May 30, 2018

England Day 10-York to London

Ah the last morning in York. Which meant our last B&B breakfast. THE SECOND B IN THE NAME. WHICH MEANS IT'S CRUCIAL.

It was diggity. I mean duh, full english, and all the orange juice. I stole a croissant and banana for later. Because I like to live on the edge of the kitchen chair.

We finished breakfast, checked the train times, and proceeded to check out of the b&b. I handed them a wad of cash and felt significantly light headed, but still breathing. I tried to negotiate a deal with the lady of the house but she wouldn't give me a deal. However, she did knock of 15 pounds since I didn't know you had to let them know (which I had) ahead of time to receive the discount. Oh well.

With 15 pounds in my pocket (joke), we rolled our bags down the leaf covered sidewalks, every then and again getting leaves stuck in the wheels of our suitcases. Luckily it wasn't raining. We just had to dodge pedestrians and little children. But we made it to the train station. And we were golden.

We were extremely unsure if we were catching the correct train since it was sleek and black and it didn't look like the other trains. But everyone seemed to board it just fine. So after my sister asking 4 different times and checking multiple times, we boarded the train. We sat in a quieter part of the train with, what I can only assume was school children. I checked our ticket seven hundred times to make sure we wouldn't be thrown off the train, and when the lady came around to check our tickets, nothing happened. So we worried for nothing, as per usual.

We arrived back in London, and raced back to our friend's place. We had to wash our clothes and make sure we cleaned his place before he came back that night from Japan. We are psychos/real good humans so we like to make sure people's homes look lovely. Therefore it was the fastest and most efficient wash and dry, and cleaning we had done. We completed all our laundry, and cleaning of the place and even made it to and from the store in 5 hours. We were exhausted. But clean.

I had been texting my mom throughout the day whenever we had service. See, this was the 4th of October. Which meant the next morning we were going to Paris for the day to celebrate my sister's 30th birthday, but it was a surprise. When we made it back to our friend's place I asked my mom if I could give my sister her card, or if they wanted me to video call them. They did. So after cleaning and chilling, I gave my sister the card, and my parents just sat by the Eiffel Tower with their friends, and wine, and cheese, and bread. She opened the card and was so confused because it said we were going to Paris in the morning. She had no clue what was going on and it was hilarious. Then we had to explain the plan to her three times over and she got really excited. Then we discussed options for the day and the fact that we had to be out the door at 5 AM to catch the early morning train. We were excited to see our parents and to just casually go to Paris for a day. Couldn't wait!

----A while later, after talking to mom and dad, our friend let us know he was about 30 minutes away.------

We hid when he came home. He had been texting us to give us his ETA. So when we heard the door jingle, we hid and when he walked through the door he goes, "Darlings, I'm home." We stayed hidden. We don't know how to greet people.

After a bit, we shouted WELCOME BACK! And then the three of us hugged and laughed and then quickly left for dinner. But this time closer to 7PM. Because we wanted to fit in. It was a good thing I gave my sister the surprise trip card, because our friend, who I had told the surprise to months ago, asked her if she was excited to go to Paris. He said he forgot it was surprise, but all was good since she knew already. She was still confounded that we had pulled a surprise off.

We headed to Duke's for dinner. It was a pub close to our friend's place and he was a regular there. We had been there before and I had also googled the menu before hand since I have dietary issues and hate having to pick and peruse menus being all indecisive. My sister on the other hand, she takes so long to decide you'd think she was being asked to choose between sleeping or music. We ordered drinks, and when it came time to order food our friend says to the waiter "I'll have_________, and these two will panic order." Yep. That is what happened. A true friend.

After dinner, we opened the wine which my sister and I bought to welcome our friend back. We had some wine, caught up while ballads were playing on the stereo. And then my sister and our friend started singing some Moulin Rouge, followed by Wicked. And my goodness I felt like I was at a broadway show.....

I don't think I slept much that night because I really missed my parents. And also baguettes.

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