We landed at Heathrow airport in London around 2:00pm local time after 30 minutes of flying in a holding pattern. It was fun to really take in the green fields below but I can't imagine living under the holding pattern airspace for London's airport; we weren't the only jetplane circling those fields over and over! Once on the ground, we found ourselves a cafe that served Fish 'n Chips and had Aspall cider on tap! It was delicious, especially the crushed peas with mint that came with it!
Our flight to Paris was delayed for over an hour so we landed in Paris as the sun set. It was dark by the time we exited the terminals and found the train into town. We left the train at an underground station that was part of a mall already closed for the night. All the exits we found were locked so we wandered around for 10 minutes trying to find an escape, eventually finding a legitimate exit up a massive flight of stairs that deposited us on the street.
Talk about stepping into another world; instantaneous time travel! The Paris Airport wasn't busy and the customs was practically non-existent, plus landing and taking the train after dark then walking through the bright, white, modern mall after hours, I felt like I could be anywhere in the US. But after climbing that massive flight of modern stairs, we stepped on to quiet, tiny, non-perpendicular streets lined with 18th-century architecture and cafes! Mat was looking at the map to determine which way was west but I had to stop and adjust to my new reality. I'M IN PARIS, I'M IN EUROPE!! When I've traveled to other places, whether it's Japan, or Thailand, or Nepal, I got a sense of being in a different place as soon as l got off the plane, having to fill out forms for customs or being surrounded by people who look different or the chaos of the airport. The Paris Airport at 9:30pm seemed like any airport in the states, except for maybe the cab drivers' lack of deodorant.
We set off walking towards our AirBnB. There were many people about despite it being 11pm on a Tuesday. We caught a glimpse of the Eiffel tower all lot up and sparkling. We walked three miles to our flat, surrounded by lots of people, passing by the Louvre and walking down the Champ Elysee to the Arc de Triomphe. We stopped for a bite to eat at the French McDonald's as we were too exhausted to spend two hours in a cafe (there's no quick eating when at a cafe in Paris, Mat pointed out). We reached our flat just before 1:00am, showered, then climbed into bed to pass out.
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