25th March, 2009 – Traveling from North Wales to Amsterdam via London Euston (Day 14)

This morning, after packing my luggage, I had a long breakfast while listening to the radio. Then I went for a leisure walk to the other side of town. It was just too cold out there I can't stand it. So I went back to hostel to watch TV (one tree hill and Gilmore girls) and had hot tea. The hostel owner was doing his cleaning and maintenance so we had a lovely chat.

Around 12.45pm, I grabbed my luggage, went to get a subway sandwich and head to Bangor. Took the 1.10pm bus arriving at the Bangor train station at 1.45. Waited at platform 1 for my virgin train from Bangor to London Euston. My pre-booked seat is backwards facing... bummer. While having my sandwich, I noticed there are small LCD displays on top of the seats stating if the seats are available or had been reserved. I found 2 forward facing seats nearby which were not reserved and move over. Much better now. Use the traveling time to read up on my LP guide, jotting down some places of interest in Amsterdam and Belgium.

Arrived in London Euston at 1745pm and walked to the Euston Square station and took the tube to Liverpool Street station. Then I went to pick up my pre-booked 'rail and sail' ticket. The 'rail and sail' from Stena Line's dutchflyer service provides city-to-city travel for passengers wishing to travel from Britain to Holland, where you pay just one price for your travel from London to the Harwich International by train, then board the ferry for an overnight sail (in private en-suite cabin) to Holland, and then again take a train to any of the dutch train station. A paper is given to me as proof of my rail ticket from Liverpool Street station to Harwich International station. There are 2 trains I could take, first one at 2018pm (final station at Harwich town) but I decided to take 2038pm train which terminates at Harwich International station. While having my dinner at Burger King, there's a group of Asians there, listening to their voices and conversation, I know they should be Malaysian. (hehe just entertaining myself)

I board the East Anglia train to Harwich International at platform 9, arriving around 2200pm. The train station is just next to the ferry terminal. Went up the escalator to the ticket counter to pick up my second half of ticket, my boarding pass for the ferry and also the rail ticket from Hoek of Holland to any dutch train station. All passengers waited at the waiting lounge for 5 mins before we were allowed to board the ferry. It was a very huge ferry with a total of 10 decks. I am in deck 8, room 8213, a single cabin inside (meaning no window). It's a great cabin all to myself, there are 2 bunk beds, a sofa, a toilet, a table, and one huge mirror. All these for just ￡57, well worth the money. The boarding pass also acts as the door key which has a bar code on it. After putting down my stuff, I went down to deck 7 for a little exploration tour. There are café, restaurant, game area, casino, cinema, duty-free shopping to keep you entertained if you are not sleepy. Went back to my cabin, showered and laid down to sleep after this very long traveling day.

Photos of Wales,UK