2 posts tagged “travel”

Last week a friend and I embarked upon a small tour around France. We wanted to travel more, but our pesky jobs got in the way of taking too much time off so we took advantage of living so close to Europe (anybody who is English probably doesn't class themselves as European). We took a train very early one morning to Paris from London Kings Cross and had checked in to our hostel just North of Gare du Nord by lunchtime. We spent the next few hours wandering around Notre Dame, Saint Germain des Pres and Montparnasse finding our feet and enjoying the incredibly hot Parisian weather. We got up crazy early the next morning (showering in what felt like a hospital toilet) before lugging our giant backpacks south of La Seine to get a train to Nantes. It was over 30 degrees C in Paris at the time so I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt – something the Parisians clearly thought was an overreaction.

I love taking trains in Europe (especially if they're fast and long distance) as they're clean, efficient, spacious and generally run on time! After a brief nap I decided to get some breakfast from the on board cafe which had sold out of croissants 30 minutes in to a two hour journey. I wanted a hot chocolate with a croissant to dunk in (French style), but seeing as this wasn't an option I opted for tea. I can't speak perfect French or even close, but I can definitely make myself understood so I politely asked for a cup of tea. The slightly rotund French man serving behind the counter clearly understood my request and laughed in my face, "ah ha tea for the roast beef!"

Whilst I am not easily offended, I can't help but feel I would get attacked if roles were reversed. Can you imagine a French guy in London ordering a glass of wine for an English person to chirp back, "haha wine for the frog" ??? Oh and the best bit – I'm a vegetarian!

I shall attempt to not make you sick with talk of travels to Tokyo but here are just a few photos to share with you. Firstly some Harajuku Girls. I actually found the whole situation a bit weird. i was initially excited to head to Yoyogi park on Sunday morning to check out some of the eclectic style on show, but it ends up being a bit pervy with a lot of tourists taking photos of terrified looking girls. I tried speaking to them to get their permission, but my Japanese was as lacking as their English.