Mind the Gap

July 21st, 2015

After realizing that last minute train tickets from Paris to London would cost us about 260 euro when you wait until the last minute to book, we decided it would be a good idea to take a bus to London instead. An 8-hour bus ride. Actually it was supposed to be that long, but we are in Europe. So naturally a strike was bound to occur. We were actually making excellent time, about 45 minutes ahead of schedule, when we hit traffic. We could see black smoke ahead and assumed it was a bad car accident. After about an hour we finally started moving to border control. This is also when we learned that it wasn’t an accident but workers burning a wall of tires to disrupt traffic to the Chunnel because of recent job losses. Then, we proceeded into the Chunnel. For Chuck, this experience was just fine, but Anna was not pleased with having the entire bus loaded into a metal box to be taken under the water. It was at this point we began to question whether it would have been worth paying for the train.

We finally got to the bus terminal and had to take the train to the hotel. A train was waiting there, because in London there seems be a train every 2 minutes. By the time we realized it was the train we wanted to take, Chuck jumped on and Anna tried but the doors closed very quickly and the train was off. We stared at each it in disbelief and amusement. We met up again at the next station and headed to our hotel. Together.  

After all this we were tired and it was later than we expected to arrive, so we decided it was time to check out a local pub. Despite being a Wednesday, the place was already filling up quickly as were nearly all pubs in the area. We grabbed a table, some beers and fish and chips. Chuck decided to go non-traditional and get pork belly to eat. He says it was delicious. Anna thought this was unacceptable food for our first London pub. Although we were exhausted, we found our way towards Westminster to see a bit of the city at night. We exited the train to immediately be greeted by Big Ben and the London Eye. It was quite the sight and the buildings are lit up beautifully at night. We were also introduced to London traffic, which is terrifying. Pedestrians never seem to have the right of way as cars, busses, and bikes will not stop for you. Also, the cars drive on the opposite side of the street, which may have led to both of us almost getting hit by a double decker bus at some point in the night. We quickly learned to just look both ways before crossing a street and not walking to close to the curb. Welcome to London!