(no subject)
Okay, so my boyfriend is away at the moment with my laptop, so I can't procrastinate as much as I was (sorta) and I've replied to most of my lj comments, which then leaves me with actually talking about going to and being in France! Let's see how many days I can get through before I get tired or something. XD;
My paragraphs are verrry choppy. XD;;
Thursday
Me and mum took the train down to London on Thursday because we were going to be picked up by the coach on Friday - at 6:20 in the morning. Yeah. Deeeefinitely a lot better staying over night.
The layout of the buses was different from what I was used to. X3
Friday
We had to wake up at four and then leave my mum's friend's flat around about five to make sure that we'd be at the place in time. We arrived just a teeny bit early: 5:35. So we were just waiting around for nearly an hour, hoping we were at the right place because there was no-one else around. We could see the London Eye from where we were, but the angle wasn't too great, and nothing really got picked up by the camera. :(
A police car stopped across the road from us and stayed there for a little while we were there too, so I wonder if they thought we were up to something. XD;;
@_____@ When we were on the coach (I think only two other people got on at our stop) and moving, I noticed that the roads were veeery twisty.
I fell asleep pretty soon after getting on the coach, because, yeah, been up since four. XD
We got into Dover about half-eight. We had to get our passports checked there; when the checker guy saw the size of our group (forty-nine altogether) he had a look of 'Oh, shit...' on his face. Plus, there was another coach behind us which I'm assuming was also carrying a lot of people too. He kept coming into the room and then leaving again before he actually started checking our passports. Unfortunately, someone had forgotten her passport, so she had to be sent back to London by herself. D:
There seemed to be some problems with the American passports? Not sure if it was the same with the Brazilians because there were a group of Americans sitting around where I was on the coach so I overheard them saying that the checker guy had been paying a lot of attention to some of their passports, double-checking them, and in one case, walking out the room with their passport. Yikes.
It was when we were back on the coach and I was hearing people trying to remember French phrases that I realised that I barely knew 'hello' and 'thank you'. The last time I was learning French was in primary school. That's something like twelve years ago. Yeeeeeah, I was going to be in so much in trouble. XD;;
We got into the queue for the ferry at 9:10; it was supposed to leave at 9:15 but it didn't because of the weather conditions. When we went outside to go to the shops we could see why: veeeeery windy.
My mum and I spent fifteen minutes in a queue for Costas and only got halfway down it (it wasn't very long) when the second guy behind the tills left to collect cups. :| We left after that.
Yeah. Ninety minutes on the ferry. Not nine hours. *facepalm*
X___X It was pretty choppy on the ferry. The hot chocolate wasn't nice either - it was just powder with hot water. :( Normally Costas doesn't usually do that (or that's just the one I normally go to). I could not write going up and down so much. So I fell asleep again. XD We arrived in Calais 1:45 French time.
The wind was so strong that the coach kept getting a little blown off course. And then the driver started checking his phone for texts; the driving didn't change a bit. *snerk*
It was another three hours to get to Paris.
Our tour guide stood in the middle of the road to get the driver's attention. XD
I noticed that there isn't an amber signal when the traffic lights go from red. So, from green it would go green -> amber -> red, but then it would got red -> green. O____o
The pedestrians freaked me out a little because they kept on getting so close to being run over! But then the drivers didn't slow down either so, yeah, spent quite a bit of time thinking I was going to see an accident. Or possibly be in one.
I took a lot of photos. I am not entirely sure what exactly all these are. So chances are, I'm probably going to say 'this is ____. I think.' Knowing me, I'm going to be horribly wrong. XD;;
The Arc de Triomphe.
With very scary traffic around it. I wasn't able to get a good picture of just how scary it was. Apparently, there's supposed to be eight lanes going around it. Yeah. Eight. You do not see any markers for lanes, and you do see people just leaving the roundabout after cutting across four lanes. o______o; This traffic is insane.
This was when we figured we might not be able to get some good pictures of this trip.
I twiddled with the settings a little bit and took another picture.
Much better. Though I think this might be what killed the camera so fast as well. XD;;
The Eiffel Tower sparkles! I didn't know it did that. They make it light up and sparkle every hour, but my picture of it sucked. :(
We took a tour on the river Seine where I took a ton of pictures, but I wasn't sure if they were of any interest, so I'm not putting them up. XDD (If you want, I can put up the 'reject' pictures that's mostly of the architecture and buildings we were told about, but I have no idea what they are are. :3) I'd also had problems at the start of the tour because I'd been trying to take pictures inside, and then I'd just have a picture of a flash. :P
Lookit the size of the traaaaaffic. I'm from a small city; we don't have a subway and you can get to quite a lot of places just by walking - this is a big deal to me. :P
So. First day in Paris. What do we have for dinner? McDonalds. XDD;; There were quite a few places to eat, but quite a few of them were fancy restaurants and yeah, our French isn't, well, anything. It's not even basic. XD;
When I went to bed that night, I'd been travelling for so damn long (ten hours!) that my body felt like it was still swaying when I was lying on my bed. D: Gaaaaaah, I was not feeling good at that point.
Saturday
I woke up at four, pretty all right, and then fell asleep again. =/ Then I wasn't so all right. I think I had two dreams in a row or something then.
The view from our hotel room. And if you look a little lower...
XD Can't escape the roadworks.
French breakfast is mostly croissants, yogurt and cereal. DD: I've found that I need meat for breakfast to be okay for a couple of hours, or I'll just be hungry again after an hour or something. So I had a lot of croissants (it was buffet-style). X3;
My Skype phone was acting funny and I couldn't connect and login. On Friday it was saying 'Orange F' where the '3' was usually, and then on Saturday, it was saying 'BYTEL'.
Mum was sick after breakfast; we think it was because of the egg she had. So while we were waiting for the coach to arrive, we went to a coffee shop and had another mini-breakfast. XD;
Mopeds... just mount the pavement and ride along it for a while. o_____o;; There wasn't any other traffic on the street. I did also see mopeds that had two wheels at the front and one at the back. Was cool to see.
So when we were on the coach, we went to Sacre Coeur.
There's a hundred and eighty steps to the top. *wry*
While we were waiting for the whole group to get together, I started hearing music. What kind of music? French?
:| No, not really. I was hearing bagpipes in France. These are actually later pictures because the pictures I took of the actual people playing the bagpipes were mostly of their heads, so I doubt they'd be recognisable as Scottish. XD Found out later that there was a Scottish vs France rugby match while we were there, which explained why I was seeing so many kilts on this day.
It had a really nice view as you went up the stairs. :3
We went to Place du Tertre, which is a pretty cool artisty bit. I wasn't sure about the etiquette about taking photos of their paintings, so I didn't take any but they were really nice. Some of them were backed by lights too! Some of the paintings were amazing~ Seriously. Almost like a photo!
This was nearby. So nice looking.
We then started walking down to see Moulin Rouge. The sites along the way were so cool!
Yeah. An old windmill. In the middle of a city. There's a restaurant underneath it, and I think they can move the entire windmill?
Oops. There's a second windmill, but I guess I didn't like the picture?
I'm standing on top of a vent to take this picture. :P
We then got back on the coach to go to Notre Dame Cathedral. And I'll be stopping the recap/summary thing here. I should hopefully pick it up again tomorrow. XD;;
My paragraphs are verrry choppy. XD;;
Thursday
Me and mum took the train down to London on Thursday because we were going to be picked up by the coach on Friday - at 6:20 in the morning. Yeah. Deeeefinitely a lot better staying over night.
The layout of the buses was different from what I was used to. X3
Friday
We had to wake up at four and then leave my mum's friend's flat around about five to make sure that we'd be at the place in time. We arrived just a teeny bit early: 5:35. So we were just waiting around for nearly an hour, hoping we were at the right place because there was no-one else around. We could see the London Eye from where we were, but the angle wasn't too great, and nothing really got picked up by the camera. :(
A police car stopped across the road from us and stayed there for a little while we were there too, so I wonder if they thought we were up to something. XD;;
@_____@ When we were on the coach (I think only two other people got on at our stop) and moving, I noticed that the roads were veeery twisty.
I fell asleep pretty soon after getting on the coach, because, yeah, been up since four. XD
We got into Dover about half-eight. We had to get our passports checked there; when the checker guy saw the size of our group (forty-nine altogether) he had a look of 'Oh, shit...' on his face. Plus, there was another coach behind us which I'm assuming was also carrying a lot of people too. He kept coming into the room and then leaving again before he actually started checking our passports. Unfortunately, someone had forgotten her passport, so she had to be sent back to London by herself. D:
There seemed to be some problems with the American passports? Not sure if it was the same with the Brazilians because there were a group of Americans sitting around where I was on the coach so I overheard them saying that the checker guy had been paying a lot of attention to some of their passports, double-checking them, and in one case, walking out the room with their passport. Yikes.
It was when we were back on the coach and I was hearing people trying to remember French phrases that I realised that I barely knew 'hello' and 'thank you'. The last time I was learning French was in primary school. That's something like twelve years ago. Yeeeeeah, I was going to be in so much in trouble. XD;;
We got into the queue for the ferry at 9:10; it was supposed to leave at 9:15 but it didn't because of the weather conditions. When we went outside to go to the shops we could see why: veeeeery windy.
My mum and I spent fifteen minutes in a queue for Costas and only got halfway down it (it wasn't very long) when the second guy behind the tills left to collect cups. :| We left after that.
Yeah. Ninety minutes on the ferry. Not nine hours. *facepalm*
X___X It was pretty choppy on the ferry. The hot chocolate wasn't nice either - it was just powder with hot water. :( Normally Costas doesn't usually do that (or that's just the one I normally go to). I could not write going up and down so much. So I fell asleep again. XD We arrived in Calais 1:45 French time.
The wind was so strong that the coach kept getting a little blown off course. And then the driver started checking his phone for texts; the driving didn't change a bit. *snerk*
It was another three hours to get to Paris.
Our tour guide stood in the middle of the road to get the driver's attention. XD
I noticed that there isn't an amber signal when the traffic lights go from red. So, from green it would go green -> amber -> red, but then it would got red -> green. O____o
The pedestrians freaked me out a little because they kept on getting so close to being run over! But then the drivers didn't slow down either so, yeah, spent quite a bit of time thinking I was going to see an accident. Or possibly be in one.
I took a lot of photos. I am not entirely sure what exactly all these are. So chances are, I'm probably going to say 'this is ____. I think.' Knowing me, I'm going to be horribly wrong. XD;;
The Arc de Triomphe.
With very scary traffic around it. I wasn't able to get a good picture of just how scary it was. Apparently, there's supposed to be eight lanes going around it. Yeah. Eight. You do not see any markers for lanes, and you do see people just leaving the roundabout after cutting across four lanes. o______o; This traffic is insane.
This was when we figured we might not be able to get some good pictures of this trip.
I twiddled with the settings a little bit and took another picture.
Much better. Though I think this might be what killed the camera so fast as well. XD;;
The Eiffel Tower sparkles! I didn't know it did that. They make it light up and sparkle every hour, but my picture of it sucked. :(
We took a tour on the river Seine where I took a ton of pictures, but I wasn't sure if they were of any interest, so I'm not putting them up. XDD (If you want, I can put up the 'reject' pictures that's mostly of the architecture and buildings we were told about, but I have no idea what they are are. :3) I'd also had problems at the start of the tour because I'd been trying to take pictures inside, and then I'd just have a picture of a flash. :P
Lookit the size of the traaaaaffic. I'm from a small city; we don't have a subway and you can get to quite a lot of places just by walking - this is a big deal to me. :P
So. First day in Paris. What do we have for dinner? McDonalds. XDD;; There were quite a few places to eat, but quite a few of them were fancy restaurants and yeah, our French isn't, well, anything. It's not even basic. XD;
When I went to bed that night, I'd been travelling for so damn long (ten hours!) that my body felt like it was still swaying when I was lying on my bed. D: Gaaaaaah, I was not feeling good at that point.
Saturday
I woke up at four, pretty all right, and then fell asleep again. =/ Then I wasn't so all right. I think I had two dreams in a row or something then.
The view from our hotel room. And if you look a little lower...
XD Can't escape the roadworks.
French breakfast is mostly croissants, yogurt and cereal. DD: I've found that I need meat for breakfast to be okay for a couple of hours, or I'll just be hungry again after an hour or something. So I had a lot of croissants (it was buffet-style). X3;
My Skype phone was acting funny and I couldn't connect and login. On Friday it was saying 'Orange F' where the '3' was usually, and then on Saturday, it was saying 'BYTEL'.
Mum was sick after breakfast; we think it was because of the egg she had. So while we were waiting for the coach to arrive, we went to a coffee shop and had another mini-breakfast. XD;
Mopeds... just mount the pavement and ride along it for a while. o_____o;; There wasn't any other traffic on the street. I did also see mopeds that had two wheels at the front and one at the back. Was cool to see.
So when we were on the coach, we went to Sacre Coeur.
There's a hundred and eighty steps to the top. *wry*
While we were waiting for the whole group to get together, I started hearing music. What kind of music? French?
:| No, not really. I was hearing bagpipes in France. These are actually later pictures because the pictures I took of the actual people playing the bagpipes were mostly of their heads, so I doubt they'd be recognisable as Scottish. XD Found out later that there was a Scottish vs France rugby match while we were there, which explained why I was seeing so many kilts on this day.
It had a really nice view as you went up the stairs. :3
We went to Place du Tertre, which is a pretty cool artisty bit. I wasn't sure about the etiquette about taking photos of their paintings, so I didn't take any but they were really nice. Some of them were backed by lights too! Some of the paintings were amazing~ Seriously. Almost like a photo!
This was nearby. So nice looking.
We then started walking down to see Moulin Rouge. The sites along the way were so cool!
Yeah. An old windmill. In the middle of a city. There's a restaurant underneath it, and I think they can move the entire windmill?
Oops. There's a second windmill, but I guess I didn't like the picture?
I'm standing on top of a vent to take this picture. :P
We then got back on the coach to go to Notre Dame Cathedral. And I'll be stopping the recap/summary thing here. I should hopefully pick it up again tomorrow. XD;;