Last night, Paris sent me off in style with a showcase of beautiful fireworks in the Parisian night sky. I have no idea what the occasion was, but I'm pretending it's because the city is wishing me "Bon Voyage!"
I finally arrived in London. When I had gone to Paris, I forgot that the time zone had changed, going faster an hour, but now returning to Paris, instead of arriving at 2pm, we arrive at 1pm, regaining back that hour I had lost.
Boarding the Eurostar is a little tricky at Paris Nord. There aren't really any large signs telling you where to board. I had to ask a person and they showed me this little escalator that took me up to a separate landing where I was supposed to check in. Not to sound like a clean freak or anything, I kinda found the Eurostar's cleanlines to be lacking and the chairs to be too narrow. The little pull down tables usually have remnants of food or sticky stuff. Not as picturesque as the pictures online would have you think.
If you are taking the Eurostar, I would suggest reserving seats at coaches near the back of the train (coaches 14-18) and seats towards the back of the coach (70 to 88) because chances are there will be tons of opening seats at the back and you can get a row to yourself. Both trips I had with the Eurostar, I got an entire row to myself, it was quite nice.
My legs are still extremely sore. Walking has not been fun. My thighs are burning and my calves are like jello. To make my legs worse, the hostel I'm staying at, The Royal Bayswater Hostel, put me at the highest floor when there damned elevator lift is out of service. WTF.
I could have gone to Hampton Court Palace today, but I just wasn't mentally up to it. So I decided to wander around Hyde Park and Kensington Palace. The weather's gloomy again in London, so I grabbed an early dinner at this really quaint Thai restaurant called TukTuk Thai Noodle Bar. There food is a lot cheaper than the Thai food in Irvine, even with the exchange rate, and tastes pretty great. I had a Chicken Pad Thai for £3.90, so about six dollars. I might go back if I have enough time. The servers were pretty nice and spoke Mandarin.
Well, tomorrow, the plan is Hampton Court Palace in the morning (I still need to buy a train ticket for this) and then back to the Millenium Bridge and Tate Modern.
For now, I'm turning in early. I didn't realize how tired I was until I fell asleep on the Eurostar. Now that I have a computer with a usb port, I'll try uploading images tomorrow.
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