{"id":182,"date":"2016-07-23T18:51:26","date_gmt":"2016-07-23T17:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/209.222.30.173\/?p=182"},"modified":"2020-12-22T14:11:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T14:11:00","slug":"an-interrail-adventure-blog-13-lille","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interrailplanner.com\/blog\/an-interrail-adventure-blog-13-lille\/","title":{"rendered":"An Interrail Adventure &#8211; Blog 13: Lille"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After my change at Brussels, I arrived in Lille \u2013 my final city! As I stepped out of the station, I was greeted with the sight of the Euro 2016 Lille fan zone being deconstructed, which wasn\u2019t a particularly pretty sight. However, once I\u2019d made it past that, the views did get better. Cobbled streets, boulangeries, cafes and all sorts appeared as I snaked my way through the streets towards my hostel. After checking in and sorting myself out, I had a bit of a wander. It was strange to think that this was my last city, especially as I\u2019ve been travelling around for a month now, but that\u2019s the way these things go!<\/span><\/p><div class=\"inter-content-paragraph\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;margin-bottom: 20px;\" id=\"inter-2984956039\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-4633244982126279\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block; text-align:center;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-4633244982126279\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"7158573474\" \ndata-ad-layout=\"in-article\"\ndata-ad-format=\"fluid\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/jUcL2Rvbr3txRhv5cJj3MxolgYwiKsMPmkKaRkIp_1aPI-AlkX-NEZTLL4KRoZ_O-6mxvYlAfG5FzX9nNEybw44K4a_J4NsWL52XU-BEqZR4TNEJ0k3fbTmxD1bBuNFDi8chAlWS\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lille\u2019s city centre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Back in Cologne I was informed by Simon (the Australian chap) that Lille had a free zoo in their main park. Thinking this was too good to be true (I mean, free?) the next morning I headed there and found that he was in fact telling the truth. With zebra, pelicans and alpacas among their animals, I was pretty impressed and I spent a fair while there. However, I hadn\u2019t come to Lille just to see the animals, so I made sure to keep exploring. This involved strolling around the citadel, a massive 17<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">th<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> century fortress in the north of Lille, which apparently is still in use today. The thing was huge, so that involved a fair bit of sitting down as well \u2013 after a month of walking and travelling my legs are exhausted!<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I spent some time strolling around the rest of the city, getting lost every now and then. At one point I\u2019m fairly certain I came across a Pokemon Go gathering in one of the parks. How else could you explain a lot of people with smartphones out and Pikachu onesies? Soon enough though, it was time for dinner. I\u2019ve done a fair bit of cooking on this trip to save money (especially in Western Europe), but I figured that as it was my last night I\u2019d treat myself. I\u2019d passed by a pizza place when going to and from the hostel, which looked like it had space in the evening, so I headed there. Taking a seat, I was informed that this wasn\u2019t an ordinary pizza place. Instead of a usual menu, you were given a piece of paper which had a series of topping options. You then chose which base, toppings and cheeses you wanted and it was made to order. I kept it pretty safe, especially as everything was in French (the last time I actively learnt the language was in year 9). It arrived quickly, but unfortunately I forgot to grab a picture of it \u2013 I was just too hungry! After dinner I went for a wander around the city and then returned back to the hostel bar for a few French beers.<\/span><\/p><div class=\"inter-content_2\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;margin-bottom: 20px;\" id=\"inter-121147794\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-4633244982126279\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block; text-align:center;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-4633244982126279\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"7158573474\" \ndata-ad-layout=\"in-article\"\ndata-ad-format=\"fluid\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<figure style=\"width: 291px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh6.googleusercontent.com\/JTTMdLu5O9l6WhHauDzFw-sqNI2nq95skUF2J1cRdPzxM78ETB7QrivOWBP6rZVK5rthSjicRoDEkgUBLPlobcl8JdzKujyAWrk7dSToqPVpBPhyvH8gTbwl5yY4KBUD3H7XxEzf\" alt=\"\" width=\"291\" height=\"518\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A belfry in Lille<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After waking this morning I, for the final time, packed my bag and checked out. To return to England, I was getting the Eurostar in the afternoon so I had some time to kill. Wandering around the Sunday markets and taking in all the smells and sounds, along with exploring the citadel some more served that purpose. Now, I know that the Eurostar isn\u2019t included on the Interrail pass, but after getting from Romania to here via trains, I wasn\u2019t going to cheat on the last bit of the journey and get a plane!<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After checking into the Eurostar, sitting around for a bit and eventually getting on the train, I was on the way to England. I arrived at St Pancras fairly quickly and then it was time for the final train \u2013 my local one back home. Funnily enough, it was this one that turned out to be the most cramped one of my journey! With my bag I squeezed in between some disgruntled passengers, quietly apologising for taking up so much space. There\u2019s nothing like a little bit of passive-aggression on a British train is there? Soon enough though, I was home.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bucharest to a small English town, all done by rail \u2013 one hell of a journey!<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jackmanjames26\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">James Jackman<\/a> will be sharing stories from his Interrail trip every few days throughout June and July &#8211; follow us on <\/i><i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/interrailplanner\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a><\/i><i> and <\/i><i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/planinterrail\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a><\/i><i> to catch his updates as soon as they\u2019re posted!<\/i><\/p>\n<div class=\"inter-after-content\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;margin-bottom: 20px;\" id=\"inter-1240642302\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-4633244982126279\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-4633244982126279\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"8015293915\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After my change at Brussels, I arrived in Lille \u2013 my final city! As I stepped out of the station, I was greeted with the sight of the Euro 2016 Lille fan zone being deconstructed, which wasn\u2019t a particularly pretty sight. However, once I\u2019d made it past that, the views did get better. Cobbled streets,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[32],"class_list":["post-182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interrail-adventures","tag-interrail-france"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/interrailplanner.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/interrail-adventure-lille.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/interrailplanner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/interrailplanner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/interrailplanner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interrailplanner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interrailplanner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/interrailplanner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interrailplanner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/interrailplanner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interrailplanner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interrailplanner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}