Buses On Trains

Leaving the girls behind in Scotland I made my way to the overnight bus back to London, for some reason I was feeling apprehensive. I’m not sure if it was because I was going back to London where I had left in an attempt to move forward from things that were out of my control, or the fact that this entire ‘adventure’ had no itinerary involved let alone the money to fund it.  Although I know I am not here by myself in the northern hemisphere, sometimes I do feel very very far away from home and from the comfort of friends, familiarity, support, and of course my ma. Sometimes you do just want someone who wants to look after and out for you.

 

But soldier on we must. So the 9 hour ride back to London went quickly if uncomfortably.  I managed to snare a double seat to myself but it is a difficult thing lying down cross legged with your legs smooshed up on the window.  I could have slept sitting up, but I have a strange problem where I can’t sit with two feet on the ground. I know, weirdo. 

I arrived at Victoria station at 7.30am and went to wait outside the eurolines office to check that I actually did have a ticket to France for the next day, because frankly they have given me no reason to trust them, I really think they have no idea how to work their system, if it’s ever working.

So predictably “no, you don’t have a ticket reserved” ensued.  “Um...yes I do, here is my reference number, confirmation number, eurolines bus number, passport, kitchen sink, what else do you want?”.

So they made me call their other office (even though I was at one of their offices) and after spending £10 on a phone call, having the man listen back to my previous phone call from when I made the reservation two days ago, he called me back...and gave me my eurolines pass number back to me as my ticket number. Thanks.

So I asked the man at the office again and he found my reservation, but I was leaving at 8.00am instead of 10am and my name is now Mrs C Skinner. Meh, you have to take what you can.

Kindly, Vanessa had offered to let me stay that night (she also has half my belongings sitting in her wardrobe which I added more to when I arrived).  I just can’t travel with so much stuff! So there were decisions to be made.  I left behind my pants, my walking shoes, hats, leggings, jumpers, books and art stuff, and most sadly my vegemite!  

Vanessa and I went to Southbank and had a drink and then headed over to china town for dinner where we kept getting accosted by annoying men who thought they were witty. 

Dinner was good and cheap, although I spilt some of my soup onto my jeans (which I was not planning to wash for some time).  My lack of co-ordination or lateral thinking is not really a surprise to some of you.  (Tip: If you have a very small bowl and you can’t get your chopsticks to cut your wonton in half, don’t push it towards you as you stab at it).

It was a really nice evening and Vanessa and I had great talks on all sorts of subjects.  And she’d never miss an opportunity to add ‘but WHEN you come back to London’. Bless her.

We got an early night and I scared the shit out of her with my alarm in the morning, packed my stuff, said goodbye and headed on my merry way.  As I was walking out I knew I’d left something important, I went back and sneakily grabbed the vegemite, I had to!

As you can probably guess when I went to check in at the bus station, the guy said that I didn’t have a place on the bus. I showed him all my information but because I had handwritten the 10am reservation in, he continued to tell me I was not on the 8am bus). I explained that I had written that myself (obviously as it was scrawled in pencil) and told him to then make sure I was on the 10am bus if not the 8am bus, and what do you know he found me a spot on the 8am. Grrrr!

I must have been knackered because I slept intermittently the whole way to Paris, only waking when we crossed the border and eerily drove the bus into the train to travel under the channel.  The rocking of the bus on a train put me back to sleep and I woke again to the beautiful countryside of France.#

Arriving at Gallieni bus station I decided to buy my ticket to Berlin just in case previous problems occurred.  Unfortunately, or fortunately, the bus I wanted was sold out so I’m staying an extra day in Paris. 

 

Paris was so warm, actual spring! And after about a half an hour walk I found the hotel where I was meeting the girls again.  I headed to the supermarket as I hadn’t had the chance to eat that day. I love French supermarkets! Everything is so organised and fresh and French!

I had planned to do this trip on my own but now that Tuck and Carli are going to be in Europe for a while, I am doing my best to catch them at as many places as we can manage.  We ended up finding a triple room in a hotel which was the same price as a hostel, so it was nice to come back to a room all to myself and not a hostel.

There is no balcony, but conveniently there is scaffolding out our window, just as good.  So I brought my picnic (bread, cheese, wine) and my book and computer and precariously climbed out the window onto the scaffolding.  So there I waited for the girls and watched Paris go by. 

The girls arrived and were tired and hungry so we grabbed them something to eat and got ourselves to bed.