To France without Mike Oldfield.

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  Saint-Malo, Brittany, France
Friday, March 6, 2009

Blogging in mid Channel... there's even a wireless network on board.
Anyway a travel day today. Awake at 5am, up at 6 and leaving the B&B
around 7am. As far as Condor is concerned I am a vehicle so its through
the lanes of vehicle loading.
The weather is absolutely fabulous; completly clear sky, bright sunshine
reflecting off the hills and a mirror like flatness to the bay.
Stunning. The photo's don't do it justice.
Yesterday on VC radio someone played an earworm; "We can dance if we
want to, we can leave this world behind". It's been buzzing through my
head ever since. I have a sick love of this track and haven't heard it
in ages.
The "Vomit Express" is a large wave piercing catamaran; being wide and
flat it has a reputation for movement but on a flat sea its
fine. You sometimes you see a sign which causes concern; the content is
reasonable but spending money on the sign implies its not a trivial
issue. Well this ferry has a sign on the toilet doors about 1 meter
tall; "Please vomit in the sick bags and not in the toilets for the
convenience of other passengers"
Anyway we get under way and an hour later it clouds over; there's a bank
of cloud several miles away on the right with a tornado half way along.
The ferry picks up a fair bit of roll but its fine. The prices on this
beast are marginally lower than cross channel ferries but its not going
to cancel 3rd world debt. Thirty minutes later we're passing a small
islet with a lighthouse and a much larger island beyond it. My guess is
that these are the first channel islands.
More land ahead. As always a dirty smudge on the horizon is France!
We arrive in Guernsey; its a small port with a tight entrance which the
captain reverses into. It looks quite pretty and is clustered round the
port. There's a great castle on the way in too. The cars have five
number registration plates! Then on to another channel island... then to
France.
And its surprisingly great; the tourist information supplies a list of
accommodation for the area, posts a weather forecast and knows the
season of a local ferry. I expected this to be some faff and it was easy.
The hostel is easily found and after some fumbling basic French they are
very helpful, the hostel is a big complex with a bar, apartments and
decent facilities. It appears to house rooms to rent, a guesthouse as
well as a hostel, I'm surprised that St Malo is big enough to support
it. It allegedly has free wireless / internet too but I can't get it to
work.
France is still a shock; everything has to be worked out; changes too
the supermarket is open on Sunday morning. The hostel seems to be
popular with single parents; french is spoken everywhere and there are
very few backpacker type tourists. Also for the first time I'm sharing a
room. The abroad mobile has been set up and the number texted. Strangely
it doesn't work with my parents landline although it works with my
sisters. Maybe a fault.
Accommodation for the next two stops looks sorted too. And I've decided
that its more important to be happy on the road than to travel fast;
this means not leaving places until I'm ready so the schedule might work
out differently. C'est la vie

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