Travelling and wanderlust.
Aug. 25th, 2002 03:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
baratronWe didn't go down to Poole today because I was feeling far too ill and stressed. Spent most of the day having period pain & nastiness, and I just couldn't face it. Weirdly, when I started feeling better, the wanderlust I was talking about the other day kicked in. Urges... to go somewhere else, be someone different, if only for a couple of days. I'm feeling very constrained by lack of money and lack of opportunities to just go randomly travelling.
If I could afford it, I'd get on a plane and fly to the US, and just drop in to see anyone with a space on their sofa. Or I'd go on the Eurostar to Brussels and go to the Atomium, the Walibi theme park, and Aqualibi and Oceade waterparks. I'm so homesick for Brussels I could burst, and I never even lived there. I'm actually bored with London, which is a really unusual thing for me.
I've managed to transmute this urge to go somewhere else into a day trip to Calais on Monday. We only get 6 hours in France, but it's only costing £12 return on the ferry. The problem is that we're constrained by the train times - the earliest ferry we can be sure of getting is the 11.30am departure. It takes a very long time to get to Dover from Kingston. And Calais is barely France anyway - it's full of English people eating English food, using English money and going to English supermarkets (there's a Tesco and a Sainsbury's there, to get the booze cruise trade! Basically, duty on cigarettes & alcohol is much cheaper in Europe than France so people go there to stock up.) Blah. Well, we'll just avoid anyone who seems to be talking in English :)
And talking about being constrained by train times, I'm currently boggling at the timetable from Surbiton to Poole:.
Surbiton to Poole 25.08.02
10:33 departure, arrive Basingstoke 11:33, leave Basingstoke 11:58, arrive Poole 13:33. Duration: 3:00
11:03 departure, arrive Woking 11:26, run like buggery, leave Woking 11:31, arrive Basingstoke 11:50, leave Basingstoke 11:58, arrive Poole 13:33. Duration: 2:30
11:03 departure, arrive Woking 11:26, sit around for half an hour, leave Woking 11:59, arrive Poole 13:39. Duration: 2:36
What a great set of train times! We have the choice of getting up far too early and arriving at the same time as if we'd left half an hour later, leaving at a sensible time and running like buggery for 5 minute changes, or leaving at a sensible time and sitting on our arses at Woking for half an hour. Blah. Of course, come the afternoon, the trains fall into a nice pattern of leave Surbiton x:14, arrive Woking x:29, leave Woking x:59 and arrive at Poole x+2:39. Still a half hour of sitting around, but at least it's the same pattern every hour until 21:14.
It seems crazy to go from London to Poole and back again on Sunday and then from London to Dover on Monday, but I couldn't see any other way of doing it. Ferries to France from Southampton take about 12 hours, and I'm not even sure how I'll manage the 75 minutes Dover-Calais stretch - I get sick on the Isle of Wight ferry!
If I could afford it, I'd get on a plane and fly to the US, and just drop in to see anyone with a space on their sofa. Or I'd go on the Eurostar to Brussels and go to the Atomium, the Walibi theme park, and Aqualibi and Oceade waterparks. I'm so homesick for Brussels I could burst, and I never even lived there. I'm actually bored with London, which is a really unusual thing for me.
I've managed to transmute this urge to go somewhere else into a day trip to Calais on Monday. We only get 6 hours in France, but it's only costing £12 return on the ferry. The problem is that we're constrained by the train times - the earliest ferry we can be sure of getting is the 11.30am departure. It takes a very long time to get to Dover from Kingston. And Calais is barely France anyway - it's full of English people eating English food, using English money and going to English supermarkets (there's a Tesco and a Sainsbury's there, to get the booze cruise trade! Basically, duty on cigarettes & alcohol is much cheaper in Europe than France so people go there to stock up.) Blah. Well, we'll just avoid anyone who seems to be talking in English :)
And talking about being constrained by train times, I'm currently boggling at the timetable from Surbiton to Poole:.
Surbiton to Poole 25.08.02
10:33 departure, arrive Basingstoke 11:33, leave Basingstoke 11:58, arrive Poole 13:33. Duration: 3:00
11:03 departure, arrive Woking 11:26, run like buggery, leave Woking 11:31, arrive Basingstoke 11:50, leave Basingstoke 11:58, arrive Poole 13:33. Duration: 2:30
11:03 departure, arrive Woking 11:26, sit around for half an hour, leave Woking 11:59, arrive Poole 13:39. Duration: 2:36
What a great set of train times! We have the choice of getting up far too early and arriving at the same time as if we'd left half an hour later, leaving at a sensible time and running like buggery for 5 minute changes, or leaving at a sensible time and sitting on our arses at Woking for half an hour. Blah. Of course, come the afternoon, the trains fall into a nice pattern of leave Surbiton x:14, arrive Woking x:29, leave Woking x:59 and arrive at Poole x+2:39. Still a half hour of sitting around, but at least it's the same pattern every hour until 21:14.
It seems crazy to go from London to Poole and back again on Sunday and then from London to Dover on Monday, but I couldn't see any other way of doing it. Ferries to France from Southampton take about 12 hours, and I'm not even sure how I'll manage the 75 minutes Dover-Calais stretch - I get sick on the Isle of Wight ferry!
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no subject
Date: 2002-08-25 01:33 am (UTC)Hope you feel better today! Good luck with the trip to Calais - have to say I wouldn't DREAM of going anywhere on BH Monday except maybe a local trip ... but then again you have your palm etc. and can do useful things while travelling I guess. And you won't be driving ... driving anywhere is definitely a no-no to me, unless it's about a fifteen mile maximum and even then I'd allow twice the normal time.
no subject
Date: 2002-08-25 02:22 am (UTC)Since you're foot traffic rather than taking a car, you should be able to get on the fastcraft easily enough.
Cherbourg is a large town, with a lot of great architecture, and a lot more 'french' than calaias!
Having personally been to both, I can heartily recommend cherbourg as an ideal place for a daytrip. Yes, the ferry trip is a bit longer, but think of the time you'd save tripping back to london before hand...
According to the brittany ferries thing, you'd have to leave at 7.30am (sorry, no mid day sailing on the bank holiday!), and could return at 11.30 or 1900, both trips on fastferry. Perfectly doable if you stay over sunday night i.e. tonight.
As for sea-sickness? Best bet is stay up on deck - down below always makes me feel far worse, and keep your eyes on the horizon. And don't eat any breakfast ;)
no subject
Date: 2002-08-25 02:25 am (UTC)HTH!
no subject
Date: 2002-08-30 01:35 pm (UTC)