My first trip across the pond!

As some of you may have seen, I've been absent from the forum for some time, It's not because I didn't want to but because... I was preparing for my first trip to Europe!!!

It was very exciting, and I'm still spazzing about it, which is why it's taking me more time than I anticipated to go back to my online everyday routine. XD XD XD

Anyway, I'll be posting about it all on my VOX, and I thought I'd share here as well. I'll copy/paste what I wrote so far:




I was pretty excited because it was my first trip across the pond! (even though I'm an old woman now, ha).

Fate started to play with us pretty early on though because at first I was supposed to go with my mother to Scotland and act as her translator and stuff but that trip didn't go through mainly because they didn't give me my passport on time, so that was money down the drain right there, but we didn't want to waste it, so dad said he could take some much needed time off and we could go to europe together. So it was decided.
After some bureaucracy maneuvering for tickets and money to spend (we still came out pretty limited) it was all settled and we booked a 3 countries-tour.

So, here: it's the beginning, our plane at the Simon Bolivar airport waiting for boarding.



Lemme tell you, they checked and re-checked people like there was no tomorrow. We were all inside the plane and the authorities still pulled down people to body check. Insane. It's my personal belief that they got a tip and were looking for drug smugglers. Anyway, the plane took off with 1 and 1/5 hour delay, which would have been fine with us if it wasn't for the fact that we totally lost our ride to our hotel. Thankfully I had checked which hotel it was (with address and phone number) online before going, so we had our info at hand.

We get to Charles de Gaulle, the weather is cool, it's starting to rain a little, but I like it all. We go to the information desk and a very nice and polite girl fixes our dilemma in a heart beat, she sells us train tickets and gives us a map with detailed instructions on how to get to the hotel. It turned out to be super easy!
We end in the Gallieni station on line 3 of the metro where we find out there's a mall right next to our hotel, excellent.
So we have the afternoon free and we decide to go to the Arc de Triomphe by metro. The sun comes out a little, it's perfect for walking and I get my first taste of european monuments!



Walking down the Champs Elysees we find, omg, sephora! XD XD XD



I go in of course, they didn't have Duwop's Lip Venom (shoot) but I try on lots of perfumes, including Serge Luten's Datura Noir which was interesting (I could see myself wearing it for a night at the opera or something) and Her majesty the Rose (which I love because I love all rose based perfumes XD).


Snooping around we find a L'Occitane en Provence and an Annick Goutal store... cool.



And right next to sephora what was it? Guerlain!!!! the mother house. I didn't go in... I got jittery with low-class embarrassment XD XD but I took a pic outside.



We hang around, taking in the sites, gazing, and then we go back to the hotel but first checking out the supermarket (Auchan) at the mall, we buy our lunch/dinner there, pretty cheap and delicious. And that sets the tone of our whole trip meals, sandwiches here and there, cheap stuff, water, and such XD, we only ate 3 proper meals in the whole trip.

*******

Second day, morning.



Visit to Versailles! We get on the bus and meet out tour guide and all that, then we're off. Versailles is now a town on its own near Paris, high brow, people with money live there, it's sort of the extension in time of what happened when the King established himself there for good and all the french nobility moved to live next to the Palace.
I wondered where exactly was the Osmotheque located, but since our visit was to the Palace I didn't get a chance to look around the town itself.

Anyway, color me impressed. Versailles is majestic, over the top and impressive!!



This is the chapel inside the Palace which is opened to the two floors. Bottom entrance and Top entrance:



Someone's chamber XD:


The King's chamber:


The Queen's chamber:


This is me in the Mirror room:


And a view from there out to the gardens, the king's "back yard":


This is the War Gallery, paintings of Napoleon in all his splendor hang on top, while they set up pictures of recent wars near the floor, in contrast to the paintings, it was interesting seeing real images against the stylized images:


Versailles viewed from the gardens:


And a view of the gardens outside, the extent of it all is lost to the naked eye:


♥

Hello Princess_jime,

it´s great that you share your vacation with us and this time I even know the cities you´re talking about...
I was in Paris and Versailles before although it´s been over ten years ago...lol...and I guess alot has
changed since then...but I really enjoyed my trip back then...we even went to Disneyland Paris...while
reading your report I want to go to Paris as well....maybe next summer...

Thanks and I´m looking forward to your next post...:flower: :flower:

Thank you limanh! XD I can tell 10 years from now I'm gonna be just like you, wanting to go there again. It's all so pretty! Glad you also had a great time there :cheers:

Part 3, hehehehehe:

Second day, noon and rest of the day.

After Versailles the bus parks in the Carousel de Louvre, where we're supposed to get some food and shop a little, dad and I just walk around because it was filled with people and it was impossible to eat anything XD, I did call mum on the phone to wish her a happy birthday though.

Then we go on a "panoramic visit" of Paris, which is the bus driving us around to site-see. Which turned out to be great because it was raining a little LOL! The program: Arc de Triomph, Champs Elysees, La Madeleine, Place de la Concorde, The Opera, Louvre, St. Jacques Tower, The Municipality, Isle de la Cité, Notre Dame, Quartier Latin, Pantheon, La Sorbonne, Luxembourg gardens, Les Invalides, Military School, Champ de Mars (where, due to the dense traffic and the fact that we're behind schedule we make a quick stop à la "japanese" as our tour guide said to take a pic of the Eiffel Tower, go-snap-go back to bus), and a view of the Seine and some bridges.
Pretty awesome.








Then we go back to the hotel and around 7:30 pm we go to Montmartre for a look-see, it's pretty beautiful and we get a good laugh riding along the Moulin Rouge street where all the sex shop are open for business XD XD. At Montmartre I get a little amelié taste watching the carousel light up, but since the pavement was wet we all decide to go up with the funicular instead of walking the steps.




Up there we look around and we decide to go in one of those little quaint restaurants to eat our first proper meal, LOL! It was yummy!
Afterwards the bus leaves most of the people that paid to watch the Moulin Rouge show and the rest of us go back to the hotel, we got to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night!!!

Wow!!! Princess_jime, you went for a tour in Europe???
Dang... I love your trip!!! :)
Its so beautiful, and you make it sound so exicting too!!!
Have never been there, but always dream to be there~
Lolz...
So did you went for the Da Vinci trail day trip?
Looking fwd to your next update. :)

LOL! It was great! I'm sure you'll go too someday, this was kind of unexpected for me since everything came to be realized coincidently, so there's hope for everyone I say XD
The Da Vinci trail day trip? I didn't but I'm sure at least 1 of the sea of tourist groups walking around everywhere (including us) was them!
I did think of it while going inside the Louvre through the glass pyramid though XD XD XD

The third day was a free day! We got up without hurry, ate breakfast slowly and basically spent the day at the Louvre. XD XD XD
I ran out of batteries and memory so we bought some and another memory stick card.
Anyway, the sun came out that day, but the weather was cool and windy and everything that is nice ♥
We ate lunch at the Carousel, it was yummy, I shopped at L'Occitane and we bought souvenirs at Rue de Rivoli, which is the street we came in through the metro.
We went back to the hotel to rest a little, I mean, we did spend almost the entire day walking XD, then went to the mall and supermarket for some major shopping. I bought two perfumes and make-up at the little sephora there.














♥

Wow wow wow... sounds like someone had her own shopping therapy eh?
Hehe... :)
And the Louvre glass pyramid looks beautiful. In the Da Vinci Code movie, its night time right... so can't see so well.
Pls update again ya~

p/s: Guess what, the Da Vinci Code exhibition is currently coming to my country now, so am planning to visit it this weekend? Hehe... :)

Shopping makes us happy, ne? *high fives*

So you were in the Louvre? Me, too! It was amazing, actually I think you need more than
a day to take all the incredible art in...

Sounds like you were enjoying your trip...Paris is a great city imo...next update please..lol..

*jealous* One of my dreams as an art history fanatic is to visit the Louvre! Kyaaaaaaaaa! I spot Mona Lisa and The Oath of the Horatio Brothers! *squeals*

You are so lucky!

And yay for shopping. I think it's more fun when you're on a trip. ^_^