London to Paris – Preparation

Finally, the day has come and with less than 8hours to go – it is pretty hard sititng in front of my PC and blogging. Being a non EU citizen I had some preparation to do – Arrange the documents. I need a Schengen visa and my visa expires next weekend so I wanted to squeeze the last bits of it – make a journey. Paris being the best connectivity and knowing that this weekend is rain washout in both London and Paris – It seriously did not deter me from not going there.  I generally would have gone on a motorcycle but financially it seems I would turn out to be paying more than I would on a Eurostar. A return ticket costed me £165 for Friday evening out and Monday morning in.

I dialed in to a friend to ask her if she is good to take me in and here we go. She is happy to hitch me for a weekend and it happens to be her daughter’s birthday will mean I will be in a full time busy mode. Spend time with kids, play with them and then birthday buzz that will double the joy. Weekend seems set as rest of the time will be in rain walking around the city. I will possibly try taking time out to meet one of the old friend, Fred who I met in Varanasi before leaving India in 2008. Nice little journeys and adventures of all good times seem to merge in this city. I Personally love London when it comes to Architecture as it just has endless attraction in its streets with a mix of old and new. Something have not changed here but the same is what I want to search now in Paris. I do not know yet what I will and what I will not 🙂 is a challenge in itself.

I have got another friend taking me out for the rest of the evening on Sunday so god knows what areas we will go. I don’t know how to speak French but I am sure someone out there is keen to be with a non french speaker so makes my life bloody easy on this stressful point.
Few pre-checks:
– Passport
– Valid Visa
– Printed tickets / Boarding pass
– Cash (Converted in Euros)
– Couple of maps
– Important contact numbers
– Camera (Body, Lenses, Chargers, memory card, USB Cables)
– Two pair of lightest weekend clothes (water repellent)
– iPad(to kill the bloody cold surroundings while traveling).
– 45 mins to check-in.

Over and out.. couple more hours to go.  We will meet again next week .. with stories n pictures.
Have a lovely weekend ladies and gentleman.

Travel Tip :  “Travel light – the lighter you travel – the more you enjoy leave behind your luggage of worries, stress, tensions and relationships” M.B. 12.10.12

London to Paris – Preparation

With almost a week in hand as in exact 7days at this hour I will be heading into my journey to take on the traditional train line connecting UK to the EU mainland. Not the first time in Paris but the first time by Euro rail and that too without a french speaking partner. Oh Yeah, it is going to be some journey for a change. My initial thoughts were quite good but when I look at some of the more recent news it shocks me to see the changes. I am not afraid when it comes to travelling but knowing the air of in-hospitability knowing that you don’t speak french is bit hard to appreciate. I am impressed to see as how one country be so socially uptight to not open their thoughts to the bigger vision of the world.

Is France, digging its own grave of saying we do not want anyone who cannot speak our language or is just that social behaviour of not entertaining anyone who does not speaks French ! what so ever we may think, we say this does not stop here or change. I am not intimidated besides I do not believe in these nationalistic ideas of restricting oneself.

Before people start to feel that this something I am creating on my own, I came across this article yesterday on the BBC which reveals for the facts and for the reasons why France is where it was and why it is not far from the past. For whatever we may say and feel, all I know is to go travel and capture. Rest is all “that doesn’t count for me”.

We will see what shall come out of this trip but here are some of the shots  from the past visit.

Paris

Here is a set of few more pictures if you are keen on visiting France.

I will do a brush up on things with planning as I approach the weekend since it is just a two days trip to see a friend’s daughter birthday and to meet an old Flickr friend who spotted me in India without have spoken or known me before. Incredible to see from where all people can see and find me 🙂