The End

One last day in Paris before returning to England. We arrived to find Mala the maid cooking us a wonderful Sri Lankan curry dinner and had made a black forest cake. Word had passed that it was Mikes 23rd birthday. Gilberts worked late that night and we did not eat until 930pm. Our stay was short but was nice to be abe to say thank you to Gilberts again for putting up with us as long as he did. Our train left early the next morning from St Lazare. 2 hours later we were in Calais. A slummy looking port town with little to offer. Our luxury liner departed amidst perfect conditions and put us in Dover 90 minutes later. Dover was Calais, it had the same feeling of nothing, yet the White cliffs of Dover and a castle spruce up the scenery. We hitched a train into London as we were to meet Sophie(the girl from poland, living in Leeds) at 830 at Kings Cross Station. We arrived in London 4pm with considerable time to kill so we marched on with our bags and started walking across London in search of the British Museum, one of the sights we missed earlier in the trip. Being a friday London was very busy and the pubs were overflowing with people but we managed to make it to the museum. Not realizing it would take so long we didn't have uch time to go into the museum but thankfully the building itself is part of the attraction. 830 had rolled up on us so we headed to Camden for the train station. Patiently we waited at Swatch store as directed by Sophie. Sure enough threre she was, looking lively and ready to have a fun weekend. We trained back to her parents house in Tooting Bec, a borough of London. We were all very tired from our different journeys that day so we went out for a quick bite at the local Indian restaurant and caught up on the ends of our summers. At first Adrian and I were unsure if we wanted to spend our last weekend in Europe with a friends parents, to be honest we were totally against it. Further inquiries into hotels and hostles proved to be hopeless so we sucked it up and went to Sophies house. It turned out to be great, her parents are from Mauritis and apparently love to entertain. Our last full day in Europe was upon us. After eating a lovely english breakfast we commuted back to Oxford circus and shopped a little, eventually connecting with Sophies friend Ellaine(also met in Poland). The 4 us went to dim sum in China town and ended up at Funland playing video games trying to out do eachother. After a fun day in London we headed back to Sophies house and got ready for the big night out. As I was saying earlier about Sophies parents enjoying guests, 4 of Sophies friends also made the trip in from Leeds to join us. The house was packed and we were watching rugby, enjoying some Vodka. Eventually the time came to go out and enjoy the final hurra! We tubed to Clapham, a popular strip for clubs and bars. We had heard of this Vodka revolution bar and had decided to go there. From this point on we endure many shots of Vodka with a wide varity of flavors including a chili infused shot, Lucky me pulled the short straw and became the end of my night. We partied as hard as possible and ended up back at home passed out on the couch. Captured on film as the last picture of the trip, a fitting symbol to our European Adventure. After sleeping soundly for 3 hours we awoke to the hell of leaving Europe. Thankfully we had pre packed the night before and rolled out of sleep into the car and off to the airport. Sophies parents were gracious enough to drive us to the airport. Unfortunatly Mike had to get out of the car and empty out the rest of last night. Excluding that everything went off without a hitch. A long 10 hour flight, 3 bad movies, crap food and crappier seats we arrived back in the wild wild west, Canada. It felt strange but at the same time it felt so comfortable to be around normal people. haha...just kidding..On the BC ferry ride Adrian and I really realized that it was all coming to an end and that I wont have to share a bed or wake someone up anymore. The great journey had come full circle. 12 countries and 3.5 months later we returned refreshed and ready to return to Normal life. The few thousand pictures will remind us of the amazing experience Europe was culturally and physically. Tools such as this blog will keep our memories intact and the spirit of the trip alive.