Crazy days

I know it has been absolutely forever since I blogged, and I am ashamed of my neglect, but to make up for it I’ll write entries covering all the cool stuff I did over the few weeks I haven’t written and we’ll get all caught up, yeah?

But I just HAVE to write about what happened this last weekend as it was too crazy not to have recorded somewhere. Saturday, four other UF kids and I decided to go to Dover to see the White Cliffs. If only it was that simple.

We should have known the day was going to have some hang-ups when we went to Victoria Station to buy our train tickets. They usually give us a group rate if there are four or more people and everyone can pay separately on their credit cards or by cash or whatever. Apparently we got the one woman who didn’t want to be nice and split our bill so that was really annoying. But we got on the train just in time for our two hour ride to Dover.

And, actually the train didn’t actually go TO Dover. We found out later that the Dover station (last one on the route) and the station before it were closed for work on the tracks, so we had to get off in the middle of absolute nowhere (“Shepherd’s Well,” to be exact.) Then we hopped on a rickety rickshaw of a bus to take us over to Dover. There were, for some reason, a lot of Korean people on this bus. With babies.

So finally we get off the bus in Dover and we try to find the white hills. “But they’re huge,” you may say. “How hard could they be to find?” Well, pretty hard, actually. We started wandering around following brown historical signs. When that didn’t work, we tried following the sounds of seagulls to the water. Also, not a good idea.

So Jaime and Nancy stopped on the side of the road and asked some people sitting out front of their house for how to walk up the cliffs. They looked at us funny said, “Why would you want to walk there? It’s REALLY far.” Then they offered us a ride in their car, to which I refused because, A. there were five of us and only four seats in the car, and B. I’m not getting in the car with strangers. That’s Rule #1, obviously.

But we wandered around for a while and, after asking two more people for directions, we finally were headed up the hill.

Then, I understood why the people thought it was so absurd to walk.

It was FAR, and uphill all the way, and there wasn’t a footpath so we were walking along the road the whole way. (Also, following a hobo by accident, but oh well.) It wasn’t too hot outside, but the hike was still a pretty steady workout.

But we finally made it up, and when we looked out over the water we saw… a harbor full of big ass cruise ferries. Lame. But it was still a pretty nice view and it there were loads of trees and countryside on top the mountain (I keep saying “mountain,” but I don’t know what it is.)

We decided to take a ferry from Dover to Calais, in the north of France, so we found a footpath down the hill right to the ferry port. We bought tickets (fairly cheap, actually.) and, after a brief wait for the tram from the ferry terminal to the boat, we were on the ferry. It was a really nice boat, actually! Huge seats, lots of room, lots of FOOD. We bought lunch on the ferry—I got a huge plate of fish and chips, yummm. But ketchup was 20P a packet. Laaaame.

We asked this French woman working at the French ferry terminal when the next boats were and she told us at 6 and 8pm, which sucked because if we took the one at 6 we would only have about 45 minutes in France, but if we took the 8pm one we would miss the last train home to London. But after asking someone else at the terminal we found out there was one at 7 and that would be perfect.

Anyway, off the boat and into France! Calais is a pretty quiet town, just a marina basically with some shops, nothing too fancy. We walked around a bit, then went to the beach which was totally beautiful. The sand was so soft and nice and cool even though the sun was out all day. The water was freezing, though. We just hung around there for a few hours, then I bought two croissants and two pan au chocolat for only €2! I had to speak in mangled French to get them, but it was wonderfully worth it. My only French language experience was one semester Freshman year of college, so the conversation involved the mention of many numbers, some gesturing and face-making.

So we rushed to get back to the ferry so we could make the one that could get us back in time for the last train. We ran to the counter and asked the woman (same one who told us the wrong ferry times) if we had to check in, and she said no. So we went through security, got our passports stamped and got to the waiting lounge right on time.

BUT. The ferry was running late and they wouldn’t let us on the tram to take us over. So we didn’t get on the bus until 25 minutes or so after the boat was supposed to leave. BUT. Before we could get on the bus we had to give them our tickets and the same stupid woman wouldn’t let us on because “We didn’t have the right passes” and when we tried to explain that SHE was the one who told us we didn’t need anything she said, “Don’t waste your time!” But she said it all snooty and French.

So we ran back to the counter as fast as we could, got the right passes, ran back through security (who made us go through again) and the passport man (who yelled at us and made us show him our stamps) and got on the bus.

Well, we were on the ferry, but it decided not to leave until AN HOUR AND A HALF after the scheduled time, which as all the time we had budgeted to get back to the train. So we were like, what are we going to do? Stay in Dover overnight?

When we get back to Dover we decided to see if we could just make the train so we took a cab to the Shepherd’s Well station (with cabbies who were absolutely crazy drivers) and found out that, because of the construction, the trains were actually running later than expected, so we caught a train no problem.

I think all in all we spent eight hours in transit. There were many more crazy things that happened. But these are just the highlights.

Tonight I saw Wicked on the West End. I loved it! It was a great show, but I think I just really enjoyed the plot/story because it’s very clever and interesting, plenty of twists. Plus the performers were amazing.

It has been so hot here! And by here, I mean inside every building in England. They do not believe in A/C. As a Floridian, I am a firm believer in A/C. The dorm doesn’t have it, so we’ve had the windows open, but that doesn’t help, it just lets the bugs in. I tried to buy a fan today but the store was sold out, so I reserved one and I can pick it up tomorrow. I HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE EXCITED FOR ANYTHING. A fan!

Last week and this week weren’t very exciting because I’ve had a ton of schoolwork. My classes here in London end Friday. I’ve got a presentation to give in class Thursday and two papers due in the next week, but after that it’s just online classes!

Plus, my mom is coming for 10 days in July! We are meeting my Aunt in Paris for five days. It will be epic.

Joe is in Mexico, climbing ruins, swimming in the Caribbean, chatting with locals, learning Spanish and winning titles of some sort. I miss his guts.

I have too much junk to do but I’m feeling lazy.

Goodnight! I plan on writing some catch-up entries about the cooler stuff I’ve done in the past few weeks. Look for then soon-ish.

Love,
Amy