Dear fans, family and friends,
This was the view from my window this morning. A view I was quite happy to leave.
Ok, granted this was after a brilliant year as an English assistant at a prestigious school in France, but this view also meant work, school and stress (and a badly cut lawn, merci Monsieur). And also, leaving Douai, my French town, meant starting INTERRAILING woo!
A short introduction: My name is Emma, I am 22 (don’t know ’bout you), half-English and half-Finnish. Me and my Kiwi pal CC will be interrailing around Europe from the 19th of June (today) to the 12th of July.
Our plan roughly: England (19/6) – South of France (24/6) – Italy (29/6) – Switzerland (4/7) – Germany (7/7) – Denmark (10/7).
In England we will stay at my grandparents place in Seaford, East Sussex, after which we’ll be going to my friend Hannah’s place in Oxford. Then we will be heading back to France, where the “proper” interrailing starts, ie. crammed backpacks and crappy hostels and NEW PLACESS!!!
I will attempt to write about a variety of things: happenings, experiences, and I will also try and add a little bit about each town/place we visit… Also expect many, many pictures of food.
So, anyways, today, I woke up in Douai, for the last time. It was sunny and I was in my summery dress. We took the train from Douai to Lille, and then on to Calais. By the time we were in Calais I had added leggings, a cardi, a hoodie and a scarf because it was pouring down with rain. Failing to understand where the shuttle bus to the ferry terminal would stop at, even with a nice Ozzie couple trying to help us, we decided to trudge through Calais in the drizzle to the ferry port. Luckily my human GPS (CC) worked.
Calais is rainy. Ok, well it was rainy today, and because of that and our many bags we didn’t really have the time or desire to sightsee. We got to the terminal, checked in, got properly interrogated by the UK border guys (consequences of travelling with a non-European… no, I wouldn’t like kiwis in my country either…), and sat down to wait for a nice half hour during which I changed my sopping wet socks and finally threw away my 5euro market-boots.
Calais-Dover -ferries are not popular among foot passengers, and I’m not surprised taking in account how hard it was to find a ticket online for pedestarians. Incidentally, it would be cheaper to have a car than not… In any case, there were altogether seven foot passengers, very different to the Dieppe-Newhaven ferry I’ve taken a few times where the bus to and from the ferry was always packed with people on foot.
The ferry ride consisted of a few walks around and a very British lunch. Om nom! (Also featured Ribena and tea.)
Dover was already sunnier than Calais. Hurrah for England! We found a friendly driver of a friendly Port Bus that took us to the railway station, where we talked to the friendly man at the till and then the friendly man at the ticket barriers, and embarked on a three-hour train ride to Seaford, my grandparents’ hometown. Rubbish magazines and Marble Saga (BEST EVER MOBILE PHONE GAME), ah the joy.
Now at Grandma and Grandpa’s, happily sitting on the sofa after a nice big dinner of sausages and mash and baked beans and TWO nectarines (CC didn’t want his fruit). So life is good.
Stay tuned for tomorrow, when we will be going to London, and somewhere else, but don’t know where yet! It’s so amazingly free when you have a limitless travel pass in your pocket. Hopefully we will also be meeting our lovely Britishly eccentric friend James too, though we haven’t decided if it will be in Cambridge, Ipswich or maybe even Braintree… YES IT DOES TRULY EXIST. I want to go there if only just for the name.
One thing I will practise with this blog is trying to lessen rambling. Come on, it’s only the first entry…
Bisous,
Emmmmmmmmzy
xxx
I'm already smiling, I'm gonna love following your blog so much! Sounds like you're having lots of fun. See you on Sunday sweet peppercorn 🙂 xxxxx
English sausages and mash… om nom nom (as one seems to say). Give my love to your grandparents!
Harmi, kun menetit saapikkaasi. Hienoa, että britit ovat niin mukavia. Miksi rajalla oltiin tiukkoja CC:n kanssa? <3
koska se ei oo EU ja kaikki nää immigration jutut