Copenhagen

Day 17: Thursday, May 29

Morning time found us in Copenhagen, where we managed to find Dad and Aubrey again. Dad went to pick up Mom at the airport, and the other kids and I went to seek out the Tycho Brahe planetarium.

Back story: this semester I took an astronomy class where we learned about the astronomer Tycho Brahe, and one day when we had a substitute a kid announced that he had a mission call to Denmark. The substitute was really excited and said he should be sure to find the bust of Tycho Brahe in Copenhagen. Now hold on, I thought to myself. You are going to Copenhagen in a couple of months. You can find that bust.

Spoiler alert: the bust of Tycho Brahe is not at the Tycho Brahe planetarium. But stay tuned.

Once we had Mom we hemmed and hawed about what to do and finally settled on a hop-on hop-off bus tour, which was a good investment. There were several options on which tour to take but one of the drivers said I was beautiful and gave us all a discount for being beautiful so we chose that one. On the way I snapped a picture of a charming street on a canal and later bought a postcard of that exact picture, so that was pretty gratifying, like Yeah I know when I’m by a significant tourist site. On the hop-off part of the bus ride we stopped by a neat spirally church with a beautiful interior and the most ornate organ I’ve ever seen in my life. They also made a six-minute stop to The Little Mermaid statue, which is brilliant because who wants to stay there for an hour, and yet people like me do want to get a picture with the statue. Again, I’m not entirely sure why we tourists insist on taking pictures with specific statues, and yet we still do it. We made our final hop-off and found a cool round tower that used to be—you guessed it—a planetarium. Well maybe you guessed it. I probably wouldn't have.

But I bet you can guess what is at the foot of the round tower. Well, let’s just say I have a picture of me and Tycho to hang on the fridge now! Seriously, finding that statue was one of the most exciting moments of the day, but that just means that the day as a whole was really exciting.

View from the top of the Round Tower

One of the other most exciting moments of the day was finding the Church of Our Lady, wherein stands the original Christus statue that the LDS church loves as a good depiction of Christ. You can see it in the Salt Lake visitor’s center and about 13 other places around the world, but the original is in Copenhagen. That was seriously awesome. The church it stands it is beautiful, too, with statues of the apostles lining the walls. When President Kimball visited Copenhagen he saw that church and the statue of the prophet Peter holding the keys of the priesthood, he stood in front of the statue and said, “Now I hold the keys.” I am such a fan of beautiful Scandinavian churches.

Exciting moment #3 was the really super delicious kebabs and shawarma and pita and tibbouleh we had for dinner. Mmmmm. We sat on a nice little shopping street in the most pleasant weather and considered ourselves lucky to be together in such a lovely city.

We then had a lovely but exhausting walk around more of the city (including a street performer that reprised two of the songs sung by the Brussels Sprouts earlier in our trip)(Space Jam is following us) and went back to our hotel.

Day 18: Friday, May 30

Friday was Danish castle day. First, after a car rental/GPS fiasco we headed to Frederiksborg Castle and toured the really impressive national museum there. As we walked around we would claim rooms that we would live in, “this one is my room!” “but I like that room!”, etc. Our main goal in heading here was to see the room (the King’s Oratory) that holds all 23 of Carl Bloch’s original “Life of Christ” paintings, which was the coolest thing ever. We chatted with a friendly museum worker:

Us: So are these the real originals?

Him: Yes! Are you Mormons?

Yep, we Mormons really love Carl Bloch. Seriously though (I know I say that a lot but I am dead serious), Denmark might be my favorite place on this trip so far; it was so cool to see those beautiful paintings where they were meant to be. The King’s oratory is just off of this beautiful chapel within the castle, with murals of prophets along the columns and beautifully ornate architecture. Everyone else was surprised to see the paintings in this tiny little room next door and when my mom retells the story she makes it sound like we had no idea where we going, but I would like it said once and for all that I knew they were there the whole time.

After wandering through the castle and lunch (more Mediterranean food, mmmm delicious), we stopped by a cute little souvenir shop with fairly good prices; I got a pair of knitted socks to add to my collection of wearable souvenirs, and we headed to Kronberg Castle. This is the basis of the fictional Elsinore, where William Shakespeare set his famous play “Hamlet.”

So much potential for puns.

The grounds were beautiful and we wanted to go inside to tour this one as well; not to be. It was 3:30 and the place closes at 4 and they’re not allowed to give out tickets so close to closing. Pretty disappointing for us; seems like there’s something rotten in the state of Denmark. (hahahaha seriously I crack myself up). We also might have gotten a parking ticket (since we couldn’t read Danish we decided to ignore it)(what nice law-abiding citizens we are)(we haven’t gotten any angry phone calls so guess it wasn’t a ticket) and got some ice cream on the way back to Copenhagen proper.

To be, or not to be?

This time instead of going back to the hotel we headed straight to the airport to fly to Stockholm. One more Scandinavian capital to check off the list! We arrived fairly late Friday night, got a rental car, and drove to our hotel, which was comfortable.

How could I resist posing with these guys in the Copenhagen airport.

Since coming home people have asked me what my favorite place on the trip was, and I always have to answer Denmark! It was so clean and cheerful and well put-together, and the sites we saw were some of the ones at the top of my bucket list. I can’t complain about anything there, except maybe the incredible number of cyclists getting the way of driving.

Prague and Berlin

Day 15: Tuesday, May 27

Morning view of Prague

Prague is beautiful. It might be my new favorite city; at least it was on Tuesday. The buildings are old and impressive, and I love the narrow cobblestone streets. It has some interesting history in World War II; it was occupied by the Nazis but it was one of Hitler’s favorite cities so it hardly got bombed at all and most of the old buildings are well preserved. Haha funny story that might not be true: On top of some cool building that is now the home of the Prague Symphony there are about 8 statues of famous composers. The Nazis found out that Mendelssohn, one of the statues, was Jewish, so of course they had to take the statue down. The two guys who were sent to do the deed got to the roof, looked at each other and said, “Do you know what Mendelssohn looks like?” and instead of asking somebody who would actually know, they decided that they would figure out who he was by measuring each statue’s nose and finding the largest one. It wasn’t Mendelssohn; it was Wagner, Hitler’s favorite composer. Those guys probably didn’t make it very far in Nazi careers.

That story comes from our cute British tour guide who looks like Amy Adams; we took a free walking tour of the city that was totally worth it. Seriously guys, I love Prague. It is super beautiful.

Old thing in the main square

Prague Castle from Charles' Bridge

After the tour was finished we wandered around the in the sunshine, and then the overcast clouds, and then the pouring rain. I really think I've never seen rain fall that hard before. We were soaked within minutes and decided to tough it out and go back to the hostel, in hindsight maybe not a great decision considering our shoes were wet for three days afterwards. Once we got cleaned up we headed back out to send some postcards, eat dinner (a pretty delicious Asian buffet), and go to a concert.

Man, are we classy people. We went to a really wonderful classical concert with a very talented organ and string quartet. They played some Mozart, Pachelbel, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and more in a beautiful concert hall (I think it was actually a church) with painted ceilings and ornate carvings. Apparently Mozart himself performed there, which is pretty darn awesome. See, classy. :)

Then we went on a lovely walk around Prague Castle, which is the oldest biggest castle complex in Europe or the world or something. We got some nice panorama pictures of the city, photobombed some people’s wedding pictures, and went back to our hotel to chill out on the computer. I expected to have greater problems with internet access while traveling. Nope, it’s pretty available.

Cathedral in Castle complex

Day 16: Wednesday, May 28

This time we made sure to check the train times to Berlin in order to make the earliest one possible; they leave every two hours at 8:30, 10:30, etc. We wake up at 8:45. At 10:05 we get in a taxi to go the train station. Traffic is bad. We get to the station at 10:35. I’m telling you, this is a theme.

Then we have a rather uneventful 5 hour (well it was supposed to be 5 hours) train ride to Berlin. The train goes through Munich; it took 7 hours to go from Munich to Prague, and 2 ½ hours to go from Prague to Munich. We are mildly disgruntled.

We get to Berlin at about 6pm. We need to catch a night train to Copenhagen at about 12:30am, so we have six hours to see all of Berlin in the pouring rain. Unfortunately we had to be selective about which sites we would see: the giant Parliament building, the Branderburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, and a freaking awesome Blue Man Group concert. Yeah you heard that right. We talked to a tourist information place that sells event tickets and found out that a concert was going on at 9pm that we could totally go to. It was so cool! Way better than obscure German band last week. Also much more expensive. But totally worth it. How many people can say they went to a Blue Man Group concert in Berlin? Probably all of the people who have seen a Blue Man Group concert in Berlin.

Brandemburg Gate

Checkpoint Charlie (and McDonald's!)

Blue Man Group!

We also stopped by the fanciest McDonald’s I’ve ever seen and got some really delicious hot chocolate. Seriously, I felt underdressed in a McDonald’s.

Then we hung out in a cold train station (also a really awesome train station, seriously Berlin Hbf looks like Hogwarts)(except in modern train station form) for two hours since our night train to Copenhagen was late, and managed to get on the train on time in the right cabin. I actually really like night trains, I think they’re super exciting. It always feels like there’s going to be a murder or something. (Rereading that I realize it sounds really macabre but it’s supposed to be an Agatha Christie reference.)

Germany

Day 9: May 21, Cologne

At some point we got on the train to Cologne and rode through the scenic Belgian countryside. In Cologne in the shadow of the giant cathedral that we didn't know was called The Dome (it doesn't even have a dome, seriously) we had another embarrassing interaction with some innocent German passerby (wo ist die Dom? Umm it’s right there.) and finally figured out that we were in fact looking for a giant cathedral to meet up with my friend from high school, Laura. She is Romanian/German and is going to medical school at Cologne University so we set up to meet with her and stay with her relatives.

Boy was it nice to have someone to guide us around! We went back to her apartment and made real food for dinner, and we went to a free rock concert at the university with some of her friends. It was pretty fun, I guess; the band was pretty good, I liked a few of their songs at least and for a first real rock concert for me it was an interesting experience. I hope I don’t get lung cancer.

Then we went back to the house we were staying at; the guest house in the backyard of Laura’s fourth cousins, literally. They were very nice and I wished I spoke much more German than I do, especially since the grandfather completely refuses to speak English since “If they come to my country they should learn to speak my language!”

Day 10: Thursday May 22, Cologne

We started out the morning by sleeping later than we meant to, eating some of our hosts’ organic milk and delicious muesli, and heading to the Neumarkt to meet up with the stop on a hop-on hop-off bus tour. There was some confusion on where the stop was and we tried to ask a blind lady for help reading our map (yes that was as awkward as it sounds), but somehow we got onto a bus with an enthusiastic tour guide and we got a nice ride around Cologne. We hopped off at some point and looked at a cool cathedral, St Gereon’s, which was really beautiful. I wished I would have had some sort of guide to tell me about it. We wandered around a bit looking for a place to buy a SIM card for a phone so that we could have a way of communication, but to no avail. At least I got to practice my limited German, which was fun, except I can never remember if “welche” means which or how so that was confusing. Then we hopped back on the bus and made our way to the giant cathedral to actually look at it this time, not just wonder about it.

This is the bus tour's idea of a warning sign.

For old times’ sake we climbed all 500+ steps of the Dome, took a few pictures to say we’d been there, and tried not to get dizzy on the way down. Seriously those steps are really windy. Haha that looks like windy like the wind, but I mean windy like a spiral. It was windy too, and the street performer on a 15-ft unicycle outside couldn’t get his torches to light in order to juggle them while they were on fire. It was really embarrassing for everybody.

Then we had some traditional German food for lunch and went shopping with some nice German girls (although come to think of it Laura really is Romanian and Sarah is from Luxembourg)(also I got some European-style pants which I think are the coolest thing ever)(don’t worry we found a SIM card while we were with them). We stopped by my new favorite store, Primark, which is sort of like Forever 21 except ten times cooler. I wish they would open one in Seattle, the closest one is in Boston. Eventually we got tired and went back to make dinner at Laura’s fourth cousins’ house, then watched Casablanca because none of us had seen it and Hey why not.

Day 11: Friday May 23, Trains and Worms

Friday morning we packed up, said goodbye to Laura, and went off on the train to Worms. It’s a city between Cologne and Stuttgart where the Diet of Worms happened; essentially Martin Luther’s trial where they told him to deny his work and he said, “Here I stand, I cannot deny it, God help me, Amen.” Pretty much all we knew about the town was that it had a Martin Luther monument and the potential for lots of worm-related puns. We came off of the train and started walking, hoping to run into something interesting, and lo and behold we walked right into the Luther Monument! Since that was all we came for we got some lunch and went back on the train to Munich to meet up with our dad. Without too much trouble we met him in the Munich train station, got sort of lost trying to find our hotel, and crashed for the night.

The Luther Memorial

Day 12: Saturday May 24, Berchtesgaden

Saturday morning we had breakfast at the hotel (Cam and I ate at least 4 pastries each) (you gotta do what you gotta do) and we went and picked up Aubrey at the airport. Then we drove off on our way to Berchtesgaden, sometimes called Burgersgarden (I’ve heard it both ways) to practice our yodeling in the Alps. The car GPS took us through back-roads and slightly-too-long route that was very scenic. We stopped in a tiny little town to have some traditional German lunch that included fish, farm duck, baby pig, and deer goulash. The waiter was Very German and we were glad to have my dad with us, who is fluent in Deutsch.

Then we drove on some windy roads to our little alpine hotel in Berchtesgaden, a very picturesque little German town that looked a lot like Leavenworth. Weird. (That’s funny because Leavenworth is a town in Washington that is supposed to look like a little Bavarian village.) We climbed all the way to the top of Jenner Mountain, which was really a feat for the cable car operator. Too bad it was cloudy so once you got to the top it really wasn't that exciting, just looked like gray mist. But hey, we got to sing “Climb Every Mountain” in the actual Alps, so that was probably worth the whole trip.

Then we got our heads out of the clouds and meandered around an overpriced souvenir street, got some wurst and fries for dinner (I came all the way to Germany for some hot dogs?!) and went back to the hotel to get some sleep.

The hills are alive

Me being a Bollywood star

Day 13: May 25, Four Countries in One!

Today was road trip day and traversed four countries: we started in Berchtesgaden, Germany, drove through Austria to get to Linderhof Palace and Neuschwanstein in Germany, and passed through Switzerland on the drive to Veduz, Liechtenstein, just to say we did. It was a very scenic day and I have like fifty pictures of mountains. I also have an awesome picture that was Switzerland in the foreground and Austria in the background. Yeah. You don’t see that every day.

Linderhof Palace was really cool. There was a Bavarian king in the 1870s, Mad King Ludwig, who was really obsessed with the French King Louis XIV and built some seriously expensive and ornate castles. Seriously, go look up pictures of Linderhof Palace; he used 1 kilo of gold in each room and has chandelier made of pure ivory that is so rare and valuable that they literally can’t even calculate the cost. It was crazy. We also drove by Nesuchwanstein, which Ludwig had built over 17 years, lived in for 172 days before he mysteriously died, and was only ever used to house stolen Nazi art during WWII. It’s also the inspiration for the Disney castle, apparently.

Linderhof Palace

Neuschwanstein

Then we drove to Liechtenstein, which is not nearly as exciting as I thought it would be. We walked down a touristy street with way overpriced souvenirs. They had signs in English, German, and Chinese, and I wondered where this large population of Chinese tourists was coming from that they needed those signs. Then we saw like three groups of Chinese tourists. Oh, there they are.

"Dad, get in the picture!"

"Okay."

There really wasn’t anything to see on the two streets in Liechtenstein so we got back to the car, I hopped out in Switzerland just to say I had been completely neutral for a whole minute of my life, and we were on our way back to Munich. We snuck into a fancy hotel (for real, Dad’s work reserved a two-person room for him but four of us are sleeping here tonight) (don’t tell anyone) (Cam gets the floor)

Day 14: Monday, May 26 

Monday morning Dad went to his work conference on the bottom floor of our hotel (did I mention that was the most swankified hotel I’ve ever seen?)(also I shouldn’t say “our” hotel, the room was only for two people and Cam and I were freeloaders)(it was actually really nerve-racking to sneak by the front desk people so they wouldn’t suspect we were occupying the room beyond capacity)(seriously I felt like a ninja)(where was I going with this)(oh yeah), and Aubrey, Cam, and I headed to the S-bahn to go to Dachau, a former Nazi concentration camp right outside of Munich. That was a sobering experience, and they have done a lovely job with the museum and memorials there. I highly recommend going there, or somewhere like the Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C., because I think people should have that experience. Then we had lunch at the cafeteria at the museum, which was pretty delicious. Also, make a note; it is very difficult to complain about your feet hurting when you are walking through a former concentration camp.

We got back to the fancy hotel at about 2:45. Let it be noted that both the night before and the morning of I had reminded myself that I should check what time the train to Prague leaves from Munich Hbf, and yet had failed to do so. Hoping we could leave soon, we stopped by the information desk after our morning excursion. The train guy checked his watch and said, “Not until 5.” Cool. It takes at least 6 hours to get to Prague. Guess we’re not going to Czech things out in the city until tomorrow morning (oh hoh hoh I’m hilarious)(no really I am). Also, we could have taken a train at about 1 if we hadn’t dawdled.

Spoiler alert: apparently those trains are notoriously unreliable. It took nearly 7 hours to get to Prague, and we ended up there at midnight and luckily got the last taxi at the train station and mid-voyage we were in the wrong train car and might have been left in Regensberg, Germany, wondering why the train wasn’t moving. That would have been fun.

Nevertheless we (this is just Cam and I at this point) eventually made it to Prague around midnight, found our backpacker’s hostel, bothered the other six people staying in our room, and went to sleep.

Belgium

Day 8: Tuesday May 20

Do you remember that wonderful day Cam and I had in Belgium?

I do. That was a really nice day. (Spoiler alert: it was actually today.)

Remember how we woke up in that youth hostel in Bruges and got free breakfast, and even though it was served in a smelly bar it was great cause hey, free food. Then we rented bikes and rode wherever we felt like going on the bumpy narrow streets. Remember those two cool cathedrals we stopped by, and one of them had this cool treasury of wonderful religious paintings from the 1500s and a relic of some saint's bone, or maybe it was a chicken thigh in a silver case. Who knows. And hey, remember how Cam rode his bike down a really steep hill from a windmill and it seemed like he was going to crash and die? Good times.

Then we stopped by the Market Square in Bruges and tried real French fries with curry ketchup that for some reason was just better than regular ketchup? And how we went into a chocolatier and got two pieces of chocolate each, which was the perfect treat.

#belfryselfie

Do you remember that conversation about how we should go see Michelangelo’s Madonna, one of the only pieces to leave Italy during his lifetime? We were kind of short on money and didn’t want to pay the 3 Euro fee, so we skipped it. I remember saying, “We’re going to tell people we went to Bruges, and they’re going to ask if we saw the Michelangelo Madonna, and we’re going to say No because we were too cheap.” Remember how that exact conversation happened with Aubrey three days later. Remember how this is the greatest regret of my life up until now.

Then we got on the next train to Brussels and noticed that the Turkish guy from the hostel was there too, maybe he was following us. 

Remember how we went the wrong way out of the train station and never really got oriented and so wandered around Brussels for almost an hour trying to find a place to stay for the night, and ended up walking in a rather large circle until by chance I saw a sign for the hostel? And then we went out for dinner and treated ourselves to some delicious Belgian waffles and an omelet. We must have been chowing down really hard on those waffles, because the Swiss lady sitting next to us at the café asked, "Do they not have those in your country?"

Then we wandered over to a cinema/museum place that was pretty neat and had cool exhibits on the evolution of film. Remember how we sat and watched a silent documentary about the migration of the Forgotten people, complete with a live pianist who could only play eerie music in minor keys even when there was a cute little puppy on screen? I remember that.

Remember how we inadvertently joined a Belgian swing band? We were walking out of the movie theater and there were some 20-something-year-olds carrying music cases and singing as they walked, so we started up a conversation and found out they were about to play a show in the building next door. They said they were going to rehearse/street perform before the show started, so we followed them and sat on the steps of the Royal Library overlooking the rest of Brussels and listened to a band perform obscure French swing music and Space Jam. Cam convinced me to go to their concert so we ended up becoming spontaneous groupies to the debut performance of The Brussels Sprouts. When they asked for suggestions Cam asked if they knew Start Wearing Purple by Gogol Bordello--and proceeded to play it with them and sing all of the words he knew. The Brussels Sprouts and most of their actual groupies joined in at the choruses and turns out we made some cool new friends. Remember the awesome bassist who, during "I Wanna Be Like You" (yes from the Jungle Book) had a really impressive scat battle--with himself? Then we became a spontaneous missionary companionship to the Spanish guitarist and who knows, maybe someday Juan will join the church. Then a nice Belgian guy with a great voice kissed me on the cheek and we walked home in the pouring rain to the fairly comfortable hostel by Le Chapelle cathedral. Cam won 2048 and almost got 4096 (so close, why don't they have an undo button?!) and finally, after a long day, we went to bed wondering if all of this had just really happened. 

Yes, I remember that day. That was a really good day.

Day 9: Wednesday May 21, Brussels

This was a really lovely day. We started off in the morning by going to the Jeu De Balle flea market, which my mother used to go to and find hidden treasures when she lived in Belgium twenty years ago. Hidden treasures are still there to be found, although I think you have to do a lot of looking. It was essentially a giant garage sale which included all of the things you find at regular garage sales, like pretty dishes you don’t need, old shoes, and a box full of individual cuff links, none of which have a pair. I bought a pretty silver ring and we moved on from wandering aimlessly through the market to wandering aimlessly through the rest of Brussels.

It’s a lovely city. We didn't have much of an agenda (hence the wandering aimlessly) and just found some cool things on a free map we got from the hostel; pretty cathedrals, a giant theater, and the famed Mannekin Pis statue of a boy peeing. The most significant thing about the statue was the people taking pictures of it, not the statue itself. Oh and there was a really delicious Belgian waffle place next door. We also went out for Chinese food and I had an embarrassing interaction with the cashier that involved French, English, and Chinese, apparently none of which I speak very well.

I have a very good impression of Brussels. It would have been nice to speak French or Dutch but we got along just fine and found that people in general were very nice and helpful. We got on the train to Cologne and left wishing we could have spent more time in Belgium.

From London to Bruges

Day 6 and 7: May 18 and 19

One of my favorite Bollywood movies is about a girl who misses a train.
 
She meets a nice guy who's a little bit suicidal and is actually a billionaire, and when she tries to help him she ends up missing her train, and so he ends up having to help her get the train but then she misses it again, and then her family think's she eloped with him but actually she meant to elope with Anshuman, and in the end Anshuman is a jerk and the billionaire nice guy ends up being her true love.
 
I'm not sure what I expected to happen when we missed our bus to Dover, but deep inside it was that scenario.
 
What actually happened, however, is that we met up with Cam's friends from his mission, the Powells. They were very nice. We met them at church, made a complicated plan for us to go back to our respective accommodations, and meet up again for lunch, even though traffic was bad and we were short on time and the District subway line was down (which was the root of our problems, really). Our bus left at 1:30.
 
12:55 I ask for the check even though I wanted it five minutes ago.
1:05 we finally get out the door of the French creperie, take pictures with the Powells, and book it across the street to the tube station. Have a confusing conversation with the ticket guy about our Oyster cards.
1:15 we finally get on a tube towards Victoria station, but we still have three stops to go and a transfer.
about 1:28, we arrive at the Victoria underground station, we ask somebody where Victoria Coach station is, not the same as Victoria Rail or Victoria Underground stations. He says it is to the left and two blocks down. (I have a Donna moment from "Turn Left," "That's half a mile away!!!")
We then run as fast as we can to the station (in my head I'm going "I think this is the hardest thing I've ever done")(Cam was enjoying the afternoon jog)
and at 1:35
we find out the bus is already long gone.
 
What are our options? We have tickets for the ferry to Calais at 5:25. Let's take the next bus. 3:30 is full. Okay, we'll take the 4:00. We go back to the rail station and find out that we could be in Dover by 4:10 if we pay 40 pounds each. No thanks. 4:00 bus it is. It is supposed to get to Dover at 7:10. Okay fine, hope our ferry tickets will transfer. This is supposed to be an adventure, right?
 
We chat with a nice British lady on the bus down to Dover. She tell us all about how the ferry works and is very friendly over all, says that Dover should have a sign on it that says "The rest of England is not like this." The bus gets into the ferry station at 7:20.
 
The last foot-passenger-capable ferry left at 7:15. 
 
What are our options? Hitchhike across the Channel. Get a ride with a lorry driver going on the freight ferry. Stowaway. Get a hotel down the street. "You can stay here all night if you like," a sympathetic bus driver says of the ferry station, probably facetiously.
 
Further inquiries determine that the station is well-lit, has fairly comfortable benches, and is open 24/7. Door number 3 it is. Or whatever door it was. 
 
It was kind of cold, rather uncomfortable and our lowest moment was asking if it would be tasty to dip the salami in the yogurt. We ended up walking into town and buying foodstuffs, discovering that: food was much cheaper in Dover than London, 5 pounds goes a long way, and flirting with the Sri Lankan cashier probably wasn't going to get us some sliced cheese for free. I used my souvenir scarves as blankets and Cam fashioned a pillow out of a messenger bag and some dirty laundry. In the morning we met another guy who had stayed there all night; Martin from the Netherlands. The ticket office opened at about 7:15, and we were able to transfer our tickets to the 8:25 ferry.
 
And that, my friends, is the story of how we missed a bus, stayed overnight in a ferry station, made friends with a Nederlander, and ultimately did not end up married to billionaires.

Our lovely accommodation

We slept most of the ferry ride over (although of course we made sure to get pictures of the white cliffs of Dover) and ended up in Calais with about fifteen words of French between us and much gratitude for Ellyn From the Past who brought a multi-lingual phrase book. “Pour alleh a la gare?” and some sign language got us to the train station, where we waved to Martin again. We had to get some French fries for lunch, of course (although come to think of it we forgot to get fish and chips in London), and we figured out how to get to Bruges by train, stopping in Lille, France on the way. In Bruges we once again had to figure out how to get to our accommodation, the Snuffel Backpacker’s Hostel (which I recommend for price and comfort, though not for the smell of the bar)(if you like the smell of bars then I say go for it), but the stars aligned (or we knew how to read bus maps) and we arrived without too much difficulty. We both finally got our showers and strolled around a bit in the evening to get an idea of Bruges, then finally collapsed in our bunk beds, exhausted.

The Cliffs of Dover

Calais

Bruges in the evening