Day 3

This day will forever go down as the day I wish I could forget. Of course it is the day I will probably never forget. There is so much to say about this day, so brace yourself for a long post.

We woke up at 5:30 am so we could catch a train into London. From there we were going to catch a train to France. We were so proud of ourselves, waking up early, being ready to go, making it to the train station early. Everything was going so well. We caught the train from Lingfield station to London Victoria station. It was about an hour and a bit. We had a stroller, suitcase and 2 bags with us and of course Lydia, so it was a little awkward, but we managed. Then we got off in London. This was when it all started going downhill. We got off the train and went to the main area of the station. Here we got bombarded by all the crazy rush hour traffic of people.

You don't want to have to stop in this train station, or you will be trampled. We had to catch an underground train to go to the train station where our Paris train took off from. Of course there was no lift to go down to the underground, so we struggled to get our stuff down there. We took the train 5 stops to our station, King's Cross. Then we had about a 10-15 minute walk (in the shuffle of rush hour and crazy people) to get to St. Pancras, our final train station. We finally walk into where we board our Eurostar train. We picked up our tickets and started heading to our check in. At this point Jeff looks at me and says, "We are good to go, right? We don't need passports or anything?" My heart sank. Of course we needed passports. They were back with George and Myrna with the rest of our stuff that we didn't take to Paris. I almost fell to the ground. It was such a journey to get there with so much stuff and Lydia and people everywhere. Plus we were so tired. So we walked over to the desk and confirmed we needed passports. The man was so nice. I'm bawling and he's validating our tickets so that we can come back later that day and catch a train to Paris. 

So, we turn around and backtrack all of our steps. Including the walk through the busy station, hopping on the underground and finding our way back to Victoria station. This is where it gets better...the underground at Victoria station had a train that wasn't running due to an incident. I thought the train station was packed before. This time it was impossible to move through all the hoards of people waiting to board a train that wasn't even running. They had stopped letting people enter the platform, people were pushing and I am sure there were at least 6 or 7 people who tripped over Lydia in her stroller because they weren't looking down and didn't see her. Then we had to haul all our stuff up the stairs to catch our train back to our originating train station. It was no easy task to carry all of this stuff. 

Jeff called his parents and warned them. Thankfully they were willing to meet us at the train station with our passports. They even offered to come all the way to us with them, but we weren't going to make them suffer for our mistake. 

We got on our train to Lingfield. On our journey the conductor asked for our tickets. We showed them to him. Apparently when you buy train tickets they are only valid once and only one way. (Of course) It didn't even cross my mind to buy another train ticket. Thankfully he took pity on us and didn't fine us, we just had to buy train tickets which were £22 ($36). OUCH! That was only the beginning of my expensive mistake.

George met us at the train station and had the schedule for the next train back to where we came from. Thankfully it was leaving in less than 5 minutes. We had our passports in hand and hopped on the train to replay our day all over again. (In hindsight we probably should have bought a ticket back to London, but we didn't even think of that as I was just too wound up and so upset about the whole situation). The whole train ride back to London I kept hoping that the rush of people had slowed down a bit.

We got to Victoria station, and thankfully we knew our way around so we maneuvered the rest of our journey much faster. It was way less busy so we were able to make it to the St. Pancras station in record time. We get there, go to the check in counter to see about what train we can get on and are told to go get in line. The next train to Paris was leaving in 15 minutes and this line was definitely longer than 15 minutes, so I felt defeated yet again. We finally get to the front of the line and we are told that there is a train leaving in 20 minutes. I was confused because the board showed the next train was leaving in 2 hours, but ok, I would take that train. Then the bombshell...our connecting station was a different train line and they couldn't guarantee that they would be accommodating to us at the connecting station, so we might need to buy a new ticket there. Apparently it was the direct train to Paris that they could guarantee our arrival, but the next one with seats wasn't leaving for 3 more hours! He said we were better off taking that chance, so we did. 

We boarded our train to France. It felt good to be one our way, but it was hard to relax about it not knowing if we would end up stranded in some small train station in France where we were supposed to connect. Now this is where it gets a little embarrassing to me. The reason why we were connecting in this town is because our original plan was not to go straight to Paris, we were going just outside of Paris so we could enjoy the afternoon/evening at Disneyland Paris. It has always been a dream to go to Disneyland Paris (used to be Euro Disney). I figured I love Disney so much, what chance will I ever have again to do this, let's do it. I had pre purchased our tickets for the day here, and they were only valid on this day. I was super bummed that I might not have a chance to visit the park and even more bummed that I had wasted the money on the tickets. However, if all went as planned, we would arrive there around 5:30pm, which was only 3.5 hours later that our original travel plans. So I had my fingers crossed the whole way.

I was pretty excited to take this train as I knew it went under the English Channel in the chunnel and we had just visited the English Channel. It's all very fascinating to me. How they can build a train tunnel under water is beyond me.

We arrived in Lille, France. We head to train ticket office. We waited for an english speaking agent for what felt like an hour. (It was probably really only 10 minutes). We explain our situation and she looks at us and says, the tickets are non refundable and non exchangeable. She was not a very friendly lady which made it even harder to accept, but we were told we would have to pay 114€ ($150 CAD). My heart sunk again. What an expensive, stupid mistake I had made. I was so disappointed in myself. Then the lady started speaking in French to her coworker. She looked at us and said they don't normally do this but she would give us our tickets for free. I started crying. I was so tired, and emotionally, I was an absolute wreck. I was so grateful that she was so helpful to us and I felt bad for all the mean thoughts I had been thinking about her. Then she started crying. She turned out to be such a nice lady.

We waited a few minutes and were able to board our train from Lille to Disneyland Paris. Finally, I felt some relief. I had accepted that we were going to arrive later than planned and that I wouldn't get to see all I had wanted to see. That was ok, at least we were making it and more importantly our day in Paris (day 4) wasn't going to be affected at all. Of course that day was way more important than my few anticipated hours at Disneyland Paris.
                           
Jeff on the train to Disneyland Paris. I couldn't bring myself to take any pictures up to this point. I didn't want to remember any of it.

We finally arrived in Disneyland. The train station actually stops right in between Disney's two parks. It was great to walk off the train and be right where we wanted to be. I was super bummed that the park I wanted to go to most closed at 6 and we weren't going to get to visit it. I at least go to visit one park though, so I was happy. We checked our bags and off we went.

It wasn't long before we realized Disneyland Paris is nothing like Disney in the USA. We did not see one character the whole time we were there (except in the show we watched). I was hoping to get Lydia a picture with princesses or Mickey or something, but that wasn't happening without characters. There were very few staff members anywhere to be honest.

We did see a cool Tarzan show. It was neat how they incorporated different languages in the show. It would alternate between english and french, and maybe even more languages, it's hard to know for sure. It was a little chilly out, but at least it wasn't raining. You could tell it was raining throughout the day. 

It was amazing to me how few people there were. Yet it seemed harder to maneuver because people seemed way less considerate of where they walked and stopped. Although we did not see any scooters (which is the worst thing about Disney). People in scooters are often so pushy. 

Lydia's first ride ever was Pirates of the Caribbean. I had heard it was way better here.  It wasn't really. It was a little bit more of a drop but it was pretty much the same as Disneyworld. We had tried to ride Thunder Mountain, but the line was a little too long so we decided we would go back later in an hour or so.

We went on It's a Small World. It was neat, and definitely a little different than the USA ones, but not different enough to matter. We tried to ride Buzz, but they told us Lydia was too small. Funny, we have taken Elliot on the one in California. They weren't nice about it either. I was grumpy and wanted to get mad at them, but they probably wouldn't have understood anyways since they were french and most didn't speak english well. We ate dinner and headed back to Big Thunder Mountain. It was broken, so there goes that idea. We went to another ride, it was closed. I managed to ride one more ride by myself but it was in French so it wasn't even fun as I didn't understand what was happening. It was at this point that I decided I hated visiting a country that wasn't my language. It is so frustrating not understanding what was going on. (Plus I was grumpy and tired). We shopped a bit, but it was CRAZY expensive. A stuffed animal there was 20€ ($25 CAD). The same stuffed animal would only have been $16 in the US. Boo. I spent a lot of time trying to find the kids an affordable souvenir. I finally ended up getting them each a pencil and notebook. We got Donovan a Grumpy shirt and Elliot a Stitch shirt and hat. They are super cute and weren't crazy expensive.

                                         

Lydia's bottles were dwindling, despite me pumping throughout the day, so we stopped in the baby care center to ask if they sold formula. In the USA they offer it for free, or for very little money in these centres. When I asked her if they had any she looked at me like I had 3 heads. Like they didn't feed babies formula there. So, we forgot about it and carried on.

We hung around for the end of the night fireworks. It was an amazing light show that they put on the castle. This was my favorite part of the whole day. It was really a fascinating show. I video taped some of it for the kids to see and I am terrible at video taping, I'm just not one of those people, so it must have been good. 

 

This is a small bit of the show, it's not great quality, but it's still pretty neat to watch. If nothing else, you can be entertained by some stranger singing who doesn't know the words at all. 

We left just before the show was over to beat some of the rush. We had to pick up our luggage still and take a train to our hotel. 

 

We hopped on the underground to the train stop closest to our hotel. I about died when I saw the underground train. It was absolutely DISGUSTING!! Graffiti everywhere, dirty, old and just gross. I couldn't even sit down on the seat even though my feet were killing me and I was exhausted. It was already 12am. 

We got to our train stop and of course, it was POURING out! It was crazy how much it was raining. We had one umbrella and Jeff didn't have his rain coat. I put my raincoat over the stroller as we tried to figure out where our hotel was. We walked in the pouring rain for at least 40 minutes trying to find our hotel. We stopped and asked for directions and started in the right direction but still didn't know where we were going. We were soaking wet, it was pitch black and we were so tired. It was absolutely a terrible way to end a terrible day. We were looking at a map on the side of the road when a man started approaching us. I'm pretty sure I looked at him in a way that made him feel sorry for us so he stopped. Thankfully Jeff speaks a little french so he was able to ask for directions. I could not believe it but this man was going to our hotel! He worked there! So we followed him. I have to admit it was a little scary following a stranger in pouring rain in at almost 1 in the morning, but we were so desperate. Turns out he worked at our hotel. I swear he was an angel sent to us. I am not convinced we would have ever found our way without him.

We checked into our hotel and went to our room. You would think that this was where the day ends for us. Nope. It gets even better. We were almost out of milk for Lydia. I tried pumping but nothing was coming out! What the heck? My milk had dried up almost completely and we did not know what to do. What little bit we had we tried feeding her and for some reason she just wasn't taking it. And she sure was screaming, not because she was hungry, who knows why really. She screamed until 1:30 or even 2 in the morning. Jeff got dressed to take her for walk in the parking lot (still pouring outside) and all of a sudden she stopped crying. Phew. We just kept praying she wouldn't wake up hungry because we had less than one bottle of milk for her and nothing else to offer her. Out of some miracle, she did not wake up to feed. We slept until 10am and what a great feeling that was. I was able to pump very little milk. Jeff had googled formula in France and they most definitely did have it there, the lady at Disney was just an idiot. (Although I felt like the idiot for believing that they didn't have it there). 

I have to say that this day was a very difficult day for me. A crazy day riding the train. An emotional day full of my mistakes. A depressing day because Disney may have just been ruined forever for me. An exhausting day trying to find our hotel in the middle of the night in the pouring rain. But worst of all, a very scary day because I thought my baby was going to starve. I can honestly say I had no idea what we were going to do when she woke up crying because she was hungry. It was definitely one of the lowest points ever for me thinking I was going to have to hold a starving baby with no way to feed her until a grocery store opened up. 

I am grateful for so many things this day. I am so glad everything worked out and we made it there with very little extra expense. I am glad that I got to visit Disneyland Paris because now I have no desire to ever go back and I am glad I got to experience it. It really was a once in a lifetime experience for me and I can check it off my list of things to do. I am so grateful for the stranger that walked by us in the middle of the night that happened to be going to our hotel. I can't believe how lucky we were that Lydia didn't wake up hungry since we had nothing to feed her. I am also glad for the pills that help increase milk supply that I added to my luggage at the last second before leaving home (they were leftover from Elliot). I am grateful for a husband who didn't get mad for one second throughout the whole day. He knew that I was struggling so much and he held it together because some one had to. I am so glad that if I was going to have such a bad day, at least it was while I was visiting the other side of the world.