I had no sightseeing planned for today, since I had a mid afternoon train to catch to Paris and there were boring things like washing and packing to be done before that. Checking some things out on the computer this morning I realised that Estonia is the only one of the three Baltic States to use the Euro, Latvia and Lithuania each have their own currency. So with the Czech Republic and Poland each having their own currencies there is going to be more “high finance” happening in the remainder of the trip than I had thought – six currencies in four weeks.
I was able to shout Janelle to a latish brunch at a nearby eatery, though Chris was unable to join us as he was waiting at home for a parcel delivery. After brunch I made a quick trip to the local Tesco to satisfy a shopping list from Laura and buy a few supplies for myself for the train trip. It seems that my mention of walking tracks in Washington DC is responsible for Chris getting interested in planning a trip there, so after farewells he was off into town to look for suitable maps. Meanwhile Janelle gave myself and my luggage a lift to Clapham South station from whence I caught the tube to St Pancras station. After being able to use an Oyster Card whilst in London it was a bit of a shock to find that a single ticketed fare to the city was £4.00! (As a comparison, most trips on a pre-paid Oyster Card seem to cost about £1.90).
With the Eurostar train being a direct non-stop service to Paris via The Chunnel, check-in at the station was a slightly scaled down equivalent to what one goes through at an airport, with passport control and luggage scans, etc. Also similar to an airport, boarding does not commence until 20 minutes before departure, though in this case rather than having to inch your way along a narrow corridor as the people in front of you find their seat and organise their oversize carry-on luggage, boarding just consists of slogging along a platform looking for your carriage. And of course my carriage was the furthest from the platform entrance. The trip itself was smooth and uneventful – reached the tunnel in 30 minutes, through the tunnel in 20 minutes, then about another 85 minutes of whizzing through the French countryside. The only discomfort was from the lack of leg room when you have four seats configured facing each other across a narrow table. Lucky it is only a quick trip.
Nothing much to report about my two hours in Paris, other than that I had to walk all of about 300 metres from Gare de Nord to Gare de Ost. And that it costs $A0.70 to take a leak. (I think the public toilets here must be run by the same people who run Sydney Airport!). At least this time my carriage in the 8:20pm train to Berlin was not quite the last one from the platform entrance, though it was a close run thing.
On board I met the Parisian companion with whom I was to share my small twin bunk sleeper – I’m getting too old to rough it sleeping upright with all the Twenty Something backpackers, of whom I used to be one. Fortunately Michael’s English was a little better than my French so we were able to chat until lights out at about 11pm.
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