Yup, I'm back from a fantastic holiday! I feel reallu upbeat, jolly, happy... etc. It was just perfect. The temperatures were late twenties early thirties every day and the Sun was out almost without fail!

My only problem: The TRAVEL!! It was a nightmare on the way there and the way back I was just too tired... although it was better. I had two problems.

i) Sleeper trains: they are the creation of evil. The theory seems good: sleep on the long journey so it doesn't feel like so much. But have you ever tried sleeping on a tiliting train after running for the train, wearing the same clothes for the full day (and then sleeping in them), no food or drink since the morning? We were in a room for six, but since there were only 5 of us, a random guy was also there (see later) so it was really stuffy, they forced us to close all of the windows and the beds weren't comfy. But there was a plus: they provided a bottle of water, some polo mints and a pair of earplugs (also see later).

ii) THE EUROSTAR!!!: I never thought that we could have the exact same problem on both legs of the journey. On the way there, the train was an hour late so when we arrived in Paris, Gare du Nord, our hour and a quarter relaxtion session had been reduced to five minutes. In that five minutes we had to get on the Metro to Austerlitz (four minutes) and find the sleeper train. So we were running for it...
And on the way back, of course, everything was going smoothely and *kaboom* out of nowhere comes a half hour delay. So we were running for the train from London to Manchester too!!!!!!!! Stupid Channel tunnel having issues...

But other than that, this was brilliant. Mum got really hyper, as did my sister, so we were telling jokes and such.

i) When we were on the sleeper train, something very funny happened, albeit unfortunate for whichever poor person bought the spare seat in our room. My brother was very uncomfortable and had sat with his feet at the head end of th ebed, which had a gap. That free bottle of water was over the gap. He, whilst tossing and turning, knocked it through the gap, terrifying the poor man on the bottom, who jerked upright, only just not hitting his head on the ceiling. My Dad yelled my brothers name then my Mum did and my sister and I just started laughing, trying not to be too loud. When the guy went back to sleep, Mum burst into giggles, my brother just looking bewildered and fed-up.

ii) Those two earphones saved my Mum. At night-time, this family of six would come out onto their balcony and talk, laugh and party until the early hours of the morning. Mum was going to kill them all. But then I reminded her of those miracle ear-plugs. Soon, she dubbed them "the best £200 we'd ever spent [refering to the cost of the sleeper train].

iii) The Sun: For any English people we actually got to see that rare, elusive, celestial body known as the Sun. It's yellow/orange, very warm and produces light. Quite startling, after the constant cloud cover we've had over here! ^^

That's all for now and I'm just glad to have got that all off my chest. Phew! Brilliant holiday mind^^ XD