London to Dover. Dover to Paris.

I left Dublin early in the morning to catch the ferry once again to Holyhead. This time I was accompanied by a group of canadians who were studying in Wales and decided to come for the party. I slept the entire three and a half hour trip. You see I work in a pattern of no sleep for multiple days and then, like a bear, I enter hibernation. I took advantage of a free breakfast. Ate massive american portions and then passed out. I arrived in Holyhead and hopped on the train for London immediately. The couple I sat with was kind enough to give me two perfectly made beef and roasted pepper rolls to hold my appetite until we arrived in Euston Station, London, and I promised them I would acknowledge their sincere gesture on my blog. At Euston I picked up a bag of carrots, a box of grapes, and a salad. I don't think anyone in my family exactly knows what it feels like to have over 8 pints of Guinness a day, but if they did then they would know that fresh vegetables after a "bender" of that caliber is amazing. I grabbed the Underground tube to Charington Cross and then bought my ticket for the first train to the coast of the UK to a town called Dover. I will never take the Chunnel again. The train is only 2 hour and costs over 80 Euros. So I instead chose to take another ferry across to Calais France from Dover. When I was almost to Dover I realized that the girl I had been sitting with had left her purse under the table. I would like to think that it was stunning good looks that distracted her, made her blush, and inevitably led to her rushing off the train all hot and bothered that I wasn't stopping in Ashton with her but I think it was the several gin and tonics she had consumed in order to deal with the hour train ride at night. Nonetheless I noticed and tried to help. I was the only one on the train except three rowdy brits from Folkstone. Which I guess was a tough area because they kept repeating "Don't you know? We are crooked crooks from Folkstown!!". I asked them what to do. They searched the bag. first to look for money, second to find out who she was because they didn't find any. The fact she had a Social Services license bothered them. They had all had kids or relatives kids taken away by the social services and cussed the organization out until their stop. Right before they hopped off the pudgy girl told the older bald man who was smoking in a monitored/non-smoking train to wipe his finger prints off. Well I gave it to the night guard at Dover when I arrived and stepped off the platform and into the cold and salty air that makes Dover recognizable. It smells like Hawaii but feels like Scotland. The hotel across the street is the only one I could find and when I stepped into the entrance/restaurant I found the owner and bartender drunk with several locals. They had been drinking to celebrate a guitarist who had come to play. But because he had one too many double whiskeys he only survived playing a couple songs. I went to the ferry port in the night and tried to check in but couldn't. On the way back I ran into two Chinese English who were trying to hitchhike across the channel on an 18 wheeler. They were trying to get to Prague and fast. They had to reach Prague for a charity and within the week because their parents were so strict that if they found out they were traveling Europe they would be furious (I love my parents for giving me independence and teaching me how to use it responsibly). I strolled through the cold. Remembering to take a right at the first roundabout and a left at the next. After 3 km I was there once again. Now they were piss drunk. I threw on my Lulu Lemon work out clothes and did my crossfit work out at 10pm in the dark on the stairwell to Dover Castle. Now when I cam back this time some of the bar soldiers were blacked out and screaming that working out will kill me. I explicitly told them I was leaving at 7am to catch the ferry and left for bed. There was no shower gel or shampoo only bubble bath but I made do. When I awoke in the morning I dressed and prepared to leave. When I pushed the restaurant door it was locked! I knocked.... No answer. They had gotten piss drunk and locked me in the hotel. No one was in the building. I was the only guest. I went to the second floor and tried the fire escape. Locked. So I am locked in and if there was a fire I would die.. GREAT!! I entered my room and pried off the nail that kept my window shut. So here I was at 6:20 in the morning with a 50+ pound bag shimmying my way down from the second story of a Dover hotel. I should have lit fire to the building and convinced them I was killed because their incompetence but I had a ferry to catch. I took the ferry to Calais with the two chinese students who failed to get a ride. We bought one day return tickets because they were cheaper just to find out that we wouldn't be able to come back through Dover because immigration gets furious when you find the loophole in ferry prices and fail to return that day. In Calais the bus was not operating until late. I walked 4km almost missed my train but fortunately didn't. I arrived in the same station as before in France but this time I had no problems because my Uncle Jaime was a superb guide and host.



-Chad A. Dokken

Location:Dover, UK