Trying to organize my thoughts on this one. The important thing to remember about this adventure was that it was just that, an adventure. Every time I started thinking about it in a different way, it began to suck, and I'd start to get a little pissed off and grumpy about the whole thing.
Easter is a 4 day weekend here in the UK, with Friday and Monday as holidays. Since Diana is not here yet, I didn't want to spend 4 days couped up in the house here by myself. In looking at options, I thought I'd take the train to Dover and ride the ferry across to Calais, France. I had been reading some books about the hundred Years War and English occupation of Calais from the 13th century, and thought I'd knock around the historical sites some. Just me and a backpack. An adventure.
The London papers and radio/TV had been emphasizing that traffic and transport in general over the long weekend was going to be a mess, as there was a lot of roadwork, as well as engineering work on the subways and trains going on for the weekend. I thought, well. I'm on an adventure, have no specific timetable, I'll take a backpack, book, an MP3 player, a dose of patience and go for it. All three played an important part in my journey!
I'm an early riser, so I was on the tube to London Victoria station by 7:44. Arrived, bought my ticket and had 30 mins for the train. Grabbed a coffee and a sandwich and chilled. Train left on time, wasn't crowded, about 2 hours to Dover Priory station. No prob The Dead are signing "Going down the road feeling bad". Once there, a bus comes by every 30 mins to take you to the ferry port, but it was only about a mile or so, thought I'd stretch my legs and walk. I was on an adventure, and I was going to see what I could see. The Who signing "I wear my war time jacket in the wind and sleet..."
The day was extremely windy, probably 40-50 mph winds, and cold. I know You Rider comes on "March winds will blow all my troubles away". I was prepared, so it wasn't that bad. Had heard that Dover was a nasty port town, but got a very different impression of it. At least the area between the train station and the port seemed rather nice. Below are some pics of Dover Castle and the waterfront area. Click on the pics and they should take you to larger ones.
OK, so I get to the ferry port, and it's packed. The winds had been so high the night before they'd canceled several ferries, so they were backed up. I bought a ticket on the 12:40 ferry, that was scheduled to leave at 1:40. It was now 11:00. My adventure has hit a snag, but nothing big. The biggest downside was that the 1 snackbar at the port was completely overwhelmed by people and the 2 guys working couldn't keep up. I got the last sandwich they had and a cup of coffee and settled in for the wait. Slipped the MP3 player on, read my book. "Let your soul shine ...". Life is OK.
One of my concerns was the ferry crossing. I'm not too proud to admit I'm prone to seasickness, and the wind was extremely strong. However, these are some big-assed ships, holding up to 20 tractor trailers in each. I'm thinking I can make it. Oh, and I knew they'd have a bar, so if necessary, I'd have something to puke up :) A photo of the ferries below
Well the 12:40 ferry finally left about 3:00, and it was packed. However, they did have a bar, with pints of Boddington's for 3 GBP each :) I've found from experience that a little alcohol (not a lot) helps with the seasickness. It numbs your inner ear some (honestly!). Well the crossing was a bit rough, but I was OK. As I hit the head on the ship after we docked, I noticed some others hadn't made it quite so well.
I had made a reservation at a cheap hotel through booking.com, but I really didn't know where it was. Plan was to grab a map at the tourist info place when I got to Calais, about 2:00 pm-ish, and figure it out from there. It was now 5:30 pm and almost of the offices in the ferry port were closed down. There was one open that was labeled "Information" and several of us lined up there, as we could see a guy in the back. I don't know much French, but we soon found out that "Information" translates into "rude French (is that repetitive?) asshole sits behind this window".
Hey, I'm on an adventure, and this is not my first experience with "Information" in France. I was a little bleary from the ferry ride, and had little incentive to wait 30 mins for the bus downtown. I found a map on the wall and thought it was a walkable distance. Stuck in my headphones and I'm off. John Lee signing "boom, boom, boom boom, gonna knock you right down..."
The area around the port in Calais is NOT a good part of town! I was very happy it was still daylight for a while, else I might have ducked into a cafe and called a cab. However, the lord looks after drunks and fools, and I've been both in my life, so I got into the city center of Calais in a little over an hour. But the tunes were excellent!
The center of the town is very pretty, but I had been travleing for 8+ hours now and wanted my hotel. I found the train station, but by this time it was almost 7:00 pm and nothing was open. Figured, ok, I ll just grab a taxi and have them take me to the hotel. As I asked the taxi driver at the station, he laughed, turned around and pointed down the street and said it was 100 meters from here. "Can you answer? yes I can. but what would be the answer to the answer man?"
I'll close on this entry by saying the hotel was better than I was hoping, and I was in a hot shower about 15 minutes later. The trip I had expected to take about 4 hours had taken more than 9 hours. I was tired, hungry and exhausted.
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