My Backpacking Memoirs

London To Paris - 05/03/2017 - 07/03/2017

After my venture north I spent two weeks recovering and procrastinating. I found that I did not need as many clothes as I took to Scotland but I found that everything else I took worked out well. I made a slight upgrade on the ear plugs as I kept losing them, they would fall through gaps on the bunk bed. I would wake up missing an ear plug and spend 5 minutes shaking the sheets only to find it on the floor 2 beds down. So I made the discovery that you can buy ear plugs that are connected together by a thin string, I purchased a couple pairs, an excellent purchase. A Chinese woman I went to university with had unexpectedly came back to the UK so I organised to meet her before I left. I also had a few things I needed to tie up like bank accounts and travel insurance.

I was slower than expected in getting everything sorted out, but a single event drove me to leave. I was walking down the stairs at night, like normal I had not turned the lights on as I did not want to wake anyone up. But on the last few steps I slipped, I could not grab onto anything and the back of my neck hit one of the steps really hard. My mom had left a pile of clothes on the last few steps and I thought they almost killed me. It was a bad omen, I decided that I needed to leave fast.

I would depart for Paris from London, I liked London and it is still my favourite city in Europe for museums. So I decided to spend a full day in London to visit a few things. Plus I knew the bus to Paris would be 8 - 10 hours and I wanted to set off early.

I booked my bus ticket to Paris before I set off, I was travelling using National Express. I could have taken a train to Paris but the tickets are really expensive if you don't book months in advanced. I arrived in London and walked to the Hostel Clink78, I had been here 6 months before and enjoyed my time.

I immediately met a Finnish woman who was sleeping on the bed above mine. She was trying to find a job in London and had been living in hostels for the last month. She had a cold or the flu and being that ill in a hostel did not look fun, no space or privacy, not even knowing what your rights are for free healthcare. I thought to myself at some point in the next 3 months I will be in the same position as she is now. She was about 30 years old and I thought she was cute, especially with sniffly nose. We spoke for a bit and decided to go out and get food, we walked out and went to a supermarket, it was already dark outside. We bought some food and cooked it together in the hostel kitchen.

The hostel is named Clink because it was apparently at some point a prison or jail, it still retains some of the original locked doors. The common room is actually a court room with stands for the judge.

She was working on her CV so I offered to review it for her. She had a strange CV, never had a job longer than 6 months and she had a photo of herself on the first page. I advised her to take off the photo, it is not something we normally have on CVs in the UK. She wanted to keep it as she thought having blonde hair would help her, I thought it might but companies can be cautious with discrimination laws.

I'm not sure what I did for most of the next day, I think I went to a museum but I can't be sure. One thing that I know I did was go and see the Peter Pan statue in the Kensington Gardens. The Dutch woman who wrote me a letter in Edinburgh wanted me to take a photo of it, she must have thought I was some sort of eternal child. My memories are already fading, especially about my time in the UK. On the evening I met a woman and we got a beer in the hostel bar as I wanted to get drunk again.

"He's a twentieth century boy
With his hands on the rails
Trying not to be sick again
And holding on for tomorrow
London ice cracks on a seamless line
He's hanging on for dear life
And so we hold each other tightly
And hold on for tomorrow, singing"
― Blur, For Tomorrow

The next day I woke up and quietly packed up my stuff. I said good bye to the sleeping Finnish woman on the bed above me by giving one of her toes a poke, her feet that were awkwardly hanging off the end of her bed. Then I walked to Victoria Coach Station. I had to wait an hour for my coach as I wanted to get here early. Surprisingly a bus to Paris only cost me about £13! As the bus arrived I separated out my backpack by putting all my valuables in a carry on. My big backpack had a baggage tag of an M&M, given to me by a Chinese family that are friends of my parents.

I boarded the coach, it sat there for a few minutes and departed. It was almost empty with maybe only 8 people on board so I had two seats to myself. It did not take long to get to Dover/ Folkestone which is where the Channel Tunnel starts, the 3rd longest train tunnel in the world I believe. We stopped to let a few more passengers on before it departed for France. The coach drove onto a train and the train departed with the coach on board.

At Calais we stopped to let more people on board and then quickly got on our way to Paris. By the time we arrived in Paris is was late, about 10pm and being March it was pitch black. I arrived in Paris near a place called Bagnolet on the outskirts of the Paris ring road. My first time leaving the British Isles in 10 years and the only time I had left on my own. I had no data and I could not find WiFi but I knew the general direction of the hostel, it was located near Belleville and was called the "The Loft Boutique Hostel".

I walked towards the hostel using a cached version of Google Maps on my phone. The walk took about an hour, I knew I was in a different country, everything was priced in Euros and all the signs were in French. I was unsure if I could speak to people or if they would understand English, how would I react to people that cant understand me? How will I buy food, or ask for help at the Hostel. Paris was a big city and I had spent my entire life living in a village! I really felt alone, I asked myself what I was doing in Paris over and over again. I got to the hostel but the door was locked, I rang the bell and I was let in by the receptionist. My own grand tour had started.