Day 11
Whatever ailment I had suffered from seemed to have vanished. Not only did I no longer have a sore throat, but I could breathe easily. If it wasn't for the train I had to catch, it would've been the perfect day to go explore Paris. But there was a train, and since the Gare du Nord station wasn't too far away, the walk there would have to do. Reaching the terminal, I checked the departure boards for my train to London. Not seeing any, I assumed that there were none leaving for a while, and made my way to a café and ate a small sandwich and listening to the music from my media player before its battery finally died. I hadn't jumped onto the Apple bandwagon, so I didn't have an iPod. Instead I was using another MP3 player, one that lasted for 8 hours on a single AAA battery, and pulled music from an SD card. On a trip like this, all I had to do was to find a shop selling batteries and I'd be good for another several hours. Who knows how I'd have been able to charge the firewire based iPod, had I had one.
Leaving the kiosk, with a new 4-pack of batteries in hand, I noticed a Eurostar terminal. Considering that was the company I had bought my ticket with, I headed there to check in, which consisted of filling out an immigration card and going through yet another security checkpoint before getting another stamp in my passport.
The journey into England was uneventful, despite arriving 20 minutes behind schedule. Travelling through the Chunnel, which was something that seems amazing on paper, was nothing more than a long, dark tunnel. But then, the train burst into daylight, the dark tunnel walls transforming into green rolling countryside. Hills were spotted with dense trees, the occasional farm, or just small white flecks that I presumed to be sheep.
The directions to my hostel, I quickly discovered, were based off of arriving into London at a different station, but I soon found my way, and headed towards the Globetrotter Inn, a hostel on the far outskirts of the city. I checked in, dropped off some gear, and headed back into the city for dinner.