Part 1 (Dec. 15 - 19)

This blog is about the trip I took to Europe with my girlfriend at the time, Melissa and my best friend, Juan during my Winter Break from FIU. It starts December 15th and ended on January 5th. This is the Eurotrip as told by me.

December 15, 2006

Melissa and I arrived at the airport thanks to both our dads for driving us there. My dad dropped us off at our gate and went ahead to park the car. We made the mundane check in line where Melissa and I tried to figure out whether my rolling luggage was considered "carry-on".....no it wasn't by the way. We checked in to our British Airways flight and made our way to the security area. Oh man, what a mission that was. You have to have your liquids in a some certain size plastic zip lock bag, and they can only be 3 ounces or less…..whatever, do yourself a favor, carry the only liquids you’ll need in that zip lock bag, put everything else in your checked baggage bag. That way you can avoid the headache those TSA jerks will give you.

Melissa went Wal-Mart crazy and bought a ton of those travel bottles. The lady told us we couldn’t have that many bottles and hassled us for a while before a compromise was made. They had to escort me out of the security area so that I could give some of the excess bottles to my parents who were still waiting. Their faces was worth a thousand words when they saw me come out with the guard, but I reassured them that all was well, that that I wanted them to take back some of the bottles because, well, they cost money you know. You don’t just throw money away, do you?

Well when we got through I waved my parents a final good-bye and we made our way to our designated gate. We were still pretty early despite the hold up so Melissa and I waited awhile before we could board our plane. It wasn’t until 8:15 pm or so that we were able to board. First off, allow me to say that British Airways has got to be the best way to 'cross the pond'. We noticed this right away when you open your little 'goodie bag' that is on ever seat. Inside it includes your own set of headphones, sleeping mask, walk around the plane so your own socks don't get dirty socks, travel toothbrush and toothpaste, pillow and blanket. The seats even have neck guards so when and if you do fall asleep, you won’t wake up with that nagging pain in your neck and you don’t have to waste your money on the one that you buy in the airport shops either.

December 16, 2006

If your flight lands in Europe at a morning time, (their time) then take a tip from me. The day of your flight go to the gym, go running, go for a bike ride, etc., do something that will make you feel exhausted, but don’t take a nap, save it. Then once you're on the plane, sleep and sleep long, bring ear plugs if you need to. Hopefully you would have slept the entire flight and will just be waking up by the time you arrive. It is this way that you can avoid crappy jet lag days while vacationing in Europe because by the time you land, you’ll already be adjusted to their time.

The flight was a direct from Miami International to London Heathrow and because of a tail wind we got there earlier than scheduled. That did not matter though, the plane that was there before ours was still there and we had to wait till that one started to taxi, long story short, we got off the plane the same time we would have even if we hadn’t gotten there early. Once we were off, we got our luggage and made our way to the subway otherwise known as the “Underground”.

To get into central London from Heathrow, you’ll need to take the Picadilly Line toward Cockfosters, yes Cockfosters.


Do yourself a favor and buy an all day pass, it will last you till 1am, which is when the underground stops running anyways. We arrived in Victoria station and dropped off our luggage in their drop luggage center. We did our walking tour thanks to the great weather in London….something that is not that common there so pack your umbrella. We did our own walking tour of London and these are just some of the things we saw...

My Buckingham Palace collage

Walked through St. James Park

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben Clock Tower

Trafalgar SquarePicadilly Circus

Tower of London

For lunch we ate, what else? Fish & chips of course! We ate at a great place across Tower BridgeNeedless to say that anything fried taste great and these fish and chips were no exceptionIt was so good that I felt like getting another plate which is no surprise to those who know meBut then I saw the bill and thought otherwise...

We paid about 20 quid between the two of us which is way too much for fish & chips (quid are pounds, its their equivalent way of saying bucks when we mean dollars). The British pound is stronger than the dollar so the conversion rate kills you if you aren't careful (20 GBP = 38.88 USD). The worst part about the price was that when we went outside we saw some dude giving out buy one plate of Fish & Chips get one free coupons for the restaurant we had just eaten at…..did somebody say....Dammit! With no way of getting that 10 quid back we shrugged our shoulders and continued on our journey and crossed Tower Bridge.

Tower Bridge

Crossed London Bridge (which isn't that cool by the way)

Crossed the Millenium BridgeShakespeare's Globe theatre (we didn't care to go inside though)

After we finised exploring London by foot we made our way to our hostel. We stopped at a subway for dinner…..yes subway, eat fresh. Take note that Subway is probably the CHEAPEST place you can eat in London. We had booked a hostel called Hostel 639 which we do NOT recommend... I don't care what the website says. Our room had 3 bunk beds, which we expected. The shower though, was inside the room and it wasn’t partitioned off or anything, it was just in the room, where everyone could see you. Melissa and I should have taken advantage and taken a shower really quick, but since we had no idea when our other roommates could come in, we didn’t because as Americans, you're taught to be ashamed of your naked body.

They had a computer room with DSl so we went downstairs and tried to buy a Chunnel ticket….haha, yeah right. These tickets are like airplane tickets, buy them in advance if you want them cheap. Try to buy them the day before you want to use them and expect to pay 300+ dollars. It was then decided that we would do the train>ferry>train to get to Paris. Once that was settled we went back to the room and since we had been walking all day we were tired and wanted nothing more than to sleep because we had to wake up early the next day. That would not be the case though because our roommates busted into the room at 3 am, reeking of smoke and made no effort to be quiet. Fuckers…..it was the worst sleep ever.

December 17, 2006

Melissa woke me around 6:42am. We dressed and packed our stuff, but trust me, I made no effort to be quiet and I even slammed the door shut when we got the hell out of that place. Never again will I stay in a hostel unless I absolutely need to. Since it was still pretty early, there was no one to buy the tickets from at the Kensal Green station, so we just jumped the gate and caught the train to Charring Cross station. We then bought the Train>Ferry>Train tickets to get to Paris, about 90 quid each if I remember correctly. We also stopped at a local grocery store and bought some things to eat. Note to everyone reading this, hearty whole wheat or multigrain bread, strawberry jelly and cream cheese make for great sandwiches and make for an even better breakfast, lunch and dinner…especially when you’re on a tight Eurotrip budget.

The first train you need to take, takes you from Charring Cross to Dover Priory. From Dover Priory you need to hop a short bus ride to get to the ferry port. When you get on the ferry you can really appreciate the famous ‘white cliffs’ of Dover. The ferry takes you to the port of Calais, France (pronouned Ca-lay, the silent S is a popular French thing apparently). The trip is not that long, about 40-45 minutes or so. We ate our sandwiches on the ferry, but the ship has a self service style eatery if you’re hungry. Once off the ferry you need to take a bus ride to the train station in Calais. Make sure you tell the driver that you want to go the station or else you will not know where to get off. If you're the stubborn type and don't like to ask for directions then when you see this clock tower (pictured left) GET OFF THE BUS! The train station is just around the corner.

We took the train to Paris Nord, but mistakenly got off at Boulogne - Tintelleries….we got confused from the eurail book…don’t make the same mistake we did, get off at Boulogne - Ville and transfer accordingly to get to Paris Nord. From there we took the French version of the subway called the “Metro”. We had no idea how to buy tickets, or even knew which tickets we needed. I used the very little French that I knew to get us somewhere with the man behind the counter. “Parlez vous anglais?” = “Do you speak English?” …. (a big thanks to Chelsea from Jamba Juice for that one). We then took the metro to Montparnasse, which is this huge building where you can go up and see a nice 360 degree panorama of Paris….we didn’t do that though. We stayed at the Hotel Unic which Melissa’s dad had booked for one night for us via text messaging/expedia.com. It was a really nice hotel and I will totally recommend it to anyone I know. Even the man behind the desk was nice. Oh yes, “Bonsoir” means good evening, so use it after 5pm. I picked up that one on the fly…yes, you do learn something everyday.

December 18, 2006

We slept like logs but woke-up early and took the train from Gare Montparnasse, which was right down the street to Rennes. Before we did this, we had to validate our Eurail Passes….you need to stand in line for a stamp. We took a TGV train (pictured right is Melissa boarding the TGV), which is the French high speed train. We arrived at Rennes ½ hour early where we needed to meet our West Capades Tour director. We got really worried though because we did not see anyone.

We eventually met up with the guy and we were off to our first destination, Dinan located in the French region of Brittany. Dinan is a walled Breton town and a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor département, France. It is one of France's most attractive walled towns. Make sure you get some freshly baked bread at the boulangerie (boulangerie is bakery in French) located across St. Malo's church (pictured above).

Dinan

Then it was off to Saint. Malo. St. Malo is a walled port city in Brittany in northern France a town northwest of Nantes on the Gulf of Saint-Malo, an inlet of the English Channel. Founded on the site of a 6th-century A.D. monastery, it was a base for French pirates in the 17th and 18th centuries.

St. Malo

Then off to Mont St. Michel, which essentially was the whole purpose of going on this tour. Mont Saint-Michel is a small rocky tidal island in Normandy, roughly one kilometre from the north coast of France at the mouth of the Couesnon River near Avranches. This small town was built on this rock and was surrounded by the ocean. Now they have built an irrigation system that makes it so that it is only surrounded by water at high tide. The land surrounding the town is very rich in nutrients and makes for great farming in the summer, but in the winter, it’s a very large quick sand pit. Go walk on it, its fun, just don't slip, you'll have nasty clay like mud all over you. The tour was all over late in the evening. Our tour director drove us back to the train station where we then took the train back to Paris.

Mont St. Michel

December 19, 2006

We woke up early and went for a jog. We ran from our hotel to the Eiffel Tower and back, about 50 minutes or so….jogging to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, never been? After a good stretch and shower we took the subway back to the Eiffel Tower. Listen, I realize that you’re probably an American and as an American it is typical that you don’t exercise that much, but seriously, don’t waste time in the elevator straight to the top line. Instead opt for the stairs. Why? Well for one, there is no line! and two, you don’t pay as much..yay! I actually ran up those steps out of excitement and boredom. There are 668 steps to second floor (there is 3 floors total, the 3rd being the very top). On the second floor you can take an elevator to get to the top because apparently it's too dangerous to climb the stairs that take you to the top from the second floor. Regardless though, if you take the stairs>then elevator option you end up paying half of what you would have paid if you had taken the elevator straight up from the ground. We did not have time to go all the way to the top though, because we needed to check out of our hotel.

We checked out of the hotel but made reservations to stay again because we liked it that much. After that we decided that we should take care of the chunnel tickets that we needed for when we would travel back to London from mainland Europe. So we took the metro to Gare Lyon Station and bought Chunnel Tickets there. We also went to a grocery store across the street and bought our lunch, yes, bread, jelly, and cream cheese. We also got some super cheap water. 40 Euro cents for 1.5 liters! Oh yes, water in Europe is not free, not even in restaurants (In a restaurant a glass of water will cost your 1.50 Euro). After the tickets were bought we went back to the Eiffel Tower (that's the 3rd time in case you lost count). Eiffel Tower, 3 times in one day....never been? And yes, I ran up the 668 steps again to second floor. This time though we took the elevator to top and took some pics.

A view from the top

After that I wanted to go see a building called “La Defense”. Very nice architecture, you might recognize it from the building that "spiderman" climbed (the guy who climbs buildings with bare hands)...Ah, now you know where you've seen it, right? Across from the building we noticed that there was some kind of German themed flea market where Melissa and I ate these delicious sausage dogs; topped with onions, peppers, mustard and served with fresh and crispy fries ... It was amazing stuff.

We then took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe. You wouldn't believe from the photos, but this structure is massive. We then ran across the 7 lane-ish circular street that encompasses the arc so that we could get to the middle. A very dangerous thing to do, but we did not know that you could take an underground walk way to get to the middle.

We then walked down the famous avenue les Champs Elysees. We walked toward Place de la Concorde and took some pics of Cleopatra's needle. We then took the metro to the Louvre and took some pictures of the pyramids at night. Here now are just some photos of Paris at night time, enjoy the city of lights.