Canterbury to Paris

In Barcelona now, but I wanted to update everyone on what I've been up to this past week.

I was in Canterbury, England last Monday and Tuesday. It was a nice change of pace after London. It's a nice, quiet town. Quaint and picturesque...except that I didn't take any photos. It was nice because there wasn't much to do. I just caught up on some reading and online business.

From Canterbury, I took a night bus to Paris, which took about 7-8 hours. The bus arrived on Wednesday at 6:00 am, and after some time trying to figure out how to buy metro tickets, I was on my way. I wasn't quite sure which direction I was supposed to head towards after I got off the metro, so I took a guess and end up walking maybe a third of a mile before I figured I was going the wrong way. I worked up a good sweat walking back and fourth four times! I hadn't even seen Paris yet, but I felt like I was already done with it. (I guess it wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't have a huge backpack and two other bags weighing me down. Lesson learned. Pack lighter next time.)

Anyway, I find the place that I booked, run a few errands and then take a nice nap. The studio I booked was a good size for 1-2 people, and it ended up being cheaper than reservations at some of the hostels/hotels I was looking at. It averaged out to be about 54 euros a night, and I stayed six nights in total. Not a bad deal.

So funny story about the little washing machine below. I tried to figure out how to use it, but there were no instructions and some of the settings around the knobs were rubbed off. So I turn the timer dial and it starts. I tried turning the knob both ways to see which way had the least resistance, guessing that if it had less resistance when turning, then I was turning the knob the right way.

I watch the clock to see how long it takes, and it's been swishing around there for over an hour. I check on it after an hour and twenty minutes of washing and the knob doesn't seem like it's progressing to the "stop" tick. Crap...maybe I turned the knob the wrong way. So I end up opening the door and all this water comes pouring out. Ahhhhh...hurry close it...run and get the small trash can to collect the water. I scoop out the remaining water inside and just as it gets low, the freaking thing starts filling with water again! Omg....wtf....everytime it starts to get lower water comes up. Finally I see the plug and unplug the damn machine. Now there's water all over the bathroom floor, and I've got a sink full of soaking clothes. Great. What a night.