home soon

Alas,
I am at yet another airport. Tired, Cranky, Sore. Not hungry anymore...I didn't sleep last night, met some twins, Mark and Craig, and their friend Keith, from Scotland drinking cheap beers at one of the places in the airport. We were all trapped there till the next day. I was doing laps around the airport, amusing myself by the hundreds of people that were cozied up under signs, tables, in between kiosks. Giggling, that they looked at that spot and said, wow, that looks like my new home for the night, or that looks like the perfect place to sleep here...don't know what to do so I start drinking... they asked me to join them, and spent the next 2 hours or so drinking with the Scots. They were headed to a huge party in, brain dead, Pargue maybe... anywho... caught a bus that cost me 25£, about 50dollors! to the other airport. tired of standing, carrying my crap, people... blah... I will blog this and try and sleep again...

The final hours

So, I have had the nicest time outside of Malga in Benalmeda Costa with Raju at the Indian City restaurnat, numerous discos, live music, the beach, his home... It´s been lovely. He is such a giving person... Chelsea came and stayed with us as well for a few days. It was so grounding to have someone from home here... I am so glad she came. And Raju was so glad to have her here as well. We have been relaxing as much as possible. Today I drove Chelsea to the bus station. She is taking a bus to Granada, then a train to Barcelona... etc. etc. So, it took us about 1.5 hours to find the bus station, that should have taken .5 hours... such is the life of the wandering traveler...Luckily a bus left for Granada every hour, so she caught the next bus. Then I proceeded to find my way back to Benalmenda Costa....oh what an adventer that was. I left Chelsea at the train station at 9.30, made to back to Indian City a little bit after 10,30 or so... luckily I found a good reggae station on the radio... and life can never be that bad with reggae music playing. i have no idea how i made it back to the restaurant, but I finally did...yeah Holly!

So tomorrow, I catch a bus, to a train, to the plane... that will take me from Sevilla to London...then I fly back home the next day at 13,00. I am ready to come home. I miss so much about home, my mom, dogs, friends, familiar everything...Can´t wait to see everyone that has been following my journey...

Love Holly

south spain

Hello All,

I just gotta say life is good!

Got out of the city, staying with Malinder, aka Raj. He owns an Indian restaurnt in Benalmadena Costa just east of Malaga. He is an amazing host and we are having a lovely time together. I spend the evenings walking around town, and the beach, and hanging out at his restaurant eatting amazing Indian food! I am so glad to be out of the city. Although in the last 2 days or so Barcelona began to grow on me...

To back track in my trip a bit, back to France, back to Dunkerque...

Caro and Manu. What welcoming hosts they were. I felt so comfortable with them and they took such good care of me. She is a substitute teacher at a primary school and I had the opportunity to go to her school with her and talk to many of the classes. I was quizzed by the students as to knowledge of pop culture... that was fun. The questions they asked were quite amusing. I am so lucky to have such an amazing responsibilty. They will both always be in my heart and I look forward to hosting them in the States! It is amazing how you can get so close to people so quickly...She is my sister from a French mother! It is funny how I achieved such an enjoyment from accomplishing the little things. The second to last day I was there I managed to find a market and a bookstore for a french to english dictionary. Wow was I proud of me. I made them lunch the day I left, avocado, tomatoe and mango sandwiches...they said they enjoyed them, wonder if they will have them again?

Paris. Antione. Oh you silly guy! This guy is such an active host, and even in his studio apartment he had myself and one other guy, Zachary who was from San Francisco. Zachary and I wandered around the first whole day I was there. That evening we met up for the France Italy futbol game at a pub in La Bastille. This was great, especially because France won! I attempted to wonder the next day on my own... this was a bit of a disaster... it took me 3 hours or so to find the boat tour down the Seine, and my first viewing of the Effiel Tower... once again, so happy to have achieved something. The boat tour was decent, just happy to be sitting down, and on the tour, you see the majority of Paris because it was built around the river. Then I wanted to go to the Lourve. I took the bus, and ended up succumbing to the fact that I have no idea what I am doing. I ended up riding around transfering from bus to bus at large transfer spots and eventually got to the Lourve just as they closed... dammit... so back to the flat. I was emotionally tired and a bit frustrated with my inability to navigate on a city´s transportation. That evening we, Antione, Zachary and I watched Point Break. The French love Patrick Swayze. The movie was great... Day 3... Zachary and I wandered again, back to Marias, the march and the very ecclectic side of town. We went to the Centre Pompidou. There was a cool film exhibit there and the building itself is quite interesting. The inside of the building is on the outsided and different areas are painted different colors... Day 4... Holly must become independent again. I thanked my host for his hospitality and headed to town to a hostel. This was really nice. My first hostel. The folks that worked their were wonderful smiling happy people. I met a very nice girl from Korea that was there on holiday. She worked for the government and their recycling program. That evening I went to the market and bought bread, avocados, tomatoes, rum and juice and had my own little picnic outside the hostel. Two girls walked by. Rosemary, and I cannot remember her sisters name right now. Her sister had been going to school in London for 5 years or so, and although they were both American, she had a very thick british accent. We feasted and drank and then went for a walk towards the Effiel Tower. At the hour, every hour, the Effiel Tower sparkled for 10 minutes, so we meandered towards the tower. We came upon a bridge, the Pont de Arts, on the way. This bridge was covered in young people! Everyone eatting, drinking and being merry. Wow! This was great! I met up with Jaris, another Antione, Amondine, Julian aka Shamus... after this I will refer to him as Shamus, and Caro... We hung out for awhile. This was so lovely, why had I not stayed in town later to meet such lovely folks earlier? Before Amondine left she invited me to a BBQ at their place in Noisy le Sec the next day and we agreed to meet at the train station about 6 30. I stayed and hung out with Jaris and Antione. They were both qutie young, Jaris was 17 and Antione 15. Both spoke very good English. There were some unsavory folks on the bridge as well and I asked them if they would walk me a block or 2 to my hostel so noone would see me leave alone. They agreed and we began to walk. They were so sweet, they walked me all the way back to my hostel! Jaris and I met up the next day underneath the Effiel Tower, near his flat and attempted to go to his favorite museum, which sadly, was closed. So nearby was a modern art museum. Yeah, an experience, but I just didnt´get it. We went back to his flat and he made us some food and we hung out and shared tastes in music and played some music together. Later on that day I caught the train to Nosiy le Sec to go to the BBQ...

And Amondine I am sorry...but I will have to continue this blog later... I do not want to not have all my energy to write about what lovely people you all are and the great experience I had with you... wonder if you are still reading this...I hope so... You guys are great. I miss you and will continue with my stay in Noisy le Sec very soon.

Love to all,
Holly

Barcelona update

Ok things where hard when I got here...

I was in, yet again, another big city... I really miss the country side, or at least a city with less than a billion people, and Barcelona is one of the most densly popluated cities.

The first night here.

I met a girl who was in my room and her and a group of folks, a couple from our room and some other folks she has met, where going to see Paul Oakenfold. Yes, Paul Oakenfold, how freakin cool is that! So I had an OK day, just got settled and start ed meeting all of the travelers in my hostel, the Barcelona Mar Hostel at 80 Sant Pau, if you are in this area, you must stay here, it is the best hostel EVer. Do you understand the emphasis, EVer! So, getting settled, meeting people, met these two really great Aussies, Dan and Frank, these guys are great and this girl Sophie, a Brit, who I was going to go see Paul with that evening....well, let me start with the day.

So the first day here,

got settled, met Dan and Frank and we hiked all the way up to what, I think is one of the highest points in Barcelona because we had the most amazing view once we got to the top we could see all of Barcelona, the city and the sea. There was also a really cool fort at the top, don´t worry Wyatt, I got a picture of the fort for you! Hung out with these folks until that evening.

Got ready for the disco with Sophie and the rest of the folks that we were going with, I´ve never seen a guy straigten his hair before that night, it was a bit, ok, a lot funny, because it really didn´t look any better straightened. Any who, there was an American guy, that had been living in Barcelona for about a year, and he knew where we could catch the bus, included in teh price of teh ticket, because it was a couple miles away and metro and normal buses would not be running by the time we left....so there was almost 10 of us, we played some drinking games before we left, although I remained responsibly sober enough, and headed to the bus...Sophie and I were having a great time dancing to the first DJ and the Slovenian girls where totally making fun of me. Whatever, I am pretty use to that... the music was great... as the evening progressed the guys were all buying Sophie and the other girls drinks, and I, well, felt very unwanted, which, I obviously was, so I wandered up to the fornt and made my way around the disco. I felt a little bad, because, well, it always seems like this happens with me. I am different, a little weird, but that´s who I am, and I don´t want to be anyone else. It still hurts sometimes though. Regardless, I danced my booty of and really enjoyed listeing and dancing to Paul Oakenfold, fucking right in front of me! I always wonder what DJ´s look like. By 5am, my little feet were tired, I didn´t sleep on the train on the way from Canne, which was a night train, well I slept a bit, but not really. So, it was time for me to go home. I eventually found the people I came with, and told Sophie I was going to leave. She told me she was not ready, and asked a couple other folks, they too were not ready to go. This was not true, they just didn´t want to leave with me. Sam had been drunk off his booty from the time we got there, and one of the Slovenian girls had been asking her friend if she was ready for awhile. But they were all drunk and horny and starting to make out, or try, with each other...so that wasn´t going to happen with me, so they were all going to stay. I didn´t expect anyone to leave with me. Not a big surprise. I went outside and attempted to find my bus. Noone wanted to help me. I spent then next 30 minutes trying to catch a cab. They didn´t want to pick me up. There are drunk, fucked up people everywhere. People I don´t want to notice me. People that are in a state of mind that doesn´t need to envolve the little blonde foreign girl that speaks really bad Spanish. So, I wait. Not really sure what to do next. There is no way I can walk. I have no idea where I am. I don´t know what I am waiting for, just don´t really know what to do except to try and remain unnoticed. Eventually I see Sophie comes out, she is starting to cry. They were all going to just let her leave alone...hmmm that sounds really framiliar. Long story a bit shorter. She saw that she should have left with me, because it is wrong to leave someone alone in a foreign place on their first night there and that we only have each other as the tribe of travelers...yada yada yada, the bus driver saw her and I and got us on the bus...I love you for that, Gustavo I think his name was, and made it home alive and not robbed to the hostel...

the next day was still kinda rough, did nothing but stay at the hostel, wandered a bit near the hostel, got my pictures off my camera onto the flash drive... feeling very out of place, and I think that is when I wrote the blog about being homesick... tried to do laundry, it was a failure, i cried, got a great hug from Dan, thanks for that Dan, you are truly a great guy, and not just for the hug... I will miss you and I hope one day I´ll make to see him on the Gold Coast in Australia...

Yesterday life improved I met Mike from San Jose area... we´ve had a great time together... tonight we went to a great Tapas place and then to a Jazz club that turned into a disco! It was great...and we just got back and I wrote all this...my feet are stinky and sore, and now...I must sleep...

Love to all,
Holly

France, Dunkerque and par tof Paris

So my blog kinda skips around a bit.

I spent four days, three nights in Dunkerque with Caro, Manu and Solaris. It was so lovely to spend this time with them. The disco, a huge street festival, a visit to a French primary school, tasting new beers, cheeses, wines. My first independent adventure. I was so proud to find the best fresh market for fruits and vegetables and made lunch for Caro and Manu the day that I left for Paris. I found the best mango I have ever eatten. We had mango, avocado, tomatoe and cheese sandwiches. It was quite lovely and I think that they enjoyed them as well. I couldn´t have asked for a better time than I did with them. People ask me where I went and France, and I say Dunkerque, the French ask, Why did you go there? and I tell them what lovely people I stayed with there and that I could not have asked to have made better friends. Today is the 18th and I still think of them very often. Caro and Manu, you are missed!

Caro and Manu wished me off on a Tuesday to go to Paris. Oh how bitter sweet that was.

I stayed with another couchsurfing host. He was also hosting one other person. I stayed with them for 3 nights. Watched the movie Point Break one night. The French love Patrick Swayze and this movie. One night we all went out to a great bar in the Bastille that had a great price for beers and we watched France beat Italy in a futbol match. That was great. There is nothing like a good game with a group of people. I spent one day walking around with the other couchsurfer, the second trying to get around myself and ending up being lost most of the time. I did get in a fly boat tour and see most of Paris from the Seine River. Spent over 3 hours just going from bus to bus trying to get to the Louvre. Finally got there right as they were closing. Dammit! Day 3 I walked around the Centre Pompidou. There was a really cool exhibit with film. The other couchsurfer and I didn´t have much in common and it seemed nothing really got him excited, so that was difficult for me. I really wished Sean was there because we could have taken some much cooler pictures in front of these 2 film screens. One was what seemed to be an empty reel, but occasionally images would come through, the second was two screens that connected at a right angle with film images of smoke. I tried to utilize the under and over exposure settings on my camera. There is only so much you can do when you have to set the timer though, you know. Where were you Sean, hmmm? That night the host had a small train lodged in his nostrils. He had just a studio flat, so there wasn´t much I could do. I ended up going into the washroom with my pillow and shutting the door, this didn´t help much. Eventually the other surfer joined me in the bathroom and we decided to go for a midnight walk through the suburbs of Chelles. Yeah, no sleep makes Holly a Hard to be with Girl. I smiled the next day, forcefully, thanked my host for the time I had spent there. Although he acted like he wanted us to be there he constantly complained about the cost of having us stay there. I did everything I could to make his life easier. The very first day I did the dishes, and cleaned off the counters, took spit bath type showers, the kind where you get wet, turn the water off, lather, rinse, and only two of those in 4 days and 3 nights. I felt very unwelcome even though I tried to be a good guest. It seemed that you would try and share a thought or idea with him, and he really didn´t care, he would interrupt you and blah blah blah. Bad mix for me, so I left on Friday morning and went into Paris.

I found a youth hostel in Marais, the Marsh, and had a lovely time. That evening I went to the market and got sandwich food and a bottle of rum and had a seat outside my hostel and began to prepare my dinner. Two lovely girls came by, sisters, they were both American, but one had been living in England for 4 or 5 years, and therefore had a thick British accent, that we all picked up while we ate avocado tomatoe sandwiches and shared a bottle of rum. This was quite lovely. The Effiel Tower sparkles the first 10 minutes of every hour, and we proceeded to walk towards it as it got darker out. It was quite nice to talk to people that spoke English.

For the first 2 weeks I had been staying with French people that spoke very good English, but it´s still not the same. It was a small piece of home just to speak with people that spoke English as a first language. After staying at the last place I was feeling a bit disconnected. The three of us walked and talked and drank our way to the Pont de Arts. This is a bridge where all sorts of folks, mostly young folks, hang out and party. I finally found a nice place to hang out. There I met Jaris and Amandine. We had a nice time hanging out there and Amoadine invited me to a BBQ at her home in Noisy Le Sec (I think I am spelling that right, it is not right in front of me right now). Amandine, thank you, thank you a million times...this story will continue at a later date. There is too much to say in the time I have right now.

There were some sketchy people on the bridge that night as well, and I was feeling a bit uncomfortable as it got later about walking back to my hostel alone. I asked Jaris and his friend Antoine (I think that was his name, I will edit later if not) if they would at least walk me a block or so away so that some of these people didn´t see me leave alone. They were so sweet, they walked me all the way back to my hostel and then caught the metro back to their home. Thank You Jaris! I ended up meeting up with Jaris the next day directly under the center of the Effiel Tower and tried to go his favorite museum in Paris, but it was closed, so we went to this museum next door. Modern Art. Yeah, I´m just not that deep. Later that day I caught the RER, suburban train, to Noisy and met up with Amandine there....


the saga will continue soon....

love holly

Day 17

First of all.
I am on a m computer with no delete button, so take what you get...

I am skipping over so much, the remainder of my trip to Dunkerque, the 7 days I spent in Paris, the 3 nights in Grasse (aka the French Riviera) to where I am now, Barcelona.

The hostel I am staying at now is great, thanks for the recommendation Holly!

The 17 days of not being around my friends and my home and my dogs and people that hug and love me is starting to take its toll today. I went to the laundry mat to wash clotes and of course I pick the washer that only kind of works, you have to continue to hit the start button to keep it working. This is after me being in France for 15 days and only understanding and being able to communicate with a fraction of the people. I attempted to make the sounds of French and communicate, but my trip was a big game of Charades and Taboo. Most of the people I met in France were great by the way, for those of you in France that are reading this and are like, hey, she just passed over writing about France. I was visting with people almost the whole time and not wanting to be on the Internet and now, I need to think about where I am, mentally and emotionally, so here it is.

I totally feel like I suck at traveling. I have had so much trouble getting from point A to point B. And then I may or may not be able to ask someone where to go to be in the right place. I am not use to usieng such major public transportation, door s are different, lightswithces are never where I expect them to be, flushting toilets is different, everything is different. And on top of that I am in a city where, even if you where in Chicago peopple really dont give a shit about you. So there you go.

I am hoping to hear from Chelsea soon and find out when she is headed this direction, if not I am going to leave Barcelona fairly soon: its just too much for me. I am sick of the city of anywhere, I need to find the towns, a place to go hiking, people that smile. I hope to go south in Spain next, try that out for a coupld days adn if it is good, iĺl spend more time, if not, maybe london, or back to dunkerque to visit with caro and manu again. I don t know.

I know that I am so humbled by all of this.
I know what is in important to me, and none of those things will fit in a bag or on a shelf, well, besides Archie and Rose.
I know that i am tired.
I know that traveling alone was good for a bit, but at this point, not so much.

I know that if you are reading this you miss and love me as I do you and I miss you too.
We will see each other soon.
Love, holly

Dunkerque continued...

La Braderie de Lille...

This is an annual street festival in Northern France in the town of Lille. It is visited by over 2 million people over the course of the weekend. If you'd like to read more about it you may check this link: http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/dossiers/braderie/. There is a large elephant in the middle of the festival, announcing that the Bradierie is here.

I enjoyed my first breakfast in France: croissant, of course, petit pain ou chocolate, coffee with sugar cubes and milk out of a bowl and orange juice. Afterwards, Caro and I caught the train to Lille and enjoyed a day of people watching and shopping. This is a festival that sells just about anything and everything. We arrived on Sunday, which is mostly new goods, but if you arrive on Saturday they have mostly used goods. I wish we had made it then, it is always interesting to see what is one mans trash, especially in another country. I love people watching here in France, everyone has a very unique since of style, from the soles of funny shoes I've never seen before to totally individual haircuts and style. Many women have on, what look like to me, very uncomfortable shoes and then maybe partially dyed hair in braids or corn rows or just cut asymetrically. Other women will have the most unkept hair, but of course it still looks fabulous and everyone, I mean everyone, that wheres glasses has the coolest glasses!

gotta go... just a real time update. i spent a week in Paris and then 3 days in Nice. Today is my 4th day here. I am at a French high school with my host, Erwan, he is a teacher. And I will be talking to his history class and the English teachers class, in oh, 5 minutes. So all in all, life is good, headed to Barcelona on the night train tonight. I have not had great time or access to internet, but I will try and catch up when I arrive in Barcelona or while waiting for the train.

Love, Holly

Dunkerque 9.2.06 - 9.5.06

So, somehow I made it from Hillsborough to Calais. If Caro and Manu had not have been there I really don't know what I would have done; I was pooped! We did a miny car tour of Dunkerque to show me around a bit and help me to get my bearings. We stopped at the sea and dipped our feet in the water for a moment. The sand was very soft there and it felt great on my tired feet. The water, however, was not nearly as plesant. Caro and I got them a little wet, but the water was freezing! We strolled a bit and then went back to the house for dinner. Dinner was fun. First, I tasted a couple of beers that Manu really enjoyed. Apparently, French beer isn't that great and the people of Northeren France are so close to Belgium they claim a bit of that culture in the beers they enjoy. Both of the beers we tried were lighter colored; one was a bit more amber. They were both really good. Which is a big thing coming from me because I don't usually like beer at all. The first was Duvel, I favored this one, and the second was Delerium Tremens. This got it's name from drinking it and experiencing hallunications, such as the pink elephant on the lable. We had potatoes that had been boiled. OK that doesn't sound that great yet, but they had this big hot plate and we took the potatoes and put them on the hotplate. Then we took cheese and put it in a little individul pan and put mushrooms on the cheese and heated it up on the hot plate. Next, I took the pototes off of the hot plate and peeled thm individually, pour the cheesy mushrooms on the freshly peeled potatoes, and voila! We had a coupld of different thin cuts of meet on the side. Most were a bit raw for me. A saw this a lot and avoided these meets from then on. I mean, I like a medium rare steak, but this was a little too raw for me. Overall, it was a wonderul first meal inFrance!

Caros friends met us at the flat, Delphine and Alex, and we all shared little deserts. Del spoke a bit of English, Alex not at all. There is a term that I can't remember right now and I was talking about it with someone right before I left. Everyone in the world has someone that is their twin. A person that is so much like them, but they never meet. Feel free to comment on what this term is! Del reminded me of Shannon and Caro reminds me of a girl I did my internship. It's odd because of the similaraties, but then the fact that they don't even speak the same language.

Afterwards we got ready to go to the disco about 1 hour away. This was a wonderful disco/club/rave party. The first thing I noticed when we got there was how young everyone was, especially the guys. Maybe I'm just getting old. The other thing I noticed was the amount of security, which, with me being a stranger in a strange land at a disco tech in the middle of nowhere on no sleep, made me feel comfortable. My hosts made me very comfortable, but itwas still very comforting to have that security there. We danced the night away in multiple dance rooms with hip hop, 2 techno rooms, 80's French and American music and other hodge podges of music. The music was great, the bass bumped and everyone danced the night away. To promote the club they did many giveaways throughout the night. Caro won me a cute little green back pack that allowed me to send home the one that I had brought, but didn't like very much. (But what sucks is that on the train from Dunkerque to Paris the zipper broke, so now I have no bag from home because I mailed it back, and one backpack with a broken zipper. :-( )

We arrived back at the flat around 4am, I did a bit of writing in my jounral, as not to forget anything, popped a couple of Tylenol PM's, which I don't think really work, and laid down for my first nights sleep in France. I have been awake for 54 hours! I don't remember the last time I stayed awake that long. I was probably 17, almost 10 years ago.

The next day, la Bradiere de Lille!

pictures from Dunkerque

Caro! Manu and I drinking some great white wine from a wine festival in Dunkerque. It is Caro's favorite.

The last night Caro and I bought put on masques. I did much better at pronouncing French words with the mask on, therefore, it was my French Masaque!
Solaris! Oh, I bet he misses me so much, you funny dog you!


Thank you Caro and Manu... got the picutres loaded and I will share the wonderful time we had together very soon!

Love to all!
Holly

picutres thus far

(left)Don't I look like a happy camper!
(below) The train station in Dover....It took me more than 3 hours to get here from the airport. Silly virgin traveler!
(right below) The photos you can achieve as a solo traveler. I really like this one.

(left) The Dover Castle from the town central.
The White Cliffs of Dover, from the first bus (after the 2nd train) on my way to the station to catch the second bus to the docks to get to the ferry. Whew!

9.2.06 Dover to Calais

I had reserved a seat on the P&O Ferry from Dover to Calais, which in hindsight was unneccsary. There was plenty of room on the ferry and probably not a big price difference either. So all I had to do was to leave the airport and get to the ferry by 2:25. I thought I could maybe see a breadth of London before I left because my intnet was not to return to London until the night before my plane left. So the airportI usually think of myself as pretty ablebodied, smart and resourseful woman. The problem is this woman 1. has never left the country, so really, all I knew was that I had to get from to major points, a plane to a ferry. They've got to have a bus or a train that goes back and forth; right? Wrong. 2. she is going on zero hours sleep, never good. 3. She has never had to rely on knowledge of a foreign language to be able to communicate. And yes, I am in England, they do speak English, but she has had no sleep and also, in her defense, they have VERY thick accents and talk very quickly.

I notice that items are in pounds, so I go to exchange money and the gentleman behind the counter didn't think it was a good idea because of the short amount of time I was spending there; I would then convert to Euro's and that may not be equitable. He was a very sweet man. I asked him about transportation to Dover, he said that because I had until almost 3 that the bus was cheaper and prettier, but slower. So I got in line to get a bus ticket downstairs. The folks who sell bus tickets thought the bus could be late because of traffic on Saturday, so they sent me to the train station. This was in the other terminal, on the other side of the world, the South Terminal.

I did the best I could to make it to the ticket office, I made one wrong turn and I couldn't help but think,"If I were on 'The Amazing Race,' that wrong turn could have just cost me the game. But I didn't loose the game, I am still in the game! I found the self ticket centers and found Dover, there where like 4 places in Dover the train stopped, gotta go ask for help again. I expected him to say, "oh yes, you need this exit to get to the ferry," but of course that did not happen. He spoke in his thick British accent for about 10 mintues, contemplating different routtes based on my time schedule for the ferry, I just smiled and noded. He could tell I couldn't remember all the information he had just given me, and he couldn't sell me a ticket anway so he told me to get in line and they would print me out an itinerary. So I stand in line and get my itinerary. I will be taking the train, that leaves momentarily from the airport to Redhill and then getting off and catch a bus to Tonbridge, and then get on another train and take that to Dover, total trip time : 3 hours, 11 minutes. So much for looking at London, I’ve got to hall as downstairs to make sure I catch the train. Transfering around on public transportation is like building a deck of cards! I rode along and enjoyed the view of all the new little houses and backyards and then heard my stop. I was paying very good attention because I knew that missing my stop was not an option. I think if I grew up somewhere that had better public transportation that this part of the journey would not have been as difficult, but I hadn’t, so it was. I made it to my bus. I really enjoyed the bus ride. I got to see a lot of little towns through the countryside. The guy across the aisle from me began to question a couple of other guys behind me about where we were. It seems our bus driver had missed a stop in Edenbridge. We did a fifty point turn and sped recklessly back to Edenbridge. I had alreday thought the bus driver was too close in turns and such, so it was a little scary when he was doing the same thing at higher speeds. I am still amazed we ddin’t hit anything. This lost about 1\2 hours time. All I could think was, "I hope I make it to the next train!" The second train was much faster than the first. I was still nervous about missing my stop, so I kept getting assurance.

At this point I feel like I suck at this really badly! At this point I also questioned my busy itinerary, this will be updated later, in short, no time in Italy and more time in each place in France and Spain.

I get off in Dover. I have arrived very early, this is good. I finally get a chance to just look around for a bit. I saw the Dover Castle and walked around the center of town and then thought, "Hey, the White Cliffs of Dover, maybe I’ll have time to check those out, if I cannot see them from the ferry. I asked a guy who was washing a car. I couldn’t tell if he even spoke English and he had no idea what I was talking about. I couldn’t help but think, the Cliffs where the only reason I had even heard of Dover, and this guy doesn’t even know what I’m talking about. Odd. I took this as a sign and went back to the train terminal to catch the bus to the ferry dock. I got checked in and was able to catch an earlier ferry. Waiting for the bus I met a couple of really nice French travelers, returning home to Britany France from hiking in Ireland. They were so much nicer than the British travlers I had spoken to, and was pretty much ignored by, ealier in Dover. Sadly the Brits, not the French, were on my ferry.

The ferry ride was peaceful. It gave me time to write and reflect for a bit and I did get to see The White Cliffs, although the pictures didn’t come out that well for multiple not-worth-talking-about reasons. The ferry arrives at the dock in Calais and all foot passengers take a bus to the terminal. In recap: airplane, train, bus, train, bus, ferry, bus. Now to call Caroline and Manu. I get out my calling card. I dial. The directions, thank God, are in English, but that doesn’t matter, I still cannot manage to make a phone call. If I cannot do it this tme, I will swallow my pride, the little bit I have left, and goes ask for help on how to use the telephone. I am getting ready to make my third attempt when a couple enters the building…

"Caroline?"

"Holly?"

My savior has arrived!
Somehow I made it from Hillsborough, North Carolina USA to Calais, France.

It is approx. 5 :00PM in France, 12 :00Noon in Hillsborough.
I have been awake for 34.5 hours. If I am doing the math right.
(i will always be a few days behind, today i am headed to paris, next blog i will try to write about my stay with manu & caro!)

9.1.06 from Hillsborough to London

I will try to bring everyone up to date with where i am now, if i can work with the french keyboard. So I didn't sleep well the night before I left, as to be expected, so I was up at 6am EST, which is 1am in France. I was very nervous and I didn't feel like I had planned well enough. So a morning of running around trying to complete last minute things, and to do the dishes and vacuum so that when mom comes home from her trip, the house is clean! So I drove over to Sean's, so I could stop trying to do more before I left at home, and soon after he drove me to the airport. I arrived 4.75 hours early because I was flying to London fro, the US and I thought it would take a while to get thourgh security, but it did not, so I just had a lot of time to kill. I read and wrote in my journal where I wanted to go and do in Paris, walked up and down the terminal with a Sweed that worked for Sony Ericson for awhile, exchanged some traveler's cheques for Euros and ran some laps up and down the terminal, and spoke with Stephen and Brook (They where returning home to England after spending two weeks in a house swap at Topsail Island.) etc. etc. etc.

Finally the plane arrived and we got aboard. International flights are so cool! All of the seats had TV's and diffent choices for movies and TV shows. I am so glad they had movies because they guy who sat next to me didn't really want to talk to me, and if I were reading I would have to stop sometimes and talk to him and he probably would not have liked that so much. So I watched "Nacho Libre" with Jack Black. Piper, you have to go see it if you haven't already! The dinner, like Brook had said, WAS suprisingly good! They had chicken with some red pepper sauce, which sounded great, but by the time the got to the back of the plane it was gone, but the substitute, lasagna was perfect for me. It is my comfort food! I knew that I needed to get some sleep, so a took A tylenol PM. I only took one because pills can effect me the wrong way sometimes. An hour later I was still awake, so I took another, half an hour later I took another. They never really kicked in. Regardless, I pretended to sleep for about 2 hours, if that. I ended up watching that TV show "Everybody Hates Chris," which I have always wanted to see but it came on the same time as "Survivor" and if you know me, you know "Survior" superceded most things. Don't you hate it when you finaly get to see something like that and the episode they play is the ONLY one you have ever seen. So you understand my disappointment. They served us breakfast shortly and the plane landed in London! The time here is 6:45AM, EST is 1:45AM.
I have been awake for 19 hours. Ability to speak French, pretty darn miserable.