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I stayed in bed as long as possible this morning until check out, and eventually made my way to the District line metro, which gets the honour of being « train » number 30! It’s another bright sunny day in the United Kingdom today. Lucky as usual!

I changed for the Elizabeth line, which apparentlyis not a metro but a commuter train, to reach the British Museum, where I was hoping to spend half an hour for a quick glance.

Ah! No such luck. The queue to enter the museum was so long it was very clear I wouldn’t even get in by that time. And anyway, with the full backpack, it would be very inconvenient. I went for a burrito instead and slowly walk towards St. Pancras International station.

I was an hour in advance, which is like 50 min more than usual, because bording the Eurostar is more akin to embarking on a plane than a train. There’s bag checks, X-Ray, passport control, the lot. However, I learn just now that, thanks to the ongoing train controllers’ strike in France, my train was cancelled, and I would have to take the next one, two hours later. I’m stuck, I’m trapped under ice, I’m mudded and malding.

You just don’t make that up. I have to spend one night in France, and that shit happens. It’s been so long since the last strike, like, probably 6 months! I guess they just realized they forgot to piss everyone off during the Christmas period this year, thus they are doing a short one now to mark the occasion…

I don’t doubt that the SNCF is more to blame than the actual strikers, but come on. This happens only in France ffs!

Anyway… After three hours of waiting (that I was hoping to spend at the hostel getting some rest and some online stuff done), I say goodbye to good ol’ United Kingdom. To be honest, it’s been a blast! I wish the Brits were still with us in the EU, but I would gladly come back anyway.

After passing through the engineering masterpiece that allows a train to go under an entire sea straight, I find myself in Lille.

Bonjour la France!

De retour au pays, but not for too long. I just have this one night, then tomorrow morning I take Kévin in my bag, and we’re off to Belgium. Although the part of the city where I’m walking is damn right ugly, the hostel seems really cool and lively. However, I ‘m really looking for some rest today (even though I lost an hour when changing time zone), and the dorm is quite comfortable and has a table to eat and write this blog, so I’ll stay in my lair tonight.

On a sidenote, my good friend Duha made this AI-generated art for me, it’s so cool! (I think this was a revenge for making her watch Jurassic Park 🤔)