we got up really early today. we had to be in st pancras by 730am to check in to our 830am eurostar to paris gare du nord. the boys wouldnt stop asking where we will be going, where are we heading to, why are we up so early. they'll find out in 12 hours so that's 12 hours of repeated questions. trying to throw in some element of surprise every now and then may not work with these boys.
because of the early rise, the boys slept as soon as the train started moving. wonderful thing as the parents are able to enjoy breakfast in peace. as soon as we tried to get some shut eye, they got up (yeay...not!). we fed them and tried to keep them occupied for about 40-50 minutes before the train slowly came to a stop at gare du nord.
once we got to the station, it all went downhill. finding the metro wasnt that difficult but getting in was. the entrance for strollers and wheelchairs were not working. we went in and out and in and out. many parents were cursing outside the entrance. then once we managed to get in, we couldnt go down to the platform. the platform for trains to gare du lyon were 2 stories down, we went down by escalator then had to look for an elavator as the escalator was not working. the elavator pulak refused to go down. once we got in, it wouldnt close its doors. to make matters worse, we saw a lot of people jumping over the gates and pushing people with tickets as they wanted to slip in without tickets. very scary and very shocking to us. we just prayed we could get out of the station safely.
our first stop was gare du lyon to leave our luggage and to make our way to the eiffel tower. we had to change at this station, anyway, to get to marnee le vallee so we thought we'd make this our pitstop in paris. our initial plan was to walk but after spending an hour just to get out of du nord, we cancelled our plan and took the taxi. it was a good 10 minutes ride to trocadero where we can view the eiffel tower. once we got there we looked for a place to sit and have hot drinks, mainly because akmal was screaming bloody murder for susu and asyraf needed a toilet break (no worthy toilet from gare du nord to du lyon).
it was freezing when we set up the camera to take photos of the eiffel tower. the boys were already in a foul mood. we started making our way back to gare du lyon. we decided to walk as much as we can, then flag down a taxi the rest of the way. we had a couple of hours as we plan to be in disneyland by 6pm (plus an hour traveling time). after 2 blocks, the boys had different thoughts. akmal started screaming - nap time usually follows susu time. then ariff was shouting and kicking his feet - he was cold and hated cold feet. amir also started crying - he was sleepy (amir crying is usually the last straw). we found a taxi stand and called a taxi.
traffic was starting to build up - maybe the evening rush hour was about to start. i couldnt wait to get to the station and take the train to disneyland. i'm not a fan of paris. everything seem so 'hard' - the people, the buildings. they are beautiful, the buildings not the people, seriously beautiful, but so hard and the keras people in the city made it even more hard. i really didnt feel confortable in the city and would be fine if i didnt have to go back there at all!
we picked up our luggage and started our way to marne la vallee and got a nice train with nice seats for the boys but the train stopped halfway and we had to muscle our way in a packed train afterwards. the last stop on the A4 rer could not come sooner. once we left the station we had to find the hotel and being tired and moody and sleepy and hungry, we just took a taxi.
the hotel was beautiful though. log cabin-like entrance with beautiful christmas decorations and many, many disney characters on the walls, in the display cabinets, at each corner...it just warms your heart, no wonder they call it the happiest place on earth. ok...lets forget paris until we really need to go there again.
we unpacked quickly and made our way to the front of the hotel to take the bus to disney village. i made a reservation at cafe mickey, which came highly recommended by inda (thank you inda!). its a great place for character dining and the food's not too bad either. i had salad, hubby had a medley of seafood, amir had omelette with fries and asyraf & ariff had pizza. the boys were in heaven when disney characters after characters made their way around the table and stopped for autographs and pictures and hugs and kisses.
we left the restaurant after an hour and took the bus back to the hotel. the boys were chattering non-stop, comparing autographs and kept looking at the pictures taken during dinner. wonderful night compensated the terrible afternoon...
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