Three Hours, Two Countries

We got to witness Paris in the early, early morning today, as we walked to get to the train station to leave for London: finally, a quiet view of the narrow streets in our neighbourhood. It's such a contrast to the regular busy-ness of the city.

The highspeed Eurostar train got us to London in great time (3 hours) and my prediction was right! It was foggy when we left France and sunny in England. Oh, the metaphors.

And my greatest revelation as we got into Waterloo Station was that Londoners differ strongly from their French neighbours-- hectic doesn't even describe it! People rushing everywhere- on the streets, on the Tube, in restaurant queues, buying tickets, seeing sights... the urge to hurry along with everyone is contagious. We've finally slowed down enough to relax in the hostel bar for a bit. Tomorrow we're taking one of the free tours that I love so much. They're in pretty much every city and they're AWESOME. I love them almost as much as my Let's Go book (which has become the bane of Bryan's existence, as he has to lug it everywhere). It's dog-eared and stained with coffee, but it's a reassuring bible of a different sort. The backpacker sort ;).

For brevity's sake, I'll just list the things we saw today :):

- Westminster Abbey
- Big Ben
- The London Eye
- The Millenium Bridge
- Buckingham Palace
- Piccadilly Circus
- and (it felt like) the entire Underground

I felt an odd sort of completion at seeing the Poets' Corner in the Abbey ... the whole thing is way more crowded than I imagined, but it's quite a grand place :)

So hopefully we can see the Tower of London tomorrow (Bryan's main desire) amongst all the other must-sees here (If the Underground strike doesn't go on too long).

- Gennelle

P.S. Editing pictures? Actually, I'm THAT good a photographer ;) ... also, I swear that was a Fanta I was drinking!