For the 10am (I think) train, Amber and I arrived at King’s Cross railway station early and (un-)fortunate enough  that we were standing on the wrong side of the information boards. As we were standing there waiting for the rest of our group, we spotted the infamous Platform 9 and � minus a huge queue! We took advantage of the opportunity to take photographs of ourselves with the trolley stuck in a thick brick wall.

To say that our train ride was interesting is an understatement. The group of 4 men who sat on the table seats adjacent to us were very entertaining. Not sure if that was intentional though. At first they were playing cards–SpongeBob cards. At one point, they all emerged from a restroom wearing funny masks and animal onesies and just sit there and enjoy the rest of the train ride!

It was first time I stayed at a hostel but it wasn’t as nasty as I expected it to be. The hostel provided clean bed linens but no towels. The cabinets and shower room floor were somewhat questionable but everything else was okay. I stayed for 2 nights with 3 other girls. It was actually fun to sleep on bunk beds! It made me think of the days when my sister and I used to sleep on our own bunk bed.

The place is called Budget Backpackers with a donkey logo. It is very conveniently located. All the major attractions, including many of the spooky tours, Arthur’s Seat, Camera Obscura and Edinburgh Castle were IN WALKING DISTANCE. We literally walked to ALL of these places (although we didn’t visit Camera Obscura).

We arrived on Friday evening and right after the check-in, Fatima, Amber and I walked around the area and ate late lunch/early dinner. Then we came back we all took a nap until around 6 by which time Randal arrived. We were supposed to go to a free pub crawl organized by the hostel staff but since we had time, we went to Ciao Roma, an Italian restaurant, for a nice frozen treat before going to pubs. I ended up going to only 2 pubs though, because I did not bring my passport with me to the trip as I did not plan to drink.

 
The next morning, we climbed to the top of Arthur’s Seat, the volcano near the hostel. That day we were blessed with sunshine and we had too much fun picture-taking and ended up not going to Gilmerton’s Cove which was about 15 minutes away from Edinburgh on a bus. 

After the mountain climbing, I joined Team Goldsmiths for a hike up the stairs to the magnificent Edinburgh Castle while the girls I went mountain climbing with were passed out in the hostel room. 

I enjoyed the Castle visit very much. While it may not be considered conventionally ‘fun’ to take a walk in a centuries-old castle, but I found it fascinating. I personally like historical sites in general, especially ancient buildings and ruins. I don’t know if my dad (who is an architect) has to do with my fondness with old buildings at all but those are the things we love to talk about. 

Then at 6 we met up with the rest of CIEE gang for a group dinner. During dinner somebody mentioned going to a haunted tour. My “roommates” wanted to go so we (I was VERY reluctant) decided to join others for a spooky night out.  Our first choice–allegedly the scariest of all–were all booked so we got tickets from another tour, the Mercat Hidden & Haunted Tour. The guide was pretty awesome, and the tour was, um, bearable. I’m usually not a haunted-anything person so I was relieved that it wasn’t too intense. But some people were disappointed that it wasn’t scary enough.

On the way back, Amber insisted on going to a nightclub and we complied. We had a few drinks and danced for a while. Then outside of the nightclub were a bunch of canopied tricycle taxis, just like the ones in Shanghai. But my Americanos found them very amusing and wanted to get on one even though our hostel was literally 2 seconds away. I initially backed out, thinking it was overpriced. In Shanghai, you could hop on them for a fraction of the cost you would be asked to pay in Edinburgh. I told the driver that for me that kind of vehicles are nothing new. But the driver said it would be the same price for the two people as three. I hopped on. The ride was brief but the driver indeed did his best to impress me. 

On Sunday we left Scotland for London at noon. I slept better on the train back. It was a lot of walking in just 2 days so I wasn’t surprised.

As much as I’d like to transition smoothly into my Paris trip but I thought it would be better to bring us back to the night before I left and the days that followed my Edinburgh trip leading up to Paris briefly.

As I said a few paragraphs ago, I did not take my passport with me to Edinburgh. I tucked it away in the safe in my dorm room along with my laptop. 

When I returned on Sunday, the safe refused to open. I swear I never changed my pass code but it kept telling me I was using the wrong code. I complained at the housing office and they said they’d look for the key.

The next day, I went to the office again. They told me they were still looking for the key.

Tuesday they promised they’d check up on my safe regardless around 5 in the afternoon. No one came.

Wednesday I told them I needed my passport back immediately for my upcoming Paris trip.

Thursday the dorm staff filed a formal complaints on my behalf.

Thursday aka. the day I was scheduled to leave London, the handymen from the company which manufactured my safe came in the morning. They were able to open the safe after 15+ minutes.

I took a bus to Paris from Victoria Coach Station. The coach station was a few minutes walk from Victoria tube station. I wasn’t aware of this until I asked someone who was working in the tube station kiosk.

There are screens in the entrance of the coach station on which I’d find my itinerary and I would just go to the designated gate and look for a check-in desk for my bus carrier (I took Euroline which was the cheapest option I could find). The whole procedure was similar to checking in for a plane flight minus tossing the luggage part but the station itself was more chaotic.

The bus driver stopped a few times for bathroom breaks, immigration inspection and a ferry ride. The passengers and the bus would hop on the same ferry but on different floors.

And as soon as the ferry is done crossing the Channel, the passengers get back on the original bus and continue on their journey.

I arrived in Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport on Friday morning at 7:20. My Penn State friend Victoria came to pick me up. We rode a train to her dorm which was in suburbs of Paris.

We caught up on each other’s stories since Winter Break and then I took a nap in her room while Victoria left for her morning classes.

Around 11am, Victoria’s neighbor barged into the room where the sink is (two rooms share one shower room and the shower is located in between the rooms, so her neighbors come in from the shower-room door quite often). His voice woke me up and I got up and checked in on what has happened and he assured me he wasn’t aware I was there and that his name is Felix who lives a few doors down. Felix kindly invited me to dine with “the rest of the boys” to which I politely declined because I was supposed to have lunch with Victoria. But I did come out to say hi to my friend’s fellow residents, who happen to be all male.

After Victoria came back, she took me to the cafeteria which “does not open that often.” Diners could choose one side, one entree and up to two desserts but I was already full with one dessert. 

Then we got back and took a walk in a park with Felix and his friend Chris who is visiting from Germany. We went back when it started raining and went back out for a nice dinner later.

On Saturday morning, Victoria, Felix, Chris and I took a train to Paris and visited Notre Dame de Paris. I really liked how intricately it was built. It was quite overwhelming to think of how much energy, calculation and planning had gone into every single detail to make this exquisite building a reality. And needless to say the engineers back in the days didn’t have cranes to lift those stones up!

But Victoria and I ran into walls on another church. Turns out pretty much any tourist attraction in Paris requires visitors to show their passports in order to earn eligibility to enter (a passport alone does not guarantee free entry).

Bummed, Victoria and I went separate ways from the boys. We went to a crepe place to have our breakfast! But I think it was one of the best decisions we’ve made. We ate our crispy crepes right by the Seine. It was surprisingly peaceful down the bridge despite being so close to busy streets.

We walked around for a while afterwards before popping into an Indian restaurant called Safran for lunch. We both had the same 3-course meal which consisted of tomato-based chicken curry which I really adored! The wait staff gave each of us a packet of free bindis after the meal and one of them blurted out “Arigato!” to which we giggled (I’m technically Japanese on the paperwork but I’d identify more with being Shanghainese/Chinese, and Victoria is Chinese American). The bindis were such a pleasant surprise though. I’m looking forward to sporting them in my future performances with the Penn State Belly Dance Club 🙂

Then Victoria and I went to Sacre Coeur. The white of the basilica against the azure sky was truly marvelous. Outside of Sacre Coeur were tourist “bracelet” scams, marathon runners and portrait/caricature artists.

As the sky was darkening, we took the metro to Tour Eiffel and on the way to the iconic tower, we stumbled upon the Japanese Cultural Centre in Paris (Maison de la culture du Japon a Paris). There was a special exhibition documenting the 2011 earthquake, its aftermath and journey to recovery. It was actually funny that all of the sudden our positions are reversed in which I was the one who could understand what was going on while Victoria became clueless in the middle of Paris.  

Somehow on the way from Sacre Coeur and Tour Eiffel, Victoria’s favorite circle scarf went missing and we could not find it. So we turned to Champs Elysees for a scarf hunting. Plus it was right on the way to Arc de Triumphe.  

We tried unsuccessfully to go to the rooftop terrace at Gallery Lafayette to see the beautiful city lights but the store’s shutters went down as we were about to cross the street. We gave up and waited for Magnus, a friend of Victoria’s, for dinner and call it a day.

On my last day, we went to Musee du Louvre. The place was HUGE but I’m happy I got to see Mona Lisa, Nike of Samothrace, Venus de Milo and the Code of Hammurabi in person. Bear with me, but for a history/archaeology/museum junkie like me, it is such a powerful experience to go and see the actual things that you read in books standing RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU. 

Overall it was a very productive weekend in Paris! I feel so accomplished in squeezing so many landmarks in 3 days 🙂 Many many thanks to Victoria and friends who showed me around 😀

Pictures to follow soon! Promise!!!!

Location: London, UK