Meanwhile, in England...

I would like to preface this blog by saying that I am writing it as much for my own benefit as I am for anyone else who might be interested. It's not because of any narcissistic belief that everyone at home will be smashing the refresh button in anticipation of my next entry. I understand that Eurotrip diary blogs are plentiful and sometimes dull, and this one may be no different. I still have to keep it family-friendly. However, I’ll do my best to be as candid and honest as possible. Also: click to enlarge the photos. (much more after the jump)

At the moment, I’ve already been gone for over a week. I’m in a friend’s apartment in Paris after arriving here from England a few days ago. The 6 days in London were tiring to say the least. We spent our first few days there with family friends Terry and Debbie Kempton. They’re friends of my mom’s from when she lived in London. For those who might not know, Essex is a county of England currently known – among other things – for an award-winning reality TV show called “The Only Way Is Essex”. It’s essentially the English Jersey Shore. Debbie and Terry’s daughter, Jessica, is apparently a pretty good indicator of one of these “Essex-guidos” (I never found out their word for it). She’s truly amazing. I wasn’t surprised at all at how well her and Hope got along. It goes without saying that we couldn’t have asked for better hosts.

The garden behind the Kemptons' House in Romford, Essex.

View of the house from the back of the garden. The tree in the middle is a pear tree. Debbie made us the best pear tart I’ll ever have.

Grapes growing on the terrace.

View of the house from the front.

Mom, I thought you’d like this. It’s your old house in Romford.

Here we are when we went to a Sri Lankan restaurant with their friends Keith and Ollie. Yes, Sri Lankan restaurants exist here. It was spicy, but delicious. From left to right: Terry, Keith, Me, Hope, Jessica, Ollie, Debby.

Keith (left) and Terry, ready to whoop ass. No, they're not related.

During our stay in London I did my best to show Hope the essential sights of the city. We did all the big stuff: Houses of Parliament/Big Ben, London Bridge, Westminster Abbey, Oxford Circus, etc.

London Bridge.

Westminster Abbey.

Westminster Cathedral.

Houses of Parliament.

After a few days with the Kemptons, we went to stay with another family friend, Tony, and his wife Minoo. He lives in Cheam, which is a gorgeous rural area in South London. He had a beautiful boxer named Beryl. I feel like an idiot for not getting a picture of her. Unfortunately we didn’t get to spend much time with him, as we had to leave for Paris in just a couple of days.

Our room at Tony’s house, seconds after we moved our stuff in and made a decent mess.

The view from the window.

On our last day in England, I was awfully sick – I think it was the flu – and I didn’t even want to get out of bed. At the same time, I didn’t want Hope to miss out on some of the other places she hadn’t yet visited. So I dragged myself out from under the covers to traipse around London one last time. I’m pretty sure I had a scowl on my face the entire day. Sorry Hope.

Durrr.

Trafalgar Square.

The front Gate at Buckingham Palace.

We visited Abbey Road. There was a peace wall outside where people from all over the world had written stuff. At this point I was silently cursing the success of the Beatles. All you need is love… and a hot toddy and a 40oz of Nyquil.

The famous pedestrian crossing. Tons of people were trying to do the ‘Beatle walk’ across it, but the heavy London traffic wasn’t really cooperating.

The next day we said our goodbyes to Tony and Minoo and hopped on the coach to Paris. To cross the English Channel we got on an enormous ferry that took cars and semi-trucks as well. It was pretty cool. When we arrived on the other side, our bus driver actually got lost - yes, you read that correctly - and was driving us in circles. Although annoying it was still pretty funny to hear the protests of the entire pissed-off bus.  Eventually we arrived here in Paris around 11pm, where my friend Anne was still waiting to pick us up at the bus station, despite us being over an hour late. Bless her.

Hope has left for Deauville, so I've had this apartment all to myself. Paris has been awesome - I'll blog about it later (God that sounds so dumb); although I must admit I got pretty homesick one night. I guess I should get used to it. Tomorrow I'm catching a train to the final stop on my trip at present: Montpellier. I'm ready to move into my apartment and finally unpack. I miss all my friends and family and I wish you guys could be here. Hopefully I’ll have internet so I can give another update soon.