Let me begin at the train station in Paris...Kirsten (the girl I went with) was lost and we could not find each other. Also I kept looking up at the screen wondering why there were 2 dots next to our train number...I finally asked someone and learned that it meant that Eurostar departed from the first floor and I was on the ground floor. I ran upstairs and I found out that I have to go through customs and passport checks and security. As I was standing in line for passport check, I saw Kirsten at the front of the line and we learned we had to fill out an immigration form. At this point, our train would be leaving in 13 minutes. We were frantic and filling out the form in a hurry and when we got to the man, he asked us a thousand questions..."Why are you going to London?" "What are you doing in Paris?" "Where are you staying in Paris?" "How long are you staying in London?"...and on our immigration form there was a space for a UK address and I told the man that we are just there for vacation and we don't have an address and we were just staying at a hostel. He replied "Well I suggest you find an address then." After I hurried to find the papers for the hostel and writing the address down and finally getting cleared, the security checkpoint was next. Thank goodness we didn't have to completely undress to go through the metal detector. After security we started running to our train but it was too late. The doors had closed 4 minutes before departure. So we got on the next train and we were off to London. On the ticket we noticed that it was only an hour long ride...this was our first blonde moment. There's a time change between Paris and London so after an hour we were confused as to why we were still in France and that we thought the chunnel everyone talks about was a scam! We soon realized that the ride was 2 hours long and that London is an hour behind Paris! We had a good laugh!
When we got to London we first exchanged our Euros to Pounds and then we headed out the door to find our hostel and it was very close to the train station which was perfect. Our hostel was very nice and with the lounge area and the flat screen tv it was a perfect area to relax in the evenings after long day of walking through the city. The first day, we put our stuff in our room and we booked it to start our day of site-seeing. The tube, which is like the metro in Paris, was a 2 minute walk away and as we were about to buy our day tickets, a older man came up and asked if we were buying day tickets and I said yes and he handed me his and he said he was finished with it for the day! A free day ticket!! It was super sweet of that man and it saved us 6 pounds! Me and Kirsten decided to just split the other ticket for the day! The tube has much higher security than in Paris and they are very strict upon who gets on and who gets off. You always need your ticket with you because you need it to enter and exit! Also, its much CLEANER than Paris. And the seats are so nice!
After getting off the tube we walked everywhere! We had a photoshoot in the yellow flowers in Hyde Park, walked around the Buckingham Palace (which wasn't that impressive), walked to Trafalgar Square, and finished off our first day at the Tower Bridge. We stopped to get Hot chocolate at Cafe Rouge and when we left we went back to see the Tower Bridge at night and we walked across it! It was beautiful. We saw the london bridge lit up and the HMS Belfast lit up in many different colors. We headed home and we ate dinner at Pizza Express and I got a cheese pizza with Strawberry Gelato for dessert! YUMMY! It was so good!
The second day we got up early and once again got our tube ticket and got going! We visited more parks and more monuments and we had another photoshoot at the Chelsea FC soccer stadium! It was so much fun! It started to rain but we kept on going and we finally found a grocery store and I bought a baguette and some bananas for snacks. It was so hard to find a grocery store! There wasn't one near our hostel so we had to always search for one elsewhere. We then tried to hunt down Wimbledon and for some reason the tennis courts are hidden and we never could find them. We gave up and headed back to an area that we recognized. We kept on walking where the bus driver told us to go but it just felt wrong to keep walking that way so we just headed back. It was annoying to not find the tennis courts but atleast we tried to find them! The courts are more outside London and are more in the suburbs which is not what we had expected! I think next time I go to London I will have a better map and idea of where to go! Trying to find the courts was kind of a spur of the moment thing which didn't work out well! During our site-seeing we had found PASTYS in the tube station and I thought of my Grandma! We were looking for places to eat and I recognized the shape of this amazing goodness and I told Kirsten about them and she wanted to try one so Kirsten bought one with pork and apple I think it was and she liked it! They had all kinds of Pastys and their traditional Pasty was the same exact Pasty my Grandma makes!...Another reason why I LOVE London!
The last day we hunted down the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain in the Kensington Park because we couldn't find it the day before. Once we found it we were completely shocked! It was such a letdown! There was no fountain! It was a stream of water that went in a circle. We took a sad picture and walked away from that so fast! But we were happy to have found it because it was frustrating to not find it! We then took pictures in a traditional telephone booth and kept checking things we wanted to do off our list! After doing some last minute things, we went back to the Irish Pub that was next to our hostel and Kirsten had some fish and chips to get it out of her system. She was dying to try some and she finally had them. It really is just breaded fish and french fries....no biggy I thought. Around 4 in the afternoon we headed back to our Hostel to get our backpacks and we went back to the train station to hangout before our train left. At the train station I bought a chocolate cupcake (because everyone seemed to be buying them and they looked SO GOOD) and I bought some traditional lemon curd. When I got back to Paris I tried the lemon curd and it was AMAZING.
The train ride back to Paris was awesome. I sat next to Freddie Keen. He is a musicien in London and we talked the WHOLE 2 hours and it made the time go by so fast. I'm sure people around us got annoyed but I didn't care! I had so much fun talking with him because once he told me that he was in Dallas/Fort Worth last year to play we couldn't stop talking! He said he wants to go back to Austin and play there! He told me how much he loved Sonic Burgers! It made me want a slushy so bad! I asked him if he is going to play in the Dallas area again and he said he doesn't have a schedule right now because he is in the middle of recording but he definitely wants to go to Texas again! I told him he if ever does to let me know and I will drive him to Sonic to get a burger haha! (He doesn't know how to drive so I offered to drive him!) Anyways, we had the best time talking about movies, music, sports, etc. He's a very friendly guy and another reason why I love London so much more than Paris! A Parisian probably wouldn't have said a word to me during the train ride!
Overall, London was SUPER expensive but I absolutely loved it and for some reason I felt like I didn't want to go back to Paris. In London people where brighter clothes and they smile and laugh more. They just seem happier than the people in Paris. The atmosphere was relaxing and more loving. It was definitely more me.
Spring break 2010 was awesome and I'm ready to start classes again! I'm not really ready to start doing all my big presentations but it'll be over with faster than I know it and I will be back in Texas in the sun! My next adventure is in April to the Loire Valley in France!
No comments:
Post a Comment