Travel to Caen France

We made it to Caen! It has been a very long day of buses and a farry. We left at 8am this morning (late). My roommate and I woke up a little late partly because we didn't get our first wakeup call and partly because we ignored the second one. I didn't even hear it!

We rushed to get ready and finishing packing the last of our toiletries and ran downstairs for breakfast. I stuffed two croissants into my purse and quickly ate the funky sausage and runny eggs. I didn't even get to finish my tea. Then it took us almost 10 minutes to get an elevator. The only reason we finally got one was because we took it up from our 3rd floor to the 12th (stopping on each floor). Then it went down 12, 11, 10, 9...all the way to the ground floor! It took forever!

I headed for the bus (still rushing) and wheeled my luggage (all 63 lbs) over to he driver and got on. I ate my two croissants that I had shoved into my purse while I was waiting. We drove off about 10 minutes later on our way to the farry.

It was about a two hour drive to the docks and I slept off and on most of the way. Once we got to the docks we found out that the French farry employees were on strike and we couldn't take that farry. It was a long confusing process which involved taking the luggage off and reloading it three or four times! Finally we got on a Brittish farry and headed out.

The seas were rough and choppy. The sky was gray, rainy and foggy. About 10 mintues after we left the dock I felt the boat (we were sitting in the front) rise up and then it felt like we were falling really slow. After what seemed like forever the front end slammed down hard on the brown water and all the glasses and bottles at the bar shook violently. Two bar tenders ran for the coolers where sandwiches and drinks were kept and pulled down screens to keep things from falling out.

I must say that the "farry" looked more like a miniature cruise ship! It wasn't at all what I was expecting. It had nice wood floors and eight decks in total. Decks three and four were for the many cars, trucks, buses and semi trailers that slowly drove on before we boarded. I read a little and eventually fell asleep. About an hour and a half later were docked in France.

We headed down to the car decks where security lead us to our coach bus. Neither the woman leading us nor the driver spoke English. (great start!) Thank goodness for the four or five people in our group who speak French!

So we boarded the bus and the strong men (all 7 of them) loaded all the ladies luggage from carts to the coach. How sweet of them.

Then we were on our way to Caen. We hit some really bad traffic and I eventually fell asleep after reading a few chapters from my teaching book. I slept uncomfortably balled up on two seats. I woke up often only to see that it was dark and gray outside and that our big rectangle bus was being blown all over the road. (The correct side of the road now...Auntie Em we're not in England any more!)

After what seemed like forever (maybe five to six hours) we arrived at the hotel in Caen. We headed to our rooms (my new roomate is Lizzie) and got ready for dinner which would be served at 10pm.

It has been a very long day and we're all waiting like kids for Christmas morning to see what our surroundings look like in the daylight. Well it's very late here so I better shower and head to bed!