|
What a difference several hours can make. We climbed on a Eurostar train to get from Paris, France to London, England at approximately 9:00PM. It only takes two and a half hours to traverse the land between the two cities thanks to the new Eurostar "bullet trains" and the "chunnel." The trains were very luxurious and fast. This was an excellent change of pace, as we had been "roughing it" and we were sorely in need of being pampered.
During the ride home, I saw a very beautiful sunset over the flat countryside of France that I attempted to take a photograph of, but it did not turn out. The scenery was exquisite and I wished for a time that I was not racing past it at such a rate of speed. It really felt good to be on "the home stretch" of the trip and I long for a stable place to lay my head.
Upon arriving in London at about 10:30PM at Padington Station, Shola and I discovered that we were stuck there. All of the trains going to Bristol (our final destination on this leg of the journey) had left for the night. We got on the London Underground (subway) and went to Victoria Coach Station, but the situation was the same and in fact it was even worse. Bus Stations operate differently in Europe: they close. In America, most bus stations stay open all night long, but not here. There was absolutely no one in the station, the doors were locked, and the lights were turned out.
So we found ourselves in downtown London at 1:00AM without a place to sleep. We could have tried to get a room, but the station opens at 5:00AM so it wouldn’t make much sense to spend the extra money. We walked a couple hundred yards down the street to the Victoria bus station. We decided to stay there for the night. The coach station was where we wanted to be, but if something were to happen to us there, we would have no one to help us. The bus station had some rough looking characters resident there, but due to the crowds of people "hanging out" there, several police were on continuous patrol of the area. We felt safer in the midst of the strange masses than alone down the street.
Its about 2:30AM right now and I am actually having a good deal of fun. For me, this is the peak of irony. Over the past week, we have made seven successful train and boat connections, dozens of perfect subway and bus rides, survived the rigor of hours upon hours of extended globe-trotting, and experienced countless thousands of miles of flawless travel. And we end up stranded 126 miles from our final destination, a mere two hour bus ride from home.
Shola was very disappointed as this was the one portion of the trip that I let him plan. I had planned all of our other connections. Shola was pretty sure that it wouldn’t be a problem. We got in a little tiff about being stranded as Shola was quite angry at himself. Although I’m tired, I’m sensing that this may have been God’s plan all along, so I have been able to maintain a good attitude. I feel as if we are going through a struggle together and that makes it fun and I know that it is situations like this that you talk about for years later and help make such vacations unique.
I am currently reclined with my back on a concrete wall and my backpack "permanently" tied behind me. A gentlemen who was sitting nearby, had been engaged for about a half hour in an extremely heated argument with himself. About five or ten minutes ago, he got up, yelled at himself, and then walked off and I have not seen him since.
About the same time he left, a bagman came staggering up to where we were reclined. He walked around the entire area for a while and for some reason he eventually came over and laid down to my immediate right. His shoes are actually resting against my backpack. Now that is funny! I have never slept with the homeless and the thought of them having to sleep here every night is quite sobering. And that is not funny.
|
