As Barbara was going on a trip to Southport today, leaving at 8.30am, I was on my way at 8am, heading into town. It wasn’t as painful as I thought, getting on the bus in peak hour and travelling into town, thank goodness. The Natonal Express bus ticket was only 38.50 GBP – I could’ve got it for less if I’d been able to buy it online, but because my bank wants to send me an SMS, that didn’t work. I managed to catch the 9am bus down to London. It was rather full, so I was near the back. That was fine for the first hour or so, until people started using the toilet. God it was disgusting. And someone opened the hatch on the top of the bus, which made it windy (but didn’t get rid of the stink).
When we got to London about 5 hours later, I was finally able to breathe again. I had some lunch at the pub right next to Victoria Coach Station drop-off section. It wasn’t bad though more expensive than other pubs. The servings were generous though. I asked a middle-aged couple to mind my bags while I went to the toilet, and then started chatting with them. They were on their way on a cruise to San Francisco, for 3 weeks! Lucky them! The wife also had relatives all over the world who they go to see: France, Australia, America, Ireland, Scotland, Singapore… Wish I did!
When it came time to get on the bus for Dover, I made sure to get at the head of the queue and on the front of the bus, on the side without the sun. This trip was much better, even with the 45 minute tardiness due to traffic. The white cliffs of Dover:
I ended up dragging my suitcase from the bus depot to Clare’s Guest House because the bus had just gone and I couldn’t see a taxi-rank anywhere. Ah well. At least Adam (the owner) carried it up to the room for me and invited me down for a beer. First I had to go shower the stink off me and get out of my travel-clothes. I stank! Uggh.
After my beer I headed into town for dinner. Dover is pretty dead at night. Even the cafes seem to close at 4.30pm. Perhaps they’re only open for the tourists passing through. I got a nice shot of the castle by night though:
I found an Italian restaurant which served not very good food for high prices, but ah well. I headed back to my room and did some work on my blog.
