The Jorney: Meninggalkan Paris, Part 8

Pagi gelap sudah mengatur langkah ke main road. Mengetuk tingkap teksi yang pemandu nya masih tidur. Perjalanan ke airport dlm 30 minit. Basic airport. Tapi sempat juga menjamu mata di duty free shop dan minum kopi.

Dalam flight, map ni membuatkan otak saya ligat berfikir. Fuuhhh... saya bisa terbang dari satu point ke another point dengan tambang murah easyjet. Hmmm...

Arc de Triomphe, day and night

Hotel di Paris memang di centre, berhampiran dengan Arc de Triomphe. Tapi entahlah, saya. Boleh lupa nak print map. Aduh... buang masa berlegar-legar. Lama juga mengusung beg ditengah-tengah deretan tempat shopping Champs-Elysees. Akhirnya jumpa juga. Tapi sudah tidak sempat ke muziumnya.

Oleh kerana dah beli one day pass, kami ronda-ronda Paris suka hati naik turun train hingga lewat malam. Rasa macam tak cukup masa. Terkilan pun ada. Patut spent one more day in Paris. Sempat juga membeli ole ole dan FM. Mungkin malam minggu, meriah sungguh kota Paris. Terasa kembali ke zaman moden. Happening. Ukur jalan hingga jam 12 lebih malam. Last train jam satu pagi.

Super yummy pastry and coffee

Notre Dame de Paris

Flight MH 380 tengah hari. Pulang ke boleh land. Ikut hati tak mahu pulang :(

The Journey: From Paris to Madrid, Cordoba, Granada, Algeciras, Tariffa and Tangier, Part 1

2 Continents,  3 Countries, 10 Cities in 12 days

Depart KUL

I bought my tix to Paris in March during MAS 1Malaysia online deals. I considered myself lucky as after that, the air tickets price never been lower than that since MAS fly to Paris with new plane, A380 and now MAS is under One World Alliance. As always, i was anxious and worry before leaving everything behind. At the same time, I have been warned. Oh well, i deserved my theraphy, i have saved my candy in the jars. Flight depart at 12 am, with more than half is European people. The new aircraft was comfy, more space, good movie selection and the flight attendence are more senior.. heh. 12 hours journey seems okay with 4 hours for 2 movies, 5 hours sleep, 1 hour eating dinner and nasi lemak for breakfast, 1 hour reading and 1 hour for termenung, toilet, chitchat.. tahu tahu sudah sampai.

Paris, CDG

Arrived Paris CDG airport almost 7 am. Clean up and took train to terminal 2 and then store our bags. From there, take train to the city (about one hour) to see the Eiffel Tower. Since we are early, the queue was not too long. We paid for top view and it was awesome! We somehow use the stairs instead of the lift. Konon lebih berbaloi la kot dgn harga tiketnya. We walk around and tried to snap Eiffel Tower from far. We spent some time looking for the post office to sent postcards back home. We bought mushroom crepe for our lunch but then dia pi letak pulak ham. Masuk tong sampah la jawabnya. Back to terminal 2 airport early to avoid any unpleasant surprises. Hello Madrid via EasyJet, 2h15m.

Madrid

We were a bit indecisive between Madrid and Barcelona. But then settle for Madrid due to flight timing and knowing that Madrid is capital city of Spain. We have booked free tour at 11am and before we join the crowd at Plaza Mayor, we had our breakfast of coffee and churros. Enak sekali. Our guide is Sebastian, mid 20 with lots of story to tell. We bump into Singaporean Malay girls in the group. Bermulanya saya mendengar kisah Islam yang begitu gah di Sepanyol hinggalah hilangnya umat Islam di sana. Kesan tiga agama - Islam, Kristian dan Jewish masih ada dan kelihatan. Kisahnya, terbinanya kota Madrid drp air, berdindingkan api. Kota lama tanpa saliran air, tanpa tempat ibadah. Beruang dan pokok menjadi simbol. Jam 5.30 pm menaiki express train ke Cordoba. Ya, tiket train yg palig mahal, lebih mahal drp tiket kapal terbang ke Madrid, Euro 65 per person, one way, 2h.

Bintang itu kesan Jewish, Dinding batu kesan Islam dan dibelakangnya chatederal for Kristian

Cordoba

Pagi-pagi lagi sudah keluar menuju Mezquita atau Masjid Cordoba. Jika masuk sebelum sepuluh pagi, percuma. Di luarnya, terlalu banyak pokok limau, berbuah lebat. Seakan mahu sahaja memetiknya. Melangkah di pintu gerbang, masih tertanya-tanya, betul ke ini tempatnya, kerna tiada guard atau sipemeriksa beg. Masuk sahaja, MahsyaAllah, betapa luasnya Masjid ini, indahnya tinggalan Mimbarnya. Hati merasa sayu, mengetahui kisah sedihnya. Sempat juga malam tadi google kisah Thariq bin Ziyad dan tenteranya berbangsa Arab dan Berber dari Morocco menawan Andalusia. Seterusnya berjalan kaki ke bullring stadium. Menjenguk ke dalam dan imagine sahajala. Musim sejuk tiada perlawanan. Petang itu menaiki bas ke Granada 2h45m.

Granada

Tujuan ke Granada adalah untuk ke Istana Raja Islam paling mahsyur, puncak kecemerlangan ilmu pengetahuan Islam di saat zaman kegelapan barat, Al-Hambra (yang bermaksud the red one). Istana besar ini juga dikenali sebagai Istana yang Hilang. Empayar Islam dan kota Islam terakhir di Andalusia dimana Dinasti Nasrid jatuh akhirnya ke tangan Kristian. Terletak di kaki Gunung Sierra Nevada yg di selaputi salji, memang sangat terasa rasa kedinginan angin yang bertiup. Saya terpegun sungguh dengan ukiran berunsurakan Islam di dinding dinding. MasyaAllah. Indahnya, terpukau. Sambil melangkah kaki teringat pada lagu MNasir Andalusia. "Apakah sudah kering lautan darah, Yang tertimbus di bumi Alhambra, Ataupun masih bergelora". Petang tu, jam 5pm, naik train ke Algeciras, 4 jam 30 min... zzzZzZzz....

Algeciras, Tarifa, Tangier and Fes

Satu hari perjalanan yang panjang. Kerna masih tidak pasti dimana bus station yang mahu dituju, jam 7 pagi sudah keluar. Ambil bas lebih kurang 30 minit utk ke Tarifa and then walk heading to the ferry terminal about 20 mins. Bought ferry tix to Tangier and corossaint for breakfast. Ferry cost euro 35 eventhough its only for 35min. Crossing Straits of Gibraltar from Tariffa is the shortest and fastest crossing to Morocco. I'm excited. First time stepping my feet in Africa. Yay! Please stamp your passport inside the ferry before going out. They have small table with laptop to verify your visa on the ferry. Keluar feri, one guy with name tag konon nya license travel agent greet us. He was pleasant and trying to sell half day trip in Tangier yang tersangatlah mahalnya. Since we have our own plan, politely we say no and heading to the taxi stand. Adoi. Banyak nya ulat tak terkata. We already knew we need to take petite taxi  that wont cost us much since its only 3.5km to the train station. However, with the language barier and being surounded by man we agreed to one of the taxi owner at euro 6, i think. We earned extra one hour in Morocco due to the time difference. Bought train tix to Fes, 4h30 mins. All our train journey in Morocco was first class ticket (the difference is about RM20), as such we have our own dedicated seat number and less crowded so i can catch up with my sleep.

Ok. Enough for now. Will continue about Morocco in Part II.

Selfie 2: Casablanca to Paris and Home

Day Seven, 4 Dec, Casablanca

Day Eight and Nine, 5-6 Dec, Marrakech

Day Ten, 7 Dec, Paris

Day Eleven, Today, 8 Dec, Home :)

Alhamdulillah.  It has been a looong journey. Experience that worth it. Thank you France, Spain and Morocco.  See you KUL.

Home sweet home. Back to reality.

Selfie 1 : From Paris, Madrid to Fes

I'm on a road trip. Usually I will try to blog whenever I can but this time around I don't feel the need and want to blog. Paying more attention to the present, rather than being busy blogging. Perhaps age is also catching up, I hardly slept well :) Too many things on my mind.

Anyway, one photo for each destination so far. Few more destinations to go.

Day one, 28 nov 2013, Paris

Day Two, 29 nov 2013, Madrid

Day Three, 30 nov 2013, cordoba

Day Four, 1 Dec 2013, Granada

Day Five, 2 Dec 2013, Algeciras - Tariffa - Tangier - Fes

Day Six, 3 Dec 2013, Fes

Ok. Bye. Heading Casablanca.