What is Your Favorite City to Live?

I have been pretty nomadic since I was 11, and I have been moving from one place to another in search of my dream (it keeps changing, by the way). And no, I don't move because my family had to move somewhere. I basically moved out of house by sheer luck (and perhaps destiny, if you believe in one).

So if I create a map, this is the extent of my mobility (and I am 25 years old when I wrote this):

I'm pretty sure that you must have read or heard so many people saying "you must travel lots when you are in your 20's". Well, I guess my case is a rather extreme one. So when I feel like I need to spend some of my weekends lazing around my apartment, I have a reasonably valid excuse :P

To people who have never lived outside their own country, or even their own hometown, I get a lot of "Which country/city do you like the best?"

The answer is always difficult because there are pros and cons to each place. And while some places are great for tourism, it's not a great place to live. For this, I will have to nominate Paris. I don't want to say anything further about Paris, but living there for 2 months certainly destroyed my fantasy about "a romantic city".

Living in the US can be rather boring if you are interested into experiencing cultural events because pretty much people are interested in shopping, getting the latest gadget, eating at famous restaurants, etc. Unlike in Europe, Christmas season means big sales, not drinking mulled wines and enjoying little Christmas treats. And living without a car can be pretty painful in the US, since the public transport is pretty bad. Well, it probably differs from cities to cities, or from states to states. The US is a very convenient place to live, with stores open till late every day and online shopping made very easy. The best part of it? Almost in every corner of the US, everyone speaks English and at this point, I am more confident speaking English than my native language, Indonesian.

(image source: dailymail.co.uk)

Cork in Ireland can be rather dull and gloomy. And rainy just like the UK. But what I love from Ireland is the Irish hospitality. I felt so welcome by the locals, and I perceive their kindness as saintly. I remember getting lost in the city as a newcomer, and someone on the road just stopped her car just to ask if my friends and I were lost. They speak English, too, but their accents are a little bit hard to pick up. It took me about 3 weeks to adjust my ears.

In Kinsale, a neighboring town to Cork

Lund in Sweden is a cozy place, although it's pretty much filled in with aged residents in the summer, since the university students would be leaving for home. Things are rather slow-paced, and it is blessed with great nature. I was there during summer and I enjoyed it. Not sure if I'd become a snowball in winter, though. One thing I don't really like about Sweden is that the food is rather bland. With exception of the Swedish meatballs served with real lingon berry - not cranberry - jam. I know that in most IKEAs around the world, lingon berry is not available, so you've been eating the IKEA meatball with cranberry jam instead. The difference between lingon berry and cranberry is probably rather minimal and if you don't even know how lingon berry tastes like, cranberry jam is good enough.

Summer in Sweden

I lived in two cities (well, I would consider the other one a village, but it is officially a city based on legal laws) when I was in the Netherlands. To be honest, Rotterdam has been the most enjoyable city I have lived so far. It was a lively city, not too crowded, convenient, excellent public transport... and almost everyone speaks good English. The weather is considerably mild, and there is almost everything you need. True, it is rather modern and some people may take modern city as boring, but it is very close to good touristic places. And oh, the open market is absolutely awesome. Everything is fresh, the prices are lower than the supermarket, and there are good selections of items, ranging from fresh produce to gorgeous flowers.

The iconic symbol of the Netherlands: windmills

If there are unique things I like about the Netherlands, those are: 1) a lot of people speak good English considering English is not their first language, 2) finding Indonesian (and other Asian food) is rather easy, and 3) it is very international. The hardest thing to get adjusted to was the Dutch directness, which can be perceived as rudeness if you are not aware that they do not have evil intention when they openly criticize something about you. But in the end, I kind of like it. It's better than holding in things and cursing people behind their backs, not giving them any chance to improve.

Singapore, on the other hand, has gone quite tremendous changes over the years and sometimes when I went back there for holidays or to visit my friends, I felt that it was oddly foreign. There are more and more foreigners, and wherever I go, I always meet an Indonesian on the street. It's weird. Singapore is rich with many forms of entertainment, but it can be a very stressful place to live. I remember when I was in high school, someone from the top 3 school across the nation committed suicide because she got one B in her midterm exams. The "B is a failure" mentality can be rather suffocating, but I don't think Singapore can be released from this culture any time soon. But hey, there are lots of good food in Singapore, like Hainanese chicken rice, laksa, and roti prata.

(image source: forbes.com)

Now, the reason why I started this post was because I just moved to Switzerland almost two months ago, and by far, this move was the hardest for me. Contrary to the "I don't care if you see everything inside my house, I'm gonna open all the curtains in my house" mentality of the Dutch, the residents of Switzerland love to close their windows not just with curtains, but with metal blinds. After working hours (let's say 5-6 PM), all windows are shut.

Enjoying Alpen horns in St Cergue, close to Geneva

You can say it is peaceful, but it is too quiet for me. It's kind of like Wageningen in the Netherlands. But I think I will get used to it soon by picking up hobbies and exploring places. The best thing about living in Switzerland is probably the abundance of good cheese and white wines, the reliability of the public transportation system, and the fact that you are forbidden to work on Sundays (yippie!!).

As for my hometown, Jakarta... I think I see more cons than pros, and if my family is not there, I would not pick it as a place to live. The traffic jam is insane. At one time during my vacation back home, it took us at least 30 minutes to go to the supermarket, which is probably less than 5 km away from our house. My mobility is extremely restricted, and I really hate that. Walking on the streets alone as a girl, even in a broad daylight, can be very dangerous. In the malls, in a restaurant, on the streets, in front of your house, in your car... let's not even talk about in public transport. When I go back, the only things I appreciate are my family, my house, and the food.

Can you imagine that you have a sudden heart attack in the middle of the road and the ambulance can't even pass through? Or you are in labour and you are going to give birth in the next few minutes, when the traffic is like this every day? I mean, let's cross our fingers that we don't have to be in such situations, but if any of these emergencies were to happen... Ugh!

(image source: says.com)

Oh, and finally, Tokyo! I went there in spring for 3 months, and it was awesome. Things are pricey, and people there are rather reserved. Stand out a little bit, and everyone will be staring at you. The morning trains make me understand how it feels to be a sardine in a can. But overall, it is a very convenient city with lots of entertainment (especially the karaoke boxes and game arcades!). Tokyo is rather unique, with very modern buildings blended with natural landscapes. The old and the new are standing side-by-side. Vending machines are everywhere, and 100 yen shops are dens of evil sucking money out of you without realizing it (the items are worth their values, though). People are still shy about speaking English, but the young ones are quite willing to speak English. And there are more and more signs in roman letters, so navigating through the city is rather easy.

In a traditional Japanese inn (ryokan)

What is your favorite place to live?

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What I learned about the Netherlands, Ireland, France and Sweden

Officially, the end of my first year of European Master in Food Studies was over. With tears and hugs, byes and kisses, sweet and sour memories. Friendships developed - sometimes temporarily broken for reasons I could never comprehend - and memories woven. It was almost always lively around me, and I felt that I had a new family in Europe.

Now, let's put aside the emotional moments (because I'll start crying, alone in Rotterdam) and talk about things that I learned from staying in different countries throughout this one year. Just as an overview, our masters program involved being enrolled in four different universities in four different European countries, with students from all over the continents. In my edition, we have people from the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Romania, Indonesia, Thailand, China, Hongkong/UK (dual citizenship), India, Ghana, Guatemala, Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia.

You may agree or disagree with some points that I mentioned, but keep in mind that whatever is written here is merely of my perspectives, and I don't mean any harm when I write this.

Well, let's start with the Netherlands :)

1st stop: Wageningen University, The Netherlands
- The Dutch are super punctual, with the exception of a few. Some professors may decide to lock you out if you come late to class.
- Appointments are crucial, even when you lost your phone and wanted to make a police report.
- Similarly, when you are sick, you need to make a doctor's appointment. If you're lucky, you can see the doctor on the next day.
- If you can't bike, you seem like a handicapped person in the Netherlands.
- Consider yourself comparable to a Dutch when you know how to bike while drinking beer, dragging a luggage behind you, or some crazy stunts.
- 'Gratis' is a nice word.
- They put sate sauce (Indonesian peanut sauce) on fried rice and even French fries (they call it the French fries warfare). And I really still find it weird up till this day.
- Ketjap manis in the Netherlands doesn't taste really good.
- Words borrowed from Indonesian language seemed to be written in what we call "ejaan lama / Van Ophuijsen" or "old spellings" in Indonesia (use Google's translation function to read the article about Van Ophuijsen spellings - it's in Indonesian). After all, Indonesia was colonized for 300 years by the V.O.C.
- When washing dishes, the Dutch people do it like how the street food carts wash dishes in Indonesia: the same water with some dishwashing liquid, reused over and over again to wash and to rinse the plates (they don't use clean water to rinse the plates).
- You hear so much "khrrr" sounds in Dutch sentences, and you'd probably be interested to try mimicking that sound for a while (if you're not so used to it).
- The Dutch people have a different sense of humour that might be a little bit hard to understand. Sometimes, you might think it's a cruel joke, but you'll get used to it. They don't mean harm.
- If you don't want to eat insipid, cold sandwich with only either one slice of cheese or one slice of ham, with no tomatoes, lettuce, or sauces of any kinds, or eat fresh cucumbers during lunch, then you have not adapted well to the Dutch culture.
- You will get familiar with the smell of weeds.
- If you have a somewhat fair skin and eyes that are not as big as the Europeans or the Latins, random Dutch students on campus may shout "nihao" to you regardless of where you come from. And I still don't get why they find this amusing.
- Most Dutch people pronounce "idea" as "ID". At specific occasions, it can be pretty confusing until you get used to it.
- Kroket is eaten with a toast or bread. McDonald's in the Netherlands even sells McKroket, which is basically a burger with kroket inside.

2nd stop: University College Cork, Ireland
- The houses are colourful because it is almost always cloudy and gloomy.
- There is no special bike lanes, unlike in the Netherlands.
- The Irish are unbelievably nice. They are almost like saints, and I'm not joking. I wonder how this kind of nice culture can be developed. A bus driver stopping the bus in the middle of the road to show you directions, and no cars behind the bus honking in anger? Uber coolness.
- If you open a door first and you see someone coming from another side, open the door and let that person pass first.
- Paddy Wagon is the best friend of students who like to travel around Ireland.
- The English Market is super awesome, and chicken and pork meat are insanely cheap.
- Bailey's cheesecake is a must to try, especially when Bailey's originated in Ireland. Anyways, there are a lot of Bailey's product in Ireland that you should try, including this Bailey's chocolate sticks.
- Guinness ice cream is nice, even if you don't like Guinness (I think it tasted like medicine).
- It's quite difficult to understand the English accents and expressions of the Irish, but after 2-3 weeks you'll get used to it.
- Girls wear 15cm heels and dresses with ultra short skirts at night to the pub / club / bar. Very sexy.

3rd stop: AgroParis Tech, France
- The French are, in general, not so friendly to those who don't speak French. Of course there are exceptions.
- Speaking English is definitely not a plus point when you're in France.
- If you try your best to speak French, people are in general more willing to help you.
- Pickpockets are everywhere on the train and train stations. Always be alert.
- The trains in Paris smell bad. Most of the time.
- Paris is the heaven for food. Almost always you will find good food, although your wallet may hurt.
- Baguette is a student's best friend. It's cheap (80 cents each), it's long, and the best is the one that just came out of the oven. It's crunchy on the outside, and soft on the inside. In Indonesia, a baguette can be used to hit a house burglar, just like a baseball bat.
- McDonald's in Paris sells baguette, too.
- Eating too much baguette may cause horizontal expansion of your body. Not kidding.
- 3 course meal for 3.10 euros from school cafetaria is awesome. But again, horizontal expansion of your body is inevitable.
- Lunch time is 1.5 hours.
- When you're under 25 and you're a student, go to as many museums as you can because they're free.
- Never go to Notre Dame du Paris during Easter if you want to pray properly. The tourists and their cameras will distract you, and prevent you from getting a seat.
- International mass at church means having the first reading in English, and the rest of the mass is a mix of Italian, Spanish and Latin.
- Macarons are everywhere. And Laduree is a little bit overrated.
- If you walk along Champs-Élysées, you will find Asians (especially from China and Indonesia) crowding expensive stores like Louis Vuitton and Long Champ.
- Arab Markets are great places to buy cheap, fresh fruits and veggies. And even your undies.

4th stop: Lund University, Sweden
- Fika (a break) is an essential part of the Swedish culture. No matter what, they always have fika every day without fail.
- Lagom is also an important word, which means "not too much, not too little".
- Once again, you will need a bike.
- Going to IKEA is always awesome, even though now it is owned by the Dutch.
- Swedish meatballs should be accompanied with lingonberry, and not cranberry. It's different.
- H&M is a Swedish brand, but the prices are not any cheaper. Still, they have good collections, especially when you go to Stockholm. There are at least 5 H&Ms around the city centre, one of those being called H&M Home (the 'headquarter' of H&M).
- Herrings, herrings and herrings of all types.
- Pickles in Sweden contain mostly sugar.
- Cheesecake in Sweden can be savoury, filled with seafood.
- Sweden is a safe country, but it doesn't mean that you can lower your guard down. 3 people, including me, had their phones stolen.
- Skåne is a region in south of Sweden.
- Everyone in Sweden is always ready for summer. Weekend + sunny weather = picnic.
- Good weather = barbecue time.
- Sometimes, when it says 10:00 on a schedule, it means 10:15.
- Travelling with Jojo card saves you 10% of travel cost.
- Buying duo-family ticket (works for 2 adults) saves you additional 20% of travel cost. Sadly, you have to travel in even numbers.
- You can pay tickets from the ticketing office with a combination of jojo card, cash or card.
- Getting a bike in early May is difficult because everyone graduates in late May.


And aside from this, I'm sure I have some learning points missing. This one year has been filled with a lot of learnings: in class and outside the class. The differences in cultures and perspectives can be somewhat a challenge, but this one year is the perfect time to not only notice the differences, but also to understand the differences and to learn to compromise. I have never been immersed in a group so rich in cultural differences, and I have to thank this masters program for it.

This one year has been very awesome, and even though it comes with a price of having to move almost every two months with all belongings, worrying about overweight luggages and shipments, with internship, where to stay next, an ongoing team project, classes and exams, financial spending... it's not as breezy as people think about this program. But it's definitely worth all the effort :)

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France - Foie Gras

Just for an additional information to all readers before I start: I understand the controversies behind foie gras, and I don't eat this every day. I am simply a naturally curious person, and I have to say I agree with this view. As far as I'd like to understand the viewpoints of many, I'd like to ask that you understand and respect my decision to eat foie gras.

Well then, let's get to the topic. When I arrived in Paris and checked out the supermarket, I was surprised to see so many foie gras products ranging from 30% mixed with duck meat to whole foie gras. I got this frozen foie gras for about 7 euros.

You can find foie gras in many forms: sauces, terrine (some kind of paste), mousse, and of course, the escalopes (cutlets). For more information about the forms, check the Wikipedia. This one is in cutlets, and it's supposed to be served warm.

Well then, onwards to the serious business: the calories. Foie gras means "fatty liver", and by that name, you should know that foie gras is one of the most unhealthy thing in the world. Well, see the nutrition label for yourself. If you haven't tried foie gras before and want to try it, it's best that you don't read the label.

I'm happy that there are English instructions at the back of the packaging, by the way. It's rare to see English written on any food packaging in the supermarket :P

These look tiny, but they're actually quite big.

I heated them at the oven as the instruction said. Seems like I overheated the foie gras because some of the fats have melted.

I had the foie gras with rice, salt, black pepper and chives. Ah yes, although the packaging says this is 4 servings, I finished these mostly on my own. Well, I shared some bites with my roommate, but I ate most of them. Actually, it's so hard to even finish 2 blocks of these because it's very fatty and flavourful. Fatty foods make you feel full fast. By the third block, I started feeling bad with so much grease in my mouth (nevertheless they still taste really good).

Although I really really really love the taste. It's really unimaginable.

But I think I'd love to have this occasionally; if I keep having foie gras every day, I would not be able to stand it and might end up hating it.

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France - Crazy Easter at Notre Dame

I spent my Easter in Paris, and celebrated it in Notre Dame! Wow, that's cool! Well, it was actually VERY NOT COOL. Why?

1. I had to queue for at least 30 minutes just to enter the church, and it was cold outside (~10C, I believe).

2. I'm competing with these tourists from all over the world who just wanted to take pictures of Easter mass, the church, the archbishop, the pastor, the clergymen, and everything.

 I had to swim across the sea of humans.

3. I had to deal with visitors who were forcefully dragged by their family member(s) to join the mass for whatever reason it was, and they were just the worst distractions ever. I shall not explain further because it will trigger my unpleasant memory about that mass again.

4. The problem doesn't end with the mass. During Easter, Paris became overcrowded with tourists and knowing that pickpockets are everywhere around the corner of Paris, I had to raise my guard higher than before. I have seen moments of people realizing they have become the victim of those pickpockets.

Basically, if I ever had to be in Paris during Easter, I'd rather stay at home or go somewhere far away where tourists can't reach. I wouldn't blame the tourists, because if I were to live in neighboring European countries and I have this sweet long holiday over the weekend, I'd check out Paris.

Oh, and when they say "International Mass", it means everything is in French except during the readings, and only 1 reading is done in English; the rest of the readings were either in Spanish, Italian, or of course, French.

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France - Shakespeare and Co.

France is known for her unwillingness to speak English. As a proof, in most food labels you can find Dutch or German translations of the ingredients list, but none in English. This fact made the first few weeks of my stay in France difficult - it's hard to ask for directions when I was lost (and even buying train tickets from the counter). 

Surprisingly, just across Notre Dame du Paris lies a bookshop called Shakespeare and Co., and as the name suggests, it sells English books.

Actually, I am not supposed to take pictures here because it will disturb the readers. Oh yes, this place is not just a normal bookshop. On the second floor, you can read the books that you bought in special corners, and when I came there, there seems to be a place where you can share and discuss what you read.

The decoration on the second floor is classic. There's a tiny room with a typewriter, with notes stuck on the wall by visitors all around the world. There's also a corner for telling children storybook.

I think the prices of the books are okay; not so cheap, not so expensive. More than anything, if you miss reading English books, this is the place to go. It's not a very big shop, but I like the overall ambience there: almost every visitors there love books - to be read, or to be placed on the bookshelf to boast.

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France - Saint Chapelle

It's been 2 weeks since the last time I posted something. Life in Paris is indeed really busy. Aside from the heavy workload at school, we are also a little bit pressurized to travel within our limited stay in Paris. 

There were so many stories to tell, especially when I experienced my first Palm Sunday and Easter week in Notre Dame du Paris. 

A week before Palm Sunday, I took off on a random journey on my own, not knowing where I was heading. I took the train and stopped at Notre Dame. From then onwards, I was on my feet. I went into places that not a lot of people go to. They are somewhat still considered as tourist attractions, but I think if you look at their ranks on travel tips websites, these probably fall outside the top 10 most-visited places.

One of the places I explored was Saint Chapelle.

Compared to Notre Dame du Paris, this church is probably smaller. The distinctive feature of this church was the dark / black tower. The sculptures are not as detailed as those in Notre Dame du Paris, but I don't think they are not beautiful. 

However, the interior of this church is completely the opposite of the plain, clam exterior.

Saint Chapelle has the brightest, most intensely colorful interior I've ever seen in my life. It's grandiose, lively, vibrant and most definitely charming.

The second floor of the church was filled with very detailed stained glass windows, each representing a different saint.

I feel very small when I was in this church. When I arrived at the second floor, I was amazed by the altar's decorations. Oh, and there is no mass held in this church.

But then I turned around to see people looking upwards at another direction with wonders. What did they see? I was curious, and...

just across the altar lies a unique stained glass, with few missing glasses off the design. This particular stained glass is called the Rose of Apocalypse. Each petal, according to the pamphlet, tells a verse about the apocalypse, as written on the Bible. The story of Apocalypse has never made me feel good; the more I read the details of the story of what each petal tells, the more I feel depressed and for a moment I thought my blood started to flow backwards.

But it is a beautiful church indeed!

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France - Cachou Lajaunie

One day in the supermarket I saw these on the shelf next to the cashier.

These look somewhat fancy, yet classic. I didn't know what it was, and I didn't have time to Google Translate it because I was on the line at the cashier, and it was my turn in 5 seconds after I saw this Cachou Lajaunie.

There's no English or Dutch translation on the packaging. Well, might as well try these. Recently I've been having troubles keeping myself focused for 1.5 hours non-stop in class. Delicious or horrible-tasting, this little peep will be useful.

I opened the package at home and gave these pastilles a try.

The flavour was so similar to what we call Pagoda Pastilles in Indonesia, with stronger cooling effect and perhaps less sugar. It's definitely licorice, but it's so different from the dropjes I had in the Netherlands, so there has to be something in it. My Italian friend really liked it. As for me, I' not really a big fan of these pastilles but these keep me awake in class.

Thanks to Wikipedia and Google Chrome's page translation function, I managed to find out the ingredients: licorice, sugar, starch, lactose, flavored gelatin powder, catechu, iris powder, mastic ressin, essence of peppermint.

Well, the peppermint explains the cooling effect. I'm not sure what iris powder tastes like by itself, but catechu? Cachou? Never heard of it before!

Thanks to this, I did a little research on cachou. Almost all professors who taught me said not to trust Wikipedia, but somehow my gut feeling says 95% of what's written on Wikipedia is correct. Well, it always never hurts to start from Wikipedia and then go on with a more refined research.

So, according to Wikipedia, cachou or catechu is an extract of Acacia that can be used as food additives to provide astringent sensation from tannin, or to provide colour. Catechu, in Indonesian, is also known as gambir. I don't think I've ever heard gambir used as food additives in Indonesia. More like it's a traditional cure for toothache.

I checked on Malaysian Wikipedia on gambir sarawak (still the same catechu) that catechu can also be used as anesthetics (which means eating this will result in less headache during calculation class for me? LOL). But apparently, in Malaysia and Indonesia, catechu is also a cure for early ejaculation. Actually, the moment I searched for gambir sarawak, the first few search results gave me "early ejaculation cure". Seems like this plant has a lot of functions.

By the way, I just realized how nice it is to understand a lot of languages. There are just search results you can read when you type the keywords in languages other than English :D

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France - McDonald's menu is SUPER FANCY

When burgers are too mainstream, we go for baguettes. The normal burgers still exist in McDonald's in Paris but why not try something that only exist in Paris? Well, I decided to get le petite McBaguette.

And what they mean by petite (small) is... REALLY PETITE. The whole baguette fits into my palm, so I would say it's like 10cm x 10cm. It's smaller than the size of a postcard. Yup. It's yummy, ,though. The beef flavour was strong, and the baguette is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside..

Why did I get such a small baguette for lunch? It's because the McCafe right next to the entrance looks enticing. They sell macarons, chou and other fancy cakes. I got the chou sans créme (chou without cream) and the pistachio macaron.

The macaron was so-so. It's a little too cold when served, so the cream filling was a little too hard, and the shell was a little too moist.

On the other hand, the chou was really good:

The moment I bit the chou, the dough kind of slowly melted in my mouth. It's really fluffy. I think I might prefer a chou without the cream filling.

Well, it's fancy and it's nice, and it also comes with a pricey bill (for a McDonald's standard). The whole thing costed me like 5 euros, and my stomach was not in particular full enough. Normally I could get a meal for 5 euros and feel very stuffed.

But it's the quality vs. the quantity.

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France - La Laitière (feuilleté de mousse)

I've been rather busy with exploring Paris lately. And also with class, of course. We attend class from 9 to 5, with 1.5 hour lunch break in between (I love the long lunch break). I feel that there's always something to write on my blog about Paris or the food every single day to the point that I don't know where to start.

Ok, so let's start with this.

The first French supermarket I explored was Franprix because we met nice a corridor mate who showed us the way there. The thing that surprised me the most about French supermarket is the unreasonable length of chilled desserts section. When I was in the Netherlands, the refrigerated section was filled with cheese and ham and perhaps bacon, and tons of yogurt. In ireland, refrigerated section is not the most prominent section.

I decided to get this Nestle dessert because, well, it's Nestle, so it's bound to be good when it comes to something milky (this is my risk reduction strategy, by the way; it's not fool proof but it works most of the time).

Do I understand anything said? NOPE. My knowledge in French is like zero. ZERO. Well, ok, I can say merci, ça combien (I don't even know if I spell this right), s'il vous plaît, pardon, excusez-moi. But that's it.

It's funny how I understand what the ingredients are from the Dutch version (the second paragraph). I can't believe how much Dutch I learned just from going to the supermarket and the open market,. My pronunciation might be off (my Dutch friends would sometimes laugh whenever I tried to say something in Dutch but nevertheless I never give up practicing) but at the very least I understand what they are.

The appearance might not be the best because the top of the mousse was flattened by the seal but this means nothing. This dessert is... superb. Superb. There are thin, crispy layers of chocolate in the middle. It's a well-balanced mix of smooth and crispy textures. And the cocoa flavour is just nice: not too bitter, not too sweet, not too overpowering.

I can't lose weight in France.

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France - Marron Crêpe

In France, marron (chestnut) paste is often used in desserts. I had a nice marron crêpe from a shop.

For 5 euros *cries*

Well, I got it from a restaurant in Montemartre, close to la Basilique du Sacré Cour. It's a tourist attraction, so it's bound to be expensive.

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France - Paris in 1 Day

I went around the touristic areas of Paris the day after I landed my feet at the dorm. It was a really tiring trip, and I had a really good sleep after that (my roommate said my phone kept ringing but I remained peacefully asleep).

So first we bought NaviGo and a monthly pass for all transportation means within Zone 1 through Zone 4 in Paris (because our school is in Massy, which is in Zone 4).

This thing costs us quite a fortune: 102.30 euros. However, this pass includes the tram, train, metro and bus rides, so we want to make sure we made a good use of this pass.

So first, we started with the closest to our dorm at Cité Universitaire: Saint-Michel.

This was the fountain of Saint-Michel (Fontaine Saint Michel), and I'm pretty sure this is not the famous Saint-Michel that my friends who visited France was talking about. Well, it's not that cold anymore and it is supposed to be a fountain, but I see no water coming out from any statues. Maybe it's really supposed to look like this? LOL

We walked over to see Notre Dame de Paris. It's not a really long walk, especially when you are travelling with good companions :)

The scenes around Notre Dame was really beautiful. We were also lucky that it was nice and sunny on this particular Sunday.

We walked a little closer to see more details of the fantastic sculpture and design of this cathedral.

(My friend is Dutch and he's really tall; his head ruined the only picture I took of Notre Dame haha)

We thought we'd enter and go up the Cathedral, but since we went on the first Sunday of the month, it's free for everyone to enter. A sunny Sunday, and free entrance. Naturally, you're bound to see a terribly long line. Yup.

We ended up not going inside it because we still want to see other things around Paris and we didn't know how long it would take to get us inside.

Instead, we walked towards the riverbanks just in front of Notre Dame to see it from another angle. Just right in front of Notre Dame, right before the river, is the Square Jean-XXIII.

From there, you can see the side view of Notre Dame. It's really massive, and you can tell it definitely took a genius planner to plan and design such a masterpiece.

If you cross the bridge to the other side of the river and walk down the stairs, you'd be able to take a great shot of Notre Dame. 

We found a really nice spot to take this picture after looking at a postcard sold along the riverside (LOL). It's nice to have two photography enthusiasts within the group!

Oh, by the way, my friend spotted this children book:

Candy Candy is a relatively old Japanese manga that I read when I was in... kindergarten? Yup, and they have it in children storybook version in French. I guess they really loved the story.

These stores along the river sell "antique" books (or perhaps it's better to say "books that look like antique books"), postcards and printed artworks as souvenirs. At times, you would also see more modern books, like these:

I thought it would be interesting to read Harry Potter in French, but again, I think I might need more time spent on checking the dictionary than reading the actual book. I'll have to see if the courses in Paris will be as tough as the previous courses in the Netherlands and in Ireland. I have way too many things I want to do while in France.

Moving on, we decided to walk towards Musée du Louvre because the scenery and the weather were too pretty to be missed. After 2 months in cloudy Ireland, the bright sun really brought us our cheerful mood.

Honestly, I don't know what this place was, but after several Googling, I found out that this was the L'Hôtel de Ville, or in English, the City Hall of Paris. Outside the City Hall was an iceskating rink. I believe the temperature was around 9 degrees C when we went there; I guess it's still cold enough to have an outdoor iceskating rink.

We kept on walking for another 10 minutes, and we arrived at a locks bridge just outside Le Louvre.

There's a really cute lock with the whole family written :)

Ok, back to Musée du Louvre. Yay, we finally reached it!

The entrance to the inner part of Le Louvre is free. There's some sort of construction or event preparation going on, but it doesn't really affect the overall awesome experience at Le Louvre.

And.... beyond these arcs, behold....

The pyramid of Louvre!

The pyramid was really beautiful. The position of the pyramid and the empty space around it made me feel sucked into another dimension of space.

The whole complex of Musée du Louvre was just splendid. Too many details to describe. I think if you really want to pay attention to every single sculpture on the buildings, you'd have to spend at least 2 weeks. Really, really beautiful. Magnificent!

At the back of the pyramid was an arc called Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, and this is not to be mistaken with Arc de Triomphe (without the du Carrousel), which is located in the centre of Place Charles de Gaulle.

Then, we took the metro to reach the Arc de Triomphe (this time, without the "du Carrousel").

Much, much, much bigger than the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. The sky was kind of getting dark; I think we reached here around 4 PM.

I only had my phone camera with me, so I couldn't take really nice pictures of the arc. I left that responsibility to my photographer friend, and I'm just going to steal the photos from his facebook (sshhhhh....)

We went up the arc (for free because it's the first Sunday of the month!) and saw the whole Paris. The view was just gorgeous. Sadly, when you take photos from such a height, you normally don't end up with good pictures, especially with a phone camera. Well, I had enough fun and excitement from climbing up the arc. The spiral of stairs. Oh god. That felt like an eternity. I guess the effort of climbing the stairs really paid off!

Finally, we arrived at our last destination for the day: Tour Eiffel, or the Eiffel Tower.

 

There are so many movies and stories around love based on this tower, and this tower is also the symbol of Paris.

We didn't stay until late at night because we were really tired by then. We didn't go up the tower either; I'm definitely going back to the tower again before I leave Paris! :)

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