"The bad days make the good ones better"
- Unknown
Well, did today ever make the good days better! Words cannot describe how much I hate this day of our trip. Let's start at 2:45am this morning when Clerissa and I woke up to leave the flat so we could catch our 6am flight. We left the flat at 3:15am to walk to the train station, and we just knew that this wasn't going to be a good day. Walking through sketchy London streets at this time in the morning can be unnerving on its own, but as we are walking through these streets someone dumped soapy water on us, at least I hope that's what it was. But this was only the beginning. We got a bit lost once or twice trying to find the train station so we missed our 3:52am train by one minute. Yes, one minute; very frustrating.
We were assured though by the men that worked at the train station that this wouldn't be a problem at all, and we would have lots of time to catch our 6am flight. So, we caught the next train at 4:32am and ended up arriving at Luton airport at 5:23am, not much time at all to catch our flight. Of course we hadn't checked in the night before and the check-in line for EasyJet was miles long. I stood in the line hoping it would go really quick and we could run to our flight, while Clerissa talked to the lady at the sales desk about the next flight we could catch. The lady at the sales desk told Clerissa that we could catch a 7:00 flight for 50 pounds, thinking this was pretty good we bought the tickets.
Only after purchasing the non-refundable tickets did we notice that it was a 7pm flight, not 7am as we were lead to believe. Neither of us wanted to spend twelve and a half hours in the airport, so we talked to the same lady who told us the only other option was to take the train back to King's Cross Station and take a Eurostar train to Paris. This cost us another 112 pounds, but it was better than waiting around for twelve and a half hours, so this is what we did.
Our train was at 8:24am, and was it ever a nice train ride, we arrived in Paris at 11:48am in much better moods. We wandered around for a while not knowing where to go, our hostel was extremely hard to find on a map. Thankfully, we found a Starbucks with free Wifi, so Clerissa GPSed our hostel on her iPhone and we were able to figure it out. So, after a very cramped bus ride through Paris we finally got where we needed go. After getting off the bus a very nice man noticed we were lost and confused so he showed us on a map how to get to the hostel, what areas in Paris to see, and which trains/buses to take to get there. He was a saint! So then, finally, at 3:15pm we got to our hostel and settled in. Let's hope tomorrow is better, I have a feeling it will be.
We were assured though by the men that worked at the train station that this wouldn't be a problem at all, and we would have lots of time to catch our 6am flight. So, we caught the next train at 4:32am and ended up arriving at Luton airport at 5:23am, not much time at all to catch our flight. Of course we hadn't checked in the night before and the check-in line for EasyJet was miles long. I stood in the line hoping it would go really quick and we could run to our flight, while Clerissa talked to the lady at the sales desk about the next flight we could catch. The lady at the sales desk told Clerissa that we could catch a 7:00 flight for 50 pounds, thinking this was pretty good we bought the tickets.
Only after purchasing the non-refundable tickets did we notice that it was a 7pm flight, not 7am as we were lead to believe. Neither of us wanted to spend twelve and a half hours in the airport, so we talked to the same lady who told us the only other option was to take the train back to King's Cross Station and take a Eurostar train to Paris. This cost us another 112 pounds, but it was better than waiting around for twelve and a half hours, so this is what we did.
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| At our hostel at last, this is home for the next three days. |
On a plus side the hostel looks great compared to some of the ones I stayed at well backpacking across the cost of Australia and NewZeland, its such a hit and miss with them, you were lucky to find a nice one.. with no mystery stains on the floors for example, like what I encountered.. Needless to say I will be doing my research next time I plan to stay in one!
ReplyDeleteThat's so frustrating that the lady at the desk mislead you to believe it was an AM flight and not a PM. Especially since it was non refundable. I can't believe they don't rush the people through the check in line at the airport who are supposed to be on the earlier flight. That would have saved you a lot of time and money! I hope Paris was kind to you though!
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