"First we'll go to Calais, then a boat across the sea!"

It took us about three hours to get to Calais from Paris. We had to get out and do fantastic immigration control things before getting on a ferry to Dover, England. But I has another stamp on my passport now! Yay! We got lunch on the ferry. I think it was almost two hours? Maybe three? But it was better than being stuck on the bus. We thought we were going through the Chunnel on the bus. We were a little bit disappointed about not taking the Chunnel, but I really do think I preferred being able to walk around. Go figure.

View of Calais from the ferry.

Oh, post title courtesy of "Les Misérables." Foreshadowing, clearly.

Finally the bus got to London. We dragged our luggage and ourselves from the coach station to the nearest tube station at 6pm-ish. Dear god. In addition to costing us 4 pounds each (!!!) for the fare, the ride was just crazy. We had to change once or twice and oh my god. It was worse than trying to get through Kenmore after a Sox game. Since the tube is so old to begin with, the trains are super small. Anyone over 6 feet should find alternative means of transport because it's just not worth it. And you have to take an elevator from the train level to the ground level in most stations because the only stairs are narrow, winding, and number over 175. Craaaaazy.

After that fun experience we went to our hostel (after taking a detour since their directions were made of fail), which was disappointing compared to the other two I'd stayed it, but I think this is what a hostel usually is like. Ick. It wasn't super dirty or awful or anything, but it was an experience. More on that later. We explored the immediate area a little and discovered that even though there were Starbucks everywhere, they all closed no later than 8pm. That's just stupid. Wound up at a pub for dinner.


I got fish and chips.

Oh yeah. Dinner was sweet. Went back to the hostel, planned for the next day, and went to bed since we were getting up bright and early. Wahoo!