Contiki I

I fell in love with England as soon as I caught my first sight of it. It was the middle of the day, with clear skies, so I could see Dover heading towards us over the curve of the earth. Flying into Heathrow, beautiful green patchwork quilts of land which reminded me so much of home gradually resolved into small, modern but still picturesque towns huddled around ancient looking churches. And then we flew over a castle. What can I say?!

I caught the tube in to London, managed to navigate that and the streets to find my way to the Royal National Hotel (a place with the most uniformly terrible service service I´ve ever encountered - I was only there for one night though so it was not a problem), texted Tony and realised I didn´t have Jamie´s mobile number, then checked in and had a shower. My roommate for that night arrived while I was in the shower which was a bit of a surprise...

After the shower I had the meeting where we met out tour leader and driver (both awesome people) and met the people we´d be on tour with. I met some people and went out to dinner with them, at a pub around the corner. Dinner was ten pounds, but I got my steak! Holy cow it was good. Hehehe. There was salad, too, and chips! With no spices on them! Oh man. It was awesome.

Anyway, after that we all went to bed to be rested for our 6am leaving time. I was pretty excited so I managed to stay awake until then, but it was four hours later than I was used to (because of the change from India) so I slept through my alarm in the morning! There was no problem, though - I just packed a little haphazardly and got downstairs in plently of time.

Met a few new people on the drive to Dover, but mostly listened to Michael (our tour leader) talk about all the basic stuff (no hot food on the coach, double-bag if you´re going to throw up, etcetera). The ferry across was cool, though I was sad to be leaving England so soon after arriving.

Calais, the French port across from Dover, is nothing really to look at. We drove on through and were in Paris for that night, doing a night tour of the illuminations before bed. Our intrepid driver, Kim, even managed to drive us on the uninsurable roundabout around the Arc de Triomphe not one but about three times (!) , and into the Louvre with about an inch of clearance for the coach on either side. Go Kim! Girlpower and all that.

I loved Paris! I was prepared to be unimpressed, but the Eiffel Tower was really very cool, as was the Arc and the two islands in the Seine. So was the Champs Elysees, so was the Rue St. Honore, and so was finding out that I still speak enough French to be able to get around. I am SO going back there. The Moulin Rouge was pretty average though. Meh.

After a three nights we moved on to the Beaujolais region, where we stayed in this fabulous old Chateau. We had a party night that night with another group that was staying there; the theme was ¨come as something starting with P¨. I bought some fluffy white fabric in Paris and went as a panda. It was cool.

Well, my time is running out, but I am now in Spain which is less cool, but still pretty sweet. The wine in Beuajolais was not to my taste (vinegar never is unless it´s on chips). We are off to see flamenco dancing tonight, but until then it´s museums, shops, and tapas! Whee!