paris flashpack trip

 This is my flashpack trip to paris - france  with my husband. We took return trip  flight by qatar airlines because it has the  cheapest price during christmas holiday  which is peak time for travelling. We took  plane from jakarta and transit at Doha.  And the plane from doha to paris using  A380 plane which are very convenience  and high technology with a wifi on it so u  can still do browse or social media on  plane, love it!. 

 We arrive at terminal 1 charles degoulle  airport in france and we took airpot  transfer to terminal 3 to took mrt to garde  du nord to reach our hotel. It cost €9,45 per  person for single journey to any of paris  station.

 Here is the famous international garde du  nord station.

 And here is our hotel called new hotel.

 It is a 2 star hotel with a very friendly  receptionist that speak english fluently.  Near hotel has lots of halal food (turkish  restaurant) for kebab u can get it at €8 hot  tea €1.5 and poulete at €6,5 taste are good  but still need to add more spicy so i always  bring my chilli sauce everywhere   (so..indonesian)

Poulete

 For second day travel in paris we took  L'open tour hop on hop off bus (i book it  from viator.com). I think this is the safest  way to trip in paris due to its high  criminality (pickpocket everywhere) and  we didn't bring much money to tourist spot  and we put our money inside our jacket.  Lots of people get picked pocket in eiffle  tower. Becareful of gipsy and never  interact with local stranger or gipsy people.  Only ask help from asian tourist if u want  to took pic. That's the tips to avoid the  pickpocket.

In L'open tourupstairs seat

 L'open tour has 50 stops over paris and u  can simply stop or get into anywhere u  want. The bus always come every 15-30  minutes. But remember the last bus is 6.30  pm means u have to stop ur trip at 5 so u  can go back home using the bus. Other wise  u have to took mrt or public bus. l'open  tour bus cost €32 for daily or € for 2 days  pass.

 We went to madeline - louvre - concorde -  notre dame - champ ellyse - eiffel. This is  our pic there... 💜💜

Notre dame

Concorde

Champ ellyse

 3rd day we stay at ibis style garde du nord  it is close to new hotel but it facing garde  du nord station. Room are more  comfortable and modern than new hotel  but the receptionist is average not as  friendly as new hotel guy. Lots of  restaurant (halal and non halal) next to  hotel.

 We went to lafayette for window shopping  and gosh.. Lots of people shopping there, lv  and gucci bag are cheaper here than  Jakarta and also longchamp but us brand  are priced the same as in jakarta. So if u  wanna buy things here it's better u buy  europe or france brand. The mall itself  looks pretty with christmas ornament.

 We bought unlimited pass for mrt and bus  in gare du nord station, it cost €6,7 per  person/day. We took bus no.42 (the same  bus we took to get to lafayette) to go back to  gare du nord. The bus stop stand right in  front of lafayette you just need to walk  around 3 min.

 4th day we took public bus to go back to  eiffel to try our luck to get in to eiffel tower  since last time the queu is horrible. We  took bus 42 from gare du nord and stop at  tour eiffel and walk to eiffel tower. Finally  we get into eiffel tower but i stop at level 1  because the weather is bad, it's -4°c and  heavy wind. So freezy and i decide to get  back to ground. Best time for eiffel  sighseeing is during spring where the  weather is not too hot and not too cold.  After that we decide to get back to hotel  because of the cold. And at night we go  took bus no.54 to moulin rouge.

View from eiffel level 1

Moulin rouge at night

 Last day in paris and we have not much  time because our flight is at 3pm and we  have to check in around 1pm. So after  breakfast we packed our bags and prepare  to go home. We buy airport train ticket that  cost €9,4. The train stop at terminal 3 since  our flight in terminal 1, we took tgva train  from terminal 3 to terminal 1. Too bad we  have no time to took pic at grand palais.  Well.. Hope one day we will have  opportunity to took pic there around spring  time.

 Here are facilities in charles de gaulle  airport besides free wifi.

uk flashpack trip - part 2

On 3rd day we decide to join in 1 day tour to windsor castle, stonehenge and roman bath tour. It's on christmas day where most of england is shut down. No public transportation and all store are closed. Rather than do nothing, it's better to go in a tour. However we can't expect much because all tourist spots also closed during christmas. The tour start from victoria coach station on 8.30. It took us 1,5 hour walk from our hotel (yes..walk! Because no public transport and no taxi around during christmas). It took 1 hour to get in to windsor castle. Here we can see windsor palace where queen elizabeth grew up and also eton school where prince william and harry went to school.

Windsor castle

Too bad we can only see stonehenge from far because it is closed on christmas, and here are some pic on lacock village and roman bath.

Castle in lacock village

Roman bath

On 4th we explore london. On 26th December also called as boxing day where people go out for shopping. We use Underground (mrt) and walk. We go to london eye, big ben, st.james park, buckingham palace, harrods and paddington. From aldgate east we took circle line to embankment. And we walk along the road from london eye to big ben to st.james park buckingham palace until harrods. In Harrods people already make a very long queu for sale, crazy.. All store around harrods are full with shopper. From harrods we took underground from Knightsbridge underground to paddington to find the bear statue but it's rain so we decide to go back to our hotel.

Big ben

St. James park

Harrods

Too bad we have no time to took pic at trafalgar and st.paul cathedral. Hopefully we can come back here again one day. :)

UK flashpack trip - part 1

This is my flashpack trip to uk with my husband. We didn't use travel agent because we think that flashpack is more fun and we can use local public transport. We use eurostar to get in to uk from Paris. The eurostar is available from Garde du Nord station paris and stop at king cross st pancras station in London.

We stay in ibis london city which located near to aldgate east station. To get into ibis we buy oyster card to use local underground (mrt). We took hammercity train to aldgate station and walk 10 minutes to commercial street where ibis is located.

This is our hotel ibis london city, location is good near mrt and bus stop and also tesco (local supermarket) is right next to it. So u don't need to be affraid to find food whenever u starve.

The bed and toilet

This is tesco, very affordable meals and snacks

Ibis has a good bedroom nice bed and spacious. But toilet is average, they didn't provide amenities (toothbrush etc) and the bad one is they have no deposit box (we badly need this one) in room. But overall cleanliness and comfort is good.

Second day we went to manchester by virgin train. From hotel we took underground from aldgate east to liverpool street station (we collect our train ticket there) and from liverpool we took hammercity mrt to moorgate and change into northern line and stop at euston.from euston we go to natiinal train platform and took our virgin ticket there. The journey took around 2 hours to manchester. We came here to go to old trafford because my husband is a really big fans of MU (manchester united). We took MU stadium tour, the tour took us to its dressing room, director room, etc it was fun and exciting. The tour took 1 hour. To get in to old trafford u should took trem from picadilly and stop at old trafford. From old trafford station you can walk for 10 minutes, you will not get lost because it has lots of MU information signed along the street. The stadium tour ticket price is £18/ person for adult, children will charged cheaper. Here are some of the pics.

Will update you soon for third and fourth day in uk on next posting..