The train ride was pretty quiet and we thought that we may have gotten away with our wrong tickets, but just as the train pulled into Gatwick the conductor came into the car and asked us for tickets. Damn! So close! We had to pay £6 extra each so it wasn't too bad, but we did have to put up with him calling us "Baby". We get to the rental counter (sooner than if we had caught our original train) and I confidently hand over my debit card (knowing that the small print said no debit cards would be accepted) and was totally prepared to play dumb. The woman, luckily, loved Canadians (who doesn't!?) and was very chatty and not really focused on the rules of the rental. My card got declined (shocking) but she took Katherine's debit with no problems. Katherine was a little worried about the £250 just spent on her card, but she handled it with grace.
I was trying to keep quiet like we were just getting away with the con of the century and then all of a sudden we were outside....with KEYS IN HAND! Take that Surly James!
We get to the car, take some touristy pictures, get in. Then it hits me. Shit. I have to drive this thing, on the wrong side of the road...with ROUNDABOUTS! So I was a little nervous, and I was worried that I would kill Katherine. A fact I think I hid with grace. We started going and it was very easy. We had rented a GPS and that saved us I think. I didn't have to think about reading roadsigns and figuring out which exit to take, good old Jane GPS handled all that for me. One major annoyance was that the radio wouldn't work. It would say wait and count down 30:00 minutes, then when it got to zero nothing would turn on. So no roadtunes for the journey. But it wasn't too bad. Got to Dover without incident...Well maybe one....I may or may not have gotten a little too close to the passport window with the passenger side of the car and got a little yellow paint on the the mirror and door handle. The passport officer looked at the window and said "You almost took off the side of your car!"...Oops, Katherine is on line duty from now on.....
Got to the ferry with plenty of time and enjoyed just walking around the boat and looking in the duty free shop, there weren't any good deals on champagne though, which was a bit disappointing!
Arrived in France at noon and hit the road to Belgium. The GPS would only work in Ireland or the UK, so it was just us and our google map in the wrong side of the car on the right side of the road (a fact that was screamed constantly for the rest of our time in France in Belgium). Getting on to the motorway was easy, but it took me a bit to figure out the speed limit. I kept seeing signs that said 50, but that seemed really slow to me for a highway, so I thought maybe, for some really strange reason they were in miles instead of KM....about 30 minutes later we finally saw a sign that said 130 so I finally knew what I was dealing with!....But that means that I was speeding for the first part! :p
Drove into Brugge around 1pm. We had been in three countries in just over three hours! Gotta love Europe!
We drove and I tried to remember where we parked when Mama Kat and I came in September. We found a parking lot that looked like somewhere, sort of familiar with signs in Flemish. Couldn't even piece together what in said in bad French....But there were no words that looked like maximum time to stay or parking rates so we pulled in and went to wander the town. We quickly found a map and took pictures of the things around the parking lot just in case we couldn't find our way back...A modern day Hansel and Gretel!
Our first task was to have lunch, I really wanted to find mussels and french fries, Katherine wasn't too keen on the mussels, but she was a trooper and said she would give it a go. We walked around for a few minutes, but we were both so hungry that we decided to stop and hae lunch at a little cafe that served the french fries in paper cones with globs of mayo on top. We both just ended up ordering burgers (lame, I know) but it was great to have a burger that didn't taste like sawdust (90% of British beed does). After lunch we wandered in and out of chocolate shops and all of a sudden it was 4pm! We decided to stop and have a Belgian waffle and hot chocolate before heading back to the car and getting on the road to Dunkirk. As we were sitting there, it occured to us that if Paris is one hour ahead, Brugge probably is too! So we double checked the time with our waitress and it was 5pm! Not that big of deal as we had to be back at the ferry by 7.15pm and it was only an hour drive, but I was worried about finding the car so I thought we should head back pretty soon. We walked back and found the car without any problems (except for the flash rain storm that hit). No parking tickets and the car was where we left it! Result!
We got back to the ferry with plenty of time, but as Katherine rolled down her window at the passport window I could hear a loud ppppssssssttttttt noise and I said to Katherine that sounds like a flat tire. FUCK
I slowly drive to the queue for the ferry and we get out, sure enough the front passenger tire (or tyre in England) was flat. We got the spare tire out hoping that some kind person would see us and change it and just as we pulled the tire out of the boot it started chucking down rain again! Got back into the car and talked about how we were sure someone would help, and sure enough the guy right behind us knocked on my window and said let's get this tire changed before the rain starts again. In 5 minutes we had the donut on and we were set. Lifesaver!!
On the ferry home we talked about what we should do. I was worried about driving on the motorway, in the dark with a donut. I was sure that the truckers would squish a little Ford Focus going 50 mph. I had seen a branch of the rental agency in Dover so we decided that we would stop there and see what they could do for us.....
21 March, 2010
Roadtrip to Belgium! Part One
I need to set a bit of backround for this first.... I had been on a couple dates with a guy who was pretty nice, but I we weren't really clicking so on Thursday afternoon I came up with the brilliant idea to go somewhere on a roadtrip I thought it would be great way to get to know each other....And I could buy chocolate and beer. He has a car, but I didn't want to insinuate that he should drive (and I wanted to anyway) so I suggested (via text) that we should rent a car and get out of London on Saturday. He made non-committal noises, so I suggested that we go for drink that night so I could persuade him with my charm.... We met at a great pub in London Bridge (the neighbourhood, not the bridge)and I said "So......Roadtrip to Belgium!!?" He looked at me and said with absolutely no emotion "No, that is crazy." WHAT!!? That sounds AWESOME!! (Side note, NEVER call the girl you are just starting to see crazy, although he's right, it was way too soon for him to know that) I spent about an hour trying to convince him, it would be fun, such an adventure, what else are you doing? etc. To absolutely not avail. He wouldn't budge. I left there knowing that this wouldn't work and desperately wanting to make my plan happen....I think I have been reading too much lately, I feel like this isn't my usual style of writing....So I apologise....
Friday morning at work I mentioned it off hand to one of the RA's, Katherine, about how disappointed I was in his sense of adventure etc. and she said she couldn't believe that he wouldn't want to go (as did everyone else I've told this story to). And I looked at her and said "Soooo, Roadtrip to Belgium!!?" And she laughed and said that would be awesome. We talked a bit more and I said something about "...on Saturday" and we looked at each other....aka tomorrow! We had a lot of planning to do! I looked at cars, trains to get there and the ferry and everything was relatively cheap if you pre-book. So we booked everything and got 18-year-old-girl excited (which was fine for Katherine, she's 18....it was a bit too much on me, but I didn't care! We were roadtripping to Belgium!
After I booked and was reading all the small print (yeah, AFTER I booked...but seriously...are any of you surprised?) I saw that the rental car required a £550 deposit on a credit card, in the principle driver's name. I was freaking out a bit, if I had £550 on my credit card I would be spending a week in Spain! So I called the company and they said, no, no you don't need that it's only £250 (please refer to previous comments about Spain). But the car was already booked and paid for so I figured I would just charm them when we got there....And make a back up plan to go to Brighton, just in case. We were telling my co-worker, Surly James (who I adore), about the deposit and he mocked us all afternoon saying that they'll never give us a car, you're not that charming (clearly wrong), yada yada yada.
Since our train to Gatwick was leaving at 6.30pm we decided that I would stay on campus and sleep in Katherine's room, then we could just catch a bus to Victoria in the morning. So after work we had dinner, Katherine was working the reception desk at the halls until 9pm and we just hung out and watched Modern Family and Cougartown (sidenote...LOVE it!). At 9pm we went up and figured we should turn in, Katherine was thinking out loud about getting her documents ready for the border and I said that's a good idea, and went into my handbag to check that I had my passport (it's always in there).....Except for the time that I changed purses when I was in Edinburgh and left it in my Coach bag in my closet....Fuck. So after killing 3.5 hours at work, I now have to head home at 9.30pm to get my passport. Fuck. Back home to Canada Water I go. By 10.15pm I am still waiting for the bus and absolutely exhausted, so I text Katherine to see if she's cool getting to Victoria on her own in the morning and we can just meet there at 6.15am. No problem. Finally got home, found my passport and remembered to pack CDs for the event that the car doesn't have an input for an iPod.
Woke up for the roadtrip sooooo excited, but nervous because I didn't want to be disappointed with just going to Brighton, I was very certain they weren't going to give me a car. Just as I was brushing my teeth I heard the bus go by, but I wasn't too concerned, I had plenty of time, but still rushed out the door just in case there was another right behind it. Got outside and saw the bus sitting at the lights with it's four-way flashers on. A bit strange, I thought about it for a second, then decided to walk up to another stop about 10 minutes away because more buses leave from that stop. As I'm walking I peer into the stopped bus and see the driver in a heated discussion with a couple of the passengers and figure that she must be waiting for the police to kick him off (it was a night bus...happens a lot). So I hurried thinking that I could meet this bus at the next stop, but as I walked I saw that the road was blocked off by police tape and no one could get through, not even pedestrians. I asked the police officer how long he thought it would be and if he knew of another way to get to Victoria other than the N1 bus and he seemed to think it would clear up soon and had no idea about the buses, so I leaned against the wall to wait. 5 minutes, 10 minutes...Nothing. By this time it is about 5.45am. Very slim chance of catching the train. So I text Katherine to let her know and told her not to worry I had a charming back-up plan in mind. By this time one of the day buses that runs straight from my house to Victoria is running (the Jubilee line was down, as per, so the tube was never an option), but last time I took it (because the tube shut down in rush hour...grrr....) it took 2 hours, but I thought that maybe I could catch another bus to a tube station that is open and get there that way. So I walked the 15 minutes from where I was to Canada Water tube station. When I get there I discover that I don't have my oyster card (bus/tube pass) and will have to pay full fare (£2 per bus, more for the tube)...It has already gotten to the point that all I do is roll my eyes at this day, but I think that with all the hassle so far we must be getting a car, this day couldn't hate me THAT much! So the first bus that comes goes to Waterloo or London Bridge, so I get on and ask the driver how much the bus is...sometimes they take pity on the foreign girl and wave you through...and he starts driving and asks where I'm going. He said, y'know the C10 takes you straight to Victoria I said I know, but it's slow and I need to get there as soon as possible. Just as we say that the C10 drives by in the opposite direction. He says that I should take that bus, and waved me through without paying. I got off at the next stop (after shouting my thanks to him)to wait for the C10 that will come soon as all it has to do is turn around and as I walk by the front doors of the bus the driver shouts at me... That's it!? You're getting off!? I said, yeah, I'll just wait for the C10 here. He said, No, just back on and when the bus catches up just hop on there, don't wait in the dark by yourself. (Which is totally safe to do where I was) So I hop back on, get the C10 and get to Victoria, relatively quickly due to the lack of Saturday morning traffic, at 6.35am....Our train left at 6.32am. After a sigh and another eye roll at the day, we head over to the boards to see when our next train leaves.....7.20am. Eff that, we have a 10am ferry to catch. I tell Katherine of my cunning plan. We will get on the Gatwick Express train and use our foreign-ness as a way to (hopefully) not pay the extra. We head over to the platform and jump on the fast train.
Friday morning at work I mentioned it off hand to one of the RA's, Katherine, about how disappointed I was in his sense of adventure etc. and she said she couldn't believe that he wouldn't want to go (as did everyone else I've told this story to). And I looked at her and said "Soooo, Roadtrip to Belgium!!?" And she laughed and said that would be awesome. We talked a bit more and I said something about "...on Saturday" and we looked at each other....aka tomorrow! We had a lot of planning to do! I looked at cars, trains to get there and the ferry and everything was relatively cheap if you pre-book. So we booked everything and got 18-year-old-girl excited (which was fine for Katherine, she's 18....it was a bit too much on me, but I didn't care! We were roadtripping to Belgium!
After I booked and was reading all the small print (yeah, AFTER I booked...but seriously...are any of you surprised?) I saw that the rental car required a £550 deposit on a credit card, in the principle driver's name. I was freaking out a bit, if I had £550 on my credit card I would be spending a week in Spain! So I called the company and they said, no, no you don't need that it's only £250 (please refer to previous comments about Spain). But the car was already booked and paid for so I figured I would just charm them when we got there....And make a back up plan to go to Brighton, just in case. We were telling my co-worker, Surly James (who I adore), about the deposit and he mocked us all afternoon saying that they'll never give us a car, you're not that charming (clearly wrong), yada yada yada.
Since our train to Gatwick was leaving at 6.30pm we decided that I would stay on campus and sleep in Katherine's room, then we could just catch a bus to Victoria in the morning. So after work we had dinner, Katherine was working the reception desk at the halls until 9pm and we just hung out and watched Modern Family and Cougartown (sidenote...LOVE it!). At 9pm we went up and figured we should turn in, Katherine was thinking out loud about getting her documents ready for the border and I said that's a good idea, and went into my handbag to check that I had my passport (it's always in there).....Except for the time that I changed purses when I was in Edinburgh and left it in my Coach bag in my closet....Fuck. So after killing 3.5 hours at work, I now have to head home at 9.30pm to get my passport. Fuck. Back home to Canada Water I go. By 10.15pm I am still waiting for the bus and absolutely exhausted, so I text Katherine to see if she's cool getting to Victoria on her own in the morning and we can just meet there at 6.15am. No problem. Finally got home, found my passport and remembered to pack CDs for the event that the car doesn't have an input for an iPod.
Woke up for the roadtrip sooooo excited, but nervous because I didn't want to be disappointed with just going to Brighton, I was very certain they weren't going to give me a car. Just as I was brushing my teeth I heard the bus go by, but I wasn't too concerned, I had plenty of time, but still rushed out the door just in case there was another right behind it. Got outside and saw the bus sitting at the lights with it's four-way flashers on. A bit strange, I thought about it for a second, then decided to walk up to another stop about 10 minutes away because more buses leave from that stop. As I'm walking I peer into the stopped bus and see the driver in a heated discussion with a couple of the passengers and figure that she must be waiting for the police to kick him off (it was a night bus...happens a lot). So I hurried thinking that I could meet this bus at the next stop, but as I walked I saw that the road was blocked off by police tape and no one could get through, not even pedestrians. I asked the police officer how long he thought it would be and if he knew of another way to get to Victoria other than the N1 bus and he seemed to think it would clear up soon and had no idea about the buses, so I leaned against the wall to wait. 5 minutes, 10 minutes...Nothing. By this time it is about 5.45am. Very slim chance of catching the train. So I text Katherine to let her know and told her not to worry I had a charming back-up plan in mind. By this time one of the day buses that runs straight from my house to Victoria is running (the Jubilee line was down, as per, so the tube was never an option), but last time I took it (because the tube shut down in rush hour...grrr....) it took 2 hours, but I thought that maybe I could catch another bus to a tube station that is open and get there that way. So I walked the 15 minutes from where I was to Canada Water tube station. When I get there I discover that I don't have my oyster card (bus/tube pass) and will have to pay full fare (£2 per bus, more for the tube)...It has already gotten to the point that all I do is roll my eyes at this day, but I think that with all the hassle so far we must be getting a car, this day couldn't hate me THAT much! So the first bus that comes goes to Waterloo or London Bridge, so I get on and ask the driver how much the bus is...sometimes they take pity on the foreign girl and wave you through...and he starts driving and asks where I'm going. He said, y'know the C10 takes you straight to Victoria I said I know, but it's slow and I need to get there as soon as possible. Just as we say that the C10 drives by in the opposite direction. He says that I should take that bus, and waved me through without paying. I got off at the next stop (after shouting my thanks to him)to wait for the C10 that will come soon as all it has to do is turn around and as I walk by the front doors of the bus the driver shouts at me... That's it!? You're getting off!? I said, yeah, I'll just wait for the C10 here. He said, No, just back on and when the bus catches up just hop on there, don't wait in the dark by yourself. (Which is totally safe to do where I was) So I hop back on, get the C10 and get to Victoria, relatively quickly due to the lack of Saturday morning traffic, at 6.35am....Our train left at 6.32am. After a sigh and another eye roll at the day, we head over to the boards to see when our next train leaves.....7.20am. Eff that, we have a 10am ferry to catch. I tell Katherine of my cunning plan. We will get on the Gatwick Express train and use our foreign-ness as a way to (hopefully) not pay the extra. We head over to the platform and jump on the fast train.
10 March, 2010
9 Months!!? How did that happen!!?
I will have officially been in London for 9 months next week. I can't believe it's been that long! I'm feeling pretty settled and still love being here. Work has been so busy. This semester the different schools are staggered in coming back so we've had students arriving since 21 January, but now they are all here and have been buying trips like mad! I have had to add an extra Edinburgh trip so I am going twice in March now!
I have finally moved into a flat and am no longer homeless. I live in a place called Canada Water and it's only 40 minutes door-to-door to work. I share a house with the owner and another girl who is quickly becoming a good friend. Her name is Machaela and she is studying to become a teacher. We bonded over our love of cider and Coronation Street!
My thoughts feel really disjointed because I am trying to think of what all has happened since January!
I went to Stratford-Upon-Avon on a daytrip with work on the 6th February and seem to have lost my camera on the trip. I am devastated. Not only losing the pictures from that day, including an almost exact replica of one of me in Stratford from when Tony and Mo took me in 1997, but I loved that camera and have no funds at all to replace it. I have a small one that I brought over with me, but it's not as good as my SLR. Sigh, 9 months and this is the first major thing I've lost...That is pretty impressive.....for me :p
My first trip to Edinburgh was last weekend. I had a great time. I really do love that city! It was a really small group of students, only 16 of us went and I ended up hanging out with three boys from the dorms that I sort of knew (one - Nick - I knew fairly well, the other - John- I had spent a daytrip with and the other one -Patrick-I had only met when he signed up). Oh, and when John and Patrick poked their heads in my office a few days before the trip to say that they were looking forward to bringing flasks on the trip to which I replied.....Have you met my boss Frank, sitting right here!!?.....So Friday night we decided to go on the pub crawl, Pat and I decided that the best way to do this was a drinking competition....Oh God, what have I done?. The pub crawl was a blast...very fuzzy, but great fun. At one point in the night I had two pint glasses in my hand filled with clear liquid and Pat comes up to me to see what I was drinking. I tried to convince him that it was vodka water. He tasted it was certain it was water, I told him "No, no, I swear it's vodka water". I am a liar. It was just water. Next time I see him he's got three shots looks at me says something about how this is for you Piehl (Which I think means he bought me a shot......no) He then shoots all three and slams the glasses on the floor and crosses his arms (not really effective. They were plastic). So I guess I lose.
Saturday we wandered around town, as we were up at the castle I looked at the boys and realized that they are the 20 year old versions of Johnny (Pat), Kyle (Nick) and Gary (John). So I've told them that I'm only referring to their Rowdie names. They're okay with that.
On Sunday I started feeling really ill and woke up Monday feeling complete rubbish. I went into work for about an hour and decided not to put myself through this anymore and came home. Didn't go in yesterday either and missed Phantom of the Opera. Really upset about that, but couldn't really breathe when I woke up. Tried to go to the doctor, but that was an epic fail, everything here is so difficult to get sorted, I JUST WANT DRUGS didn't really seem to go over well with the nurse. Bitch. :P
Don't have too much going on these next two weeks, but at the end of March I am going back to Edinburgh with 50 students this time, so it should be interesting! Two of the students that have become really good friends with (Christina and Ali) are going and I'm looking forward to spending time in Edinburgh with them.
So, all in all, things are pretty good. I wish I knew what my future holds after 30 June, but stressing about it won't change anything and I try really hard to remember that. I would love to stay on at Regent's and if I don't I think I might move up to Edinburgh for the summer, but the idea of starting all over again in a new city is a bit daunting....Not like I haven't done it before, just moving my stuff would suck!
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