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Published: June 29th 2010
The day started early for me, but I stayed in bed for a while waiting for Dad to wake up. After he did, I headed downstairs with the computer and published yesterdays blog. Very soon, Dad joined me and we had breakfast, more cereal and toast. I was in a rush to update yesterdays photos, and, because the Wifi acess was only downstairs, we had to take it in turns to watch the computer to make sure nobody stole it. I went up, got changed and had a shower, before joining Dad put the bags in the Luggage room, before we went out to the bus stop.
Because we didn't have a day pass, we had to by the tickets on the bus. Dad offered a 10 pound note but the driver said that she didn't have change so we were let on without charge. Because it was Monday morning, the first day of the week, there were more people on the street and the bus was croweded and the roads were more congested than we had seen for the time we were in London. We took the bus to the South side of the Thames and walked beside the
river towards the London Eye.
When we got there, the Eye had started, but was not filling up with people. We had to go inside a separate building to get our tickets, and we were given them by a rather grumpy englishman. Before we were allowed into the Eye, we were to sit through a 4D experience. We had 3D glasses and we all walked into a three tierd theatre, with us all standing looking at a screen. The 3D screen showed us around London and the eye, before a special bit in the middle had a London Eye capsule with a party in it and the kids were blowing bubbles, so real life bubbles were thrown onto us. Then it showed the London Eye in the snow, and fake snow was showered on us. I guess that was the 4D part.
After the show had finished, we joined the line to go onto the actual eye. The line moved at a good pace, and we were checked and screened before we could go onto the Eye. Back when I was in Singapore, I went on the Singapore Flyer. The Eye was very similar to the Flyer, however
the Flyer was taller but the Eye had better views and better landmarks around it. We could see out to the edge of Greater London from the top of the Eye, as well as great views of places that we had already been to such as St Pauls Cathedral, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, as well as some places we hadn't been to like some of the museums and galleries. It was a very clear day, so we could see a long way, and we were lucky because there wasn't any smog or cloud to stop us. The ride lasted for half an hour, and in that time, we took lots of photos, and when we left, the capsule was checked for bombs and rubbish.
We started walking back, and I picked up a T-shirt from a newstand, and then Dad decided to go see the Modern Tate Art Gallery. We only had half an hour so we could only briefly have a look at some of the free galleries of modern art. While we were there, we had a philosophical discussion about what constitutes as art, and we came to no conclusion. The art being modern art, was
abstract and weird, and in some cases the message behind it was obvious, but in others, the message was so subtle that the artist probably didn't know it. Some of the art was good, some was bad and other pieces were confusing. It was still all interesting though.
We walked back to the bus stop, and took our final London Bus back to our hostel. We packed up our bags, relaxed for half an hour then set off for Kings Cross/St Pancras Train Station. On the way there, we picked up some lunch, a muffin and a doughnut for me and a roll for dad. We got a little bit lost when we arrived, because Kings Cross is for National rail, and St Pancras is International, so we made our we through, got our passports stamped, and Dad had to discard the milkshake he was holding. When we were in the departures lounge, Dad made me write a postcard really quickly, as there was only a few minutes until we had to board and he needed to post it because he had British stamps.
At quarter to 2, we were called up onto the platform to board our
train. Dad quickly posted the postcard, and, carrying all of our stuff, we made our way up the escelator and into Coach 1. We found our seats, ate our lunch and waited for the train to leave. It did, at exactly 2.04, which was the scheduled time of departure. We didn't see much of London, because for most of it, we were in a tunnel. Then we sat and watched the English country side roll by, going under the occasional bridge and through the occasional tunnel. Then we entered one tunnel, and it was long, and I said to Dad, 'We must be under the channel.' This surprised me as it was only 35 minutes into our journey. The tunnel lasted for about 20 minutes, then we emerged into the beautiful French countryside. I couldn't believe it. We were in FRANCE!! The French countryside rolled on, often passing small towns. Thes towns had several houses with large roofs, never more than 1 storey high plus an attic, and in the centre of each town was a church with a large roof and a steeple. We stopped at a station where half the passengers got off, so we changed seats to
get a better view of the window. I was tired and fell asleep halfway to Paris, and woke up when we were nearly there.
The train arrived at the Gare du Nord, and we got off and made our way to the exit. I went to find the toilet and Dad went to ask for directions to our hotel. We left the station and got our first real look at Paris. Firstly, the roads were cobblestones and were a mess of cars not knowing where they were going. There were several smokers outside the entrance, and there was a new smell. However, this is not degrading our original thoughts of Paris. The buildings were tall and had beautiful architechture like in London, and also like in London, the first shop that we saw was an American shop, this time instead of Starbucks it was Macdonalds. We crossed the road and then Dad realised that we had better change money from Pounds to Euros, so we walked back to the train station and found a Travellex and exchanged our 81 pounds for 77 Euros.
From there we walked through the streets towards our hotel. The roads were full of
cars, but we found our hotel without a problem. We walked in and found our rooms without any problems. It was a small 2 bed room, with a toilet and shower and cupboards, but it was very different to the hostel we stayed in in London. we had a window that we could view outside into the narrow street below, if there was much to see, which was mostly other buildings which were very interesting.
After waiting around for a while, Dad and I decided to go find some tea and explore the city a bit. So we ask the hotel receptionist where she would recommend, and she pointed us to a place called St Michel. So we walked to the Metro station and bought tickets and waited for our train.
Riding on the Paris Metro was very different to the London Underground. This was mostly due to the style of the carraiges. The tube in London was on normal rails and was a normal train, whereas in Paris it is on tyres with a sweeper infront to clean the tracks. In many ways it was similar to the O-bahn in Adelaide, except that it is underground. It
was also very crowded. We arrived at our stop and got off and walked the streets a bit until we found a restraunt to have tea in. Dad ordered some Escargots, snails, while I settled for a chicken. However I did try one of the snails. It was wierd, and it tasted a little like slimy chicken with lots of garlic and stuffing. We finished our food and payed and had a long discussion with the Canadian couple next to us about tipping the waiter in Paris.
From there we walked through more of Paris. We looked in some thin alleyways and Dad wanted to talk to anyone he could find that would listen to him and understood English, which was mostly waiters. When we left the thin streets we made our way to the river Seine, and walked along it watching the people, who were mostly couples or groups of 5 or 6 having a picnic after work. There were a number of street buskers and skateboard performers on the way. Then, across the river, we say Notre Dame. It was massive and had many gargoyles and spires to make it look like it was haunted in a
small town in Transylvania. But it wasn't. It was in Paris, where we were. Then we realised that Mum's favourite TV show, Masterchef had also been in Paris and we found where they had had a kitchen on the banks of the Seine. While we were there, Dad played around with the camera settings, and I watched and helped him. It was getting dark and there were thunderstorms so we left to walk back to the Metro station. On the way we walked past Notre Dame again, this time right next to it, and saw more of what makes it famous.
We managed to find the Metro station, but when we came out at our station, we got lost and confused and had to ask for directions back to our hotel which was right infront of us. Feeling stupid we made our way back upstairs and into bed for our first night in Paris.
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Jamie
non-member comment
Hey Ben
Have been reading your blogs and it seems like you've been busy! Hope you're having a good time and we'll see you back at school in a couple of weeks! (and also good to see you're taking lots of photos for us to see!) :D