Europe Trip Diary : Day 5 (Eindhoven-Brussel-Paris)

Heyyy guys :D

We already got to Day 5 of my Europe Trip (but it's still the third day in Europe though), this is the day that Kikie told us to change our status to "Breakfast at Holland, Lunch at Belgium and dinner at France". LOLOLOL, yeah, it's not everyday we can claim to be in three countries within one day, no?

Anyway, as usual.. a teaser pic first!

Wahahahaha... You should know by now that L forced me to do this pose, i liked how it ended up looking though :p

And there is not a day without OOTD of course..

Black Coat Dress : Online, Houndstooth legging : FO in TP

Yes, that's the same houndstooth legging with the one L wore on our flights to Europe, just in different color :). #FOTD :

Light make up as usual, wore a shimmery yellow eye shadow that day :), FOTD in Europe all showed my natural lip color because i only applied lip balms after breakfasts

Oh! I forgot to tell you in the previous entry, but L and i both left something in our first hotel! It wasn't expensive or whatever, but quite important for us that we kicked ourselves for leaving them, on the FIRST hotel we stayed in!!! WTF. Had we known we'd be so stupid we wouldn't bother bringing them in the first place. What item did we left behind? I left my precious (as in i needed it!!!) shower puff and L left her gayung behind hahahaha.

What is gayung? OMG, i dunno if there's even an English word for it, it's a tool you used to get water with (small water carrier?), some Indonesian have water tubs (not bath tubs) in their bathrooms instead of showers so they use gayung to get and dump the water on to their bodies. I googled a picture of gayung to explain it better *LOL*.

L's gayung wasn't as nice as the one in the picture lah, i just chose a picture of the cutest gayung i could find because i want it to look nice in my blog HAHAHA. Anyway, we obviously do not use gayung to shower because we use shower, L brought this gayung because... We're not used to only use toilet paper after we did number two haha, we always wash our behind with water and soap, that's why she brought the gayung :P!

Anyway, my shower puff was falling apart (because it's been used a while, i planned to leave them on our last hotel in Europe) while L's gayung costs her IDR 5000 (USD 0.50), so we weren't bitter or anything, it's just that it was essential for us personally (i had a hard time using shower gels without a shower puff, i ended up using lots of them and still couldn't create lather like how i love to do zzzz). Haish. I dunno why i tend to always lose/left things whenever i stay in hotels. Last time i left my hair pad in KL zzz. 

Enough of that stupid story about gayung and shower puff! 2nd breakfast was :

Of course, bacon-sausage-sscrambled egg

And a cup of cappucino *hmmm*

The selection's no better than the first hotel but at least there was no dragon lady watching us with her laser gaze *LOL*. We were also attracted us to this :

I think the name's very attractive, Snelle Jelle (whatever that means, but it reminds me of jelly, dunno if it means jelly or not), and they looked kinda cute (and unusual), but when we tried them... OMFG... i immediately threw it to the side (and i'm the kind of person who always try to eat whatever food i've already opened!) LOL. I don't like lah *shudder*, it was really weird. And if remember correctly it was also reeked of the spice that i hated most, cinnamon.

Like how i showed you in the previous entry, the area surrounding Novotel Hotel, Eindhoven was really really pretty, i kept on staring at the view outside the glass windows, and nagged hunny to take my pictures there. Hunny was a slow eater and he had to haul our stuffs from upstairs (the hotel's lift's super tiny and slow OMG, we actually had to use the stairs going up and down, thankfully our room was on the 2nd floor! But we can't haul our heavy luggage using stairs, so had to queue very patiently *LOL*) so L and i left the guys to deal with our stuffs (FTL!) while we ran outside to cam-whore.

We made a fool of ourselves trying to open the door leading to the backyard *where the pool etc was* and failing until a hotel staff came to us and told us to wait a moment, apparently it was locked *ROFL*...

Sick of seeing me already? Okay okay, show you one of L's *LOL*.

Then it was time to board the bus, we're going to Paris! But we'll stop by Brussel (Belgium) on the way, yay! It was a very long bus ride lah, around 7 hours (to Paris, not Brussel) i think? 

Kikie tried to keep the spirit up in the beginning of the journey so he asked representatives of each "group" to come up to the front of the bus to introduce their group (hmph, we've been together for four days, what introduction? *LOL*). Of course hunny had to represent the two of us, you know i'm shy right hahaha. Okay, not really actually, we're both academically  trained to talk in front of guests in a bus after all :p. Hunny was on a full Tour Leader mode as soon as he got a hold of the mic.

Eek's turn

LOL, if you're wondering what hunny and Eek's doing in the picture above? Well, hunny noticed Eek's skin began to peel, it was so cold that people with drier skins seemed to suffer (hunny's fingers were all cracked up and bleeding, super scary huh? Hahaha... But his facial skin never met any problem because i religiously applied Etude House's moistfull collagen cream in his face, this is not an ad!!! Hunny's super dry skin seems to love this Etude range of skin care!), that's when Hunny forced-applied his beloved Egyptian Magyk (that he slather all over his fingers everyday to prevent his fingers from getting worse-like falling off or something *LOLOL*) all over Eek's face *LOL*. One of the rare occasion Eek would let him do so hahaha.

After finishing up introductions and listened to Kikie yapped about Dutch folklore story, the sleepiness fell all over the bus, and we began to snoozeee... grook.... Until Kikie woke us up because, we're approaching Brussel! Excuse my tourist-ness, i was so excited i began snapping pictures of road signs that showed we were in Brussel!

The first stop in Brussel was the famous molecule monument or the Atomium. Before i show you our pictures around Atomium, one picture to show you our seating area in our bus (the position never sifted for the whole duration of the tour haha).

Excuse my messy hair and bed-face, we just woke up from a deep slumber *LOL*, it's the picture showing our seats position properly so i want to include it in this diary, had to crop it like crazy to avoid L's wrath because errr... it's not flattering from the boobs down for her hahahaha

It was just a photo stop so we didn't stay long, enough to take some pictures. I eliminate lots of pictures of me because, well because i hate it when people took my pictures from below! Roundness overload! No choice because the landmarks we tried to capture was so high *zzz*.. But here's some (almost) acceptable ones.

The famous Atomium

Picture taken from below made us looked short zzz, we're quite tall okay! L's 170 cm, i'm slightly shorter :p

Of course, i took nicer picture :p

Look how round this angle made us look zzz zzzz

Okay, i already showed you this picture as the first picture above but it was slightly marred by a bus passing by, i like the pic so much i decided to put take number two here as well :D.

One more :p

Then we boarded the bus again, it's lunch time already! Again, Kikie asked if we wanted him to arrange lunch, he again said that there's no easy access to other restaurant zzzz, and today's lunch... Yeah, Chinese food WTF. I think i wanted to cry by then because i dislike Chinese food so much and yet i am forced to eat it even though it was not mandatory and they made it out to be like it was. I felt super cheated when i realized later there's hundreds of local cafes and restaurants (and fast food restaurants too), exactly around the stupid Chinese restaurant. 

A picture i snapped from the bus on the way to the Chinese restaurant to preserve the memory of how most buildings looks in Brussel

I whined and L immediately asked Kikie if it was possible that we didn't eat there (four of us. We already paid EUR 15/person for the lunch) but he said he already made the booking and it couldn't be cancelled. My advise for you if you ever go with this type of tour group that doesn't include lunch in their package and like us, pretty adventurous and want to try local food? Refused adamantly whenever they try to force you to join the arranged lunch. It's mostly going to be Chinese and it's also going to SUCK anyway.

Trust me, i'm not trying to be difficult or whatever, but i don't see why i had to always follow what the tour leader or the rest of the group wanted all the time. You paid the same amount of money with the rest, you deserve to do whatever you want as long as you don't create any trouble for the rest. Really, they're most probably going to guilt you into it, and make you feel like you're being a difficult member by refusing to join it, but looking back i really don't understand why we should feel guilty *LOL*. It's just stupid, we're not kindergarten students and we have the rights to pay and eat whatever we want, right???

Typical tourists, took picture as soon as we boarded the bus again haha

Okay, let's forget about the crappy lunch, it was sight seeing time in Brussel! We went by foot from the Chinese restaurant to the Grand Place, it was not that far actually (but we did managed to get lost anyway... more on that later!), especially with Brussel's cool (but not cold!) weather, walking around was a very pleasant experience. 

Oh, one of the aunties had been obsessing over Purol ointment (for babies and children, to relieve any itchiness caused by allergies, etc) since the beginning of the trip, it was originally from Holland but we didn't stumble into an open pharmacy (it's pharmacies and not drugstores in Europe, and sadly we didn't find any that sells make up like drugstores in Asia. I mean, i dunno lah, maybe they do have drugstores, we just didn't go to any haha, lots of pharmacies everywhere though), but on the way to Grand Place we stumbled into one and bought some (only 3 in stocks, and two we immediately got for our kids *LOL*, sorry aunty... They wanted to buy like 20 LOL :p).. The aunty kept on looking for that Purol ointment all through our trip that we began calling her Aunty Purol *LOL*. Yes, we do have Purol brand in Indonesia but they only sells powders now.

The Grand Place area was amazing of course, with wonderful buildings you can only find in Europe. We were rushing though because we we're going to the Manneken Pis first. I did managed to snap a few pictures on the way. If you're sick of seeing us then you can stare at these pictures instead, because we went back later and took more pictures with US on it :p.

Oh wait! We did apparently snapped one picture with us in it hahahaha!

At Brussel's Grand Place area :)

There was this bronze statue of a lady laying on her side, they told us to touch her from head to toe for good luck, of course we took turns to do so! (and saw a pervertic China tourist fondling the statue's boobies for a bit zzz). Anyway before anyone shoot me with any misinformation, i googled and the statue was NOT a lady, it was a man-a hero named Everaerd 't Serclaes. Wonder how'd the China man feel if he found out he was fondling another man's boobies, even in a form of a statue *LOL*.

Apparently one should touch his arms for good luck and an "insurance" that once in your life you'd return to Brussel. LOL, we touched it from head all the way to the foot and i'm not sure that we touched his arms!!! Because we were focusing in the middle part of the statue zzzz. Saw a very kiasu tourist who touched (and rubbed) his hands on every surface of the statue's parts *LOL*.

On the way to Manneken Pis, we stumbled into a wall with Tin Tin's pictures on it.

And he complains about how Baby Boy has difficulties focusing while having his pictures taken, now you see where Baby Boy inherit that annoying habit from! Couldn't focus his eyes on the camera's lens for 5 secs!

And finally, Manneken Pis.

Another picture stolen from hunny's Samsung mobile because mine turned out blurry and glare-iy zzzz

Been warned by Kikie that this famous statue's actually really small *LOL*, i didn't expect it to be THAT small! Really *LOL*.. Too bad it wasn't one of those days when the statue's dressed in something :p.

Again, taking pictures with the statue requires one's picture to be taken from below *ZZZZ*, so i picked the least horrible one to upload.

The area's really crowded and had to jostle quite a bit to finally be able to take picture with the little statue :p. 

The most famous thing from Belgium? Belgian chocolate, of course! I'm not too crazy about chocolate (nor does L), the guys actually were much more enthusiastic to chocolate-shop! L and i waited and took more (unuploadable) pictures there while they did so.

Hunny told us that it was worse than a fish market, they had to fight and jostle China tourists to be able to buy those chocolates *sigh*. And they actually have special prices for bulk-buying so they joined forces *LOL* with the aunties and bought 80 chocolates bars (we got 10 to share with our family).

While they were busy fighting over chocolates with China tourists, L found another coin souvenir machine.

That's L's coin, i'm just satisfied by taking a picture of it :p

Another must try in Belgium was their waffle!  

Hahahaha...

There were crazy lots of different types of waffle toppings (i saw Japanese tourist holding a waffle with a Manneken Pis mini statue made from jelly or something on it, super cute! Wanted to take a picture but scared she might see me haha..), we were still very full because we just had lunch, and i'm not exactly into waffle (waffle, pancakes... i don't like them) but hunny did, so of course he bought one. A simpler one with not too crazy toppings.

Waffle with banana and chocolate

This reminds me, my mum asked us if there was any banana in Europe *LOL*, got lah mum but not from Asia, too far! I think someone said their banana's from Africa?

I did try it a little bit, it was good (the best waffle i've ever tried, but then again i didn't try too many waffles before *LOL*), a must try if you ever go to Brussel! The one that we tried was the one directly on Manneken Pis' side, i think it's very famous because i googled "Belgian waffle manneken piss" and a lot of pictures of this stall came up :p.I did only try a bite but posing with it is a must lah :p.

Wah, dunno why i made that amused duck face, i made hunny snapped another one with my usual sombre face hahahaha, but since so many people nags me about not smiling in my pictures (i dunno how many times Eek complains of me pouting and scowling whenever her took our pictures. I didn't pout or scowl okayy, i simply didn't smile. It's not my fault that my non-smiling face look so unfriendly *huh*) i decided to upload this one for a change.

Hunny loving it, nom-nom-nom

L's similar to me, she's also not much of a snack person (we prefer heavy meals FOL), we were much more interested in souvenir shopping!

Saw a mirror and had to take a selca!

Me with hundreds of mini Manneken Pis!

LOVE how it turned out! Oh mirror, how i love you... *LOL*. L saw me taking selcas and of course, forced me to take one of us immediately hahaha.

Yeah, that's the store where i got that jumper for your hubby, #Undecided! Haha.. Oh and the keyring for you, Rosemary!

Bought key rings, mini statue (for Baby Boy, he's into such stuffs), and like the photo caption above, a jumper for #Undecided's hubby. Also bought a super cute little socks with I Heart Brussel printed on it for Baby Boy's new cousin (Hubby's nephew... which made him... my nephew too, i guess?) who wasn't born yet by that time :). Super cuteee, too bad i forgot to take a picture of the socks... Other stuffs i did took pictures of, will show it to you on another post.

Took this picture just because i wanted a picture with Belgia written on it, didn't realize hunny took one already at the souvenir shop before *LOL*

Walked back to Grand Place to take more pictures once we're done shopping.

Took this one while sitting down at the pavement, forced Eek to take our pictures sitting there but still haven't got that picture from him yet haha, see L taking pictures with her iphone haha

Kikie and hunny (my hunny! Not Kikie's hunny! LOLOLOL)

This one's a bit too lovey dovey hahahaha

Kikie took those pictures of us, and then a very friendly local asked if we'd like her to take pictures of the five of us (with Kikie, i guess she thought he was our friend, he kinda is now, eh? Hahahaha), of course we said yes! But also using Eek's camera so the picture's not available yet. Random stranger, thank you for your friendliness! You single handedly wiped my bad memories of unfriendly Europeans! :D.

The meeting point was at the Grand Place and we were early, then we walked together with the rest of the group back to the earlier Chinese restaurant (where the bus was waiting for us), but then we got distracted and took more pictures along the way. As usual, i got attracted to the road signs *WTF*, i dunno what caused this infatuation with road signs lah.

Uploaded this pic to my FB and someone asked if we stopped by Hermes. I was really confused with that question, did she mistaken that huge chocolate-cooling white bag i was holding as a Hermes paper bag?

Hunny insisted on taking pictures here because Can Can is his nickname hahaha

Here L started yapping about Belgian beers...

We were so happy taking pictures that we didn't realize that the rest of the group had dissapeared! FOL! It really was a moment ago we still saw their backs! That's when we started to panic and ran around like mad people trying to remember the way back.

Told you i'm horrible with directions, but my gut feeling told me we were on the right direction already (and my gut feeling's almost always right okay...), but then L started to freak out. She totally forgot that we went to Grand Place first before Manekin Pis, that's why when we made a wrong turn (hence, going round in the block) we were back at Grand Place. 

Should've just walked straight and we'd be fine, instead we went round and round the same block endlessly *LOL*. It was panic talking (or walking? LOL). The fact that Eek started to freak and became cranky, started blaming L about picture taking (i was the one who wanted to get my picture taken there actually) was getting us lost, etc didn't help! So the whole time we tried to find the right way back we had to hear them bickering *LOL*.

We were rushing like mad, slightly running and all, the not-so-cold weather combined with our warm clothes, i actually started to sweat. Dunno if it's sweat because of our running or if it was cold sweat breaking out at the thought of being deserted at Brussel *LOL*. Eventually (felt like forever but it couldn't be more than 10-15 minutes tops) we found the right way and i've never been so relieved! I thought we were super late and was ready to hear bitching and scolding, but they were actually still standing around leisurely, lots of the aunties still queuing for the toilet! LOL.

Since the journey to Paris would still take a while and i needed to pee badly, we went to queue at the toilet as well. The queue was super long, we saw the male toilet was not so full (of course), but it smelled super duper bad, but i couldn't wait anymore so i wrapped my scarf around my face and held my breath, went in and out as fast as humanely possible (i'm sure i took less than 1 minutes!). 

Someone left s**t in the next cubicle without flushing WTF so only one cubicle was usable. L had to use the same cubicle and she started retching and gagging OMG, damn L... once i heard someone gagging i'd start gagging myself OMG OMG. It was super gross lah *cries*, a very horrible moment.

I couldn't be happier to board our clean and non-smelly bus *huge sigh of relief* and began the rest of the journey to Paris! Along the way we had some toilet stops (of course) and throughout the trip,places where we stopped by the most was Auto Grills (some only got mini markets and snack corners, some got cafes and mini foodcourts), that's also where we always had our mini shopping sprees for snacks or last minute souvenir shopping. I even got some bath and skin care there because i was desperate *LOL* to have something beauty related from Europe (on the latter Auto Grills we also finally found some cosmetics, i think it was in Italy only).

At one of the Auto Grill we stopped by. Eek always have hot chocolate whenever we stopped by, sounds familiar, #Undecided?

Look at us squinting so hard *LOL*, that's why sunnies are so important for European. In Asia you hardly use sunnies since you dash in and out of air-conditioned buildings and cars

Here's one more picture taken when we stopped by one of the Auto Grills we went to that day, i don't think it was taken at the same one on the pictures above because Eek was holding that croquette he looked for in every Auto Grill ever since he had a taste on the first day in Amsterdam, i think it was in a branch in Holland because the croquette couldn't be found anywhere else.

Kung Fu Croquette?

One of my favorite sweet is nougat and i went a little crazy when i found plenty of them in earlier Auto Grills, bought two big packs of little sized nougats for my mum and bigger bars to eat on the way. I always finished the whole bar in one go WTF, hunny helped but i had most of them lah OMG.

Super yummy nougat

Their flavors selections were also very interesting, i later got them with dried strawberries and huge chunks of caramels, i will show you in other posts okay. It's so different than the boring usual ones we found in Asia (the tiny, hard as a rock peanut kind), much softer and chewier as well. Super yums lah!!!

Coffeeholics must get some coffee whenever we stopped right, this one i obvi was attracted to the pretty packaging, quite sturdy as well, i brought the glass home *LOL*, bought another one but hunny used him to wash his bottom WTF, damn him! Turned out the taste's pretty aswesome too!

Made hunny snapped pictures of me holding it three times and in the end i prefer the first pic hahahaha FHL

Other than the chocolate bars that hunny bought (he and Eek ended up carrying all 80 bars while we were running lost in Brussel hahaha poor guys, no wonder Eek was so annoyed. But then again it wasn't our fault that he didn't divide the chocolates at once to unburden himself!), he also bought truffles toffee that really melts on your mouth once you bit into it.

It was covered in chocolate powder that L accused of making her cough. LOL. She blames everything and everyone lah *LOL*. That didn't stop her from eating more :P. She's so weird, but that's how L is, i'm sure #Undecided would blame it on her star sign :p.

Oh yeah, i promised you i'd show you how modern wind mills they currently uses looked like, here they are :

Kikie then began playing this horrible music (for me lah, Mr. H seemed to enjoy it and sang along to it loudly hahaha), Maggie Z or something WTF, i had to stuff my ear with my headphone and listened to Jong Kook Oppa's songs hahaha. I fell asleep again soon *rest whenever you can*.

We arrived at Paris in the evening, it was jamming like crazy and the bus crawl like a snail *LOL*, really waste a lot of time in the jam, we felt a bit like we were back in Jakarta or something. Saw graffiti along the walls, immediately remembered what people said about Paris not being as pretty and romantic as movies made them to be, it was true, it's dirtier than i expected and, well... I loved Holland better *LOL*.

We sat up straight once we're in Paris and took in the view. I snapped some pictures from the bus :

Apparently this is the "it" place for Parisian youngster to meet up, it was really crowded!

Paris is a big metropolitan city lah, it's always been my dream city to go to and now i've been there. It's not as pretty as i've always imagine it to be, but i'm so happy i can finally say i've been there! Maybe i am biased because Holland was the first country we went to when we arrived to there's the novelty factor, plus it was so pretty and clean and fresh, maybe i was expecting Paris to be more similar to it? LOL. Of course it's very different, i love Paris too, but in a very different way than Amsterdam.

One last look. One day i'll stand there. I dream of going back to Europe and go to less touristy places and really live like the locals does :)

We went to have *sigh* Chinese food dinner *sigh*. It probably also what ruined Paris for me, because the first place we went to was Chinatown! LOL. Chinatown in Paris' quite dirty and all haha. Went to a building where the Chinese restaurant was, found a pharmacy next to the restaurant so we went there to shop a bit before the food arrived.

L was looking for stretch mark creams (France's famous by their creams and fragrances, right..), and i was looking for anything beauty related to buy! *LOL*. No cosmetics in sight but i managed to find two cute lip balms (my weakness!!!), it was a Hello Kitty and Winnie The Pooh, not exactly cheap and not exactly the kind of stuffs i expected to find in Paris *LOL* but i was getting desperate lah! Wanted to buy them in every variant available (not too much, maybe three each?) but i succeeded in stopping myself and got only one each.

Also staring at this hand creams and lip balms on sale (banded in threes), contemplated if i should buy them for my BFFs since i was getting desperate to find something for them, in the end i decided to wait and look elsewhere (but ended up buying the exact same hand creams the next day LOL), L bought the hand creams and got the stretch mark cream (or at least we hope so. It was all in French and i understood very little French-took a class for a few years in Uni-but i'm pretty confident it was a stretch mark cream lah hahaha).

I was developing a very painful pimple on my chin (i already mentioned it before, since Dubai!) even though it wasn't visible, but it's so painful i had to do something! Been searching for pimple cream whenever possible and finally found a spot treatment (in pencil form) here! It was pretty pricey (more than IDR 150.000 WTF, i was desperate really) but works super well! The storekeeper said it was a concealer WTF, but i was confident in my little French hahaha, no lah i read the words "spot treatment" or something so i was very sure it's for pimple lah! Turned out i was right, and it works like a charm too! Will be showing it to you soon!

After dinner we went to our hotel for the next two days (Kikie kept on boasting about our hotel being in the city as opposing to the usual tour group hotels being located one hour from the city *LOL*), snapped some more pictures along the way of the beautiful Seine River.

Are those two lovers?

I swear i didn't purposefully take their pictures okay, they just happened to stand there!

Hahaha you can see our reflections taking pictures

We stayed in Allianz Hotel, and well.. now we know what they meant about super SMALL European hotel *LOL*. It was also a pretty old hotel lah *sigh*. The room was super small that we couldn't move without bumping into each other. There was barely a room for our luggage. I think the pictures didn't show how small it was but it's much smaller than you imagine, okay! It's probably the second smallest hotel room we ever stayed in (the first one was Le Peranakan Hotel in Singapore, OMG that one.... it's a budget/backpacker hotel lah. We owned a backpacker hotel but... i'm not a backpacker lah okay...).

The entrance immediately full with our luggage

There was literally enough space for a bed and a table, you can hardly stand on the sides of the bed

Well, at least it was quite clean, i'd rather stay in a small but clean hotel than a huge but dirty (or smelly) ones.

Hello, me! The only angle i could took the picture of the bathroom from hahahaha

Oh, i was immediately attracted to the cute sugar cubes they provided *LOL*, sorry lah, i'm not used to see sugar cubes, especially ones that are wrapped in cute colored papers, we usually have granulated sugar in Asia :p.

L wanted to explore the hotel's surrounding (because it was located in the "city" right), she was hoping she'd find a cafe or restaurant nearby, she was obsessed of being in the local atmosphere *LOL*. I was super tired so i had to refuse to come (although i felt bad about it), i couldn't wait to shower and unwind (and put on my eye mask. Been good and put on my sheet mask the night before-and put one of hunny of course haha). 

It's a good thing i didn't go too because L and Eek came back very fast, and told us there was NOTHING around the hotel area, only found a not-so-safe-looking bar and they decided to come back haha. It's okay L, one day (hopefully sooner than later. But then again i still have so many other countries i want to visit before i die...) we'd be back there and we can stay in Paris longer and  really explore. It's a promise :).

And that's the cue for a stop now, will be back with more adventures in Paris on day 6!

Toodles!

#Pink