August 05, 2013

『2013︱06︱12 - 2013︱06︱15』Two long bus rides, Paris & DIR EN GREY concert DAY II

Finally I'm motivated enough to write about the second day. Since I'm on holidays I got super lazy and didn't feel like writing at all. And I have two other entries to write too, maybe a third one. Stay tuned. ^^
Just going to say it here, this will get a bit picture heavy, since I want to show you everything we saw that day~



The beginning of the next day was just pure horror. As everyone should know, I'm not a morning person at all and after concerts I'm always like dead. That was exactly what I was. I was just so dead and tired. I nearly couldn't get out of bed. That was the biggest problem, because everyone was already awake and dressed. It was around 9:40am when I got up and went to the bathroom. Since I'm slow in the morning they had to wait for me quite a bit...

Finally ready I remembered that I wanted to give Alex the "Thank You Presesnt" for her family, because we were allowed to stay at their house. I also packed my stuff back into my carry on luggage and decided to go down. Kao was styling her hair in the bath now and Alex and Pika wrote in Kao's con-hon. ^^ We also went through the puris we made and cut them apart so everyone could decide on some to keep them. ^^ It was such a hard decision, because all of them were so funny.

Alex finished writing and we decided to have breakfast and to make sandwiches to take out. We had to hurry because we wanted to catch the bus, but when we finally were ready we already missed it.
Pika then decided to call her mother and asked if she can drive us to the train station. She did and that was our luck to finally go back to Paris city. We arrived at the train station and had to buy tickets first. Finally in the train, it wasn't that crowded at first but the nearer we got to Paris the more crowded it got.
Finally we arrived at the central station in Paris. With that the nearly impossible odyssey of finding the lockers began.

After an eternity, running through nearly the whole train station, asking a lot of people and a lot of escalator journeys, we finally found the locker room. We were so happy to finally find it and after Kao and I passed the security control the next odyssey began. Finding a locker big enough to fit all our stuff and one that's working wasn't that easy at all. Finding one fitting all our stuff wasn't the problem, everything even fitted in a small one, but finding one which was working was the real horror.

The first section we went in had lockers already used or broken and the description of how they work was only in french. We nearly needed an eternity to find a working one. >.>
After a while Pika came looking for us and she then saw what the problem was and told us that the locker won't close because it's broken. And we were finally able to find a working one and finished that in one minute. XD""

It was really a weird start into the day.

After that we first went to see Sacré-Coeur and had a beautiful but a bit grey view over Paris from there.
To reach the top of Montmartre and Sacré-Coeur itself you actually need to climb a lot of steps spread over two stairs because it's 130m high. It was a bit exhausting but we survived it. ^^

the first batch of stairs, which leads to Sacré-Coeur
We even made a small break after we climbed the first stairs. XD Just too exhausting...

and the second batch of stairs - nearly there

finally on top of Montmartre and in front of Sacré-Coeur
First we just looked from outside and I went to every side to see every detail. I just love old churches and stuff like that.  We also did the typical tourist photos, in front of Sacré-Coeur.

in front of Sacré-Coeur
our "tour guides" ^^
the arcade in front of the entry. just so beautiful~

After I discovered that there is no entrance fee I decided to take a look inside. It is so beautiful there. Sadly everything was stuffed with a lot of these medal pressing machines and with candles to light. But I guess they just try to get money, since there is no entrance fee.

I also lit a candle in memory of my grandma. I like to do it in special places.

Since Montmartre is 130m high you have a really awesome view from there. You can see the whole of Paris. Sadly it was still cloudy and grey in the beginning of the day, but we surely had a really great view too.


view from the top of the great stairs

another touri pic ^^ - in front of the view 
beautiful view from the bottom of the great stairs to Sacré-Coeur
I actually really like this photo a lot. It would look even more beautiful with a clear blue skye. ^^" 

After that and a small break at the stairs we made our way back to the Métro and to the next target.

on our way back to the Métro
This is my most favourite shot of Sacré-Coeur. It just looks so beautiful with all the green and red in front of it. And again, a clear blue sky would be awesome to make it perfect.


After that we made our way to the Place du Palais Royal. It was on our way to the Louvre and we stopped there for a short while.

I saw it on our way to the Louvre and had to take a picture of it.
just reminded me on all the camping holidays I spend with my family in Southern France. ^^

the Métro sign at Place du Palais Royal

Place du Palais Royal
While we were there Pika also introduced us a side view of the Louvre. XD It was so big, just from that view and later on we saw the whole building.

a side view of the Louvre

still at Palais Royal and another Métro sign, plus a bit of the Louvre
As you can see the sky started to clear and we already were able to see a beautiful blue sky. At this point the weather turned into a sunny and warm day. \(^o^)/

We still were on our way to the front side of the Louvre and while walking there I discovered this monument. I just had to take a picture of it.

Jeanne d’Arc at Place des Pyramides
I think everyone knows the story of Jeanne d'Arc and it also reminded me of the anime Star of the Seine. That's why I the opening song was stuck in my head for a while. XD

The German opening song of Star of the Seine

I couldn't resist to put the video here. XD Just ignore it ...


Finally we came to the Jardin des Tuileries where we took a break from walking and had lunch. We sat on some chairs and started eating our sandwiches. I also took quite a lot of photos, because everything looked so beautiful and kinda reminded me of Vienna's garden of the castle Schönbrunn. But I think that's just because everyone wanted to be French in the age of baroque.




this part of the Jardin des Tuileries reminded me a lot of some part at Schönbrunn. XD
As you can see there were a lot of tourists and the sky started to clear. It got nice and warm. ^^

view to the Louvre and Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel 

After we finished our sandwiches and a few chips I had to take some more pictures and we slowly walked to the Louvre. While walking there we passed the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel.




in front of Arc de Triopmh du Carrousel
It reminded me of the Brandenburg Gate immediately. I think it's the quadriga on top of it. Later I found out that the quadriga is a copy of one in Venice. It's so funny because my parents visited Venice and saw the real quadriga. XD

a comprehensive view of the Palais du Louvre
monument of Louis XIV - the Sun King
the famous glass pyramid - the main entrance of the museum 

in front of a small glass pyramid ^^
After taking a few pictures and sitting at the fountain we started to continue our small journey through Paris. Sadly we hadn't enough time to go inside. That means I have to go back one day to visit it.

I love this view - I think it looks awesome with both
glass pyramids like this

the Louvre
We waked through the passage to the other side of the Louvre and discovered this beautiful building.

Église Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois
It's a late gothic church and it's sooo endlessly beautiful. ♥ It was the church of the Louvre, when it still was a royal palace.

With that we were on our way to the last stop.

crossing the Seine

Finally we arrived at Notre Dame. I think everyone knows Notre Dame so I don't have to say something about it. I actually can say that I was really impressed with this super huge cathedral. It's just so beautiful, at least from the outside.

first view at Notre Dame

The blue thing in front of the cathedral was the "entry" to a plateau, which was there because it's the 850th anniversary of Notre Dame. The inside of it was based on a church with quotes and stained glass windows at each side.

the quote in various languages

in front of Notre Dame
I also walked around the cathedral as far as I could go without entering it and it's garden. First you had to pay and second there was a really long line outside and we hadn't much time left. While I walked to each side of Notre Dame the others sat down on the plateau and waited. I also took a lot of detail shots, because it's so beautiful and I wanted to capture every bit of Notre Dame.

one of the main doorways
 it's theme is the "Last Judgement"


It has several main doorways and each has a different theme. It's so impressive to see how detailed everything is. You can even make out face expressions.

a side view
one of the awesome windows
some more details
I really love the last photo. First you can see a lot of details and second it's so funny how I caught the bird between the two pillars. It has some kind of mystic - magic moment to it. ^^"

After I took all the photos I went back to the others and sat down too. We sat there and enjoyed the sun, talked a bit and took a few group pics to remember the two days. 
We were already sad to leave, because our two tour guides are two really lovely girls with whom you can have a lot of fun.

Sadly it was time to go and we left Notre Dame to go back to the main station of Paris to get our luggage. This time we found the lockers immediately and everything worked out fine. 
We arrived at the bus station far to early and decided to eat first. After that we still had to wait to get checked in and when it was on time we had to wait even more because something went wrong for the person before us in line. This was kinda annoying...

Finally checked in we brought our luggage to the bus and looked for a place. All the good seats were already gone. And Kao and me got sad because we wanted the place at the door again. It's more comfortable there, because it has a bit more space.

We went off again for a few more minutes and then had to say goodbye to Alex and Pika. (;___;)/ 

Now we were on the bus and both of them waited outside for our leave but nothing happened. >_> Suddenly there were some people running to the bus, because they were late. How annoying is that? How can you be late to your bus ride and how can you not have checked in by this time? 
That's why we left around twenty minutes later than scheduled.

Finally on the way... you would think that everything is okay now, but no it got even more worse after a while.

One of the drivers was the most unfriendly person ever. You can't believe how annoyed I was. He couldn't even speak English. I mean when you're a bus driver who travels between different countries you have to speak at least English. It doesn't have to be perfect but you should be able to answer basic things, like where the toilet is.
In the end we told the woman where the toilet is.
He always ran super nervous and worked up through the bus and told everyone in an super unfriendly behaviour where to sit and if they speak German. Soooo sooooooooo sooooooooooo UNFRIENDLY!!!!!!!!

That wasn't all!

The first stop was in Brussels where people had to change busses to Bielefeld. It was so super unorganized and chaotic. Gosh! I couldn't believe that. Because of that the bus got delayed again.

We drove for a while and nothing happened. Because we where super exhausted we slept for a while (that's why I'm not sure if I caught every stop) and suddenly the bus stopped. I thought we would finally make a break, but no! No break! It was a pass control. So scary! O_O The most scary thing was that Kao only had a copy with herself, because she lost her real ID. But he let her pass and everything was okay for us. But there collected some IDs and we had to wait there like forever.

When we finally were allowed to leave the place we got delayed again. -.-"
Because of all the delays we didn't have a break, what was really horrible because I got super hungry and I wanted to go to a normal toilet. ;_;

And there was one more thing, I'm not sure in which city it happened but at one of the stops the bus started leaving while some people were still outside smoking. Luckily there noticed early enough and were able to get at the bus again.
Guess what the super unfriendly driver did! Right he screamed at them how they could go out, it wasn't a break and such things. How can they just leave without waiting for everyone? -.-"

And finally at 09:05am on 15th June we arrived back in Berlin. Guess what? We were ten minutes early. We could have had at least a ten minutes break, but no - just no break.

Our stops for the way back to Berlin:

  • 19:40 Paris
  • 23:15 Brussels
  • 02:15 Pass Control
  • 05:28 Hanover
  • 06:29 Brunswick
  • 09:05 Berlin


When we arrived I was so hungry and I had to go to the toilet immediately. I gave Kao my luggage and ran to the toilet. XD" After that I looked up the way back home and we left in different directions.

Finally home at 10:25am, I went straight to bed to sleep at least a bit. Around 30 minutes later my parents arrived home, too (from their holidays in Italy). And last but not least my sister arrived home, too.

So funny that she was the last one who came home, it was her birthday. XD

My parents even picked up her birthday cake before coming home and so it was my first meal, since I ate last in Paris. Yummy birthday cake. She also got her presents and then we just chilled around, because everyone was so tired and exhausted. Me because of the stupid bus drive, my parents from their long motorbike tour and my sister from her birthday party. Later in the evening we went out to eat sushi. It was so yummy.  After that my sister left us again to go to this city festival which was held in Spandau.

When we were home again I did nothing for the next few days. XD Lazy princess is always lazy and it was right before holidays. Only the handing out of the certificate was left. So nothing special at all.


All in all I can say that Paris was super fun if we not count the bus rides XD and that the concert was the best of all times. Also I have to say that I was really anxious to sleep at a house of people I didn't know, but it turned out to be good and that I didn't need to be afraid of anything.

I really want to THANK YOU both for the awesome two days we were able to spend with you! And another THANK YOU to Alex's family. ^^ And last but not least THANKS to Kao who spend all this long and horrible time in the bus with me. ♥♥♥