I'm back

Hi.. sorry.. I went away for a bit there.

So. After Bruges came Paris, and a hostel whose internet time was quite expensive. It was a great city. There was tons to see, and tons I didn't get around to seeing, so I will definitely have to go back there. Went to the Louvre and spent a couple hours seeing highlights, but after only that much, you feel... saturated. There's just so much. One of the girls I was hanging out with that day said the building could be empty and it would still be cool to go see. While in Paris I also saw Notre Dame, l'Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Coeur, went up the Eiffel Tower, walked a ton, and some other things that I can't remember right now. Yes, I am keeping a better written log than this!

After Paris came mis-adventures. I'm not sure if its made the news at home or not, but France is in the middle of labour reforms under new leadership, etc, which has the effect of disgruntled workers, which leads to massive striking. It's actually still on, and is the 2nd time it has happened since I've been in Europe. All public transit within Paris is on strike, as well as trains in all of France, and now the civil servants are also joining in. Oi. All they could tell me was that I may or may not be able to get to Calais to get my boat, and that it depends on the day. So the day I was to leave, I went to the station. They said yes, it's good, that train is running (since some small % of them are), there you go. When I get on the train, they say that no, actually, the train is only going to Lille and not to Calais. What? By this point the train is already going, so what am I supposed to do besides wonder where Lille is? I get there, and look at the boards in the station, and there's nothing that can help me. At all. But Lille has two stations, so I walk to the other one. The only choices there are Eurostar on to London, or Eurostar back to Paris. For lack of any other options, I forked over the money for the Eurostar and went on to London a day early. It was only 60 euro for a return ticket, whereas a 1-way would have been 200 euro, so I have a ticket back to Lille that will just go unused. This seems quite simple now relating it in words, but it was actually a rather terrifying sort of experience. Especially since it started off with almost not being able to get my backpack off the metro in Paris since it was so crammed with people. No one was willing to move if it were to mean losing their spot on the once-every-hour trains.

Now I am in London, which is absolutely amazing. I love it here. There is so much to do, and most of the museums are free! Paris was really killing me on museum fees. The Science Museum and the Natural History Museum are both the coolest museums of my life - I haven't decided which I enjoyed more. Matthew, Michelle, Alistair, and Will (friends from Trin) are all here this year, which means people to see! Mom's cousin Robert is also in the city, and he took me to Canterbury and to see his mother, my Great-Aunt, Margaret. She's a hoot. I absolutely loved her. She uses the phrase "what the dickens," which automatically says something.

This is a rather rushed entry... this hostel has internet for £1 for 40 minutes, which isn't a lot when trying to keep on top of life. Sorry that there isn't more detail. Blogger is still in French, even in England.