Waking up at four in the morning, which is getting easier with every early trip I take, I walked casually to the Eliot dorms where the taxi is going to pick Michaela, Alie and I up. Waiting outside and getting a message from the taxi service that the taxi has dispatched. A few minutes later, I get another text from the taxi service saying that the taxi has arrived and seeing the lights I message Michaela and Alie telling them to come out. Getting absolutely no response, I try calling and tell the taxi driver that I'm waiting for two others. Explaining to me that he will start the meter as he was putting my carry on bag in the trunk. Climbing the stairs back up to the locked dorm doors I try to messaging again. No answer. Then out of nowhere the taxi driver is behind me telling me he has to go and then I finally get a message saying Michaela is not answering the door. Telling Alie via text to start banging on the door as I tell the driver two more minutes. He starts to complain that his boss will get upset and I start begging. Desperately, I call again and tell them to hurry up. Turns out Michaela had her alarm set for Saturday and woke up a few seconds ago. Two minutes later I hear the taxi driver's boss on the phone screaming at him to leave and hanging up on him and I'm screaming on my phone at Michaela to run fast. Getting off the phone, the taxi driver was pulling my luggage out of the trunk and putting it on the sidewalk. He told me the next available one would be at 5:30am and our train leaves at 5:18am. I start pleading and within the last second Michaela and Alie are sprinting down the steps to the cab and we haul our butts inside the back seat.
Needless to say, we actually made it.
Now about the trains. We took Canterbury West to London St. Pancras and then head for Eurostar from London St. Pancras to Paris Nord. It was like an airport, checking luggage and passports. Got another stamp in my passport, can't wait for it to fill up. And the escalators are weird. There we are getting on one and then its like a slide going up, not stairs. Shocked us all. Anyway, this train runs under water and I was so excited seeing windows on the train because I thought that we could see underwater, like see fish and stuff. Nope. Nope. Dark and I didn't know when we were under, also I fell asleep. I did have a caramel macchiato but it didn't really work.
Getting out of the train and then trying to finding a cash point (ATM) to get euros. I missed using euros. Took us forever to find one, waited in line and as soon as I got up to the front, the machine said out of service. Cool. Decided to go pee instead, which I paid for the men's toilet on accident. Oops. Leaving the train station, we found a cash point and decided to walk the hour and a half from the station to the hotel. We originally was going to take a bus but said walking would be nice to see Paris and we had time since our hotel check in is at 2pm. On out walk, we saw Notre Dame but didn't realise it was Notre Dame until I looked it up at the hotel. Passed the catacombs too, but we knew it was since there was a sign that said "catacombs".
Hotel is really nice. The windows are big and open up all the way. I mean, a bird almost flew in and I practically cried because I was a foot away. We got out of our sweaty clothes. We were wearing warm clothes because England mornings are cold and getting into Paris midday is hot while hauling our luggage for an hour and a half through Paris. Charged our phones and watched some French Fairly Odd Parents. Translated some words online and found out later in the day (after we had so much trouble trying to figure out French for lunch) that Michaela took five years of French. What?
Lunch: Plain egg omelette (came with a salad but had gross dressing on it so I didn't eat it), and bought some macaroons.
Walked around for a bit and then went into a grocery store market for dinner food. Basically I bought for dinner: strawberries, pretzels, peanut butter, and an apple. Michaela bought some white chocolate covered oreos. Delicious. Come to Europe and try them.
After dinner at the hotel, we went to a Cicha Bar. On the way there, we got an "oo la la". Anyway, apple pomme cicha. The waiter was beyond rude. Treated us like we were the stupid American tourists. I almost fainted. Got really sweaty and had to run to the bathroom. It was kinda scary.
Going to bed now, I'll be waking up at 6:30am to get ready and head to the Louvre. I really want to beat the line and be the few first in. Also I have to walk 45 minutes to get there. I might ask and figure out the subway/metro system. After, at midday, Eiffel Tower and baguette time with the girls!
Oh! I found two space invaders already. There are a ton in Paris so I hope to find more in the next few days.
Au Revoir!
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