Day 10, Paris to Ashford (that exotic clime)

Paris Gare du Nord

​Greetings, humans! Today is our last day – how can time have gone so quickly? Just yesterday we were waking up to the Alps rising above us and sitting by the water of Lake Geneva.
We packed up our little room. I failed to mention yesterday that the toilet is next door and didn’t have a light which made using it in the dark last night interesting for the humans, but leaning out the window provided a spectacular view.
We enjoyed the short walk to Paris Gare du Nord to catch the Eurostar back to Kent. Check in went smoothly (more scanners like back at the airport) but then… delays! There was a technical fault with the train which was so bad, in fact, they had to get us a whole new train. 

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The Eurostar - not our Eurostar, this might be the one that broke down so should have been our Eurostar

​We finally boarded an hour late (more chance for the humans to claim some compensation) and eventually we departed for Ashford. The way off the Eurostar platform onto the Southeastern line was very confusing and pointlessly long winded but we eventually found the train. 

Our final view of Paris - the window could use a clean...

Is the train coming yet?

No. I'll get on with some reading then. I feature in this book, you know.

​We changed at Sevenoaks and were soon back at Jack’s house.
Charlie and Jack swapped photos with each other, then myself and Charlie drove back to Charlie’s house.

Time to go back to Charlie's house

I'm joking, I do of course have a chauffeur

​Well, that’s it, back home, Europe trip over! And what a trip it has been, I for one would be game for doing it all over again, the sights I’ve seen! I feel very few cats have travelled through so many countries and certainly not in such a short time. For most cats, ‘travelling’ is the journey from the neighbour’s garden back to their food dish and then to a comfy bed, preferably with an obliging human to offer strokes and attention. Who knows, maybe I can inspire the cats of this world to take up travelling… but then I forget not all cats are educated like me and can read. Oh well, their humans can read this to them perhaps?
I suppose that’s it, all that remains now is for the humans to unpack and get back to normal life. I hope one day I’ll get a chance to make another blog of another amazing trip – I don’t want to be stuck in Charlie’s house for the rest of my life! If I’d actually met any of you, I would have said nice knowing you but as it stands in this brave new world of internet publishing to anonymous audiences, all I can say is I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my Tails, if you’re still there of course and I’m not just talking to myself! I’ll say that’s unlikely, a more fantastic and interesting talking cat I’m sure you’ve never met.
Hope there will be a next time, Chesh.

Another trip? I'm ready any time! Just don't take me to Vietnam

Charlie at Checkpoint Charlie!

​Ps. For fear of this entry being rather short and all over in a couple of paragraphs, I suppose I should let my humans have their say, after all they did carry me around for ten days, made sure I had a great time (apart from all the water), took many pictures and helped me write this.
 
Charlie. This trip has been a journey I have wanted to make for two years now and it certainly didn’t disappoint my high expectations.
Of course, as with any trip of this magnitude, there were the lower points, late trains and the ridiculously high temperatures that meant we spent a good portion of every day coated in sweat, but there were so many amazing parts that made any of the bad bits insignificant in comparison.
Visiting all the cities has been the best trip I’ve ever been on, but how to pick a favourite? Oslo and Berlin were the two cities we were most keen to visit, hence why we stayed in these places longer than the others and they were definitely worth the longer stay. If pushed, I would probably say Berlin was my favourite city, I love the sound of the language and the history of the place. But then, Oslo was so beautiful and so incredibly green for a city, both in terms of the trees that were everywhere, but also the fact that so many people were driving electric cars, the city itself was just so clean and relaxed as well. 

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Oslo's Aker river. Because I love water even if Chesh doesn't

I know you've already seen this picture but I think it's worth a second viewing

​Maybe Oslo was my favourite? Or Berlin? I don’t know – I can’t choose. Copenhagen, Vienna and Geneva were fantastic as well and if we’d had longer in these cities, I’m sure I’d also have felt a sense of being comfortable in the area, fitting into the place, which I started to feel in Oslo and Berlin as we re-visited the same streets, particularly those around the rooms we stayed in.
I might not be able to pick a favourite city, but visiting the (remains of the) Berlin Wall I think was the most interesting place we visited. The remains immersed us in the history of the place – I was absolutely fascinated, but then I do love modern history!
My favourite meal? The falafel pitta sandwich from Fala Fala in Copenhagen, such a huge portion and so delicious, I still dream about it (well, not quite, but I wouldn’t mind if I did). My favourite place to eat was Vienna’s Swing Kitchen – a fantastic atmosphere – but my favourite dessert was most certainly Brammibal’s doughnuts in Berlin, I heartily recommend them although I think Chesh has already sung their praise!

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Because there can never be too many doughnut pictures!

​Working out the trains between countries, transport within the cities and finding all the places we wanted to visit was a bit of a challenge, especially with limited internet whilst on the Continent, and involved a lot of planning before we arrived in any of the countries, but there is no doubt it was worth it.
We have seen some of the most amazing sights, enjoyed a ridiculous variety of delicious foods (some of which was actually native to the countries we visited) and met a lot of people – mostly our room hosts and the serving staff/ owners of the cafés and restaurants. 

All our rooms were booked through AirBnB, which saved us a lot of money. Nearly everywhere we ate was found using Happy Cow, an app and website listing and reviewing vegetarian and vegan food places. Only visiting establishments Happy Cow listed as vegan allowed us to be confident in foreign countries that our food was definitely vegan – although everyone spoke excellent English, they could have confirmed for us if we’d needed. The only places we ate that weren’t from Happy Cow were California Popsicles, the Korean food stand at Mauerpark and the stand at Zurich station where we bought the pretzel, but these all had vegan written on them in huge letters so we didn’t have anything to worry about. 

Eating vegan was never a problem, I’ve just done a search on Happy Cow and in a 5 mile radius of central Berlin there are 53 all-vegan places, including cafés, restaurants and bakeries. When making our choices we had to restrict the search to a specific area of each city to even be in with a chance of choosing where we wanted to eat!
This whole trip has been amazing. For anyone who wants to travel and see lots of countries in a short space of time, give inter-railing a go, it won’t disappoint you.

Ah, the view of Oslo

Jack. Hi all! If you’re reading this then you already know all about our use as human cat-carriers and how much Chesh loves water! XD 
All joking aside, the trip round Europe was amazing, there’s no other way to put it, with the lows, like broken air conditioning, appearing inconsequential next to the highs such as seeing each city. I'd always wanted to see the world a bit, having only been to Spain and Greece. Seeing all the differences between each country in relation to their architecture, customs and habits was enlightening; all the people we met were really friendly and helpful.
My favourite city was definitely Oslo; it was small, had tons of green plants, was clean and had a nice atmosphere. The views from our room were amazing.
Berlin was definitely a close second with its historic buildings such as the Brandenburg gate. Reading about the Berlin Wall was incredibly interesting though tinged with sadness due to the suffering people endured.

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Yep, another falafel picture!

​My favourite meal would have to be the falafel in Copenhagen as it tasted amazing and the atmosphere was bustling. The best desert was definitely the chocolate milkshake at Lia’s Kitchen in Berlin, I’ll have to try and make my own!
Eating vegan was easy due to the Happy Cow app and all the Airbnb hosts we met were extremely welcoming.
And most importantly, the trip wouldn't have been as awesome as it was without Charlie who is an amazing friend....and I suppose Chesh as well ;) 

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Until next time, folks! Chesh