After arriving in Dover, the next thing was to find
the ferry and to get food. We were both really hungry and needed coffee but David was especially hungry. We stopped at a market but they only had fruit and veggies- not really what we were looking for. I thought it would be better to find the ferry to make sure we were checked in and on time. We found the dock and asked to check in. Turns out there is a special place to take bikes and it happens to be with every truck and car that also needs to go on the ferry. Let me tell you it was ridiculous. I cant even believe they would send people on bikes down below to where the semis and cars get onto the ferries. It wasn’t particularly safe (not that anything we do is really safe) but it was just dumb. I don’t know how else to describe it. The receptionist who told us to follow the red line down to the area where bikes go but didn’t say anything about getting on the ferry or how busy and congested it would be. In my head I imagined us walking our bikes onto a moderately sized ferry not have to deal with too much… definitely not storing our bikes with the rest of the cars and cargo that were going to France. 
David, at this point, was getting pissed. I felt bad because I said we should wait to eat. I thought we would be able to check in and then get food real fast but we went straight for the boat. I had to handle talking to a couple security and ferry people because I knew he was so mad.. I didn’t want to not be able to get onto the ferry because one of us was short with someone. I think there could be a better way to deal with taking bikes on the ferry and I think I will perhaps write to the ferry company to complain.A switch of perspective:
It is true; I was upset. However, we did eventually board the ferry without having an incident where I exploded at a ferry worker. Alyssa, although she witnessed all of it, somehow managed to downplay my anger in her account. She got the source right though, nearly none of the ferry workers knew what was going on, the ones who knew were useless as they didn’t explain the ridiculousness upon which they were sending us, and I was hungry. On the ferry things were much better. We took pictures, I napped, and Alyssa wrote the blog. Then we arrived in Boulogne; the trip took about one hour, but it seemed to transport us to an entirely different climate. It was sunny and hot in Boulogne. Our experiences with it were brief as we left quickly to find internet which was at a McDonalds which took us out of town. I think that the tourist information people did that on purpose….. Anyway we decided to camp that night for the first time and set off to find some woods. After getting lost we found, instead of a woods, a large, large hill. Needless to say, we had to push our bikes up it. Later we found that this hill was marked on our map and it was a 13% grade. At the top we did find a small church and discussed - not for the first time either - the fact that so much of what we’re seeing is familiar to us. We’ve both had a slight feeling of déjà vu with so much of what we’ve seen…
Another switch of perspective:
The 13% percent grade hill was even taller than the one in Greenwich. It was pretty bad and it took us at least half an hour to push our bikes up that hill. Like David said, we both have been noticing the feeling of déjà vu. In London, after we crossed the Tower Bridge, there was a court yard area next to the river at the bottom of the Tower of London that I definitely remember seeing in a dream. I even remember the cannons that were facing the river. Very weird. Also, at Victor and Monika’s house, in the bathroom there was a photograph of a cat above the toilet that seemed very familiar to me as well as the room we were staying in. The church at the top of the hill in France also seemed eerily familiar to me. It was higher up than we were on the road and there was a graveyard between the road and the church going further up the hill. I remember in my dream seeing it and looking down the road and then across the way to the open French country side. On our way to that hill we also stopped at this little stream area that had houses by it that seemed very familiar. There have been many instances like this and its just weird. I’m not sure what to make of it. I don’t exactly think of déjà vu as a thing where I’m in the right place at the right time. Its more of an eerie feeling I suppose.
After riding downhill for awhile we finally found somewhere to camp that was off of a horse trail. It was getting dark and we had to finish setting up our little camp site in the dark. We went to bed at 9:30 because it was so dark and there was nothing else to do but sleep… and David lost the light in our tent.
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