Trip to France

This summer vacations our family decided to go on a trip to Europe and we chose France and Switzerland out of the 44 countries. The trip was ten days long and here is how it went...

12.07.18
We had an early morning flight from Dubai to Zurich through Swiss Airlines. The flight to Zurich was around 6.5 hours long which I spent sleeping and watching a movie. At Zurich Airport, we had a 6 hours stop-over and then a connecting flight to Paris afterward. On our arrival, we were quite tired and went to a lounge as we had certain cards that provided lounge access.

When we arrived in Paris a cab sent from the hotel took us to the place we were staying in, Novotel, Suresnes Longchamp. It is a 4-star hotel with decent amenities. By the time we arrived, it was already evening and not much could be done today so we only went around to explore the area our hotel was located in. We walked along the River Seine for some time and explored the lanes of Paris. We bought some essentials from a nearby Carrefour and had an early dinner at McDonald's. Interestingly Paris has a very late sunset, 10 PM during summers!

River Seine in background

13.07.18
Today we got up early and had breakfast in our hotel. We were going to Disneyland and to reach there, we took an Uber to Arc de Triomphe and from the Charles de Gaulle Station (This station is right below the area around Arc de Triomphe) we took a double-decker metro going directly to Disneyland! There are two parks at Disneyland, The Main Disneyland Park, and Walt Disney Studios. As we were going to spend only one day in the park we decided to go to the main, big park.

The Sleeping Beauty Castle 

The park is really big and also had Sleeping Beauty Castle. It is divided into five sub-divisions- Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, Discoveryland and Main Street USA. My first attraction was a show at the Videopolis Theatre, where people from throughout the world come to Disneyland to perform and showcase their talent. Next, we saw a Disney Character show in front of the castle where a lot of characters came on the stage and danced!

The Show

We also did many thrilling rides and roller-coasters such as "Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast", "Star Tours", Star Wars; Hyperspace Mountain at the Discoveryland. After these rides, we went to see the best part of one's visit to Disneyland, The Parade! It was a fascinating journey of various Disney stories and characters. Almost all of the famous characters were there in the parade.

The Parade

After the parade, we went for some amazing rides such as Indiana Jones, Big Thunder Mountain, etc. In Frontierland, we also did a boat ride which was amazing as they tried to give the feel of the forest around us.

Boat Ride

Spending another couple of hours, I had chicken nuggets as my dinner and we took a metro back to the hotel.

14.07.18
Today was the French Republic Day and I woke up early to check out the happening in the city on the day. After breakfast in the hotel we had an Uber Ride to Eiffel Tower, due to the Bastille Day it was closed. Many roads in Paris were blocked due to the same. We had our Big Bus Tour today, which is a Hop ON and Hop OFF Bus. Our starting point was Champs de Mars, as Eiffel Tower was closed on the occasion.

Eiffel Tower

The first destination was Opéra Garnier. It is an Opera House which was inaugurated in 1875. An audio guide which I rented gave us information about the place. The palace was marvelously decorated with gold chandeliers. 

The golden gallery

There was a huge library consisting of many music and literature books, caged and not accessible to the public. The main part of the palace, the auditorium was grand and could occupy up to 1979 people. Till date, the auditorium is in use. 


From the Opera House, the bus took us to the Louvre Museum, as we were had plans for it the next day, we just had lunch at a nearby restaurant. From there we next headed towards Notre-Dame. It is a medieval Catholic Cathedral, built on an island on River Seine and it's construction had started in 1160. To enter it there was a long but fast-moving queue.

Notre Dame

It was dark inside with whispering public around. There were a lot of statues with showed even the tiniest details such as the foldings of a dress. After spending some time we continued on our journey. The next stop was Musée d'Orsay which had closed before our arrival. Therefore, we only clicked some photos from the outside.

Musee d'Orsay

Arc de Triomphe (We stopped here for a photo)

We now continued the bus ride back to a place near Eiffel Tower. We had dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant named, Goa. After a good Indian food after a long time, we went out near the Eiffel Tower to spectate the fireworks which were to happen within an hour or so. Slowly, it started to get really crowded with police and security everywhere. Finally, the moment arrived and we witnessed the spectacular fireworks lighting the tower. 

The Illuminated Tower

The event lasted for some 10 minutes with celebration and smoke throughout the air of Paris. Afterward, we went to take a city taxi back to our hotel.

15.07.18
The much-awaited FIFA World Cup Final, between France and Croatia, took place today. After breakfast, at around 12 pm (Match was at 5PM) we reached near Eiffel Tower but after looking at the crowd we canceled our thought of watching the match in near about area.

Closest we could go to the Eiffel Tower

From there we went to the world's largest art and historic museum, Le Louvre. We had bought the tickets for it one day in advance. To enter the large museum we had to go through the famous Louvre pyramid.

Outside Louvre

Although 80% of people visit Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, there are more than 380,000 artifacts in its galleries. There were so many things to see in a lot of sections of the museums with many excavated items all the way from Egypt, Italy, Persia, etc. There were thousands of sculptures and paintings depicting a lot of different things.

One of the many galleries at Louvre

In the art section, there were thousands of paintings though Mona Lisa was the most crowded one, covered in glass and only viewable from a distance. There were a lot many bigger and more detailed artworks.

One of the thousands of other paintings

After spending a couple of hours we went back to our hotel to see the FIFA Finals. France had a very good victory and we then went out to see the atmosphere in the public. People were cheering all over the place. We had our dinner early and headed for Sacre-Coeur. It is a Catholic Church which is located at a great height and entire Paris is visible from there.

The View 

Sacre Coeur 

There were a lot of people enjoying and partying right outside the church. We went around the place and bought a few mementos from neighboring shops. As it got late, we headed back towards our hotel, through the crazy public, blocking the lanes.

16.07.18

We took the train to Zurich for the second part of our Europe trip, I'll write another article on Swiss adventures.

Trip to Georgia (Country)

It has been more than a year since I wrote my last blog. Well, in March 2017, I moved to Dubai and apparently did not travel much outside and explored the new country for a couple of months. In March 2018 my family and I planned to visit Georgia for a short trip with another family friend.

28.03.18

Dubai Airport was already crowded beside the fact that it was just 5 in the morning. FlyDubai was the only airline which flies to Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. The journey was 3.5 hours long and with pretty decent facilities provided by the airline. We arrived in Georgia being welcomed by a cold breeze.

It was quite cold in Georgia in comparison with Dubai. Firstly we went to our hotel "Flamingo" but surprisingly they told us that the hotel room wasn't available yet and therefore we had to wait for a few more hours. So, we went to the main Tbilisi city now. Holy Trinity Cathedral was our first destination. It was a beautiful cathedral as it was at the edge of the Mtkvari River and the mountains forming a perfect backdrop. It was as good from inside as from outside, thankfully it wasn't crowded!

Inside the cathedral

Me and my sister in front of Holy Trinity Cathedral

Afterward, we went outside in search of a new place to visit and instead found a peacock to get a photo with.

Everyone with the peacock

As I just mentioned the Mtkvari river, that was the next place we went. We went for a boat ride on the river and the driver of the boat let me drive it!

Driving the boat

The location was amazing with all the mountains and the view.

The view

We then had lunch in an Indian restaurant called "Sanjha Chulha" on Agmashenebeli Avenue which as per me is the Main Street in Tbilisi. After food, we went around the place and also bought some souvenir.

After a few hours, we went back to our hotel and had dinner at a nearby restaurant to enjoy Georgian Cuisine that included dishes like khachapuri.

29.03.18
Today we were going to Northern Georgia for some snow fun. We booked a van for the long journey. On the way, we stopped somewhere near Zhinvali for photographs at a scenic view.

Zhinvali

Next, we directly went to Ananuri. It is a castle complex located at a hilly region, 72 kilometers away from Tbilisi. The moment we entered Ananuri it started to rain. The rain made the place difficult to walk and therefore we walked around carefully. Like all places in Georgia, the view was terrific here as well.

At Ananuri

Inside Ananuri

We enjoyed some snacks in a small restaurant.

Next, after about 1.5 hours of journey, we finally arrived to snowfall in Gudauri. It is a ski resort with a lot of facilities including, skiing, restaurants, heliskiing, etc. My sister and I had a lot of fun playing in the snow and also had a snow fight.

At Gudauri

Tired after the long journey we looked out for a decent restaurant. Thankfully, we were in a resort and they had a good indoor, heated restaurant. Again, we had Georgian food like the night before. After lunch, I went skiing and it was fun though I caught a slight cold due to the low temperature.

As we had come a long way from Tbilisi we had to leave then to return back to our hotel on time. On the way, we stopped at Tbilisi Mall for dinner and I just had food from Subway. All of our shoes were really wet and we had to buy a pair of new shoes from Carrefour. From the mall, we directly went back to our hotel for the night.

30.03.18
Today morning we woke up early as we were heading towards South Georgia. We firstly had our breakfast in the hotel and when our vehicle arrived we left for the journey. Our first destination was Bodbe Monastery. From the monastery, we could see a beautiful green mountain in the view. This monastery also had terrace farming which was clearly visible from the spot.

Bodbe Monastery 

We had some snacks in a small restaurant near the monastery and then moved on to the next location. We went to the Sighnaghi Museum which was in Sighnaghi as the name suggests. It had started to rain heavily and it wasn't' very easy to find the museum under the umbrella. The museum was really good with a lot of paintings and some ancient artifacts which were probably excavated in Georgia.

View from the Sighnaghi Museum 

According to our plans, we were supposed to go to a coffee farm next but our vehicle (A Mercedes) broke down and it wasn't' functioning well maybe because of the rain. We decided not to go further just in case if there was more problem with the van. The driver had to stop and take some battery from other passing by vehicles. This happened a lot of times until another 8 seaters properly functioning car came and we managed to reach back to our hotel.


31.03.18
Today was our last day in Georgia and we had our flight back to Dubai in the afternoon. After having breakfast we went to the National Botanical Garden of Georgia. The garden was situated in a hilly region in Tbilisi and there was a lot of greenery along with colorful flowers.

Me, my mother and sister at the National Botanical Garden

After spending some time in the park I went zip-lining with my father and to reach the starting point we had to walk and climb a lot. The zip-line was real fun as we kind of travelled from one mountain to another. When I returned back I went for zip-lining once again with my mother this time and I had to climb all over again.

From the botanical garden, we went to the Tbilisi Mall again. I had some Thai cuisine at lunch and we left for the airport which was 30 mins away. We had our flight at around 1 pm. The trip was just 4 days one but yet fun and exciting.