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day two After spending the night outside, my brother and I were more than a little eager to get inside where it was warm and eat some food. Oddly enough our very first meal in a foreign country was none other than McDonalds at the glorious Victoria Station. We didn't care though. At least we were warm and our stomachs were full. My brother was convinced that the London weather had dropped his internal body temperature, but I think that he was exaggerating. Personally I think that he might have faired better if he had gotten up and moved around during the night. Instead of doing anything he just sat there on the narrow bench and got colder and colder. I, on the other hand, got up and walked around from time to time as the buses and taxi cabs came and went by us. So after we ate our breakfast one of the first things that he did was go into the bathroom and change into jeans. Soon we were on our way to the Busabout headquarters to begin our trip to Paris. From what we had been told the bus was scheduled to leave at eight and since we didn't have anywhere else to go we were at the office by seven. Sadly we were ready to go, but the guy at the office wasn't. It seems that he had to issue us and about a dozen other people some paperwork and ID cards. I was not impressed by this lack of organization. One person was doing the work of about four people and I was getting more and more disillusioned. This was not the way that I wanted my trip to start. Suddenly I felt as though the next three weeks were going to be filled with one disaster after another. ... To be honest I don't remember much of the ride from London to Dover. Each seat in the bus was filled and as a result there wasn't much of a view. All that I could do was look straight ahead as the bus wove through the London streets. About the only thing of interest was our bubbly Australian guide, Jessica. The woman truly seemed to enjoy her job. ... The ferry from Dover to Calais was a definite breath of fresh air for us. For about an hour or so we were free of the bus and we could move about as we pleased. Both of us took some pictures and then headed inside to seek out some food and or a place to sit. I opted for sitting while my brother had his first foreign beer of the trip. ... Once again most of the French countryside from Calais was a blur for me and and all that I wanted to do when we got to Paris was stretch my legs. Riding in a packed bus was not improving my mood after spending the night outside on a narrow bench. Somehow I managed to put all of this negativity aside as we checked into our room. Not only was it a double, but we also had our own private bathroom. It almost seemed to good to be true. We were back in civilization. ... After dumping our stuff we headed out onto the town to see as much as we could before the sun set. It was already after six o'clock and our time was limited. Tomorrow we would be on our way to Munich.
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