Paris recapped...

The Kyriad Hotel near Disneyland had the poorest Internet connection ever in the world of Internet connections, hence no blog.  But when you’re 35,000ft up in the air with nothing good to watch on the screen it gives one time to recap on the past few days.

This blog will cover a few things that we thought those of you who have been following us on our journey might want to know or find interesting.

Like all my other posts, I’ve never been back to re-read or re-work any of them, so apologies in advance for the grammatical errors (lol).

TRAINS

Trains are an amazing thing! They get you from A to B in a jiffy and you don’t have to wait at traffic lights or get caught in peak traffic.

Like Germany, Paris also has a metro system that is widely used by the multitudes that live in Paris.  The metro lines go both deep under the city or high above the roads.  With only 5mins between each train, it’s almost impossible to be late for anything.

As soon as a train pulls up you have between 10-20 seconds before the doors close and the train takes off again.

It is so efficient and one would wonder why you would need a car when living in the city with a system like this.

Unlike Germany, the Paris metro isn’t as clean or well kept as one would like, but nonetheless it is an economical way of getting to see the city.  It’s also a great way to meet the locals and find out the do’s and don’ts of life in Paris.

Now, just like on the movies, the first metro we caught in Paris had a busker onboard playing his guitar.  It set such a great tone in the carriage, the commuters were smiling sitting back enjoying the music he was playing on his guitar; after which he would walk through the carriage with his cup saying “merci, merci” obviously waiting for donations. 

The train we caught to the outskirts of Paris had an accordion player who was also very good and did the same thing as the guitarist.  These trains however travel at much higher speeds are multi-leveled and the stops are further apart,

The train would pull into the next station and the busker would hope off and either wait for the next train or simply just jump carriages.

But in terms of travel within not only the city but also the greater Europe I would give the train system 9/10 Jaffas.

BUSES

The Kyriad Hotel provided a daily shuttle that ran from the Hotel to Disneyland from 6:30am – 11:45pm with buses running 25mins part from 6:30am-8:30am and 10mins thereafter.

This was such an interesting experience; catching the shuttle for a 10min ride.  These buses are no doubt all around the world.  To look at they look like two buses that have been joined together with an accordion.

In New Zeland there are fairly strict traffic laws about how many passengers you can have on a bus, however the same can not be said for Paris.  It reminds me of the trains in India where you see people hanging out the doors.  If ever there was a time to use the phrase squashed in like sardines that was it. 

As soon as the doors open you have to rush into the bus to get a spot and then hold on for dear life.

Although not the best way to travel with a 3 year old and a pram, the experience of it was (not sure if amazing is the right word) an experience nonetheless.

I can not comment on the bus system within the city, but the shuttles from hotel to Disneyland I’d give 6/10 Jaffas because it was a free service.

DISNEYLAND

The most magical place on Earth for both young and old, I mean I enjoyed it and so did Ang hehehe oh and Miss 3.

We only squeezed in 2 days because there were still a few things we wanted to do in Paris before we departed, but we could of easily stayed another 2 days because there is sooooooo much to see and do. 

EuroDisney has 3 different areas.  There is Disneyland Park where the castle and most of the rides and different lands, such as Fantasy Land, Adventureland etc… There is Walt Disney Studios which has more older children, adult rides (rollers coasters and the likes) and then there is Disney Village which is more a eating place with shops scattered through the place.

Disneyland is definitely a place we will need to return, because Fantasyland was the only land we got to see.  After Hong Kong Disney where we spent 2 WHOLE days at and only just managed to get through the different lands (Hong Kong being the smaller of the Disneylands)  EuroDisney definitely needed more time (Shawn, glad you are having 4 days there, not even sure that will cover it.  Make sure you get and autograph book for the kids so they can get the characters autographs)

For me though EuroDisney definitely gets 10/10 Jaffas.

HOTELS

I’d been told by many who have traveled to Europe that their apartments and things are smaller than what we’re used to.  I must say though as a visitor here, the size of the hotel rooms are small but they served our purpose well.  They are very well serviced, clean and the custodians are very hospitable.

The Kyriad (although had a rubbish internet connection) was very typical of a French cottage style, out in the country overlooking green acres and other villas in the area was such a nice hotel.

The breakfast area however reminded me of being on camp with school kids.

For those of you who have been to Ikea for breakfast or lunch will know what I mean.  The tables were bare.  You had to collect a tray, your own cutlery and crockery and help yourself to the Buffet breakfast and just like camp, you wake up to a cool crispy morning and walk from the dorms, in this case hotel rooms to the restaurant.  I actually found the cool crisp mornings rather refreshing, apart from the first day where it drizzled a bit.

All things aside the two hotels we used in Paris I’d give a 7/10 Jaffas – Full marks if the internet was good hehehe.

POVERTY

This can be said in any country and although many don’t like to talk about it, the fact remains that it is there.  Just like Rome, Paris had peddlers and beggars everywhere.  The extremes we saw ranged from people handing out cards on the train saying they’re either refugees or a father with no job asking for donations, to looking across from our hotel room to the metro station and seeing a man who had accumulated blankets and bags and just stuff and set himself up in the corner where he would sleep, or sit during the day with a cup waiting for donations.

We also saw what looked like drug deals happening on the street (being 2 stories up, pedestrians tend not to look up when they’re walking), I witnessed 2 girls and a guy walk down the side street, a man hand them a small package and them departing with some money before heading on their merry way. You also saw a number of homeless intoxicated people at almost every train station and street corner, outside tourist attractions like the Eiffel tour, the Louvre and Notre Dame.

I think the worst was when we were headed to the airport and along the motorway what looked like people just dumping their rubbish over the back fence were shacks made out of pallets, umbrellas, tarpaulins and anything and everything they can find just to put a shelter over their heads.  That was such a big eye opener.  You read about it, you hear about it but to actually see it, to be in that part of the neighbourhood, it’s actually not even about being in the neighbourhood because it’s out in the open was such a sad thing to see and even though we had a fantastic time in Paris, seeing that on the way out almost left a damper on the trip.

This being said, I would definitely visit Paris again and stay at the same hotel.

WHERE’S WALLY?

Local time is 10:38pm, we have about 1 hour until we land at Queen Alia Airport where we have booked yet another hotel for a few hours sleep so we’re refreshed for our 9am flight to Dubai which should take 3 hours, then on home to Al Ain.

Another memorable trip almost near an end!  Time to plan our next one!

Last up-date today/ night I’m guessing will be from the Golden Tulip Hotel, Amman, Jordan.

We've just arrived and checked into our hotel in Jordan, local time is 1:30am, we're just skyping with dad before we have a slip and up for breakfast at 6am before we catch our transit shuttle back to the airport.

But for now, it's ma'asalama from Amman, Jordan