The overnight bus ride from London to Paris was not fun by any standards. As mentioned multiple times I was pretty sleep deprived by this point, and this bus ride pointed out to me that at some point during college I lost the ability to sleep sitting up. The ride took about 8 hours total, with a ferry carrying us from the UK to the European mainland. Thankfully we were allowed to get off the bus and walk around once we were on the ferry. It was storming during the ferry ride, the the water was choppy and the boat rocked quite a bit. I tried in vain to sleep on some benches and chairs. We were on the boat for maybe an hour and a half at most. The only redeeming part of the bus ride itself was the passenger sitting next to me watching an English movie on his laptop with headphones and french subtitles. I was able to grasp the gist of most of the plot which helped pass the time.

At around 6:30 the bus pulled into a station on the outskirts of Paris. I wandered up to the giant subway map on the wall where a few other travelers were standing trying to make sense of where we were. Eventually we all figured out how to get where we were going and got in line for the one ticket machine nearby. I ended up buying subway tickets for myself and another couple who’s credit card wouldn’t work. (Continue reading…)