After having my left foot injured by ice skating for a week, eating and sleeping as much as I wanted, finally I celebrated my New Year excitingly. Together with some my buddies here, I climbed up to a small hill on the bank of Danube, hoping to see the fire works across Danube, Budapest. It was so foggy that I could not see the fireworks, but I enjoyed our celebrating with Champaign and fun times.
Then, I headed to Paris for rest of my winter break with my buddy, Mugi. We took Eurolines, a bus-network across Europe, from Budapest, Hungary to Paris, France. The bus passed through Hungary, Austria, Germany and France.
On the way, I noticed quite similarity of living and culture in these countries, but some difference as minor as Germany is a bit more industrialized, Austria is very clean and neat, and French is bit artistic.
Paris is huge city with most diverse community as if NY or LA. So beautiful buildings, parks, museums and even streets took my attention for awe. I was amazed at the city at all the time. Paris has a very extensive metro system which can take me all around the city with a single ticket which i purchased for five days. Except on occasion when I was almost robbed at metro. One guy suddenly grabbed my leg while other digging my pockets for a wallet. Glad I kept my wallet in my chest, that was a bad start anyway.
My first destination was to Sacre Coeur, old Christian church with nice view of whole Paris. I found wonderful parks and nice streets around that building. Then, I headed to La Defense, which is a small district with sky high buildings like New York. It looked great with lights on at dark. Beautiful parks lured me of amazing water fountains and surrounding design.
Arc de Triophe Etoile is located in the middle of roads, and is another nice spot to admire Paris. This street connects with Avenue Charles De Gaulle, a long shopping street. I saw the Arthur at cinema, which was quite small so I barely managed to maneuver.
From Palaise de Chaillot, the great Eiffel stands out with sparkling lights and awesome beauty. Going up to the tower was so cool that I can see the whole city. I felt as if I was flying over the city. That was pretty good time.
What a huge! The Musee Du Louvre contains amazing collections. It was too much for me to wander in a day over the Louvre. Besides too much tourists, it really left me impression of magnificent history and arts of Europe and some others parts of world. The Notre Dame, Pont De La Concorde, Invalides, Pantheon and Jardin du Luxemburg were all amazing too.
From sight seeing and museums, I loved Vesailles. The castle contains amazing collection and history of Royal French’s leaders and families. It was so impressive to see the decorations, designs and all the wealth they had. The park of Versailles is beautiful and huge. I'd love to enjoy the greatness of Versailles during warm times of year while flowers are colorful and trees are green. Even this time of year, it was marvelous to behold.
Besides admiring all these great things, I managed to enjoy playing basketball in front of Eiffel tower, ice skating at ice ring and exploring other parts of city.
During my visits, I also met my french friend, Sabine whom I met when she visited Mongolia with her friends three years ago. Having typical French dinner, breakfast was good experience to taste Paris indeed.
So, I think it is better you explore and feel Paris yourself than hearing my attempt to explain. Paris is amazing, beautiful, diverse and a little messy (especially streets). Yes, I loved it.
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