May 30, 2005
6:15 pm
West Ham, London
Weather: Very Nice, despite the RAGING thunderstorm of this morning
Music: Birdsong and city noises
Beer: Delirium Tremens (correct spelling)

As I left today to do some shopping, I noticed a large number of people wearing West Ham shirts going to the football (soccer) match near here. As I came home, a small riot was going on in the form of a victory celebration. Nothing to fear, but DAMN do these people love their football. Six blocks away, I can still here the cheering and horns honking.

Anyway. On to the story.

Around 8:00, we caught the train to Dover, the port town where you go to catch a ferry to France. It is a neat little town, historical as hell just like everywhere else. The train took an unusually long time, and we arrived around 10:00. Above the town is a large castle, and it was well-lit so that it glowed high on the hill. Quite a sight.

We had purchased cheap camping equipment, and meant to pitch a tent somewhere. We had been advised that next to or near the castle was the best place, so we were making our way there. This is four of us, by the way. Justin, Bree, Karli, and myself.

We asked a number of drunken locals where would be the best place, hoping for a new idea. Finally we met one guy who after several minutes of cognation declared that we could sleep in his back yard. We followed him and his three friends back to the house, a few blocks away. Turns out it isn’t his house, but his friends’ parents’ house. The parents are away, and the friend is AWOL. But they are all staying there anyway, so it’s ok. The friend has been phoned, and we are welcome.

We end up sleeping in the lounge, although the garden is beautiful and would be perfect for camping. But this way we don’t need to worry about setting up the tent, etc. We stay up until about 1:30 drinking and talking with some very cool people. Several of them live in London, and we’re all going to get together soon. One is Claire, who was lots of fun, very attractive, and going on 30 despite what my eyes told me. She seemed to take quite a liking to me…

We woke at 5:00 am to catch our ferry and found them still awake and still drinking in the kitchen. They bade us farewell, and we made our way to the docks.

Apparently, the White Cliffs of Dover are known as one of the finest sights in all of England, and I know why. On the shore, they seemed to rise some thousand feet and were a brilliant white. Built into the sides were a number of Napolianic forts, some full and mighty, others just a few windows hinting at what might be buried in the cliffs. I want to go back to Dover and see more.

The ferry ride was fun. It was a fast thing, the sea was pretty, and we all napped most of the way.

We arrived in Calais, the port town in France. We ate breakfast in a little café near the train station while we decided what to do. We hadn’t really made a plan, but we had a few ideas. Based on a tourist brochure, we decided to go to Lille as it was voted the most culturally significant place in France in 2004. We hopped another train, and watched French countryside roll by for an hour and a half.

Lille is a beautiful city (they all are, over here), full of architecture and history and French people. Bree speaks fluent French, so that made our lives much easier. We walked around, ate fantastic chocolate, had dinner in an outdoor restaurant while sipping cheap French wine.

[Jesus, more police sirens. I wonder what is going on over there.]

While the girls looked at shoes and purses, Justin and I found a fantastic beer store. Beers of all kind and descriptions, with fantastic labels all advertising 7% or higher. We both had several, and I’ve kept all the bottles to send home to Dad. He collects such things, and will be quite pleased. The liquor section upstairs was incredible. Many wonderful and exotic spirits, and even more wonderful and exotic bottles. Bunches of grapes, rampant horses, the globe with the continents etched into the sides. I could spend a LOT of money in that place, and be well pleased with my investment. The beer I drink as I write this comes from there, and is excellent.

Our original idea had been to move on to the south of France, possibly to Nice. Upon checking ticket prices we found this plan to be hideously expensive. However, Belgium was about twenty minutes away and right in our budget. So across the border we went into Brussels.

We arrived around 8:30, and spent an hour and a half looking for our hostel. We asked a random woman on the street for directions, and she spent an hour and a half helping look for the place. We didn’t find it on foot, and Diana (that was her name) felt very bad despite our profuse thanks.

[There is a cat staring at me. There are many where I live, and they are surprised to see a human sitting on the window ledge just as one of them would.]

We caught a cab and made it to our hostel a half an hour after our reservation ran out. Thankfully, no one else had come in, and we go the very last room in the place. We did not go out, as we were all very tired. We settled in a little and went down to use the free internet. While there, I had a very nice talk with a girl named Sara from New Jersey who is studying music in Germany. I forget why she was in Brussles.

The next day, we checked out and walked around Brussles. If Lille was beautiful, Brussels is truly epic. At first all we saw was a dirty little city and a freightingly dirty subway. As we got further and further towards to city center, it became more and more incredible. There are statues everywhere, all of them the light green of weathered copper. Ironwork balconies abound, and monuments are the norm. The building slowly became more and more gothic and elaborate, until we reached the Great Place. City Hall is humongous. You can see the spire from almost anywhere in the city, and up close it is hard to take in. Big Ben has nothing on Brussels. Gothic does not begin to describe it. Points and spears and gargoyles and statues in every nook and cranny. The entire square was surrounded by equally gothic and incredible buildings, all of them huge but none nearly as monolithic as City Hall. A choir was set up for some event, and we listened to a few songs before moving on.

From here we walked through winding cobblestone streets. We ate a breakfast of Belgium waffles with melted chocolate dribbled over them at an outdoor café, wandered through a small “arts and crafts” type market, found a chocolate store and stuffed ourselves silly on amazing Belgium chocolates that would have cost five times as much anywhere else.

We found the Manneken Pis, the famous statue/fountain of a little boy peeing. There are many legends about the statue, involving him putting out a fire or that he was a prince who relieved himself in public. Either way, it was small and underwhelming but still really cool. I have an ashtray of him at home, and Mom used to tell me about it, so it was one of those little checkmarks in the ‘Things I Should Do In My Life” column. I have pictures of all of this, by the way, and when I get them from Karli and figure out why Blogger isn’t letting me post any more, you’ll get them.

The plan at this point was to backtrack, eat dinner in Lille, spend the night in Calis, and catch the ferry at noon back to Dover on Monday. We were quite tired, and the girls were especially so. We went back to the train station and caught an earlier train back to Lille.

It was a Eurostar train, and we learned that this particular train was going to London. Bree asked the very nice captain if we could possibly extend our tickets, and he let us ride the rest of the way for free! Our tickets from Brussels to Lille were ten Euros (around $17), and the tickets we would have had to purchase from Lille to London at such a last minute would have been much more expensive. Fantastic.

So that was my trip to France and Brussels in under 48 hours. We got home a day early, which was perfect. I had all of today to rest, do laundry, and buy a few more shirts for work. I picked up Neil Gaimen’s Stardust today, and I am already enchanted. If you don’t read Neil Gaimen (Neverwhere is fantastic and set in London), start. It will obsess your life, but you’ll love every second of it.

Tomorrow I return to work, where I will continue to convince my bosses I am God’s gift to Customer Service. The three of us each had the private conference with the boss on Friday, and the word I would use is “gushing.” We each got a 10% raise after a weeks’ work just based on the increase in customer satisfaction. Even if The Very Exotic Place doesn’t work, I am fairly confident that I can convince them to keep me on so I don’t have to return to the States. Sorry folks, but I’m going to try my hardest not to come back for a long, long time. There is the question of the work visa, which I haven’t had the time to answer yet. I understand that having a sponsor makes things much easier. The company can tell the immigration people, “No, we need him, let him stay” they will. But I have to research all of this to find out for sure.

Anyway. Got a date with Michelle, the girl I didn’t end up going out with last Thursday. We go out on Tuesday, and it should be good times. She lives in Windsor, which is a good ways out of London, so even under best circumstances it would be hard. But that won’t stop me from enjoying her company. And there is Claire to think about, too…

I love that the neighbors don’t notice me up here, not do they hear the clicking of the keyboard. People never think to look up. Let that be a lesson to you, however you choose to take it.

All my love to everyone, and if my blog is teaching you anything, let it be that spontaneity is a good thing. If you have the wild hair to jump up and run off somewhere exotic, DO IT! The Universe will provide, you can flow with the Tao, and the Goddess loves you.

Peace.