The Eurostar was absolutely fantastic and super time efficient! We arrived at the Paris train station by lunchtime and got to go buy food. I was approached by several people and i did a very good job of ignoring them until these women who were 20 something approached us asking us to sign a petitiom to have more more funding for deaf and austistic children. One of the girls stopped to give her a donation and the 20 somethings ran away when they saw the police. The police approached her and made sure she was okay and hadnt been robbed. She was fine of course. In one of the cafes there was a woman trying to speak to me and beg for my wallet and i instantly replied with, "sorry, i dont speak french." I felt sort of bad because she seemed rather distressed. After this we made pur way to our hotel, its actually small apartments and have the comfiest beds ever! We went to see the Notre Dame and had only 15 minutes to go through before we had to be for dinner. We did it in 7, it was rather impressive! Lots of parts of it were closed, and id love to go back and enjoy it more. Dinner was really good chicken and rice and beans, but the waiter was very unimpressed that we disnt eat every last bite. The Metro is the most intense experience of my life. It is terrifying and exhilirating ant the same time! The doors open and close in 30 seconds and thats all the time available to get 44 tourists on or off. Mari and I's room's window faces out to the other windows of the hotel so she and i have been sticking our heads out and talking to the other tourerers! Thankfully this hotel has free WiFi, so thats a perk! Tomorrow we visit the Louvre, the Seine and the Eiffel Tour, and yes mom, i am using my french to talk to people.
Happy Easter!
Sunday 27 March 2016
Day 1 of Paris!
Eurostar
the time change was absolutely completely brutal and on top of it we had to leave the hotel by 630. The time change really messed up my phone so i was up and getting packed at 4. We made pur way to the Eurostar at St. Pancras station. I got maybe 2 hours of sleep which is more than most on the trip. The Eurostar is a fantastically large train and takes 2-3 hours to make it from the London center to the Paris center. Its freezing cold and windy in London and im hopig for better weather in Paris, and free WiFi!
Saturday 26 March 2016
London
The past two days we have been in London, England. The 9 hour flight was painful, but definitely worth it. Within the first hour here i have discovered that the people arent as polite on the streets; however, the store clerks are incredibly friendly. Yesterday we visited Piccadilly Circus and the National Gallery. I absolutely love that all the museums are free to the public to go in and out of. Piccadilly Circus was moderately tame since it was Good Friday and as was the National Gallery. The National Gallery was GIGANTIC! I ventured into maybe 25 rooms of paintings and didnt even come close to half. That evening we had some delicious fish and chips which was really exciting because its my family tradition to eat fish and chips on Good Friday. Today we met our London tour guide, Wendy. She was an interesting woman and knew a ton of history about every building we passed. We visited Byckingham Palace and watched the changing of the guards, it was a parade of guards on foot and horse back with a marching band of bagpipes. Buckingham Palace was fantastic, but personally i prefered Windsor Palace. Sadly, there was no photography allowed in Windsor Palace, but it was very impressive. The architecture of London is incredible to see and the coolest part of Windsor was that the Queen was there as well, for Easter weekend. After this adventure we went back to Piccadilly to shop around and i was shocked by the lack of Sherlock and Doctor Who merchandise. It was almost horrifying. We had dinner and the trendiest restaurant, Tigertiger, there was crazy colourful lights everywhere and the burgers were delicious! We then visited Tower Bridge. Tower Bridge is London Bridge, but i learned that it is in fact not the true London Bridge. The true London Bridge is apparently somewhere in Arizona! The bridge was still very impressive and beside it was the home of the Royal Jewels. We are finally on the train home and it is 9 pm, but probably about lunch time for you. We happened to land on the weekend that England has their spring tomechange, so thaaaats great. Tomorrow we head off to Paris via the Eurostar for more adventures and french practice opportunities! I just pray for free WiFi somewhere!