Day 13: London/ Paris

---

So far this has been the most eventful day on our trip. By eventful, I do not mean enjoyable, but it wasn't horrible either. I woke up this morning to find myself (thankfully) lacking a hangover and surprisingly energized, and had just enough time to pack and eat breakfast before Robert and I had to head out to catch the tube to Heathrow Airport.

We had a very small breakfast of cereal and toast (this was all they served at this hostel), with James and Sam, and started off on our walk to the tube. Despite what you've heard, my experience of Heathrow was extremely pleasant. It took us no time all to check in and make it through security, and once on the other side we still had an hour to wait until they'd let us board the flight. I will mention that Heathrow has a very interesting, and very clever system of assigning gates. They don't actually tell you what gate you're supposed to be at until about 10 minutes before you're supposed to board; I have decided that this is because they want you to wait in the main area of the terminal which is home to Harrods and various other VERY expensive stores, and they assume that the longer you're in there, the more you'll shop. Both Robert and I made it out without spending anymore than necessary to purchase a sandwich and drink for lunch.

The trouble began when we made it to Charles de Gaulle airport. This is the most horribly designed airport I've ever been in. From our gate we had to walk all the way to the opposite side of the airport, taking about 25 minutes, to get to the RER, which is the train that takes us to city center. It was disgustingly hot inside the train car, and it was packed like a sausage. We did have the pleasure of meeting two kind gentlemen, who told us a little about the area and what the announcements were saying. When we were about a mile from the station, the train stopped and the two gentlemen alerted us to the fact that there had been an accident on the tracks and the train wasn't going anywhere for quite a long time. They also informed us that if we got off the train and onto the tracks there was potential to be arrested because it was illegal, however seeing as how about half the population of the train had already gotten off, it was going to be several more hours before it was possible for it to move. So we took our chances and followed them. Those before us had found a way up off the tracks and onto the street, so at least we didn't get arrested. The two gentlemen we had been following made sure that we made it to the metro and got on a line that would take us to the apartment, and only left once they had made sure we'd be okay. God bless kind people!

During this whole adventure, for some reason my phone didn't want to work, so not only were we a little skeptical about where we were going once we got off the Metro, but I had also not been able to get a hold of Bernard, who was to give the key to the apartment. Only once we had gotten to the front door and found the guardian not in, did the phone decide to work. Bernard answered right away and told us he would send someone to let us in immediately. We finally made it!

---