PARIS

ENROUTE TO PARIS:

[10.10.09] We are currently on the EuroStar train leaving London St. Pancras or London's Pancreas =) Sadly, we thought it would be better to just buy our train tickets at the window in person so we could have some flexibility when leaving London. However, when we got there, the cheapest train would leave at 1600 hours when the one we originally planned to take was at 1300. We decided that leaving at 1600 hours would make us arrive in Paris at 1930hrs.. too late. The price we paid for our train ride at 1230 is double the price of the 1600 one but it seemed as we were left with no choice. We ended up just getting a first class ticket for all of us so we could sit together. It comes with a 3-course meal and champagne for 10GBPs more than 2nd class. Sadly, this cuts into the rest of my budget by a lot but I think I'll manage.

I realize I didn't get the chance to blog much about our hotel accommodations. It was decent priced for a decent room. It was clean: bed made, the paint was new, furniture wasn't aged much but the spring bed mattress was horrible and uncomfortable. Also, we had no clock radio so I never knew what time it was unless I asked Soapy since she had her phone on. The bathroom was extremely small but clean. Once you walk into the bathroom, everything is within arms-length. I could probably take a dump, brush my teeth and scrub someone in the shower simultaneously if I wanted. The flusher was a little difficult to maneuver at first since pulling the handle down wasn't enough to make the toilet paper go down the drain. Instead, doing so only made it sink to the bottom. We found out (after freaking out that we couldn't take any #2s in our hotel) that if you hold down the flusher long and with force, everything eventually goes down.

As for checking out of the hotel today, it was no problem. The biggest problem we had was not how large our luggage was but transporting our luggage through the British Transit tunnels and transferring trains. The only lift we came across was when we first got to the station, which then opened its doors to reveal a flight of steps to go down to catch the train. This wasn't too bad. However, when we transferred, or should I say try to transfer, to the Victoria Line, it was closed so we had to go with plan B and transfer 2 more times. We went up and down steps to transfer to different platforms and it was difficult without the assistance of lifts and escalators. Maybe first class is a better ride for us to rest our weary bodies.

Anyway, my overall perception of London?? It's not too bad.. people are generally friendly and I didn't feel like someone was going to pickpocket me. There are a lot of Indians though, I've noticed. At the palace I saw some sort of memorial for a number of East Asia countries since they helped Britain fight in the war. I assume that's probably the reason why the Indian population in London is so large. I feel like I saw enough of London though and I wouldn't mind coming back. I'm a little scared though for Paris since only one out of 4 of us studied French... I know it will be a completely different experience there with the language barrier.

-- RANDOM SIDE NOTE:

We just got the menus for the 1st class train and inside it says their motto is "tread lightly, eat well"... sounds like my kind of motto hahaha. =)

I shall update you all later when I'm in the city of lights... goodbye <33