Les derniers pas

Above - me and my one hundred odd kilos of luggage outside Hereford station.

Above - Newport Train Station.

Above - Reading Train Station.

Above - Guildford Train Station.

Above - Gatwick.

Sunday was a long day. We got up at 5h30 and left my apartment at 7h. We took the metro from Joliette to Saint Charles and then caught the navette to the airport. The suitcases were heavy – the thought of having to cart them across the continent was not appealing. It wasn’t until I got on the navette at Saint Charles that it really hit me: the year was over. I was leaving. I’d been so busy these last few days packing and sorting out last minute things that I hadn’t really had time to be sad. But taking the metro for the last time, leaving Saint Charles for the last time, it was sad. A line was being drawn. The chapter had ended and there was no going back to re-read it. Thinking back to the beginning of the year I remember how I hated Marseille, just briefly. How I’d wanted to leave no sooner had I got here. How things have changed. My year abroad started in tears. It ended in tears too. But for very very different reasons.

Traversing England

As we touched down at Gatwick I looked out of the window at the greyness, the greyness and the greenness. We were in England and were now to be reunited with the 64.6kg of luggage which we would have to lug across the country. Train number one was from Gatwick Airport to Guildford where we then had the joys of a bus replacement service to Reading. The man who put the cases on the bus was jolly. There didn’t look to be enough room for one of the cases so he said it would have to stay in Guildford! Of course he was joking – there was a second boot around the other side of the bus. The bus journey took a long time. I was bored, I needed the loo, I couldn’t stop fidgeting. When we finally arrived at Reading we had, by about an hour, missed our connecting train to Newport. We waited for the next one. We originally went to the wrong platform so had to about turn and come back down the escalators. We were getting a bit of a routing going by now. I’d go down with a big case and a little case. Then, the second little case without wheels would be sent on the escalator alone and then the second big case would come down. This meant not only did we clog up the whole escalator but I also had to get me and my two cases off the escalator in time to get back to the escalator for when the other little case without wheels arrived. Then I had to get all that out of the way for when the second big case came down! Looking back now it’s hilarious, at the time it was nothing but ridiculous. When we finally got to Newport we took our final train of the day to Hereford. We were only able to go as far as Hereford as there were more bus replacement services due to engineering works. When we finally got home we were exhausted. But we had managed to transport a year of my life across the continent. A year of my life weighing in at 64.6 kg plus hand luggage, I think we’re looking at 100kg, easy. How we ached the next day!