette shopping centre :p Consumerism won over art, only then I regretted not going in but hey, another reason for us to come back to Paris, right?
~ I love love love sitting at the cafe and watch the world goes by ~
We ended the day with a Seine River Night Cruise. In the cruise, you can hear the taped explanation of various buildings and landmarks the cruise passes by. But heck, we didn't bother after long, just enjoyed the cruise.
.: September 28, 2012 :.
It was time to leave Amsterdam for Paris!
We hopped on the coach early morning and really, I was sooo hyped up at the thought that I would soon be able to see the famous Eiffel Tower with my loved one. Well, we still got more or less 8 hours driving between us and Paris. On our way, we made a lunch stop at Bruges, Belgium. Hmm… time to go find some waffles. But too bad, we didn't buy any single Belgium chocolate, coz we thought that we could get them in Paris or Italy. Long story short, until the end of our tour, no Belgium chocolate we could find.
~ Gaahhh… look at those babies. Oh a feast to the eyes *and taste buds* indeed ~
So maybe I should tell you my first impression of Paris, the so-called a romantic city. Our tour guide announced that we had reached Paris, and I looked out to the window, and gosh, did it look like Jakarta!? No kidding, that was my first impression. Many graffitis on the wall, dirty, and most shocking thing, I saw a homeless man peed on a wall, in a pedestrian street. And just a block away from our hotel. Great. My whole expectations of Paris were quickly crumbling away. Apparently, that is the situation in outskirt area of Paris, we were told. That image you often find in books and TV is from the tourist area, and the gap is wide as what we soon saw it for ourselves during the driving tour.
After checked into our room, we hopped on the coach again for a driving tour. It took maybe 15 minutes by car from our hotel to the centre of Paris. We passed by Love bridge, Arc de Triomphe, Opera House, my absolute favorite - Notre-Dame, and lastly Eiffel Tower. After that, it was free time for us.
Eiffel tower's light show was spectacular, I didn't know they had a light show on Eiffel tower, so it surprised me. When I was busy snapping picture here and there, white sparkling lights suddenly flashing all over the tower for a short while. Beautiful. The light show starts every hour or so at night. Satisfied with all the pictures we took of Eiffel Tower at night, we had dinner at a restaurant nearby. A nice way to end the day.
.: November 13, 2012. Tuesday :.
Public holiday today in Singapore, so we went out with friends to watch Skyfall and have sushi dinner afterwards.
Oh I love my peppermint mocha
.: September 27, 2012 :.
We had breakfast at a nearby cafe, a cup of hot cappuccino, panini and of course croissant. A cab had been waiting to take us to Lakeland Monickandem, we would meet the other tour members there and started our tour officially. The cab fare was super expensive. For a half an hour ride we were charged 68 euro!
~ Oh having these for breakfast and I feel like I can face even the most brutal work day ~
Lakeland was a beautiful small city in an outskirt of Amsterdam and our hotel located just in front of the lake, so we could see many boats parked in the pier. The setting could just have been straight out of the postcard.
After checked into the room and had a buffet lunch, the first destination was cheese and clog factory where they demonstrated how to make those. Oh I love cheese. And they have so many flavor to choose from. Herb, smoked ham, blackpepper, just to name a few.
~ Ah a multifunction clog ~
~ Clog for skiing? Hm why not? ~
The tour continued to the old fishing village, Volendam. Here you can find many beautiful houses overlooking the sea with window so big you can peer inside. Volendam is a lovely city to behold with the fishing boats, street food stalls and I imagine Volendam washed in the morning light, must be beautiful. Ah talking about Volendam, the famous Dutch traditional outfit! And we took picture wearing it. So touristy, I know.
~ Oh look who've been here ~
Alright, move on to the next stop, windmill village Zaanse Schans. This windmill village is just a short distance away from Amsterdam by car. Well, you are not really in Holland if you don't see the windmill, right?
Ah finally, the last stop for the day, the famous Red Light district in Amsterdam. Before we entered the red light district, our tour leader warned us to not take a picture of the ladies doing their thing, or else we might as well say bye-bye to our camera being thrown away into the canal by their bodyguard. Many windows there were illuminated by the red light, they say red light makes things much more attractive.
~ Hmm, I guess you can find this thing only in Amsterdam. At Red Light District. Am I surprised? ~
~ After a long walk at Red Light district. A slice of apple pie and a cup of hot chocolate. It was raining at that time ~
