I decided to walk it from the ferry station to the Gare Calais Ville. I followed the signs but also found myself going through town instead of the shortest way. I was glad I did though, gave me an idea of the town. Calais, being just beside the coast, seemed to be a small resort town in France. Seemed that there was not much happening besides a small lighthouse and a church…oh and a tower too, sorry, I shouldn’t have forgotten that. Apologies.
I found my way through to the Gare and saw the 2 blonde young girls who were on the same ferry ride from Dover. Sarah and Anina were 17-year old teenagers from Finland, on their way to Paris. All of us missed our train rides for the night.
The situation was, the train station was only open till 11 pm so the chance of staying overnight wasn’t part of the option. There were no hostels in Calais, ONLY hotels. Go figure. And the Hotels were expensive, considering that it was already late and there was no point paying that expensive if we were to catch the earliest train to our destinations.
2 guys came in to the train station and had a chat with Anina. Obviously they fancied the girls because they asked too many questions. I was just quiet on the side, listening to the whole conversation. When they asked how old the girls were, that’s when I felt they were dodgy. Sarah fancied the guy wearing the gray shirt, she said, when the boys walked away after the interrogative conversation. I told her, “hey priorities first before checking out the French boys”. She just laughed. I wasn’t in the mood.
A homeless guy sat beside me and offered us bread. It was really sweet of him, but we declined. Another dodgy joined in, stinking with alcohol and pestering the girls. We decided to walk out of the train station and figure things outside. At that point, we didn’t realize the 2 guys who the girls talked to were in a car and watching everything happening. The whole scenario was us girls trying to dodge from the drunk guy and walking away from the train station. What we found weird was when the car followed us and stopped Anina, asking if we were okay and where we wanted to go. They said they knew a hostel near the beach and would want the 2 girls to go with them in the car. I just looked and listened again. Sarah said No thank you and we decided to quickly cross the road and rush inside a random pub which was the most public place we could run to. We noticed that the car was still waiting at the curb. Freaky. Obviously they were so into the girls. Well, if the girls were interested in them, I wouldn’t have stopped them. I just didn’t trust the guys.
The events of that night were crazy. We stayed in the pub for a while, and had to order something coz the lady was a little bit unfriendly. She was supposed to be open till 2 am, but she ended up closing at 11. No customers in sight she said.
We decide to find another pub. I chose the next pub with more people, knowing that if there were more customers, the pub would be closing later than usual. Now, what I didn’t expect was, the venue was punky.
A guy with a Mohawk head stood beside the bar, with a dog chained to his belt. He looked like a punk, drinking his beer and smoking his ciggie. He did smile, I smiled back… but I didn’t want to give any wrong impressions nor be a snob.
We walked to the end of the pub and decided to put down our big bags and sit quietly. We looked for sockets and recharged our phones. Now the thing was, at that time of the night majority of the people in the pub were drunk. But hey, kudos to them for trying to start a conversation with us.
Of course they spoke French, we spoke English, chances were only simple words could be exchanged. So that’s what happened until 2:30 am for us. 3 drunk guys with orange shirts pestered us ALL night long. Trying to give us French kisses on the cheeks and telling us we were beautiful. Awwww. It didn’t work on me. I got so pissed off when one of the guys was rubbing his body to me. And that was it for me. I pushed him away and didn’t talk to him anymore. It was a cycle of asking, if we could speak French or English…. All blurred…. At the end I said “NO ENGLISH” and I just stared at my cellphone, head down.
Amidst this chaotic sleepless night, we were just trying to kill time. We had to be inside somewhere, away from the chill of the night. And at least we knew there was a bartender who’d protect us if someone got too frisky.
What I found ironic was that the Mohawk guy (with a dog named Kali) was the nicest one around. He talked us softly and spoke good English compared to his friends. He even walked us back to the train station, making sure we were safe, checked the train times and had it explained to us by his friend who also walked with us. We exchanged kisses on the cheeks and I said thank you so much in French. True example that you can’t really just a book by its cover.
We again walked around, thinking of looking for a place that “might” be open. Of course, we couldn’t find one. I then looked at a clothes shop with an alcove that seemed to be a good spot to keep us from the cold. I tested the spot and asked the girls to try it out coz we were already shivering. They found that it was the best place for us to stay till 4:30 am, when the train station opened.
Yes, we did sleep on the floor, beside our bags. I let the girls have a shut eye while I watched out for people passing by, i.e. drunk men who might be curious. Sarah took out her white blanket and covered the three of us. Her cough didn’t sound good at all. Apparently, her colds started when the same scenario happened to them in Dover… sleeping outside the train station. Crazy. There seemed to be a pattern.
A few people passed by but so far only 1 drunk guy stopped and tried to talk to us. We didn’t keep eye contact and just shook our heads meaning we didn’t understand. We didn’t really look homeless, but out situation was so much so. It was an experience I’d never ever forget. Definitely something I didn’t have on my list of situations I wanted to go through whilst on this trip.
Around 4:15 I woke them up and said we should walk back to the train station. By 4:30 we got there and were jumping in joy when we got ourselves the benches inside, with enough heat to keep us warm in the cold town of Calais France.
By 6 am I hugged them goodbye and wished them well. We never did exchange details but I told them to avoid experiencing that again. And make sure not to talk to dodgy men most especially in Paris. They were just so vulnerable, easy targets and well… just too young to be in trouble. So much life ahead of them.
By 6:10 am I was on the train to Brugge.
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