Paris Hitch 2008

I've just spent 36 hours hitch-hiking to Paris, eaten an average bowl of chips and then caught a 12 hour coach back to Bath. Tomorrow morning I need to be at a venue in Cardiff to start work at 6am. I'm off to sleep very soon...but here's a quick update as to why I suddenly disappeared off the face of the planet a couple of days ago.


_{The secret to hitching? Smiley faces and the word 'CHARITY'}

I was on the phone to Lucie at 11.30pm on Thursday night, having just had what I thought was an exciting adventure with a fire alarm in Asda. I thought I'd been fun and impulsive suggesting we follow a BMW leaving the Asda car park to see if they were going to another supermarket (they were).

More fun, and more impulsive, and more exciting, was finding out that her partner for the Bath University Paris Hitch had let her down and that she needed someone male to travel with. After checking I met the strict criteria it was a very early morning train to Bath for me on Friday morning, after a late late night staying up making sure that Work wouldn't fall apart without me for a day.

A million health and safety briefings at Bath later, and it was time to start hitch-hiking. Finding a lift to the M4 was no problem and a couple of cars and a lovely lorry-ride later, we were at Newbury Services. Stepping out of our ride to Newbury Services, we were accosted by a gentleman who saw our sign and offered us a ride to Reading Services. 4 seconds from leaving one ride to getting another - that has to be some kind of record. Pity it was just back to Reading, which I'd left at 7am to get to Bath...


_{I had to point out the problem with Lucie's original idea to get us on the M25 going anticlockwise}

An unplanned trip to Heathrow followed (to the chap from Roadway to Runway: 'No, the M4 is *not a dual carriageway with a nice lay-by, and no we can't just "run across it". Also, screw you for dropping us at Heathrow) which did rather put us out a bit. Once the police had moved us along from the terminals, it was a long long walk around London in the rain before a charitable cabbie got us back on track - all for free.


_{Dover really was quite cold}

A Polish lorry driver took us down to Dover (letting us off in the middle of the docks, in an area security were very unhappy to see us in) where we ended up spending the night. People aren't too happy to pick hitchers up at midnight in the dark and cold I'm afraid to say.


_{On the ferry, our 'destination whiteboard' also served well for Pictionary}

After a cheap night in the Eastcliff Hotel (possibly the worst establishment on this island), we managed to get through to Calais the next morning, which is a complete and utter dump. We eventually arrived at Paris around 8.30pm - just in time to walk through some increasingly disturbing ghettos before finding our Hostel. Then, after the aforementioned plate of chips, it was a coach ride all the way back again.


_{I wasn't the only tired one on the coach ride back. Aren't they cute?}

Bed for me now.
Xx