Month: August 2011

Categories
Personal

travelling

Travelling alone is stressful. It feels like I’m constantly on guard, always checking that I’m doing the right thing at the right time…

Almost missed my flight to Paris because the boarding time frame was only 10 minutes. I was lucky too, because I didn’t know what terminal I was supposed to arrive at (it wasn’t on my sheet) and I only found out because my friend also had a flight this morning from the same terminal… The flight passed by quickly because I was exhausted and took several short naps. The plane was really small, so it felt a lot lighter than the British Airway ones that I flew on to Africa.

When I arrived in France, I realized that I knew no French at all… and then I started to panic. It’s really frustrating having this language barrier… I ended up getting out at the wrong exit and then I walked all around the block. The block was a really sketchy/dodgy area, and it was really hard to get my directional bearings on, knowing that I could be attacked or something randomly. I was so close to tears after almost an hour of walking around, going into shops, travel agencies, talking to security guards about how to get to my hostel. Finally, one nice guard pointed me in the direction of the train station I arrived at originally, except that this entrance had information staff. The metro here was also a lot more confusing than the London underground… but once I figured it out, I felt a lot better.

I arrived in Paris at 11:30am. It is now 1:30 pm…

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What I love about travelling is how the experiences always challenge the way I think about and navigate the world. I arrived in Paris today expecting a glamourous city, and it was a little disappointing to see that it was quite … simple. Maybe I just got out at a plain station, but it was definitely not as awesome as London. I was lost for almost 2 hours, asking for directions and being pointed in different places… it was a really bad idea to come into this city with no French. The metro system is more confusing than the underground. I didn’t sleep for 24 hours.

Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.

The hostel here is less like a hostel; the people are older, people are travelling together…

Categories
Personal

hostels, love them

London has been amazing to me. This whole week I have been just wandering around the city, immersed in the beautiful architecture and taking in the history of this place. I have been walking around mostly, and it’s incredible how much I can see by straying from the regular tourist routine… the days when I just wander off into a London market, or into an entertainment district by accident… those have been the most satisfying. My hostel is amazing: there are fun-tastic people, and every night is a dance party! It’s been sad having to say goodbye to people as they leave the hostel onto the next leg of their journey, but it kind of adds to the romantic fun of being a hosteller.

I’ve been so… free to be myself here, I surprise even myself. It’s nice to know how different I am from other people, and yet how my individualism add so much to the friendships I’ve grown here. I love being a traveller, minus the hassles of luggage and confusing bus maps.

Tomorrow morning I fly off to Paris! I won’t believe it until I’m there…. 🙂 I still can’t get over the fact that I’ve been in so many historic places, seen so many sights in the five days I’ve been here. It’s really really indescribable how incredible it is to be in this city. I am definitely going to plan a longer trip here. Maybe I’ll even try backpacking across Europe next year, seriously.

But still, I am looking forward to going home and sleeping in my own bed. It’ll be a nice change not having to store and lug all my personal belongings in one piece of luggage.

Categories
Personal Self Discovery

safe in London, riots and all

What an amazing day. Started out early, got a delicious house brew coffee from Pre a Manger, walked over the London Bridge, coffee in hand. It was refreshing to walk alongside all the Londoners on their morning commute. Some rode bcycles, many more walked. Caught a bus down to Trafalgar Square. Was a bit lost, so I went into a travel information center where an extremely friendly guy helped me print out the voucher ticket for the bus tour—he kept joking about how I should just work there because I’m so attractive… that was a rather flattering way to start off my day.

Hopped on the Original Bus Tour and went all over the city and Westminister. The bus took us to all the main destinations, describing the history of the city. It was extremely relaxing and enjoyable to just immerse in the history of the city… it was so awesome, to think that people have lived in those very streets for thousands of years. I got off on Oxford street and did some shopping, then met Lisa at Topshop.

Shopping on Oxford street was so nice. I thought that I should’ve kept going with the tour, but I really just wanted time to myself, to be flexible. So I shopped, and it was really fun to walk alongside (extremely fashionable) Londoners and browse through the stores. I got myself a really cute necklace, extremely comfortable and classy summer sandals, and a fun dress. I was seriously debating buying a dress from Topshop because they are such great quality and look so unique… I may do that on the last day. Finally, Lisa and I walked over to the British Museum and browse around for the last 20 minutes they were open. We planned to do a River Thames ride, but we saw headlines on the news, ‘Stay at home, Police recommend’, so we decided not to. Which was a bummer because my Thames ride was included in my Bus tour ticket. Instead, we found a restaurant near the underground station that was in the middle of both of our accommodation stops.

The restaurant was extremely fancy. The whole street was really fancy, actually. All the couture names were there, and we walked up the quiet street in awe of the fashion and sophistication. It was really exciting to see all these famous couture houses, and see how contemporary fashion (i.e. Oxford street) had adapted from it. When we finally found the restaurant, we realized it was a lot fancier than we planned for, but we went for it anyway. The duck I had was delish, and I tried pavlova for the first time… and fell in love with it. It was really luxurious to be served so well, and it was a well- deserved treat for myself.

Lisa and I had an amazing dinner conversation. It was so nice to be able to relate to someone who had been in Africa for the past little bit too. It was really a huge relief to get some of the things I’ve been thinking about, out and discussed.

Booked it home because I didn’t want to get caught in the dark. It was 8pm and it wasn’t even dark, though, so that’s a big difference from Uganda, where it got dark by 6pm. In my bed, reflecting over the day and looking at my new purchases with fondness.

Tomorrow I will be my “culture day”. I plan on visiting the Tate Modern, Tate Britain, and the British Museum.

 

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