London is calling

Plans for London - Alone

The week passed by so quickly and I didn't even notice where the time had went. I had enjoyed the evenings and lunchtimes with my boyfriend so much that I really regretted having booked that trip to London so much time before. Don't get that wrong, I really wanted to go to London, but I also wanted to spend time with him. And even if he wanted to come with me it was not possible because he had to work on his thesis.

So I tried to look into the future and to be happy about the possibility to visit London a second time. I had already been there once as trip during my school time at the beginning of the graduation year, but now I would be there alone and independent, and no timetable would tell me where to go at which time. I had booked a guest room via AirBnb a bit outside central London because it was just impossible to pay a hotel room in the city centre without having a large salary.

My flight would be in the evening at the 9th of may, a national holiday in France. I didn't know that when I had booked the flights and now I had the problem that there were only three trains from Amiens to Paris that day. And none of them was quite suitable for me. So I asked my boyfriend if he had a solution for me, and he told me that there was the possibility to get to the TGV Haute Picardie train station by bus and then to take the TGV directly to the airport Paris Charles de Gaulle.

Sounded a bit complicated to me, but when I watched the schedules for that bus/train in the internet I really found one which wouldn't make me waiting for hours at the airport. So I decided to do that. I spent the whole day to finish my (hand!) luggage and reading my French tourist guide about London.

Departure to London

The evening before - Do I really want to leave? 

In the evening, as so often, I went to my boyfriend's work by car and picked him up there. We went to the supermarket, got something to eat and got back to my appartment in the student's residency. I enjoyed that evening as much as all the other ones with him and finally I didn't really want to go to London anymore when I woke up the next morning. We stayed in bed until it was almost lunchtime and I would have preferred to stay there longer, but I wanted to eat something before I would take the bus to the airport, so I took a shower and we got ready to leave the appartment. 

We took the bus to the train station and went to a small "fast-food" restaurant to have something to eat. I really didn't want to go to London anymore, I didn't want to waste any time during my semester in France with things that were not related to spending time with my boyfriend. But I had booked everything and I would meet two friends of mine, so I had to go anyway. I enjoyed the last minutes with him, before he showed me the place where the bus to the airport would depart. 

We had some time left, sat down and talked. I knew that he really wanted to join me but he couldn't, so I really hoped that one day we would be able to travel together, have a life together. But that was far in the future, I would spend another semester abroad and it would be Tenerife, so it would become really hard, and up to now I didn't even know if it would have any future after my depart in June. So I just said goodbye and entered the bus, half happy and half sad about the situation. 

Too much public transportation!

The bus ride was about 1 hour until the TGV train station Haute Picardie and I've never been in that part of the French region, so I looked out of the window and enjoyed the landscape. We arrived and I had 25 minutes until the TGV would arrive. As my timetable for the day was quite serious I hoped that there wouldn't be any delay, but of course - 10 minutes after departure time there was still no TGV in sight. I became nervous, I didn't want to miss my plane. But I couldn't do anything, so I just waited. 20 minutes after original departure time, the TGV arrived. I went to my place and looked out of the window for the 50 minutes of the journey in high speed. 

Finally we arrived at the metro station of Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris and I rushed out of the train. I had 1,5 hours left until the departure of my plane but as German person I was always afraid of being too late, and I knew that CDG airport was so large. So I looked for my Gate - fortunately I had already checked in online, so I just had to find the right security check gates and I would be safe. Because I didn't know when I would get something to eat I stopped at Burger King shortly which was right in front of the security entrance I had found after only 10 minutes walking. 

After my meal I went through the security check and arrived in the Gate Area. I found a screen with my flight and looked for the right Gate. Boarding would start in 20 minutes, so I sat down and relaxed - I had never been at the airport so late. But everything was allright, so I could chill a bit. The flight was on time and I arrived in London 1,5 hours later. Because I didn't have any luggage but my hand luggage I could leave the airport quickly - I thought. But no, before I had to queue up for the passport check. As it was long time ago that I travelled to a country outside the EU I wasn't used to that and acutally I had thought that in England there wouldn't be anything like that - because it's in the EU! 

It took me more than one hour to leave that check behind me, but finally I could leave the airport. It was 7pm already and I didn't want to arrive that late at my guest room's house, so I hurried up a bit. I went to the metro information to buy an Oyster Card - the cheapest metro ticket for London, and then looked into the Metro map where I had to go. I had to change the line at London Bridge, but before it was about 50 minutes with one line. Fortunately I found a place to sit down and so I just sat there, watched the other people in the metro and was happy to be in London. I left the train at London Bridge and was looking for the Railway trains, but it was so complicating! There were so many gates and ways to take that I finally asked at the information.

They showed me where to go and after 20 minutes of search I had found the right platform. I had to wait 20 more minutes for the next one as it was already almost 9pm. The train took another 20 minutes until my metro station and with the help of Google Maps I finally found the house I would sleep in for the next 5 days. I ringed the bell and was a bit excited because I didn't know those people. But the guy opened the door for me and he was so nice! He offered me some water, showed me everything I had to know and let me relax in my room then.

It was a beautiful room, very cosy and large. I unpacked some things and had to take a shower. I am very shy concerning other people and I hoped I wouldn't distract them too much with the noise I made. I was hungry, but I forgot to buy something to eat, so I would have to wait until the next day. So I watched something in the internet and finally slept because I was so tired from all the buses, trains and planes I had to take to arrive in London. A life without car is really complicating. But I was looking forward to the next days and to exploring London from another perspective.   

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