The Wacky World of a Lazy Pig (AKA Simon)

Eurotrip Day 5 - To the top of St Paul's Cathedral!! Whoa, I can actually read a little French, but not enough :(

Today is our half day in London and the last chance for us to visit the prestigious St Paul's Cathedral (not a catholic church). But before we headed out on our final day in London, we took a recommendation from a fellow dorm mate to have an english breakfast before we leave. We didn't want to go far so we went to the Cafe Meze just outside the Tube station. So basically an English breakfast is as follows:

• 1 Egg
• 1 or 2 English style bacon
• 1 English Style breakfast sausage
• 4 slices of buttered toast
• Chips = Fries
• Coffee or Tea
• 4.95 Pounds (kinda expensive for breakfast I would say)

Anyway, the hardest part of the day was to carry our 40 lbs backpacks around town before we left. We were all carrying the wait everywhere, but that isn't even the interesting part. We arrived at the St Paul's station and lugged our gear around to the front. To our surprise, we had to pay for entrance. From what I had remembered frm the book was that you only had to pay if you were deciding to climb to the top of the cathedral. None of us had any more m,oney because we had spent it on our English breakfast and Day Pass. I took the hit this time (a 5 dollar hit that is to go to a machine to withdraw 20£, entrance was 8£) . Once we got in, we took our time exploring the place and looked at almost all the monuments and statues. To my surprise, seeing that this was supposed to be a place of worship I found more statues of war heroes and important policical people's statues than Jesus or God himself. But maybe this is how they like to honour the English greats.

Nonetheless, the main floor's overall art was magnificent, they definitely spent a lot of time to decorate the ceilings and get really nice paintings of Jesus all over. The most memorable of the paintings was the scene of Jesus' baptism. The painting's style was more modern and cooler in a sense. The ceiling had really nice paintings of Jesus, angels and stars, etc. Most of the paintings used gold as a way to outline the background of the boundries of the paintings. In my opinion, there was too much gold and not enough emphasis on detail of some people. The altar had a really nice cover over it and cross. Once again, seemed to have a lot of emphasis on gold.

One of the big things about St Paul's is the climb to the top of the cathedral. The fun part is doing it with a 40 lbs backpack on your back. Well, maybe you are wondering exactly how tall the cathedral is right? The top is approximately 103 meteres above the ground which requires you to climb a total of 530 steps.!!!!!!!!!! OMG!!!! That is just torture. Oh, by the way, it was torture. We had to stop every 50-75 steps to rest and swich whoever was at the front. Roger seemed to have it worst. He was sweating and panting for most of the time. For me, I tripped around 5 times going up really tiny steps or really narroz areas which my backpack had a hard time getting through. Steve seemed to be most energiwed, good for him. After reaching an end, we had thought we finished climbing. WRONG!!!!!!!!! Were only about half way. The rest of the way up required us to climb a very thing staircase that had a floor which you could see through. I am afraid of heights, so this didn't help at all. Another 10 minutes or so, we had reached the top. The top itself is very thin and can't fit more than 20 people. It had a wonderful view of London and we took some pictures.

The way down is not that easy because of the heavy loads we were carrying. Our feets had been sore since the previous nights from excessive walking. Instead of stopping at the main floor on the way down, we continued down lower into the crypt. Here, certain war heroes were buried as well as famous british people. To my surprise, Sir John A. MacDonald was there, I thought he would be buried in Canada. It isn't as interesting as other crypts in other cathedrals or churches that is for sure.

When the clock struck 12:15pm, we made our way to the Tube station to get to the Eurostar station (also right beside the main train station in london). Travelling wasn't hard, the only problen was trying to fit ourselves and our backpacks into the super crowded subway. There weren't any major problems at the train station, just the regular check-in and then wait. The ride itself to Paris wasn't long but had some really nice scenery. The country side is defintely worth looking at, for a bit. I read about half my novel during the 2.50 hour long ride, which alse consisted of a delay of 20 minutes.

I think the thing I miss the most about London now is the ease of communication. One would expect that since France and the UK is so close that they would be able to communicate with each other really well right? That definitely isn't true. We found ourselves speaking with cashiers and people that spoke only a little English. Now, I was forced to speak French, something I am obviously not good at. However, I did find that I understood some of the writing and was therefore able to buy the correct bus tickets and know how to talk to people. Then again, if I had absolutely no idea how to ask, I would just ask if they knew English first. Steve and Roger, you could say, was in a worst position than me. I would have thought that Steve could understand some French based on some of the Spanish that he knew. Unfortunatey, that is not true at all. Roger is smarter, he just asks if they speak English right away. He also learns new french words really quickly.

The station which the Eurostar train Gare du Nord Station was very close to the Sacre Couer Basillica. Though I knew Roger didn't want to go because we were carrying really heavy backpacks, he was a good sport about it and came along. To get to the basillica, we took Paris' Metro System. The cars themselves are very very similar to the ones used in Montreal. The Paris Metro Syste, is definitely not better than the London Tube System, then again, you don't have to pay 3£ to use the Metro. Something also very interesting is the how the doors are controlled on the subway. On almost all the lines, except the Central Line, the passengers must push a button or pull a lever in order to open a door when the subway comes to a stop. If the passenger doesn't do anything, it is assumed that they don't want the door open.

Sacre Couer looks gorgeous from the outside. Thanks to the map my mom gave to me, we didn't have any trouble finding it. The worst part was the way UP to the Basillica. Not only were there a lot of stairs, there were tons of people just sitting there. When we starting going up, steve, roger and I got harrassed by some africans trying to sell us some colourful string which they try to braid around your fingers. I think they were just trying to earn a penny. But the scary thing was that there were around 6-10 of them doing it. One of them even grabbed my arm and said "I am not going to hurt you. Where are you from?" and grabbed my arm. I quickly ran away afraid he was trying to distract me while one of his other mates try to rob me. Of course they didn't, but it felt like it. After that point, roger didn't want to do anything. He got so worried that he was always on the look out and therefore wasn't really into any picture taking or savouring the moment. This behaviour is of course auite understandable.

The Basillica was really nice inside eventhough it was smaller than I had expected. I tried to conserve the memory I had left in my card so I used Steve's camera more. To my surprise, the choir was all nuns, zhich brings back memories of Sister Act. They were singing really well and definitely made the experience soothing and reliqxing. Steve walked around while Roger sat in a corner, probably because he was very tired after all the stair climbing. I said my prayers and took some pictures before we headed out. The next thing to do was to go to the Hostel and check in.

The Hostel we are staying at is the Auberges Des Jeunes internationale. It isn't the best hostel, then again, none of the hostels in Paris are good unless you are willing to pay a hefty price. The rooms are only have 4 people in it, making it easier to move around. We also had a roomate there, we didn't come until very late, so I didn't get to say hello.

For dinner, we walked about looking for something cheap. After walking a little too much, we settled for chinese food. Turns out all the chinese restaurants around our area only have staff that speak mandarin, CRAP!!!!! Food was bearable, but was very worth it compared to how much we had spent in London. I couldn't find an open internet place until the next day. I explored the area around and found that the Bastille was within 10 minutes walk of the hostel, though it was not interesting at all.

Anyway, more tomorrow. First stop LOUVRE!!!!!!

Labels: eurotrip

posted by lazypig @ 12:32 PM