The Neva Endin Journey

The alarm rang at 6 fuckin AM! Who the fuck gets up at 6 AM in paris? Only Vamshi got up, He went outside the hostel to see if he could sell french newspapers anywhere! lol! Kidding ( He works part time for a newspaper agency in Netherlands at gets to work at 4 AM daily )!
Vamshi got blasted by someone in sleep( no one knows who ) for keeping the alarm so early in the morning that he switched it off and went back to sleep! Eventually we all got up at 8:30 AM and as usual i was the last one to get up!



Second Day dressing at about 10 AM! All set to go and explore Paris!

We paid about 21 Euros per day for the hostel we stayed in which luckily included free breakfast! There was a pretty big queue of people already there waiting in line to have something! The choices we had for breakfast was, a very hard bread, Jam, Cheese, Mixed Fruit juice, Cornflakes, cold milk, Coffee, warm chocolate! Other than bread everything else was unlimited! Arpit ate like he never had breakfast ever in his life! But it was worth every Euro we spent on the hostel.



The Photo of Us who discovered the charm of Paris!

Well the problem with Paris and the hostel's are, there is a queue everywhere! Some of ma friends had to stand in the queue to take bath or go to loo also! :)! However Arpit never had a problem the entire trip with this issue! ;) Any Guesses why!

We all dressed up keeping in mind the temperature outside (it was pretty warm for a change)! We decided to go to closest landmark from our hostel - The Catacombes! But Fuck, it was not close! Our Walking journey just began! We walked for about an hour, we got lost again n again n again till we eventually caught the metro to the place just for one stop which was walkable but we could not walk anymore!


Catacombes sound's just like another place right? But its not! These are underground tunnel's that run below the city of Paris! Sounds normal rite? But it's not! Along the way, you see the skeleton remains of about 6 million people supposedly! Dont ask me how it got there! Not very sure but it's something like people dug up the graves and put it inside these tunnels! Some of them have been arranged also! All this was done way back in 1600th year odd! Could they not build another Palace or something? Why this! However No one know's why! But it is indeed very creepy!



Carving a structure of palace in the tunnel's on route to the place where the bones are kept! Why would anyone carve something so deep below the ground?



The photos above: Do i even need to explain?

The distance of abt 1.7 km is open for the visitor's (which means we walked 1.7 kms again)! Tall people need to bend everytime so that you do not bang your head to the ceiling! We still have no idea what lies in the other closed gates or steps which take you below! It lies about 183 steps below the ground and the journey of the skeleton walk starts!

The tunnel is extremely small in width and height and at a single time only 200 people are allowed to be inside this tunnel! The board outside says " Not Advised for the Weak/Faint Hearted "! This place is supposedly haunted and you will probably freak out with the number of bones you see! Endless number of skulls and human bones! It is crazy! I have no idea what made them get about 60 lakh people's remains and keep it under the ground of Paris! Who ever knew the dark side of Paris existed, that too underground!!



The numbers of remains or bones is endless! The smell inside the tunnel is disgusting, and you wait to reach the exit to breathe some fresh air than breathe the smell of the 400 year old skeleton's of more than 6 million people along a stretch of more than 1.5 km! A lot of stuff was written in French and we had papers regarding what it meant but i had no time to read that! ;)



Look at the skulls and bones arranged! Madness aint it! :)

We had to climb up the stair's again which was vertically upwards in a circular manner which gave everyone a headache! Anyone found stealing bones is arrested! :)! If you want to see something that is shown in Discovery for "World's most haunted places", this is a must visit place and i am definitely not surprised why! As usual Arpit was admiring the skeleton's and did not come out for a long time!




St Michel Fountain and Statue!

1.5 days and just three places seen, this is when we had to step up the pace a little! WE took a metro to a place which was the centre to many attractions! We had our lunch at subway and saw the Fountain of St Michel! It is so beautifully carved and very big also! The map of Paris for visitor's really helps you a lot! We went to see a massive building called Pantheon or Bourbon Palace( This is a name of a biscuit in India :P )! We had no time to enter all these places because has we done that, we would not have come back to Netherlands atleast for a month or more!



The Pantheon or Bourbon Palace!



Close up of the Pantheon! It is massive! Might look small from far!


We walked across the Seine river to reach a church called Notre-Dame de PAris which is the France's best cathedral! It look stunning and is carved beyond your wildest imagination! Detailed and Precise! hard to even find a fault! The Seine river runs through the middle of paris and most of the famous landmarks are on this riverside! There are beautiful monuments along this river, people dance and perform in this stretch! There are places along this river for couple's to dance salsa and dine and much more!



France's best Cathedral - Notre-Dam de Paris!



The entrance to the Notre-Dam Cathedral! Any doubts why its the France's best Cathedral? :) It looks stunning at every possible angle!



We admired the glass paintings,the chandeliers, lights coming inside the church which falls only on the statues!! Click on the snap to look at it clearly!



Inside the Cathedral! The glass paintings are amazing!

There will not be a single place where you do not see street performer's artists! We did get lost for sometime till we all reunited at this cathedral. Climbing 483 steps up this church takes you a tower from where you can see the entire paris again! But No, We could not walk anymore! We decided to walk to the Louvre museum! This is when you see the fashion side of Paris! Soooooo many shops! All the best brands and the number of shops are endless!




Another building, some library or something like that! Dint even think twice ! Where there are books = Mehaal is not there! ;)



Another church of the hundred's ! Walking in Paris is the best! You will always see one or the one things that makes you go wow every 2 minutes!



This is a female dressed to convey a important message " The art of unconventional dancing and saving the sheep or something like that "! It was so funny! :)



Beggar's : HOly shit! If you think there are a lot of beggar's in India or your country! THINK AGAIN! Man, Paris is the land of Beggar's!! The beggar's here know English and are usually girls who look very posh and who look beautiful too and use their own new ideas to cheat people! Let me give you an example which happened with me!


I was walking alone near louvre museum when one girl(who is actually a beggar) bent in front of me and she showed me a ring that "looked" like a Gold ring(Fake ring) and she asked me " hey,is this a gold ring ? " and she tried it on and i was like " Perhaps, i don know "!! Then she cribbed telling this " Hey i think this ring is too big for me and i do not believe in taking or keeping anything that is not mine " and she gave ring(fake) to me! She told " Go give it to the police or keep it " and she walked away! I was like " Holy fuck! what the hell do i do with this ring "! As i started walking to the museum, she called me and asked " Do u have some money, iv lost my purse, i guess, i suppose you have not taken it from me, i really need some money to eat" and gives me the " what do i do now " face expression! lol !!! n i gave her the " WHAT THE FUCK " expression and i told her " No, i do not have any money "! So she took the ring and she walked away! It only looks like a gold ring but its not ! :P I walked for 2 mins ahead, and another girl( her friend) ask's the same stupid question to me " Is this a gold ring(another fake ring) " ! I was like " yeah, yeah now Fuck off "! lol ! :P Man i always got fucked by these beggars! There are some people who make a dog sit next to them and put a coinbox in front of it!




We reached the Louvre museum and it is massive! Louvre museum has sculpture's, paintings from all the era's known to mankind, from every civlization that ever existed! It takes a month to see this entire museum! The painting of Mona Lisa resides here! The Museum runs about 2-3 floors underground and 2-3 floors above the ground 2 and seeing each floor might take a day! Anyway checking the louvre museum was the the plan for the third day! It's a massive museum and even its exterior is beautiful with glass pyramid's and view of the eiffel and also a lot of other monuments! This is the museum where the movie Da vinci Code was shot! WE took a lot of photos in this place!
Below is the beauty of louvre at sunset! :) The number of people, the fountains, the glass pyramid's!




The place where the second freakin Beggar approached ME! :P



The pyramid, The fountain's of Louvre!







Gold plated Pillar !



A Stunning photograph of Pairs in the Evening! :) Look at the Eiffel in the background!



Another fountain with people and a story i do not even want to know! I suck at history! :)

Below is the a perfectly captured Snap! :)



The Perfect Photo above !! :) It is very common to see bride and bridegoom walking around in Paris! Of course this is meant to happen, why else do u think its called THE CITY OF LOVE!!!! :) and its such an honor for the couple to walk the street's of Paris in their wedding clothes and everyone saying " How cute "!! Check below

Amazingly Cute,




Over lookin the Seine River! It has a lot of bridges running over it! :) Although we missed the river cruise because of lack of time! :( We did better things!



The house boats, the sculptures on the bridges! Incredible stuff! :)



Capturing the beauty of Eiffel and the bridges that lead to it with gold plated monuments over it! :)


You see a lot of elderly people helping each other out! Outside louvre is a massive garden which leads to another famous pilar called the Place de la Concorde. From here you can see the Arc de Triomphe which looks like the the gateway of India! It probably might be the same size but the difference is there are rooms in this and people can climb up to the top and see the city! We also saw a big building called as " Hotel des Invalides " where the tomb of Napolean lies! There are a lot of bridges which highlight the wars french have fought and many bridges where the french force resisted some other country armies!! Huge pillars and gold plated statues on top of them is commonly seen in paris!


Outside Louvre, we ate Creps ( The french special , Gnutella chocolate melted over and poured over something like a pancake ) ! Man the chocolate syrup is what makes it amazing!!!! We also has another thing called Waffles with chocolate syrup over it and also icing creams over it! Simply Wow! It was so big and so filled with chocolate that i ended up dropping the chocolate syrup on my jacket and cream all over my face! :) Tasty!!!!


On the way to The Arc de Triomphe from the louvre museum is a street called the Avenue des Champs! This is probably a 4km straight road with the most expensive high profile shops like Rolex, Hilton, perfumes shops, Mecedes showroom etc ! You name the brand and we will find it! We also entered some of the most prestigious showrooms and on looking the price of the smallest items on the shop you'd think twice before going to another shop! I am sure many people must have died of a heart attack looking at the prices of the dresses or anything! You will see a lot of people trying to shop ( really trying a lot to find somethin atleast they can buy) but I really do not know if anyone buys anything in PAris because it is way to expensive! I saw a normal looking Rolex Watch for 24,000 Euros! That's about 15 lakhs! Mercedes cars for abt 1,56,000 euros! well its almost 1 crore in Indian money! The malls were amazing and every shop has 3-4 floor's and sometimes even underground the cost is ridiculously expensive! However, there are some shops which is equal to the Netherland's and that's when we were finally thrilled! :)

Believe me or not, i saw two shops, One was "Bata" and the other "Pritam's"! There are a lot of indian shops in the other street's!! We had our dinner in Mc Donald's once again!! The day was coming to a close and we walked about 10-12 kms or more today also so we caught the metro to have a glimpse of the Louvre museum in the night! You can see the pictures below!



Shopping at Paris ! The Table u see in this snap costs about 36,000 euros! That is about 22 lakhs odd! ;) Cheap aint it! :P



A funny statue for sale! Only a part of the suitcase is attached to the leg making the rest of the body stand which includes the head and etc! From far it looks like the upper part is floating! :)


The Future of Cars! Dont admire it so much!, its Not Afforadable!







Below the Arc de Triomphe like the GATEWAY OF PARIS ! :) Very big in fact!




There is a big group of girls who target tourist's for money along this shopping street! Other examples are the normal ones who get a paper and ask " hey, do you speak english ? " and if u say yes , they give a paper in which a sad story is written !!! There was one instance when a girl bumped into my friend in the train and tried taking the wallet from his jean's! THERE ARE A SHIT LOADS OF PICKPOCKETS AND BEGGAR'S! BE READY TO LOSE SOMETHING OR THE OTHER! :p


Finally i headed back to Louvre to catch a glimpse of it in the night and man it took my breath away! Look at these snapz!!!!! :)






The reflection of Louvre museum and the glass pyramid!



The Glass pyramid! :) Looks like a triangle from the top, actually a square because the same design continues under the ground forming the square! :)



The white light is from the Eiffel tower + the glass pyramid + louvre + another massive gateway kinda thing captured in one small photo! :)





Mona Lisa does deserve to be in a place so beautiful! You can sit your entire life in this place just listening to the water flow, looking at the fountains and the the expressions of people so excited to see this place!

Got a metro back and reached home! WE WERE DEAD TIRED WALKING ABOUT 20 KMS AGAIN! 2 days in a row!!!!

Some of the regret's i have :

I'v seen one of the wonders of the world, the Eiffel Tower , but its a real pity iv not seen the Taj Mahal coming from India!! :( I really want to see all the wonder's of the world atleast once in my life! But my first aim as of now is to see the Taj Mahal! But i have a feeling it will be the third or the fourth! ;)
I'v partied in my first 6 months in Netherlands but now it's time to start travelling! I'm glad, we finally started touring Europe cos Europe is fuckin Amazing! A Lot of places to visit , especially Poland , Italy, Spain! :)

Final conclusion is,


It's better to tour countries now than to tour companies for a job later on! ;)

Well, Day 3 was more beautiful and amazing and lively! Wait for it! It was romantic, funny, a long tiring day again! So Wait for it ! :)

Click on this link, if you missed the Description on the first day!


http://mehaal.blogspot.com/2009/02/trip-to-paris-priceless-day-1.html


To be Continued,

Click here for: Day 1
Click here for: Day 3