Day 05: London-Rochester-Canterbury-Lille

It is 6.12am as I type this. If you're wondering how the hell did I manage to wake up so early, it's mainly cos I didn't sleep. Strangely I don't feel tired at all- probably related to that cup of extra-nescafe-powder coffee I had a few hours back. Besides if I sleep now I'll never get to school in time to study at 9am. I really need to study more! Have only covered half of maths so far. Studying today-yesterday-was pretty unproductive, especially after I shifted from VJ to VS, which is like shifting from a noisy classroom to a noisy canteen. The difference is seeing everyone again and of course the ever popular game of bridge. Will probably do the same thing later. Hey, it's only mid years.

Ok think I had better get on with narrating day 05 before I forget even more of the trip. Ever hear the metaphor of memories as sand in your hand, the harder you try to grab it, the more it falls away? Which kinda explains the slew of posts this two weeks.

Woke up early, brought bags down, then went into the already-regular process of breakfasting. Collect tray, deposit food coupon, 2 sausage rolls, 1 chocolate croissant, 1 toast (white), 1 jam (strawberry), 1 butter, walk up steps, put down tray, walk down steps, get coffee, etc. Bus was early so we boarded immediately after breakfast, bade farewell to yet another hostel and headed to Rochester.

What's interesting in Rochester? The Dicken's Festival (of course!) was supposedly being celebrated (still, I doubt if this answers the question for most of you). Anyway we didn't head into town first, since we first had a tour around the area (this word suggests 'small'. It took one hour to get to where we wanted, within the area). Dickens lived here, and used alot of the surrounding places in Great Expectations, such as the marshes and the church and the hulks. Don't get me wrong, the old kindly-looking guide was very knowledgeable on Dickens and was in fact quite interesting. It's just that late previous night+early morning+comfortable chair=inevitable, definite, sure slumber. Anyway our point of interest was the church with the graveyard containing the 13 tablets Dickens uses in the first chapter of GreatEx. It was a desolate church in the middle of strawberry farms (don't ask me). Quite a small church, and it looked pretty old, but nevertheless a somewhat spooky aura emanated from it, despite the fact that the sun was high in the sky. Wish I could take pictures that at night... Anyway gotta make do with these:

Headed back to Rochester proper after this, and headed into town, which really takes its celebrations seriously. There was confetti all over, a big band playing music, and heaps of people dressed up old-fashion-like parading down the streets and posing for pictures. There were banners everywhere and flags and lights and tons of people milling around. And it wasn't even Chinese New Year or Christmas. We headed to the house Dickens implemented into his novel as Satis House, which I've always imagined to be grander than what it actually looked like. Sometimes, imagination>reality. Actually, all the time. Strolled around town some more, then headed back to the bus for Canterbury.

Come to think of it, Canterbury held no strictly-academic connotations. Strictly-academically speaking of course. There was of course the famous cathedral and the West Gate.

Canterbury is quite a scenic town- we had to snake along a shallow river infested with ducks to get to town, which is basically defined by streets bordered by double-storey houses, a cathedral and the West Gate. Had free time to explore town, where we guys decided to savour the fish & chips (learnt that salt does go with coke) and explore the cathedral. Spent most of the time at the cathedral actually-the land it occupied was huge, and only had time enough to stroll through the gardens and surrounding ruins, then walk through the church to get back to our meeting place. Took a few nice photos though:

Returned to the bus which took us to the train terminal. Apparently there was some screw-up or other which left four people without tickets, but luckily managed to procure them- what's important was that we now had about half an hour to play bridge (with Ms Chia's luggage starring as the table). The train was surprisingly (at least to me) packed, and had to chase some French buggers off of our rightful seats. Sat with Desmond, Jing Han and Daniel at the table-seats. Which, if you're getting the gist of this post, meant that we could play bridge. The train soon entered a tunnel, and soon after exited the tunnel, and just like that we were in France. Which is quite a rip-off since I expected more notice and a longer time to play bridge.

First building I noticed in France: a Carrefour. Anyway. Another bus picked us from the train station and brought us to the lovely town of Lille, which contrary to its name is quite large. Checked into the hotel (Holiday Inn! By far the best accomodation), had a nice French dinner (bread, salmon, bread, chocolate mousse, bread) and then we left to explore the town. Found this small anphitheatre where we fooled around and I almost killed Warran (operative word being almost), then strolled through and around town. Most of the shops were closed or closing, but it was peaceful to walk around. As usual, Warran was just looking for a club. Met Ms Chia, then left her so we could return late. Nothing much to do, so decided to meet in the lobby to-yes-play bridge. However when the three of us (Warran Mark and me) reached our room, we all fell asleep immediately. I didn't even remove my shoes, my legs were half off the bed when I woke up (late, as you shall find out in the next post). (The next post probably being after the mid-years)

ps-If you're wondering why I take 2h to write one post, it's cos I multitask. For example, I played F.E.A.R. and CNC3 and surfed the net. Anyway off I go to YaKun for breakfast and VJ for studying and VS for bridge later on.

pps- This is probably the most times the word bridge has appeared in a post.