I am deciding to be right here, in
front of my PC, typing about my 'Eiffel I'm in Love' journey because everything
started from that 'term'. On 14th of February, also known as Valentine Days,
Indonesia had another drama romantic movie named 'Eiffel I'm in Love 2'. It is
the sequel of the first Eiffel I'm in Love, around 15 years ago. The first
movie was good, so I decided to watch the second movie, and here I am, stuck in
the story and the background itself, Paris and Eiffel tower, my forever
favorite. And it drives me to write about my journey in Paris, almost 5 years
ago.
So, once upon a time, my mother gave
me a news that she will go to Europe for a week to accompany her friend
doing research. When I asked where she will go and she said Paris as one
of destination, I was sad, EXTREMELY SAD maybe. I could not make it because I
had to go to school, it was not holiday. Until one day, there was an
announcement said that I had 4 days off from Monday to Thursday because my
senior in High School had to do final examination. and the surprising thing is,
it is EXACTLY THE SAME as the date that my mother would be in Europe!!!! Long
story short, I went to Europe as well.
14th of April 2015, I departed from
CGK, Jakarta, Indonesia to DXB, Dubai for transiting, then being continued to
CDG, Paris, France.
It was actually quite strange to
feel like being in the time machine since I flew to place when the time was
earlier than Jakarta. So I might fly for almost 20 hours but It only took
around 15 hours from 7 Indonesia Time to 10 France Time.
Around 10 p.m, We were safely
arrived at Charles De Gaulle Airport!!!!!
Our hotel was in the suburb, so we
actually spent some times to reach the hotel. From my current research, 5
minutes ago, it is 20 minutes away from Paris. We arrived at the hotel around
11.30 p.m and the funny thing was we locked outside because it was already
midnight and there is rule that staff should not easily open the door at
midnight. 15 minutes we got freezing because of the wind and praise the Lord,
we can get warmer inside.
The next morning, we planned to go
to Paris to shop or just do window shopping at the most famous shopping street
in the world, Champs-Élysées. Because we would spent time on Paris and it
took 20 minutes to go there, so we got out from hotel earlier around 9 a.m.
Actually having hotel away from city center did not matter for me because I
like looking around and discovering new thing, and it gave me time to wonder
and wander.
20 minutes had passed and we were
welcomed by Paris traffic jam, but It was OK for me because Arc de triomphe was
in front of my eyes!!!!!! This street was Champs-Élysées, anyway.
Arc de triomphe is French which has
meaning 'The Gate of Victory'. The French Emperor, Napoleon, requested this
gate to honor the Grande Armee, the name of French Army who had conquer most of
Europe. This site is incredibly amazing with 'not-so' white color, detail
sculptures, and so on.
While moving to the next stop,
suddenly the tour guide said that "Look at the left, there is......"
EIFFEL TOWER!!!!!!!!
(to be continued...)
