Paris

Pictures 1.Notre Dame 2. Me by l'arc de trioumph 3. Underneath the Eiffel tower 4. the Louvre 5. Opera House 6. Eiffel tower from a distance at Trocadero 7. Grand Palais 8. The steps leading up l'arc ;)

So I promised and now insha'allah I will present. Last Friday I went to Paris for the day, I met up with my good Canadian friend Aminah who went over there on Thursday for 2 days. I decided to stay the night in London to make it easier to travel there the friday morning as I was supposed to be there at 530am... yup you heard me right girls!! So I got up about 415am, prayed fajr, got ready and eventually got on the just before 5 night bus that went straight to kings cross (where I was leaving from) via the tube station I wanted. Obviously (note the sarcasm) the tube would be quicker. I got to the tube station to... cut a long story short... miss a train I could have got to Liverpool st to change over and the tube wasnt working until 540am. I mean come on.. isnt the tube supposed to be on 24hrs?? thats what I thought!! Anyways I eventually get to Liverpool st on the next train to find that the tube there didnt start until 540am either (why did I think it would be a different starting time at a different station?) I got to St Pancras at last, nipped into the EuroStar office and picked up my ticket at around 550am alhamdulillah. I was given directions to passport control and off I set, wondering when I would get my welcome pack from the tour company I booked with who I couldnt remember the name of....
Anyways got through all the passport control bit, information couldnt help me with my welcome pack although the nice gentleman offered me a kids pack if I was going to EuroDisney lol... So after 135 mins I was in la gare du nord, Paris... after putting up with more than one American family on the train too.. ooh I wanted to bash their heads in!! So I got off.. still no sign of tour guides and resigned myself to the fact that it just wasnt going to happen, I phoned my friend to tell her my woes and she gave me a few suggestions. I toggled off to try them out but just got stressed by the massive amounts of gypsy beggars around the station and by the not seeing anything I wanted. To top it off apparently I had the wrong number for Aminah for about 20mins, when I eventually got hold of her again (on my dying battery may I add) she told me to calm down and go for a drink and she would meet me there with her mum.
Alhamdulillah I had a near spat with the drinks lady who continued to act like I was a stupid foreigner when all it was was that I just couldnt be bothered to speak french to her because that would mean that YES I was in the country that was giving me a bad morning. She insisted on repeating my order in french and showing me everything as I obviously could be asking for something else! ooh!!! Anyways, we eventually met up, put our bags into storage and decided to check out a few things together before parting for a little while. So we scaled l'arc de triomphe and had a few laughs and lots of pictures up there... then we ate at a cute little cafe on champs d'lysees where we got chatted up by 2 syrian waiters ;) all good food, the pizza wasnt too nice but what can you expect for italian food in france? lol... I decided to catch 'les cars rouges' which is an open topped double decker that takes you on a tour of the majority of the big sights to see over there masha'allah. It was €24 and well worth it in my opinion, you can get on and off throughout the day and take your time, they tour from about 930am till 930pm so gives you time for breakfast and tea in the evening. I got off a few times and took some closer pictures, I didnt go up the Eiffel tower (the queue was massive) or into the Louvre (the place was huge it wasnt worth paying to get in and seeing nothing) I eventually stopped off at the opera house and met back up with Aminah and her mum who had been wandering around the shopping area just taking in a few sights. Then we made our way back to the train station for home.. it was an amazing time alhamdulillah, and insha'allah I would definately like to go again in the future to take in the things I didnt properly see.. maybe go for a few days insha'allah. On that note Im going to upload some pictures for you all to see :) hope this was enough information for you all :D