Okay so yet again it has been like FOREVER since I have written anything here... just been extremely busy with school and what-not. Just spent an amazing week in Freddy house-sitting/working for my momma and it reminded me how much I LOVE and miss Fredericton... boo Saint John!
So because I have realized that at the moment my life is not nearly interesting enough to justify having a blog, I have decided to go back to a time when it was. Meaning my travels last summer... I have lots of great stories and have never actually written them down so instead of writing them in a journal (BLAH) I've decided to share them with you guys! :) Starting with Dover... mostly because nothing overly exciting happened in London.. well I mean London is awesome but just not really anything story worthy.
So. AHEM to begin. Those of you who do not know where Dover is, it is South East (maybe) of London, on the coast... I think maybe the bus took us 2 hours? possibly...and to England standards, that's a long time! So Dover is most famously known for "The White Cliffs of Dover" featured in many stories and poems, etc. and probably MOST famously, King Lear by Shakespeare... messed up play but pretty amazing.
Another thing in Dover is the HUGE ferry port to get to France. Calais to be exact. It worked out to be cheaper to take this ferry over then to take the Chunnel directly to Paris so this is what we were doing getting on a bus in London in the early morning (umm.. like 8..haha).
We (my travel companion and I) arrive in Dover after what felt like the longest bus ride ever to police officers everywhere and police tape and ambulances (oh great.) we end up enter a part of the building that wasn't roped off yet but told to leave immediately...oops... and went to stand outside with the rest of the spectators. Apparently there is "airborne toxins" in the building (whatever that means) and they began asking if anyone was experiencing nausea, blurry vision, lightheaded-ness, stuffy nose, etc and taking anyone who said yes straight to the ambulance. (YIKES!)
So...what a way to start a 6 week backpacking trip right? haha All ferries were postponed and we stay outside the building for hours waiting for the all clear. Slept on the pavement for a bit, almost got hit by a car, my backpack got hit by a car (I JUST managed to get away) and finally we are aboard! (thanks to a beautiful worker with his beautiful accent...yummm...he actually had nothing to do with it but he was nice to talk to)
So these ferries are actually huge boats with casinos, restaurants, gift shops, etc etc... and were quite comfortable. Before we knew it, we were arriving in Calais with no idea where to go and very little English being spoken. God I love sitting outside a bus station watching as 4 buses that come every half hour go by while wondering "where is my bus?" only to find out all the buses are the same and go to the place you are. HAHA yeah stupid Jenn... BUT to our luck, two British boys with backpacks (everytime we saw a backpacker we would follow them...we called it follow the tourist...) so I'm eavesdropping on these guys' conversation and they seem nice and are pretty hilarious and I hear them mention they are going to the same train station as we are to also catch a train to Paris! HORRAY! The game of follow the tourist begins! We arrive at the train station and get our tickets to Paris and are standing around wondering where to go and so are the boys so I, being the smooth, cunning person that I am, walk up and ask them what time it is. He replies and we are instant travel companions! Their names were Mike and Josh.. two of the best guys you could ever meet... absolutely hilarious and on their way to Barcelona for a music festival.
Time on the train flies with our new friends to talk to and we share lots of laughs. Finally we arrive in Paris but WAY behind the schedule we had orginally planned (thanks to the Calais ferry station and their unclear buses) So, we have missed the last train to Brittany (west coast of France and home to a friend) and they have missed the Train to Barcelona. GREAT, lets get a hostel together then...better than splitting up right? We wander around until we find the hostel that I had booked for a few days later but sadly, no vacancies. The AWESOME guy behind the counter is so kind as to call around until he can find us a place nearby that has a room for 4 people! :) we get one and away we go!
We go out for a lovely dinner... apparently the service in Paris SUCKS though and if you want to get served you have to tackle the waiter hold him down while you tell him your order, no kidding. then, good luck getting your food and your bill! We almost dined and dashed getting sick of waiting for him.
By this time we are a couple bottles of wine in so we go to the store across the road and buy some more alcohol to drink on our way back to the hotel. we get lost (maybe a product of the wine and vodka) and end up in Paris' red light district... YIKES. the boys get asked by a sketchy looking man if he can "have us" they reply "uhhh..no?" haha bless...
We had a wonderful night drinking and play cards and listening to music and talking but sadly, morning came and we went our separate ways. Poor guys could not get a train to Barce and ended up having to take a 4-day bus. Me and my companion caught a train to Brest to see our friend Pauline. However, we were supposed to arrive the day before and had no way of getting a hold of Pauline to let her know we were on our way. EEKK
We arrive in Brest, evening, train station is closed and there is a gypsy (homeless man) with some sad looking dogs wandering around. OH GREAT. we find a girl and ask her how to use the payphones, you need a special card so she calls Pauline with her cell phone but ALAS Pauline does not answer! This girl leaves a voicemail (she was extremely weirded out by us) and leaves. We wait. and we wait. we wait some more. Steph calls her mom using her credit card ($150 later...) and Im watching our stuff while sketchy gypsy is pacing in front of me. watching me. getting closer each time he goes by me. Finally I tell Steph to get off the phone, we grab our stuff and decide to wait outside, away from the gypsy, and in view of the restaurant across the street.
After a few hours Pauline comes to the rescue! We head to her Grad party with her friends who feed us DISGUSTING French vodka and rum and are very eager to practice their english with us... unfortunately for us they were VERY drunk and it was hard to understand anything they were saying! They were all very nice though, but we were exhausted and eventually went to sleep...in Paulines' tiny European car because there were no beds for us in the house! haha WHAT A NIGHT! luckily we were so tired we slept like babies.
This is long enough and that is the end of those adventures anyways... I promise the other ones won't be so long! :) I must say though that Brittany, a province on the west coast of France is ABSOLUTELY beautiful and if any of you every get the opportunity to go, I highly recommend you take it!
Well, until next time, later all!
Edmonton Expo
10 years ago
