day three: London to Paris

Today we woke up really really early and got on our coach (bus) to officially start our trip. We met up with the group at 6am and then left the hotel 6:45 am. It was very early, but I think we were all excited and not too tired (at least I wasn't - no jet lag!). It started raining as we left London which I guess is pretty typical weather for them. My first bus buddy was Jasmin, who I actually had emailed a couple times before the trip. So that was kind of nice, and we talked a bit about the differences between Australia and America on the way to Dover (which was a few hours away from London).

Now is probably a good time to explain the breakdown of nationalities on our contiki trip.

There were four Americans (including myself), four Canadians, nine Mexicans, one Colombian, three Koreans, three South Africans, three New Zealanders, and all the rest (twenty three people) were Australian. Our Tour Manager, Jason (or Jase, as we usually called him) was a Kiwi (from New Zealand) as was our bus driver, Dave. Everyone (except one person) was between the ages of 18 and 35, but most people were in their twenties, like me. So it was a cool trip, not just because of all the amazing places I was able to go to in Europe, but also because of all of the interesting people I was able to meet and hang out with.

The drive down to Dover was sort of boring. We saw some cows and sheep and stuff, but mainly it was not that exciting. Plus, we didn't have our tour manager or driver yet, since we were meeting them in Calais after the ferry trip (Contiki was super busy this summer and sometimes the tms and drivers had to hop from one tour to the next).

We finally got to Dover, which is known for the White Cliffs. We saw them, and well, they were white. It was actually pretty foggy there, so I don't have any good pictures of them, but this one is not too bad (this was actually taken from the ferry after we departed).



The ferry itself was not too bad. They had a bunch of restaurants and shops and stuff. But basically, we just sat around and talked for most of the hour and a half trip. The Aussies seemed obsessed with the Big Brother show that was going on there at the time, so they talked about that for a while. I just kind of sat there and tried not to think about getting sea sick (although I don't usually get sea sick - or any kind of motion sickness - it was rocking quite a bit at one point).

When we got off the ferry, we met up with Jase and Dave and began our tour for real. Jase read us a bunch of guidelines and stuff for the trip and we pretended not to be too bored. He seemed really tired and kind of boring, but as he got some sleep the next day, he turned out to be a pretty cool guy.

We had our first "service stop" on the way to Paris. I successfully procured money (in euros!) from the ATM, so that was a big relief. Then I ordered a ham and cheese baguette (I actually conversed with a real French person in French. It was very exciting) and an evian. The baguette was really good. I love bread, and was very excited about all the French bread for the next week.

As it turned out, since Contiki was so busy, we were actually bumped up from staying in the contiki cabins that night to staying in an actual hotel while we were in Paris. So that was pretty exciting and we arrived there without too much trouble. The hotel was a little weird though because you had to use your room card to turn the lights in the room. Very odd. Jasmin and I were rooming together and I am still amazed at how many clothes she fit into her suitcase. It was insane (the last day of the trip she actually had to have Quinn stand on it just so she could get it closed). The dinner at the hotel was interesting, but not too bad. Then we headed into Paris for a bus tour of the city to orientate for our free day the next day.

We drove all around and saw all of the major sites, with Jase explaining what all the buildings were. We saw: Notre Dame, the Hotel d'Invalides, the Musee d'Orsay, the Paris Opera House, the Arc d'Triumphe, drove down the Champs Elysees, and saw about a million little sidewalk cafes. Dave even drove us on the street that goes around the Arc where apparently there is an accident once every 12 seconds (statistically speaking - we didn't see any) and automobile insurance is not valid. It was all really cool. Paris iss such an amazing city. I fell in love with it immediately and couldn't wait for the next day to start exploring. Luckily, Dave stopped the bus at one point and let us get out and take some pictures of the Eiffel Tower. It was the perfect time of day and we were all so excited to be there.



We also drove by the Louvre and took some pictures there from the bus.



After that, we headed back to the hotel, hung out at the bar for a little bit, and then went to bed relatively early (well, compared to the rest of the tour anyway). We had a big day ahead of us in Paris in the morning.

next day...