Topdeck begins - Europe Unplugged: 08/08/08

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Got woken up this morning around 5AM by someone making noise in the dorm room but since it wasn’t far off the time I set on my alarm I got up. I had a shower and got my bag ready to meet down in the reception of the hotel ready for our three week Topdeck trip around Europe. We ate some breakfast then sat around waiting for everyone to arrive and get their names checked off. As soon as we were all there we grabbed our luggage and walked around the corner to where a bus was parked to take us to Dover and across the English Channel. During the hour long trip from London to Dover we were introduced to out tour leader, Jamie and he also introduced us to our driver, Billy and cook, Gavo who were both waiting for our arrival in the Topdeck coach in Calais where the ferry docked. There were around 44 of us on this coach which consisted of people mainly from Australia but also some from, England, New Zealand, South Africa, Korea and Columbia. After a short drive we arrived at the Dover ferry point where most of us got our passports stamped, that is everyone except the British citizens.

We eventually boarded the ferry and headed straight for the food court to get some breakfast. Hannah and I sat with a girl, Pip who we met back at the hostel. We ate breakfast then as the ferry left Dover I ran to the top of the deck and took some photos of the white cliffs of Dover as we sailed away to France. The ferry took around an hour and a half to cross the English Channel and after arriving in Calais we packed our luggage into the coach and were on our way to Paris. We met our driver and chef, who were both awesome then headed to our campsite. We didn’t arrive till late afternoon after driving most of the day. When we arrived and found our campsite the first thing we did was help setup the cook tent to Gavo could start making dinner. After it was up we gathered around as Billy shoed us how to setup our tents. We each grabbed a tent and created a little shanty town of tents with guide rope going everywhere.

After our tents were up we all gathered around in a circle and introduced ourselves while we waited for dinner to be ready. Before long, we lined up to have our first meal together, spaghetti bolognaise, it was delicious. We were all starving and quickly ate our food then helped Gavo pack up so we could get ready for an illumination tour of Paris. We jumped into the coach and had a bus tour around this beautiful city. Paris is such an incredible city and is absolutely stunning at night. Soon enough it was time for our first ‘parachute jump’ which really meant, ‘get out of the coach ASAP because we are illegally parked’. We walked up a huge staircase avoiding all the people trying to sell us stuff and we made our way up to Sacre Coeur. It was an incredible church which overlooked the city of Paris. .We had a quick look at the view and took some amazing photos then headed inside the church. It was an amazing church, we walked around inside gazing up at the high roofs all decorated with amazing detail. After taking some photos we headed outside and walked around the narrow streets full of restaurants setup outside. As we wondered around it was almost time to head back. We did a loop back to Sacre Coeur then took a few more photos of the spectacular view before meeting up with the group. Once everyone arrived we walked back down the stairs and jumped back onto the bus and continued the illumination tour.

We continued driving around in the bus and drove down the Champs Elysees which looked fantastic. We arrived at the Arc de Triumph and one of the most dangerous round abouts, even intersections in the world. On average there was an accident every eight minutes in this round about. Billy carefully entered the round about and carefully made his way around to our exit without a scratch. I was loving this city so far it was just so beautifully lit up at night and the buildings were incredible. Eventually, Jamie told us about this couple who have sex on the balcony every night around this time. He told us to look out our right window because it was an awesome sight seeing this couple go at it. Everyone on the bus was looking out for this balcony as Jamie pointed it out and insisted we look in that direction. All of a sudden he said “Now look left!”, which confused us all, we slowly turned our heads left to see a sight I will never forget. The Eiffel Tower stood right beside us lit up blue and sparkling all over. It was incredible, we stopped the bus all quickly jumped off and ran off to take photos of the impressive sight. It was a show that went on every few hours where the Eiffel Tower sparkled like 1000 strobe lights against the lit up blue framework. In the centre was the EU flag with 12 stars in the middle. I will never forget this sight. After the show finished we jumped back in the bus and made for the campsite. It took around an hour to get there but finally we made it. Everyone was so tired after such a long and busy day we all went straight to our tents to bed.

Day 1:
London - Paris
285 MILES TRAVELLED // 285 TOTAL
Camping Du Tremblay

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Photos

Paris
The beautiful Sacre Coeur just before the sun sets.

England
Leaving the white cliffs of Dover on our way to France.

Paris
Our first campsite for tour, there were almost 25 tents in our small shanty town.

Paris
A spectacular view over city beautiful city of Paris from the Sacre Coeur

Paris
The sun sets over Paris creating an amazing blue and purple sky.

Paris
The stunning Sacre Coeur Cathedral in Paris