Hello again!
Please forgive me for my spelling mistakes in the last two posts, which have been corrected. I rushed writing them due to writing on a bunk bed in a room that must have been as hot as the inside of a car on a hot day. I also realize there are mixtures of tenses (past and present) but that is by design as it is how I wrote it at the time. So if my high school English teacher is reading, sorry Ms Butera!
If you'd like to follow my trip on Polarsteps, check it out here.
Also, Part 1 of the series can be found here!
Also, Part 1 of the series can be found here!
Where did I leave off last time? Ah, Paris. Alright, going to stick to the script (mostly) of my notebook here.
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Just kidding, quoting myself is just too much.
Also, the dates listed are not representative of where I was on that day, but the day I wrote in my journal. Perhaps that wasn't clear before. MY BAD FOLKS.
June 22, 2017
I blogged while in Paris but didn't "journal" anything. Now I'm too drunk to write anything neat enough.
(oops)
June 23, 2017
I actually enjoyed Paris more than I thought I would. My one issue though, meals took way too long. But that's the Paris way I suppose.
We stayed in a small but quite nice apartment via Airbnb in a northern district of Paris. It was a beautiful area, on top of a hill that overlooks most of the city. I went exploring solo and absolutely loved it. I saw all the sights and even spent some time in the MASSIVE Louvre museum.
Mona Lisa (whose first name is actually thought to be Lisa, not Mona), is actually larger than I thought it (she?) would be. I always heard about how small the painting was but it seemed like a decent size for a portrait of a random woman, but what do I know about art...
[Off script]
I had started a thought in the book but then it just stopped, hence my deviation from this future New York Times bestselling handwritten travel journal.
I can't say enough just how beautiful Paris was. The city, at least along the central running river, is just amazing. Surprisingly, it was quite calm around the main sights (the people, not the river, although the river was calm as well, I guess). I didn't even have to wait to get into the Louvre. That surprised me, but I think I just got lucky.
[Back on script-kind of]
We went up the Eiffel Tower early the next day to skip the waiting, which worked fantastically. The tower is cool, very minimalistic but unique and truly a feat of engineering. It's quite high, 282 metres for the top viewing platform if I recall correctly. It provides really amazing #views of the city. Then I blogged what you previously read the remainder of the day (I assume, if not go...GO NOW).
After some pretty intense security at Eurostar (like more security than at the international airport I flew out of), and a blazing fast 347.2 km/h train, which spent most of its time at 215 km/h, we arrived in London.
London was intimidating at first but turns out to be very welcoming and friendly, overall. The infamous London Underground was crazy big but very well planned out and extremely easy to use.
Ah, London. There is SO MUCH here! We had an extended stay of 5 days this time. Our plan was 4 days in and around London, and 1 day for a trip to Stonehenge. We stuck to the plan rather flawlessly, except for some plans for visiting stadiums. I'm not a huge fan of stadiums (why do I care what the locker room looks like?) but the tours usually have good guides and great history. Oh well. I am also excited to visit my second Wonder of the World, Stonehenge, although I'm learning as I write this that it is more of a B-league Wonder. Still pretty cool and 4500 years old!
We finally went to a few museums in this city, the first being the Natural History Museum, and it was HUGE! They have the most complete Stegosaurus skeleton and a bunch of other rare minerals, bones, and fossils and much much more. I even saw Uranium (don't worry, it had a lead lined case). I also went to the Science museum which I personally loved. The first thing I see is a giant working steam engine (cool), then a full-size model of the Apollo moon lander (cooler) and watched an IMAX movie filmed inside and outside of the International Space Station (CD@!^#@ COOLEST). I even saw my hometown all lit up at night as the ISS passed over it. Not to mention the screen was the size of 6 double decker buses stacked on top of one another. The Science Museum had a bunch of other great stuff but I don't want to bore any more of you. Moving on.
To shorten things up, we did a lot of the typical London attractions so check those pictures out on Polarsteps. The Tower of London is a real medieval castle in the middle of the city and over 900 years old! Overall, London has been really great, except the local beers. Ale, served warm and with terrible taste. The taps for the Ales are strange though. They're like pump action taps, so 4ish pumps filled a pint.. if you were curious...
Today I went to the Royal Observatory and stood on the Prime Meridan. That was cool, standing on the line which splits the Earth into East and West. They also have a 4.5 Billion (with a B) year old meteor that I touched. I know I know, it's just a rock, but IT CAME FROM SPACE SO SHUSH.
I forgot to mention we also visited the Royal Air Force Museum. It may be the only other place in the world with an air-ready Lancaster Bomber. The other being my hometown of Hamilton, Canada. I'm interested to compare Hamilton's warplane museum with Londons, as I don't really remember too much about the one back home.
Lastly, I went over to the 2012 Olympic Park. It was pretty cool since it was my first time being in an Olympic park that I watched on TV. Don't worry, we're coming to the end soon. It's a big city so there's lot's to write about and I just can't include it all here.
I had some stuff about mobile data in the UK and that I finally got data for my phone, but realize it's lame and I am striking it out of this masterpiece.
Something else I've noticed, all proper British people speakSOFAST. And overuse the word proper... which seems to be rubbing off.
Anyway, Stonehenge tomorrow, then Oxford.
Wow, I wrote a lot that day... I'll post Part 4 soon!
J
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