My Trip to Europe -- Week Two.

Day Eight (Saturday June 5th 2010): Today I went to a family get-together. Now, I only knew three of the people there (my aunt, my grandmother and my grandfather) so the rest of the people there...well, I didn't know much about them or what to talk to them about. So I didn't talk too much. But they were all really nice, so when I talked it wasn't too much of a pain. We all gathered at one of my great aunt's house (she lives in a place called Essex, I believe) to have a drink and just some snack before leaving for a pub lunch. I met a third cousin there (more about him later); I didn't even know such cousins existed. Anywho, after filling my mouth with potato chips and some sort of fizzy beverage (it was some sort of wine something or another) we walked over to the pub. Let me tell you, wherever this great aunt lived (the exact name of the town, I forget) felt like it was in the middle of nowhere. The walk to the pub was only about ten minutes long, so it was okay. After ordering drinks (I got something called J20, Google it) we all talked a bit. Remember that cousin I was speaking about? Well, here's more about him. He's a teacher in London at some sort of private school. One day at school was Grandfather Day (I think he said it was when the kids brought in their grandfathers for the day, or something along those lines) and it just so happens that one of the kids he teaches is the grandson of Paul McCartney. Guess who showed up for school? Paul-friggin'-McCartney. If I was my (third) cousin, I would have died. ABSOLUTELY DIED! Anywho, in order to skip over minute details I'll just say that we ordered our food (I got the shrimp curry - and it was so good!) and ate it. Ooh interesting. After dinner some of us ordered dessert (not everyone did, but I was one of the people that did). I got something called Spotted Dick. It didn't taste or look like what you're thinking. It was some sort of spongy cake thing (the dick, I suppose) with raisins (the spotted, I suppose). It was pretty good. After our meal was done, and paid for, we walked back to the house. Not much else happened except for some more drinks (I had tea) and then we (me, my aunt, my grandfather and my grandmother) left to go home. On a random note: my great aunt had a pretty nice garden!

Day Nine (Sunday June 6th 2010): First of all, Happy 47th Birthday Johnny Depp! Okay, now back to my trip. I didn't do much today except go to a grocery store called Aldi. The one thing I noticed was that the girls at the check out counter were fast. And by "fast" I mean "very fast" - they almost threw our stuff off the counter.

Day Ten (Monday June 7th 2010): Today was the day that I went to France. I woke up at 5:30am (to be honest, in my entire life I'm 83% sure that I've never woken up that early) so I had time to get ready in time (if that makes any sense at all). We (me, my grandfather and grandmother) got in the car and drove to a town called Dover. Dover is basically the water connection line from where we were to France. When we were at the port (where we were initally was like a Greyhound bus station) we had to take a bus to the ship (not only was it far, there were a lot of cars and the like there). Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we took a ship to France. Upon leaving the bus to go through security (think of it like the airport - when you cross the border, you have to go through security) one of the border patrol/security/I don't really know what he was came on the bus to check everyones' passports. He looked at everyones' just fine as he moved through the group of people. When he got to me he requested to see my passport, so I handed it over not knowing why or what I did wrong. Actually, I did nothing wrong. But I was still scared because I thought he was going to take it and not give it back. He stamped it and then handed it back to me. It turns out he only did that because I didn't have a European passport (everyone else on the bus did). After we got off the bus we had to go through security (bag check and metal detectors). When we did my grandmother turned to me and said, "I've got a knife". Confused as to why she was telling me this, I turned around to see she had a kitchen knife wrapped in paper towel in her pocket. She'd brought it along because we were going to buy bread and cheese to make out own sandwiches. I told her to tell security (she said "I'll just put it in my pocket" - good idea grandma, we're about TO GO THROUGH A METAL DETECTOR!) She did and they said it was okay. We got on the ship and the town that we arrived in was a town called Calais. Once we got off the ship in Calais we took a bus into town. When we got off the bus we walked to a grocery store. It was in a shopping mall (I'd relate it to Cedabrae Mall) and was called Carrefours (I believe). We got some grocery type food (like bread, cheese and juice). Also some alcohol (which by the way was so cheap, you wouldn't believe). We then walked back the way we came and stopped in a park to eat lunch. There was a cart/van thingy there selling French fries, so we got some of those. We got one for each of us, but it turns out the portions were gigantic, so we didn't really end up eating much of the food we bought. We did, however, finish the juice. The apple juice. The French apple juice. After more walking we went back to the bus stop where we were dropped off and waited for the bus to come. When we got there the next bus wouldn't arrive for a while, so my grandmother and I went to a supermarket/grocery store near by to look around. When I was in there I saw THE BIGGEST Babybel EVER! We went back to the bus stop, got on the bus, went to the dock, got on the ship and went back home. Done.

Day Eleven (Tuesday June 8th 2010): Today I went into Chatham with my grandmother (well, my grandfather dropped us off but didn't stay). The first thing I did was mail the postcards that I told people I'd send. I think I sent postcards to seven people. That day we basically only look around some stores for a few hours. My two favourite stores were TK Maxx (it's basically a Winners) and Primark (we don't have anything like Primark here. The closest is probably Forever 21, but even then it's different. I love Primark because they have such nice looking clothes and everything is really cheap! SCORE!).

Day Twelve (Wednesday June 9th 2010): Today we went into Rochester. We first saw Rochester Cathedral (it was okay) and Rochester Castle (I loved that). We looked around a museum (I think it was a historical museum about Rochester? England? A war? I forgot). We then went down down the high street and looked around the shops. We went to some place that Charles Dickens used to write some stuff or another. To be honest, besides Rochester Castle was the only thing that interested me that day. After seeing Rochester we went to my cousin Andrew's house. He's a year older than me. He just moved out and got a place with one of his friends. Their place is so nice!

Day Thirteen (Thursday June 10th 2010): Today we (me, my grandmother and grandfather) went to a mall called Bluewater. It's basically the Eaton Centre. We looked around some stores (we couldn't look at all the store because 1) there were lots of them and 2) some of them were really expensive). The only store that I liked was Topshop. I'd ALWAYS wanted to go there and when I did, I must say I loved everything in there. To spare myself from temptation, I bought four rings (three came in one set and the other on its own).

Day Fourteen (Friday June 11th 2010): Today we went to a place called Dockside. It's basically an outlet shopping centre (with some places to eat). There's a store in England called Marks & Spencer (it's sort of like The Bay/Sears, but different. They have more pricey (but great quality) clothes). Well, at Dockside they have a Marks & Spencer outlet store. Totally loving the prices I bought a cropped black cardigan, a black bra and a pair of black pantyhose (that have a seam design up the back of the leg).