Bienvenue sur Eurostar!
I am sitting on the Eurostar right now, about to depart London Waterloo. I'm not sure when this will actually post, I suppose that depends on whether or not I can steal internet from Jean-Baptiste's neighbors. Either way, something about this morning inspired me.
**UPDATE** McDonalds in Paris has Wifi! For free!
I'm sure its no secret that I love traveling. Although the part of travelling that involves seeing new places, visiting friends and all that is wonderful, there is something about the actual traveling that I really enjoy. Above all I love travelling by train. There is just something, well, romantic about it.
Trips can be as short as from London to Twickenham, trips of medium length such as the train upon which i currently sit, or longer ones like an overnight train to Rome or Prague or Berlin or wherever you fancy.
Contrary to traveling by plane, traveling by train isn't very demanding. You don't have to check in three hours prior to departure and should you miss your scheduled train it isn't usually the end of the world. However, you still get that same excitement of "going somewhere."
I like waking up early before most people are awake, often just a few hours after they have gone to bed. Rushing around, making sure that everything is packed, ticket, passport handy. Going over everything a few times to make sure I have adaquate comforts for both transit and my stay. Lumbering around public transportation with bags in a fairly friendly city like London is also strangely enjoyable. People offer to help you with your luggage as you board the Tube, wondering where you're off to with all that baggage yet not asking.
Checking in is my favorite part. There's just something about international travel that is quite sexy. Walking through those doors that you can see out but no one can see in. You insist that you aren't carrying anything harmful onto the train, then hand your passport over to the control agent. Some mornings, like this one, you get a particularly nice yet uninterested French man checking your passport, who flipped to my French Visa and stamped it, not even bothering to notice that it expired almost two years ago.
No matter.
Once you get through the housekeeping section, you really enter what to me is another world, the 'travelers' world. Men and women in business suits clutching briefcases standing in line at Costa coffee with scruffy youths carrying well loved backpacks. For some, this is a very exciting journey to a new city with adventure lying ahead. For others, its a short vacation. For others still it is such an often occurance that it is almost a nuisance, this 7am train to Paris.
There is also something about traveling by train that demands some sort of greasy breakfast, like the egg and bacon sandwich I had toasted up at Costa. A cold chocolately coffee drink and suddenly its no longer like I slept for three and a half hours.
You wait to board, you people watch, silently wondering what will be waiting on the other end of the Channel for the other passengers. Your train is called and you again lumber around with your bags, take your seat and wait anxiously for the announcement that the train is about to leave.
Which has just happened.
I'm going to enjoy the scenery now, another luxury you don't get on an airplane and bask in the unique experience that is traveling by train.
**UPDATE** McDonalds in Paris has Wifi! For free!
I'm sure its no secret that I love traveling. Although the part of travelling that involves seeing new places, visiting friends and all that is wonderful, there is something about the actual traveling that I really enjoy. Above all I love travelling by train. There is just something, well, romantic about it.
Trips can be as short as from London to Twickenham, trips of medium length such as the train upon which i currently sit, or longer ones like an overnight train to Rome or Prague or Berlin or wherever you fancy.
Contrary to traveling by plane, traveling by train isn't very demanding. You don't have to check in three hours prior to departure and should you miss your scheduled train it isn't usually the end of the world. However, you still get that same excitement of "going somewhere."
I like waking up early before most people are awake, often just a few hours after they have gone to bed. Rushing around, making sure that everything is packed, ticket, passport handy. Going over everything a few times to make sure I have adaquate comforts for both transit and my stay. Lumbering around public transportation with bags in a fairly friendly city like London is also strangely enjoyable. People offer to help you with your luggage as you board the Tube, wondering where you're off to with all that baggage yet not asking.
Checking in is my favorite part. There's just something about international travel that is quite sexy. Walking through those doors that you can see out but no one can see in. You insist that you aren't carrying anything harmful onto the train, then hand your passport over to the control agent. Some mornings, like this one, you get a particularly nice yet uninterested French man checking your passport, who flipped to my French Visa and stamped it, not even bothering to notice that it expired almost two years ago.
No matter.
Once you get through the housekeeping section, you really enter what to me is another world, the 'travelers' world. Men and women in business suits clutching briefcases standing in line at Costa coffee with scruffy youths carrying well loved backpacks. For some, this is a very exciting journey to a new city with adventure lying ahead. For others, its a short vacation. For others still it is such an often occurance that it is almost a nuisance, this 7am train to Paris.
There is also something about traveling by train that demands some sort of greasy breakfast, like the egg and bacon sandwich I had toasted up at Costa. A cold chocolately coffee drink and suddenly its no longer like I slept for three and a half hours.
You wait to board, you people watch, silently wondering what will be waiting on the other end of the Channel for the other passengers. Your train is called and you again lumber around with your bags, take your seat and wait anxiously for the announcement that the train is about to leave.
Which has just happened.
I'm going to enjoy the scenery now, another luxury you don't get on an airplane and bask in the unique experience that is traveling by train.