Venice - UNA Hotel Venezia

Hotel selection:
We researched so many hotels, and we picked this :) The room was very clean and elegantly furnished. A lot of other hotels in Venice looked kind of old, we were looking for a convenient location and a clean washroom.

Washroom basic in Italy:
Most washrooms in Italy have two "toilets", but the second one is not really a toilet, it's a bidet.  The purpose of the bidet is to clean off the back/butt after using the toilet.  Italians really enjoy their time in their washrooms, so usually they keep them very clean. (learn how to use a bidet)

It was hard to shower for me, as you could tell the bath tub only had half of the glass.  I still don't get the purpose of that.  Most hotels in Italy didn't provide hair conditioners, they only provided shampoo and soap.  We had to call for conditioner separately, along with bath ropes and bath salt :)  They provided a list for us if we needed any extra supplies.  Pretty good service.

The room was quite expensive, probably about $200-250 Cad per night.  They didn't have free internet; internet was $14.95/day.

Common area:

Lounge: breakfast buffet and happy hours that provided free goodies

The lounge was amazing.  It opened from 7:30am - 10:30am for excellent breakfast buffet.  Then the lounge was re-opened from 2:30pm - 10pm for happy hours where they provided free pastries, coffee, drinks, alcohol, fruits, water....etc.  Water in Europe was very expensive!  Their yoga juice was super good, so fruity and smooth.  We kept drinking them and took a few bottles when we went out for the day!

Expresso machine was available with illy capsules.....pretty good! except the foam function didn't really work....

We would definitely come back for this hotel, only at a reasonable price!  Hotels on the actual island were usually quite expensive, but it was well worth it for us.  The hotel was located away from the main tourist area, we like the quietness.   The location of the hotel was quite convenient that we always walked back when we forgot something.

Venice - Arrival

Venice - First day:

Once we arrived at the airport, the wait for the luggages was pretty quick.  I researched for several commute options to our hotel.  We could get there by bus, water taxi or by boat.  I originally picked the bus one.  I went to the information centre to ask for directions to our hotel, and the counter person told me it was best to go by boat.  Why? Because if we took the bus, we eventually had to take the boat anyway, so why not just take the boat from the beginning? Right, points taken.  So we bought the boat tickets for 15 Euro each.  We walked to the port, but we didn't know which boat to get on and which station we needed to get off from.  One of the staff searched it online for us and told us to get off at the second station.  I was surprised I couldn't find any map on the way, I probably missed it somewhere.

So we got on to the bus, and everyone had a map out.  I had nothing.  So basically we just knew we had to get off at the second stop and then we had to figure our way to the hotel in Venice.  For those of you who had been to Venice.......You would understand the frustration.

We passed by the Murano, the island that is well known for their glass making.  We weren't interested after glancing at the island.  Once we got off the boat.... The streets were empty.  There was nobody to ask.  There were only a few tourists looking for directions.  We walked back and forth to see if there's any big direction map.  NOPE.

very Vintage and quiet...super dead

Hey, here! We found a local:

Meow~

We were so lost, we didn't know where we were.  I had no choice but taking out my iPhone and google map where we were and searched for the walking distance to the hotel.  ROAMING DATA.  We searched a couple of times and figured we were only 5 minutes walk from our hotel.  1.4MB of data costed me $47 canadian dollars - a 5 seconds click........

We had to carry our luggages to cross two bridges...there were no bikes nor cars (so make sure you pack light)

Near our hotel, super quiet

There we were! After all the frustration, we finally found our hotel!

We were looking for some big hotel signage.  It was hard to find in the beginning.  Good that we had the street number.  I guess they would to keep the vintage look of the island.  The whole island looked very vintage.  There were hardly any locals walking in the streets.  A lot of the buildings looked empty.   It was quite quiet.  We read that those from most tour groups and cruises don't stay overnights on the Venice island, that's why it was so quiet at night in Venice.  

Once we checked in, we got the gift from heaven (free):

gift from HEAVEN!

Moral of the day: MUST GET A MAP IN VENICE

Paris - Au Revoir!! Paris --> Venice

This was a nice area for me to chill at the airport....catching up some sleep :)

Paris -> Venice:
I did quite a bit of research on getting to Venice from Paris.  There are trains available, yet it would take over 9 hours to reach Venice!  And it's not even that cheap.  Getting around Europe (depends of course) is better off with taking budget flights like Easyjet or Ryan Air.  However, Eurostar would be best to travel from London to Paris.  Anyway, I researched that EasyJet usually has better time and better airport locations.  You do want to check out where they land, because sometimes the airport could be very far away from the city and it would cost you time and money just to get to your hotel!

Easy Jet
We took the EasyJet, the budget flight.  You should book as early as possible, once you know your schedule, you should start booking the tickets.  You'll save a lot!  I bought my flight tickets for probably $75 each or less (one way) - which is not super cheap.  There was no seats arrangement...so it's very similar to the Allegiant Airline in the States.  There was no delay, the flight was ok comfortable.  Just that there was this lady who kept walking in and out her seat which was a little annoying.  Our flight was a little less than two hours only.  And ....

OUR NEXT STATION is.....VENICE! :D

Paris - le Citizen's hotel breakfast

Le citizen's hotel's breakfast:

So every morning in Paris, we went to this "lounge" for breakfast buffet.  

Fresh pastries, bread, toasts, cereal, fruits and parfaits

The hotel's receptionist always approached us to help us with drinks.  She usually offered to make fresh orange juice and expresso beverages :)  Very helpful staff.  We saw some other guests who had eggs, so we also asked for scramble eggs.  Eggs were the only hot dish they offered for the breakfast.

Expresso Machine that made great expresso, mocha, cappuccino and cafe latte...:)

Quite a comfortable cafe area to chill in the morning ..designed with simple furnitures

This was the last day for our stay in Paris.  The helpful receptionist helped us to find another couple to split our private car cost to the airport.  So instead of paying 60 Euros, we only had to pay 30 euros.  The ride to airport was approximately 45 minutes with rush hour traffic.

Paris - Bon Appetit III - Foie Gras (near Eiffel tower)

Au Petit Sud Ouest

After a long walk, we finally arrived to this restaurant we booked online: Au Petit Sud Ouest.
Tripadvisor's reviews said they have really good foie gras here.  This was located very close to the Eiffel tower.

Semi-cooked goose liver

We took the waitress' recommendations on the starters...The semi-cooked goose liver was quite good

Fried duck liver with Truffle sauce

The other starter dish of Foie Gras was a little too salty..

Entree #1: Preserved duck leg with fried sliced potatoes and fried ceps

I found the preserved duck leg was a little too dry and salty...

Entree #2: Whole duck breast with thin sliced fried potatoes and fried ceps

The duck breast was cooked medium rare, quite moist...not bad :)

Dessert: Apple Crumbles with Ice-cream...very delicious... along with a cafe du lait.......fantastic combo!

This restaurant is specialized in their foie gras, they sell all types of fresh and canned foie gras! :)

After enjoying the 3 hours of the good meal, we walked to the Eiffel tower on our last night in Paris.  We sat on the bench and waited until it sparkled at 12am.  So beautiful and quite romantic.  Later we walked back to the metro and metro back to hotel.  While we got off the metro, we saw some drunk kids talking really loudly in the metro.  After we got off to transfer to another metro, we figured no train was coming and then realized the last metro stopped at 1am.  So we had to walk back from the big station....good that it wasn't that far from the hotel.  Exhausting day...

Paris - Bon Appetit 2 - St. Germain

Saint Germain:

We were strolling around to look for food, and we entered the district of Saint Germain.  It was a very nice area with small elegant boutiques and brand name shops.  We were starving but we were still picking a suitable menu and a nice bistro/brasserie to chill.  We walked by this outdoor terrace and liked the ambiance, so we sat down :)

Cafe de Paris: What a cliche....but I liked :P

Waiter approached and asked: Drinks only or meal?  Meal please Merci!  We got seated with a mini round table.  Most tourists were having meals while most locals were having drinks at this time (~3pm).  I ordered a latte and he ordered a glass of beer: Stella.

French Onion Soup, Escargots and Some baked cheese and meat on a toast? with salad

We ordered all appetizers as we didn't want to be too full for dinner later.  Ordering three appetizers allowed us to try more dishes :)  The Escargots were delicious; French Onion soup was filling (as usual in France).  I kind of forgot about what the third dish was, but I remembered it was quite tasty too.  The cheese melted onto the bread and everything blended in.....Yuummmmmmmmm!

Le Cafe de Paris Brasserie: located in Saint Germain, a tourist area

We chilled here for a long time.  Oh yea, there was free wifi here too.  Many cafe/bistro now offered free wifi for customers.  We had to ask the waiter for the password and it expired in 2 hours or something.  People watching was another very interesting thing to do in Paris.

After our meal, we walked around the St Germain area, very peaceful and clean.  Supposedly this is a high end area for brand name shops and tourists.  I was going to look for the Galeries Lafayette.  We were going to metro there, but we couldn't find the metro station and I think by the time we get there, it would be closed by then.  I checked the closing time earlier.  So we ended up walking around and then we got lost.

We couldn't find the metro station.  We saw a lot of M signs around but we couldn't locate the station.  We read the map, and we got confused.  My feet started to hurt and then we were lost for another two hours.  We walked from St Germain all the way to Eiffel Tower.  Basically we were just walking towards the Eiffel, but from time to time we couldn't see it as it wasn't really that tall.  It was always blocked by the other low rise buildings.  Glad it wasn't raining.

Boston's White cap suspect

Finally captured the suspect alive, what a relief to the people in Boston :)

Paris - random things around the Neighbourhood

After our visit to the Louvre, we were starving.  We were trying to look for the cafe where Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp's movie were filmed.  It was mentioned in my earlier blog. We walked around the area, and we couldn't find it.  So we walked to the love-lock bridge and put our prepared lock there; then we threw the key into the Seine River :)  Wish for the best I guess.

I believe we were in the Saint Germain area.  I don't really know what the checkers road marking were for?  Are they crosswalk? from both sides? Anyone?  They looked nice though :)

Random Street performers - Took the whole piano out!  Pretty good music :)  They seem to enjoy this a lot!

There are random things I might not expect nor understand when I travel.  But I love exploring and observing the different cultures and the histories. 

Where's next? :)

Around the world...

I usually read the local news on the newspaper, and the news never seem to be interesting.....seems like the Canucks is usually on the cover page...But I guess no news is good news.  I was watching the news channel at noon today, the news was talking about the aftermath of the Boston's tragedy, the crazy explosion in Texas, the flooding in Chicago, North Korea....Afghanistan...etc...And then our local news was....."superman turns 75!" or introducing a new bird or chicken named Aussie? .....While so many unfortunate events are happening around the world, I do know I'm quite fortunate to live in Canada: a peaceful country with a majority of nice and friendly neighbourhoods.  

Paris - Musee du Louvre

Day 3 of Paris: 

After a nice breakfast at the hotel, we took the metro to the station: Palais Royale, Musee du Louvre. 

TIPS: to avoid long line-up at the Louvre:

According to tripadvisor, other travellers advised that the line up at the pyramid entrance is usually pretty long.  There are 4 entrances to get into the Louvre, the Pyramid entrance is the most well-known.  To avoid the line up, you can enter via the entrance "Galerie Caroussel du Lourve".  

Via Metro: if you go from the metro station, get off the subway and exit at "Palais Royale, Musee du Lourve".  Turn left from the exit, and then head towards the entrance.  The walking tour guide told us the same thing.

The patio view from the cafe inside the Louvre

However, we followed the instructions and we still couldn't find that entrance.  We saw the line up at the pyramid, it wasn't that long.  I approached the security guard at the pyramid and I asked him where's the other entrance, he told me to just line up here.  I asked isn't there another entrance with a shorter line up?  He said: the line up today is pretty quick, it should be only 20 minutes.  So we listened to him and lined up at the pyramid.  Indeed, he was right; the line up was approximately 20 - 25 minutes :)

It was a cloudy morning, and the sky was clearing up in the afternoon

Buying ticket at the Louvre: get exact changes and accept the attitude:

**RANT ALERT**

We were lining up to get the entrance tickets.  When we got to the cashier, the ticket was 11,90 Euro each.  So I gave her 30 Euro for the two tickets (23,80 Euro).  The cashier had a bunch of coins (2Euros) sitting on her counter, but she just simply told me: 

 "No change, you see? (pointing on her counter) No coins".  

Ok?....do you take credit cards?

"Machine is down"

Ok....so I had to dig through my whole purse to find her the exact change.  I don't understand if she doesn't have coins, can she not just ask the person who sat right next to her for change?  She really had the "I don't give a f**k" face and attitude.  Ok, my fault, I misinterpreted the duty of a cashier (a French one), getting/giving change is NOT part of the job responsibilities.  Well, by the third day in Paris, I should just accept the way how the French work.  What do you expect? It's France.

I personally really like this painting.  When I looked at it, it was super vivid and it looks very 3-dimensional.  I love the use of colour and the shading.  It was like looking at a gallery inside a gallery.

The Louvre Museum is huge, it is impossible to digest their entire collection.  Someone told me if you just look at every piece of artwork for 30 seconds, it will take you at least 6 months to finish viewing all of them.  

Yes, everyone must see the Mona Lisa.  It's quite small and shielded with a glass case; it was the room with the most crowd.  To me, that's more like a check on the check-list.  I enjoyed looking at the other paintings and the Roman Sculptures.  The ancient artists were super skillful.  

We were at the museum for approximately 4.5 hours?  A lot of the artwork were breathtaking before it got too overwhelming.  We were getting super hot and hungry.  It took us a while to locate the cafe inside the museum, because the museum was humongous!  The cafe had a nice terrace/patio that faced the pyramid (second photo above).  We shared a salad and a sandwich.  The drinks were refreshing as it was super hot inside.

Extra info about the Louvre:
- Close on Tuesdays
- Visit after 6pm on some nights are 50% off and less crowded
- Check the official website for details :)
- Some people like to get the Museum pass to avoid line up

Paris - Eiffel Tower and travellers' advices

Of course.....Must go:

Book online ahead of time:
Before I arrived to Paris, I read on tripadvisor that only ONE of the four elevators was working in the Eiffel tower, due to technical difficulties.  Getting a slot online was very difficult.  But you must book ahead online in order to avoid the wait.  The people on the forum said they waited like 3 - 4 hours to get up.  I booked my tickets 3 months ahead of time.  I always wanted to take the night time slot for the Eiffel, because I heard the night view is magnificent.  Anyway, that was the only time slot available on that day: 10:00pm!  Everything else was fully booked.

*** remember to book through their original website: Tour Eiffel***

Tips for booking Online for Eiffel Tower: 

If you can't find any empty time slot on your desire date?
Try checking if there's anything available for the 2nd stage/floor instead of access to the top.  Because the tickets to the top are usually booked up first, but there are usually tickets left for the second floor.

OR: you can take other options:
(1): Walk up the stairs, not too bad.  No wait + cheaper fee.  Yet, make sure to check the time when do they close the stairs.
(2): Wait in line, some actually said the lineup is not too bad....2 hours?
(3): get there super early, or super late.
(4): go to the expensive restaurant up in the Eiffel, that would save you some wait time if you don't mind paying $$$ and spending a romantic lunch or dinner up at the Eiffel :)

Eiffel tower's poor staff's attitude:
We went there a little early to take some nice shots of the exterior - Eiffel tower...it's so beautiful.  It sparkles every hour.  Since we booked online, we went up to the reservation line and asked the staff if we should line up there.  There was no one lining up there, and the staff said we could hang out and then come back at 10pm.  Well, it was 9:45pm already, we were going to wait but he told us to go away and then come back later.  Then all of the sudden there was this tour of 50+ people coming to the line up and we were like wow? maybe we should get back into the line.  That tour group (maybe Italian?) kept pushing the individual guests away which pissed a lot of us off.  When I went up to the staff and I asked him why didn't he let us line up first ten minutes ago.  He told us to get back to the end of the lineup.......WTH...First of all, they booked the same time as we did.  Second, no one deserved to be pushed....Anyway, so we went back to the line up and waited patiently, but some of the tour kept non-stop pushing us, and when it was finally our turn, the staff stopped me from going through....Anyway, long story short, I blew up on the staff and things were settled.  It wasn't a pleasant experience to start off my visit to the Eiffel....

All I want to say is, the French workers don't really care about their tourists and their customers.  Most of them think we were just bothering them.  Do they not understand tourism is pretty damn important for their economy?  I guess they just don't care.  That's the French style.  Anyway, I think if you really encounter an unreasonable problem that they could easily solve, you need to SPEAK UP.  Confront them.  I don't think they like the confrontation.  Bring that aggressiveness part of you out when you really need it: Yes! the American style.

Second floor of the tower:
After the rainy day of Versailles, we each bought a Paris' poncho in case it would rain again.  Fortunately, it cleared up, yet it was super duper windy when we were up there.  It was so windy and cold that it almost blew my head off.  Looking down from Eiffel was amazing, yet it was hard to enjoy the view with the super strong wind.  It was hard to hold the camera still for the night shots and my fingers were freezing.  

looking down at the Seine River :) beautiful night view - facing the Pont Alexandre III and the Les Invalides (Napoleon's tomb)

Was it very romantic?
I guess it could be quite romantic.  But it wasn't that romantic for me that night.  First, the staff really pissed me off with his attitude.  Again, I really don't blow up on people easily....really..  It was too cold and windy up there.  We did stay until the tower sparkles......yes it was quite romantic at that part.  I could imagine why people love to pop the question there.  

Best part of the night:
We bought some hot chocolate.....so warm...so sweet.....it felt so good after the anger and the coldness....



Rats parade:
After the visit, we were looking for the metro station.  While we were walking to the metro, we walked on the darker street, and there were many rats running around the street (right across from Eiffel).  It was dark, and I'm afraid of rats; so that was quite scary for me......

Paris - Bon Appetit!!

Paris - Day 2 - continued:
During this day trip to Versailles, we met a few people from North America: tourists from Toronto, Montreal and Seattle!  After an exhausting trip to Versailles (on a gloomy and rainy day), we were wet, drained and starving.

We had a quick visit to the exterior of the Napoleon's tomb (Les Invalides), then we wandered around the streets and checked out the different menus.  So we picked this cafe for dinner, and of course we sat at the outdoor table/terrace :)

Appetizers: French Onion Soup and escargots

We ordered a 3 courses meal for approximately 28 Euro (each) + tips + wine.  We had very good appetizers of the French Onion Soup and escargots. yummmmmmm.  The French Onion soup in Paris had a lot more bread/croutons than the ones I had in my home town.  The soup was quite filling.

Mussels and frites

I ordered the mussels pot and frites for main course, just wanted to see if it would taste differently in Paris.  The mussels were alright, not remarkably delicious.

Lamb Shank

This was the other entree we ordered: lamb shank and mash potato, quite soft and yummy:)

Dessert: Creme brûlée & Lemon curd crepe

Dessert: we had the lemon curd crepe and creme brûlée, along with cafe au lait.  The creme brûlée was pretty tasty, but we were a little too full to finish the crepe.  I love having the cafe au lait in Paris, there's something different about them.  I couldn't find the similar taste in my home town. :(

While we were having our dinner, we saw there were these 3 - 4 ambulance/emergency vehicles having their sirens on.  But all of them stopped at the red light at a clear intersection when there were no other cars!  How emergency was that when all of them stopped patiently on a red light?  Only in Paris, I assumed.  I felt sorry for those who were waiting for the emergency rescue.

Heading towards the Eiffel Tower!
this photo reminds me of Van Gogh's Cafe terrace at night...

It seems like it was usually the tourists were having dinner that early (6pm).  At around the happy hour time (4-7pm), it seems like the Parisians usually would just stop by the cafe for a coffee and a smoke.  That's why whenever you walked into the cafe, the waiter would usually ask you for drink or for dinner?

The sky got cleared up, we were having a nice walk towards the Eiffel tower :)  We didn't look at the map, we just looked up to see where the tower was and walked towards it :)

Paris - Versailles

History of Versailles:

According to Wiki, "the court of Versailles was the centre of political power in France from 1682, when King Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in October 1789 after the beginning of the French Revolution.  

Hall of Mirrors - The galerie des glaces (Hall of Mirrors in English), is perhaps the most celebrated room in the château of Versailles.

Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy.  While the poor were starving, King Louis XIV inhabited in his lavish Palace of Versailles and continued his extravagant expenditures on luxuries.  King Louis XIV became one of the most powerful French monarchs and consolidated a system of absolute monarchical rule in France that endured until the French Revolution.  

Side story: Human bone-bread:

In 1590, the existing stores of food were inadequate to feed the population.  The poor people had descended to eating dogs, cats, tallow, grass..and even rats…..It was proposed that the bones of dead Parisians stored in the charnel house be ground into flour and baked into bread as there were no grain.  Yet, it turned out to be a failure as people who ate those bone-bread died shortly after.  (hypothesis reasons: (1) those breads had no nutrient (2) bread came from plague victims (3) contaminated by prions. )- Reference

Grand Trianon Castle Interior