After a hectic week and a half involving an amazing wedding in Sweden and a lot of packing, I am finally on my way. On Friday and Saturday I met up with some fellow Ozbus passengers who confirmed my worst fears. They are all as nuts as I am and as raring to get on the road as me.
Sunday morning was a very early start and I arrived at Cleopatra's Needle, our assigned starting point for the trip, just after 7am. The first leg of the journey was to take us from London to Dover on the bus, then on the ferry to Calais and back on the bus to Brugge. However the bus wasn't as I expected, there was no Ozbus sign on the side and it seemed like any bus I'd been on a school trip on! Colin, our tour leader, told us what had happened. When the bus departed from Galway the previous day, it broke down. The Ozbusers then got on a train instead, which then also proceeded to break down. Surely I can't have been the only one who checked the location of lifeboats & lifejackets on the ferry after that?!
We made good time to Dover to pick up a last passenger & hop on an early ferry. I was just tucking into a Full English when the captain made an announcement of "engine problems". Oh dear! Well, we departed only a half hour late and all was well with the crossing. I took some photos on deck of the famous White Cliffs...though I must confess I didn't feel any emotion towards them - not like when I was walking through my beloved London at sunrise to get on the bus. I felt sadder than expected when I said goodbye to/got good luck messages from my friends and family as well - hope they don't forget about me! I'm just going to think of all the stories I'll be able to tell them when I return.
On the road to Brugge, I was peer pressured...into agreeing to a bike tour of the city. After initial fears over the "not my bike"/cobbled streets combo, I really enjoyed it. Especially the beer at the end. And not all the scary horses that kept appearing right behind us from nowhere!
Dinner and a few delicious cherry beers at the hostel later and it was an earlyish night to end an exciting day.
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