Just another bus ride from hell, compliments of Eurolines. Right, so we boarded the bus in Prague late, at 9:30pm and arrived in Brussels at noon. We then had to hustle and book our tickets to London on the 1:30pm bus coming from Amsterdam, hoping that they still had room. As it was, we were in luck and they had 6 seats left, wonderful. Now, we had 30 minutes to find and use the bathroom, book a hostel online, and grab a quick bit to eat. We were scheduled to arrive in London at 9pm. Late, but enough time to get to our lodging from Victoria Station.
Our connecting bus arrived at 2:30pm but the driver needed a break so we wouldn't leave for another 45 min. The only thing great about it was the driver, who was a hoot and the bus logo with a giant tiger on it saying "On a Mission". Finally, we were allowed to board the bus and we were off. Right, okay so we were only 2 hours late. Thank god the U.K. was an hour behind. We got there at 10:45pm GMT.
One hour later we were queued up to board the high speed train for the tunnel from France to England. Customs and immigration was hilarious in the fact that we got off the bus, went through French customs, got on the bus, drove literally 50 feet, got off the bus for English immigrations, and was told not to get back on the bus until you go through and out to the other side. He would then drive over there and pick us up. It was 10 feet away.
The Channel was interesting. The train reaches speeds 90 miles per hour and the trip was shorter than the wait,loading and unloading.
Luckily, it was Friday and our hostel had an all night reception. Also, it was literally right around the corner from Baywater station on the Circle line. Oh, plus it came with breakfast. Yeah, just tea and toast but free anything was a welcome.
