An Unexpected Party

Today we slept in until noon, then by evening we were awake enough to go shopping at the grocery store nearby for the week. So when 8 o'clock rolled around (after another hour nap.) we wandered into Micheline's kitchen and expected to make some pasta we bought and some veggies to stir fry.

The next thing we know, Micheline appears and she is getting some white asparagus out of the fridge and saying a lot of things we only half understood. Next a man comes through the door with a plate of fish and then a woman with some more food, and there is a lot of French everywhere everywhere. Micheline hands us some silverware and plates and we set up on the back patio next to the garden, still completely unsure of what's going on. (Are we supposed to help? Eat with them? Cook something too?)

These people live down the hall and are Micheline's daughter, Carole, and her husband. They had just made food so joined us for the evening.

Tessa and I decided to just go with the flow, and soon enough we had a very interesting meal in front of us:

Small cantaloupes which we all agreed were overripe.

A blended aubergine with garlic. It's like a paste, but the sponginess goes away since its blended (with a blender), and the garlic helps, but I found it slightly bitter still. 

Small organic radishes. Carole's way of eating them were to slice the end like an X, stick some butter in it, and dip it in sea salt. Really, it's way better than it sounds!

White asparagus (previously cooked soft) dipped in truffle vinaigrette. We got a whole lesson on what exactly white asparagus was, because neither of us had actually seen it before. Look it up, it's about four times as thick as green asparagus, and it's white because when it grows, they keep putting dirt on it so the sun never touches it. I think.

And some lettuce. With vinaigrette.

After everything was back inside, Carole's husband got a ladder and picked a bag full of cherries from the tree because the birds kept taking them. They were tasty but not too sweet.

Now it's about 10 o'clock, sun setting, and in probably an hour or two, the kitchen will be busy with activity again like last night. Who knows.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

------

A wall of chocolate!! We will have to get some. This is actually only one of three walls around the supermarket. And a whole other wall of biscuits as well.

View on the Eurostar: (out of order, this came first.)

This was in the street when we left the store with our groceries, and so I took a picture of it.

Eurostar

The morning of our London departure: We visited Kew Gardens over near Richmond (affluent area) and walked around some beautiful garden grounds. We took lots of plant pictures, and finally found some freshly made ice cream.

Then we met my German pen-friend Katharina for a short while to explore the Science Museum together. She just flew in from Spain to volunteer at her cousin's elementary school in London for a couple weeks.  It had been two years since I'd seen her last so it was very nice to say hello!

Our Eurostar train left at 4:22pm so by then it was just past three. We ran back to grab our backpacks at the crappy hotel, and then raced for one last ride on the Tube to St Pancras station, side by side King's Cross.

When we boarded our coach (after customs, passport stamping, and bag screening) we were immediately followed by....no fewer than thirty loud, French, thirteen-year-old boys. They immediately started blasting the Thrift Shop song on someone's phone, and made a game of throwing a package of sweets back and forth across the aisles. (It was a four hour ride.)

As I'm writing this: They've figured out we are English speakers, and now we are helping them with their British-English homework, since it's a school field trip.

Anyway, after we arrived in Gare du Norde I realized quite suddenly that I did not remember much French at all. Thinking back, I've been saying "Je parle un peu Français." for, oh, six years now. I'm really, really sorry for unintentionally deceiving you, Tessa.

After about 40 minutes of trying to figure out what ATM is in French (for we had no Euros) and where an info booth was, we made it on the correct Metro lines with a small handwritten map in hand!! By then we were both already exhausted. Packs=heavy no matter how well you pack.

Finally we got off on the nearest station and had to ask a fruit stand guy to tell us where Didot street is, and we got yet another handwritten map. THEN once we got to the street, some lady walks past us and says "oh, backpackers, right?" (No, we are just carrying around a few tons of crap on our back at 9 o'clock at night.) She has a complete American accent to my delight, and she's from California. ("Oh, I don't speak French but I live here. Where are you going? Great, I live in that building!")

We buzzed in and knocked on Micheline's door, dearly hoping our directions and contact was all right. Well, once we said who we were: "You're the two backpack girls! Mon Dieu, I completely forgot about you! Leave your stuff here and go get some food. Come back in an hour and your room will be made!" She lives above an Indian food restaurant, so we went there ("Oh you don't have money yet? Don't go get cash at night! Go down there and order and say my name, and I'll be down to pay for you in a  few minutes.") so we ordered Indian food in French.

We are staying with a friend of a friend, Micheline, who is an 85 year old woman who lived in the States for a decade in the past, so her English is fair. Her hearing on the other hand, is not so fair. She also has un petit chien, Maxsu.

Now, this place is costing us $32 each, a night, so our budgeting is for four days in Paris. But we would absolutely love to stay longer, we just haven't figured out how yet....something will come up, it always does.

Our room:

Stonehenge

Since I was lazy and forgot to actually finish this post, I'll just say a few pointer things.

I got the GPS on my camera to work! I am 99% sure it is tagging where each of my photos were taken. It got Tower Bridge at least, and a few other places. Anyway I'm excited to see how that all turns out.

We had a nice bus driver, James, who gave us a little sightseeing tour on the long drive to Stonehenge. And once we got there we had an English audio tour that told us a fascinating history from a bunch of old lichen topped rocks.

You can't get too close, I'd say a quarter mile away? Except one side is significantly closer to the footpath. But our guide said in the next year or so they are entirely changing it and you won't be able to even be that close, and they're "giving back the land" so I'm glad I went now.

Some of the hills nearby are burial mounds, which is kinda mysterious. I don't know what is buried there. Hell, they don't even know why Stonehenge is there.

When we got back to the hostel that evening after the tour, we grocery shopped one more time. Tessa asked the old man in front of us if he wanted to scan his frequent card for us, and he was oh so happy that he would get our extra points.

London Hostels

I'm writing this on the bus heading to Stonehenge now. It's been an...exciting...two days.

The hostel we booked last minute (Tessa keeps reminding me that technically I alone booked this one.) well, it's pretty crappy. After a haggaring 24+ hours of travel, we stumbled in an hour after the earliest checkin time, and they didn't have our rooms ready yet. Other off putting things about W14 Kensington Hotel:

-Showers/toilet rooms are really moldy.

-My bed is wet for some reason. Was even before I got there, but this morning when I realized it hadn't dried, whatever it is, I got weirded out a lot. Still working on that problem.

-The room lockers are about half the size as our backpacks.

-There is no communal kitchen, but more of a hallway with a stove with 14 different buttons.

-The staff are very unfriendly and it's all business to them, not the happiness of their customers.

We sort of figured out this used to be a hotel and they are turning it back into one in a few months, so while that's not really an excuse, it explains why it doesn't seem very hostel-like. 

After some emergency searching, and to no really avail, we decided to stick it out the next three days. After all, the next one has to be better, and this is already paid for.

Yesterday evening we found a nearby Tesco (grocery store) and shopped for ingredients  And using the hallway-kitchen on the first floor (not ground floor) managed to make some pasta and garlic broccoli sauté. You could smell it throughout the hostel, which was an improvement to the place, believe me. While we were preparing our meal, an older Italian man was making his own pasta and we exchanged hellos. He was staying there for three months because he had work nearby, I think. His accent was extremely strong.

This morning my Stonehenge tour company called, and I emailed them back, asking what the call was about. They told me that my tomorrow-tour got cancelled and to let them know if we wanted to reschedule for the day after (when we leave for Paris) or a refund. 

So I'm on the verge of frustrated-freaking-out mode because seriously, seeing Stonehenge was the single reason I wanted to go to London this trip. Tessa realized it was only noon, and they had afternoon tours too, so we quickly called them back using the hostel phone (50p a minute) and they were able to fit us in for today! (In a two-minute conversation!)

And after a long confusing avoiding-construction-on-foot route, we made it to the station in time, out of breath and excited, because we are going to Stonehenge!

Probably the most disgusting thing I've seen in a foreign grocery store. Um. Ew. It's a SHAKE.

Walk-up to the hostel of crap:

While we were on the coach to Stonehenge, cars kept passing us and I had a mini heart attack every time I saw no one in the drivers seat! Oh wait, it's on the other side! Yeah I never got used to it.

Yellow!

Saga Class

I didn't expect to be writing so soon. But to our delight...the airplane has a USB plugin. Seriously. I am so happy right now. Oh, and 48 movie options as well.

So here I am. On a plane. Crossing the Atlantic. Tessa is sitting behind me, and we plan to pass notes and food to each other over the next five and a half hours.

I already have a few interesting stories.

Our checkin went smoothly. Almost. When we asked for plastic bags for the backpacks we got a negatory response. The conversation went something like this:

"Oh, well the wrapping station is in Terminal 4."

"But we arent going to Terminal 4, this is 7. So you have no bags here? At all?"

"Why do you need one? You can check them just like that."

"We kind of have a bunch of things strapped to the outside!" 

"Oh, well, we don't usually give them out..."

So we used our womanly charm on the poor young Icelandic dude. (We gave him seriously pissed off looks of desperation.)

...let me check in the back though."

He comes back five minutes later claiming he found the LAST TWO they had. Uhhhh thanks, but don't keep lying to us. So all worked out! That was a relief.

We learned about Saga class while in the airport. And now have come to quietly resent it. Especially when we passed the Saga class seats on the front of the plane. The nice, comfy couches up there.

And the KEF airport (near Reykjavik) is apparently a 24 hour airport, flights arriving all night, so it won't be creepy dead in there, and we won't be alone. Also, we were told that yes, it will indeed be daylight out the entire night (12am-8am we will be there) so that'll be interesting.

This'll probably post once we are in London because there isn't free wifi in KEF airport. But believe me, I will not continue to be this...resilient? in posting every day. 

Bye for now!

Somewhere over the Atlantic:

:):):)

Perpetual twilight:

Long Island

(I meant to post this yesterday but forgot! Excuse the off timing.)

I've arrived safely in New York!

I flew all day yesterday, and after an extra hour's worth of weather avoidance, I got in about 11:30 last night to LaGuardia. Thankfully my ride was here, and my backpack made it intact as well. 

It's very moist here. 

Tomorrow morning I'm getting a ride to JFK, and meeting up with Tessa, who'll be arriving just a few hours before. We're flying Icelandic Air to London, but we have an 8 hour layover in the middle of the night in Reykjavik. I'm curious to see if the sun will be up all that time.

Today I'm catching up on my sleep, watching Star Trek, and eating stove-top popcorn (which is awesome by the way, new experience #1!) and that's about it. 

I'm staying with my friend Nat, who's twin five year old brothers are very into Irish step dancing. I was lucky enough to get a brief performance this morning over breakfast. Tonight we are going to see her other brother's band play nearby.

I miss my kitties and family already, but I'm super excited for tomorrow, when I meet Tessa, and we get this adventure started!

Excelsior!

The moist but gorgeous day:

And one of Nat's dogs, Hobbes:

My new best friend.

Okay here is my first test post from my iPhone's Blogger app. (After this posts I'm going to have to go on my computer and see what it looks like..)

Attached below, hopefully, is my new best friend for Europe. My Kindle. It's not actually new since I got it last July in pre-pre-preparation for this trip, but I'm now finally getting used to using it. I haven't been able to allow myself to buy anything more than $0.00 on it yet, but I don't hate it.

The Kindle will be my new best friend because it's going to be (almost) my only connection to books...

(Almost- hopefully excepting the book I trade out from the hostels as I go, because I just can't stay away from paper this long, and I'll need my fix.)

One of the Kindle perks is: free books. I love lots of classics and some that I haven't gotten to yet are now, weightlessly, going to be coming with me! A few I've downloaded already are:

Les Mis-because I can't get over how many pages I turn and the percentage-done still hasn't gone over 2%.

North and South, Wives and Daughters-by Elizabeth Gaskell

A bunch of Jules Verne's works

Bleak House by Dickens which I've been meaning to read for forever.

Dracula- um we are going to Sighisoara, Romania. Need I say more?

Madame Bovary- Guatave Flaubert

Alllll the Sherlock Holmes tales

Some Mark Twain

The Scarlet Letter (yeah I know I'm the last person on the planet not to have read it yet.)

And a bunch of e-books I have to review for my blog.

The point is, I probably won't read half of these, exploring and all, but for those endless train rides and overseas flights...I'll be happy for at least a bunch of options.

I'm also able to whispersync ebooks I check out from the library to this device, using my iPhone to order them since this thing doesn't have a web browser. This is handy and will update items every time I connect it to wifi. (Which I normally have turned off to save battery life.)

I'm very glad my Kindle charges via USB like all my other devices so it will fit in my adapter too. :)

And this thing weighs like 4 ounces.

Seven weeks!

Leah