Due to low-budget purposes, instead of taking the Euro Trail from Ashford International (GBP140), I decided to catch the train from Hampden Park > Eastbourne > Ashford Intl > Dover Priory (Southern Railway). That was just 19.80 GBP. Then hop on a ferry to Calais, France and from there catch the train to Brugge, Belgium. That was the plan so far. Oh yeah.. it did sound like a plan right?
The transfers within East Sussex went fine, right on time and I was cruising through till Dover Priory. The P&O bus service to the ferry port was just right outside the train station (on the left). I paid 2Euros and waited till we were on our way. It was just a 20-25 minute walk but I decided to not exhaust my energy in the first leg. (in retrospect, that was a good decision) Note: As of this writing, only P&O ferries accepted foot passengers to Calais, France.
I got off the ferry station and found my way to the P&O ticket desk. The lady was really friendly and chatted with me while she searched on the internet if there were trains from Calais to Brugge. We weren’t successful to find out and funny enough we both found their website so difficult to browse through. So we thought, scrap it. She only charged me GBP22 instead of the usual rate of 32. I didn’t ask why, but she was smiling and said she’d still give me a discount. I was so thankful.
I found my way out of the building and rang Mum just to let her know that I made it as far as the ferry coz I knew she’d be worried if I didn’t let her know. And I thought, while I still had some load on the UK sim, and still around the borders, best I give her a ring before I go over the channel.
As foot passengers on the ferry, we had to ride the P&O service shuttle. Another guy waited at the same stop, and I made sure we were getting the same ride. The bus later on arrived and we hopped on with 3 ladies, a couple and 2 other teenager girls.
The ferry was quite huge, with 2-3 layers ornamented with different services like arcade game, mini shopping centre, foodcourt and a bar. After having my early dinner, I found the way up and outside. The guy I chatted with earlier was there. Gazing out into the ocean. He smiled and we ended up chatting for the next 2 hours of the trip. I found out he was originally from Lithuania (my first time to meet one) and moved to England 3 years ago. He did seem to like England and said he rarely went back home.
The sun was a little bit intense as there were moments when we just sat in silence watching bubbles form a trail behind the ferry, Dover Priory fading into the distance. I never did ask his name, we just talked. His language was a little bit limited, but we still managed to have a decent conversation. I took out my mini atlas book and we scanned through the different countries.
After a while I said goodbye and said I wanted to go back inside. I then found my way through the craziness of a school of kids… it was ultimate chaos, just how the crew described it. I discovered a silent corner at the bar area and just silently watched the sky and the horizon whilst writing in my journal.
In a while I saw the sign Calais and I knew I’ve made it…to France. We lined up at the foot passenger path, the guy from Lithuania waved and I smiled. The crew started cleaning up after the kids, hating the skittles all over the carpet and floor.. seemed to be a usual occurrence during summer.
We hopped on the shuttle service from the ferry to the station. From there I found someone who can speak English at the front desk and asked if there was still a train from Calais to Brugge.
“None for tonight. You need to stay overnight at the hotel in front of the Gare, and catch the earliest train tomorrow”.
Oh yes, I was unimpressed with my planning.
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