May 29th
We got up at 5AM to go to the train station in our town. Neighbors took us to the station and we got on the train at 6:30AM. We took a 1.5 hour train to KL, the capital city of Malaysia, and then from there we took a 1 hour bus to the airport. Our flight was at about 3PM – a 17 hour flight!
We arrived in London Stansted Airport at about 9:30 PM on the same day due to going backwards through time zones. Since we packed light and only had carry-on bags, we went to the train to get to our hotel. The train to the center of London took about an hour (and cost about $60 each!). Once we got there, we changed to another train to get to our hotel. Thankfully we made it for the last train and arrived at the station for our hotel at about midnight. Our hotel was a very chilly 15 minute walk from the station (remember, we’re used to 90 degree weather all the time, and London was probably 50 at night at 70 midday). After over 30 hours of travelling, we finally got some real rest.
May 30th
We ate breakfast at the hotel – it’s been a long time since we’ve had a hot breakfast (we don’t usually have time or motivation). We enjoyed real sausage, ham, etc. (in Malaysia we don’t eat pork). After breakfast we went into London and saw all of the key places – Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, etc. We rode the train everywhere – a lot. It seemed everyone in London was trying to create their own fashion. You know when a teenage girl starts trying to match clothes that don’t quite match? Well, it wasn’t that bad, but the styles were definitely interesting to look at.
May 31st
It started as a rainy day, but the rain cleared up. We were able to go to some other places around London. The highlight was the Brixton Market – they had a lot of international food, restaurants, and shops. We had Brazilian food for lunch, which was really good. In the market, they even had a gluten free bakery – Angela enjoyed a brownie! After the market, we made our way to what seemed like Chinatown to go to a comedy show at The Comedy Store. The evening was enjoyable as the comics made fun of current news stories as well as people in the audience.
June 1st
With a midday flight, we had a slow morning, packed our things, and went to Heathrow Airport – which is very big. The flight to Paris was only about an hour, and when we arrived we decided just to go to our hotel. To get there, we had to take 2 trains again from the airport. Then it was supposed to be a 15 minute walk. We had no map or GPS, just written walking directions and driving directions. After getting out of the train station (which was very near to a big fort) we followed the walking directions and walked down the street where the road turned left or right (next to where the picture below was taken). We chose right as that seemed right. We walked for about 15 minutes, and since we didn’t see the hotel, we turned around, walked 10 minutes back, and then followed the driving directions. Basically, to make a long story short, the driving directions took us in a big circle, ending up about 50 feet down the SAME road we had taken before. If we had walked a few more steps on the first road, we would have seen the hotel… ahh…
Anyway, the hotel was nice – we had a 1 bedroom apartment, with a kitchen, so we picked up some breakfast stuff and decided to make breakfast the next morning.
June 2nd
This was our day to explore Paris. We ate an early breakfast and went into the city. We got on the hop on/hope off bus, figuring this would be the easiest way to see everything quickly in one day. It turned out to be a great choice. The top of the bus let us enjoy the 70 degree weather and see everything (and also get some sun, but thankfully no sunburn). Everything in Paris was amazing – the building and architecture are great. Towards the end of the afternoon the bus was great because we could just relax and ride, yet still see different parts of the city.
At night we ate Chinese food for dinner (funny, huh?, but snails don’t appeal to us). We met an American couple at the restaurant that was enjoying their honeymoon in Paris, and talked for about an hour. We then walked back to the Eiffel Tower lawn and sat and watched a small light show and enjoyed how late the sun goes down there (it gets dark at about 10PM). We took a train back and slept very well.
