Day 1

Well, it was nice for my big brother Haydn to sneakily show up at Gloucester station to see me off. Someone asked me who was seeing me off and it felt a bid sad saying "no-one" so thanks again H. Gloucester to Paddington went in a flash, and then I had to head up to North London on the tube to find my passport. Thankfully that went off without a hitch and soon I was flicking through it admiring my new visas to Belarus, Russia, Mongolia and China. Next stop was Waterloo and the Eurostar! I have never travelled on the Eurostar, so it was good to tick that off the list. I put my headphones in and led back as the Eurotunnel got closer. It was night-time by then so there was nothing to see anyway.

Brussels

An hour later I started reading my book. It's Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, I was saving it for the Russian part of my trip but my bag is so heavy I thought best get it out of the way now and off load some weight. I spent most of the last week worrying I had too little kit and now I'm sure I have too much.

My Brussels to Berlin Sleeper Cabin

At Brussells the station was sort of closing down for the night and the only toilet was closed. So I sat down with the other cross-legged passengers in the single waiting area - which piped through annoying ring tone music for our "benefit". We were waiting for the overnight sleeper to Berlin, which I was pleased to see had some pretty tidy accommodation. I had a three berth cabin to myself which I was grateful for because it was gone midnight and I wanted some shut-eye. I read a few more pages of my book and tried to get to sleep as the train rumbled through Belgium.

The Eurostar!