Day 27: Amsterdam to London via Bruges

Brugge
see all photos »

A quite unpleasant wake up at 6:30. A short sleep plus a beer and hash hangover leaves me with a small amount of brain function. I manage to get my stuff packed but the shower is skipped. I stumble down to breakfast and eat some biscuits and jam. Why does everyone keep asking how I’m feeling this morning? What do you think? Terry is still occasionally bursting into a giggle fit – his baking must have been good too.

We haul our stuff to the bus and settle in for one last trip. The usual zzzz until our rest stop where PJ leaves us to head off in another direction. We say our goodbyes and pick up a new driver as well as a couple of other stray TopDeck crew who are hitching a ride with us back to London.

Tori tells us all this has been the best tour ever – yeah, sure Tori ;)

Brugge
see all photos »

We get to Bruges, Belgium around 11:30. Tori walks us into the main square and then turns us loose to find somewhere to have lunch. The restaurants in the square seem really expensive so we head off down the street in search of somewhere a bit cheaper.  Along the way we run in Stacie who is of course power shopping. Not finding much for cheap but decent food, we stop at small place that has waffles, which Jeff and I are looking for. We each order a waffle with chocolate and ice cream, while Ting opts for real food and gets a pasta dish. Pish. The waffles are delicious – yay Belgium! We are all getting quite low on Euros but we get enough cash together to pay.

We stop in to check out the Tin-Tin store on the way back…Ting finds some neat stuff but doesn’t buy anything. Jeff spots some people setting up around a Coke vehicle and speculates that there may an opportunity for free pop in the near future, so we loiter across the street for a couple minutes and sure enough, manage to be one of the first people to get our free Coke. Free stuff is awesome.

Back on the bus, Tori hands out the trip “awards” – a paper doily for everyone! I am the lucky recipient of the “Silent Space Bob” award for yesterday evening. Jeff and Ting are recognized for their Queen singing and unique bus sleeping style, respectively. Best award – Michelle gets the “Hoover” award for her performance at the sex show two nights previous. (she was quite into the dildo the male stripper had). Ouch – these crew are cruel!

We get to Calais early enough to make the 3:45 ferry to England. There is a bit of a line up in the passport office due to the terrorist crap going on, but nothing too unbearable.  We are saying farewell to the bus for good so absolutely everything gets offloaded and put onto the boat. We also say our farewells to Ben as he is not coming across with us. Once on the ferry, our group quickly finds and takes over an entire seating lounge, where everyone finds a good spot to chillax for the trip. Nothing too exciting going on with this group today. I buy a newspaper and read up on what exactly is going on with the terror plot. Sounds like we will have a fun day at the airport tomorrow.

Once across, we get on a new bus for the last leg of our trip back to the Globetrotter in London. We arrive just before 7 UK time. A LONG day of traveling. Tori tells us all this has been the best tour ever – yeah, sure Tori ;), and encourages everybody to come into the Globetrotter for a drink or some dinner before splitting off.  A lot of people are checking in for the night along with us, while others are catching buses, cabs or trains elsewhere. We check into our room – someone else’s stuff is in there but no sign of the roommate. We head down to the bar and order some food and drink…I get the fish and chips and wish I had got the burger instead. It looks awesome and the fish are incredibly overbattered. Oh well.

A few hugs and handshakes are exchanged as people begin to depart.  Ting says we should check that our flight is still on, so we try unsuccessfully to call British Airways…the number on our e-ticket is wrong and when we get the right one, it tells me to call back during regular hours. Grr. I hop onto the internet and check online – all seems good. I call home to let mom and dad know I’m back in London and that as far as we know, our schedule is the same, we’ll just have to get to the airport really early. Luckily our flight isn’t until 1 PM.

I head back downstairs to enjoy one last European pint of Guiness and say goodbye to a few more people, including Tori. I get some weird emotions going on – I’m happy that we’re heading home, but at the same time saying goodbye to the tour and the people on it is sad. In my weakened mental state due to fatigue, I almost tear up…almost ☺ I feel it especially saying goodbye to Liz, whom I’ve been sort of crushing on for the latter portion of the trip. Bleh, I just need to sleep…we call it in early (about 10), and set our alarms for 7:30 so as to get to Heathrow in good time. Our last night in a hostel!