Instead of being bored in Jersey why not go visit Saint-Malo? That is what I have told myself since I have been in Jersey. I would have liked to write about how I loved the city and its little streets but this post will be about something else instead.
I should have been travelling back to Jersey on Sunday around the end of the afternoon but once I got to the ferry terminal for my check-in I learned that the departure time for the ferry had been pushed earlier because of the weather.
- Hello, I am going to Jersey.
- The ferry left at 3 PM sir.
- 3 PM? It was supposed to leave at 5:30 PM.
- Yes but the departure time was moved because of bad weather.
- And you guys don’t warn people?
- We did call you but didn’t reach you on Saturday.
- On which number.
- +44xxxxxxxxxx
- You have the right phone number but the battery on my phone was dead.
- We also sent you an email.
- I doubt that, I quickly checked my email yesterday evening and didn’t see anything.
- I assure you that a mail has been sent.
- Can I use one of your computers to check my mails?
- Here.
- There is indeed an email from your company but why was it sent on Sunday morning? 5 hours before the new departure time doesn’t leave time to get organized for someone who is not from around here.
- The email is only being sent when we can’t reach a person on the phone.
- That makes no sense, sending an email doesn’t cost anything.
- ...
- I suppose that this sort of things happen often, what is your course of action in those cases?
- There is none.
- I have to be at work tomorrow morning.
- You can catch the plane flying from Dinard tomorrow morning, you will be in Jersey at 1 PM.
- I guess there are no earlier flights.
- No.
- Is your company paying for the plane ticket?
- No, you have to pay for it.
- At what time does the ferry get to Jersey tomorrow?
- 2:15 PM.
- This means that I have lost a day of work, thank you very much.
- ...
- How does this work? Are you in charge of finding me a hotel for the night?
- No, you have to do that.
- Will your company pay for the bill?
- No, you have to pay for it.
- Well that is nice, I miss my ferry thanks to you and I have to pay for my hotel.
- You couldn’t be reached there is nothing more we could do.
- I don’t know, maybe sending an email as soon as you know the ferry time will be moved wouldn’t be a bad idea instead of sending it 5 hours before the departure time.
- Do you want to see the manager?
- No, I don’t want to fight with someone who will tell me that there is nothing he can do. I will find a hotel, send you the bill and your company will see what happens if they don’t want to pay for it.
- Take care.
I went back to the ferry terminal the next day and checked in. I then headed to the customs booth and gave my passport to the agent. He looked at my passport, put it in the reading machine, took it out, looked at it again and showed it to his colleague.
- Do you have another means of identification sir? Like a driving licence for example?
- No I don’t drive.
He looked at my passport again.
- I have been travelling for ten years with this passport, I can assure you that it is legit.
- It is weird the machine can’t read it.
- It happens from time to time but I have a ferry to catch.
- Alright, safe trip.
- Thanks.
I took my passport and went to the waiting room but before I got there one guy stepped in front of me and showed me the infrared machine. No other travellers had to go through it I was the lucky guy of the day, this is what we French call “to fit the part”. I put my bags on the conveyor belt and went through the gate. On the other side I was not surprised when the guy asked to look at my backpack as if toiletries, a multimedia hard drive and some comics could be dangerous. It had been a while since this kind of thing had happened to me...
I was in Jersey 1 hour and thirty minutes later and I went through the customs again. This time it was the same thing. The agent looked at my passport, put it in the machine, looked at it again and called a colleague so that he looked at it. He said to me:
- Do you speak English?
- Course I do.
He kept looking at my passport.
- I assure you this passport is valid, it is not the first time I have been on the island.
- How long are you staying on the island?
- 4 days.
- Where are you staying.
- In a hotel in the city.
- Do you have something to prove that?
- Listen, the last thing I want is to stay on this island. I am only here for 4 days.
- I hear you sir but I have to find out why you are here.
- I am working for a telecom company.
- Ah yes? And what are you doing there?
- That is none of your business.
- Do you have another means of identification sir?
- No I don’t drive.
- Don’t you have a business card with your name on it?
- My name is right there on the passport with my face on it, there was no problem with my passport at the airport when I got to the island a few days ago and I am late for work.
- I am here to check whether you can enter our country or not so do as I ask.
- I don’t have a business card.
- Could you fill this form for me sir?
- What a waste of time!
I start filling the form.
- Could you fill it over there?
I look around and there is no one in the room except me and the customs agents.
- There is no one in the room.
- Fill the form over there sir!
- I am in nobody’s way.
- I have to speak with my colleague.
I moved away from the customs booth to fill the form and brought it back. The two agents started comparing what I wrote on the form with what was on my passport. It was pathetic.
- I will need another means of identification sir.
- So what was the form for?
- Do you have a credit card?
- I have 3 where you will find the name that is on my passport.
The guy took the 3 cards, my passport and left. I stayed with the first agent who kept looking at the form. I took my phone out and started calling the colleague waiting for me.
- You can’t call sir?
- People are actually waiting for me at work so I have to warn them.
I explained to my colleague that I was still at the customs and I didn’t know when I would get to work. I third agent came while I was on the phone, I was very popular.
- Can you give the name of someone I can contact where you work.
I reached for my phone, dialled the colleague and handed the phone to the third agent.
- You can talk to him right now.
The agent took the phone but instead of starting talking he just wrote the name appearing on the screen and the phone number. He was probably thinking that I only needed 2 seconds to create a fake Jersey phone number with a real person on the line. I took the phone.
- The customs agent asked me about you but he doesn’t want to talk to you, he will probably try to reach you through the main office.
- Seriously?
- I kid you not. Sorry for the wasted time, I will work from my hotel. I will let you know when they release me.
- Do you want me to come and show them my badge?
- No don’t waste your time, it really isn't worth it.
I hung up and started talking to the two customs agent.
- Do you know that it is not the first time that I come to the island? I don’t know why there is no problem with my passport at the airport but there always is a problem when I come with the ferry.
- I don’t know what to say about that.
- You don’t say! How do you explain that your colleagues at the airport don’t have a problem with my passport when you do? Is the passport database they use different than the one you guys use?
- ...
- The worst thing here is that I really hate coming to this island.
The guy who took off with my passport came back.
- We are terribly sorry for the delay sir, you may enter the country.
I took my passport, my credit cards and didn’t even look any of them in the eye when I left.
I almost came back to ask for their name but what good would it do? I think that I shouldn’t let people who are not worth it ruin moments of my life just because they can. By pressing charges I would I kept that story with me for quite a while, today I move on.
La suite!
A few days ago I went to spend the day in Liverpool home of the Beatles and I was not disappointed.
Liverpool is only 3 hours from the Isle of Man with the ferry. I was quite shocked when I got into the ferry because it was packed. I don’t know why but I expected the boat to be almost empty, I guess most people use the ferry because it is the cheapest way to reach the mainland. As the boat was approaching its destination, the view on the nice little houses of New Brighton on the right of the boat was a great contrast with the view of the harbour of Liverpool on the right of the boat. The ferry docked next to the Crown Princess, I didn't expect to see a cruise ship in this part of the world. I quick look on the internet taught me that the ship was on its way to New-York and would be making some stops in Iceland and Greenland. 17 days on a cold sea that is what I call having fun, I thought cruise ships were only cruising hot sees. The visit began once I exited the ferry.
I did absolutely no research about the city before going there. I like to get somewhere and find my way, I may not see all the important places of the city but I will get a different experience of the city. I asked in the ferry if they had a map of the city but they did not. When we disembarked we found ourselves in front of huge ancient buildings, on the right there was a huge plaza with a brand new building: the Museum of Liverpool. I was where the docks used to be, many had been destroyed, some had been turned into bars, restaurants, shops or hotels. What once was a completely abandoned area had become quite alive, there were terraces everywhere and a shopping centre as large as a neighbourhood was located nearby. It is not the kind this is inside a huge bulding, this one only had 1 or 2 levels arranged along large pedestrian streets. I am not at all a fan of this kind of place, I find shopping as interesting as soccer or cars but I think this place would amaze any shopper. You could find all the international brands as well as the local ones that I do not know, the streets were packed with people. I made the effort to go into some stores to try and find some pants I might like (it is not simple) and which are my size (it is even less simple). It is not easy to find something to wear when you're tall and slim, it seems that in “prêt a porter” thin people are short and tall people are large. As I didn’t expect to find something I didn't linger and went out of the shopping area.
It was nice to be back in a city, the Isle of Man is like a village for me. I spent most of time walking in the streets. I came across a building called Grand Central, you could tell it was not your ordinary place just by looking at the front. I could see that the front doors were open I as came closer so I decided to go inside and discovered a really special place. There were a lot of small shops everywhere: clothes, vinyls, piercing, jewels… Everything that was sold there had absolutely nothing to do with what was sold in the shopping center, this reminded me that English people don’t like dressing like everybody else. The building architecture was in complete sync with what was sold inside.
I walked through the streets of the wealthy part of the city where houses have large windows and where there often is a plaque on the wall, I went through places where the walls hiding the vacant lots are covered with concert posters, I made a small detour through Chinatown, I went to see the cathedral with its particular architecture, I walked a lot...
Every time I stopped somewhere I took the opportunity to watch people. It amused me to make comparisons with the countries I have visited. The first thing I noticed is that people are quite large, I might even say as large as the average American. It is not as obvious on the Isle of Man. There were so many people with red hair, blue hair, purple hair, a tattoo or a piercing. I almost felt like it was a national brand for the youth. I say youth because I have seen very few people over 30 who had that look. It was Saturday and I saw a few groups of guys already drunk at 2 PM, I guess they ended the evening in the gutter. I laughed when I saw these groups of girls who were all dressed the same way except for one or two details. I thought it must be very profitable for the brands that they buy.
I of course took my time in Liverpool to eat what we French are bereft since 1997: A whopper. As soon as my stomach began to make some noise, I headed to one of the Burger King I had seen during my walk. Important information: Burger King is the best fast food chain in the world. I ate two whoppers for lunch and one in the late afternoon while waiting for the ferry to arrive. You can not imagine the happiness I felt when I bit into my whopper, the last time I had eaten one was in Malta last October. Here is good news for French lovers of Burger King, it seems that the company has decided to return to France in 2012. The information is not 100% confirmed but it feels very good, I can already see myself eating my whopper in Paris: priceless! Once in the ferry, I slept like a log with a well-filled belly.
After that nice day I ended up having a strong pain in my left leg. It is funny, I can walk for 5 hours in the mountains of La Reunion but not in the streets of Liverpool.
La suite!
Sometimes you feel like you just ended up in another dimension. You just need to add a few events which have no meaning by themselves but that paint a strange picture once put together.
We went to Gozo for the week-end, my wife had booked an hotel in Xlendi and found a diving centre for me to go scuba diving Saturday and Sunday morning. A few hours before leaving I called the centre to get the address and the directions, I was surprised to discover that it was located in Marsalforn. We didn’t know if we would move around the island with the public transportation or with a rented car or scooter, my wife had never driven on the left side of the street (me neither) so public transportation was my favourite choice but the idea of crossing the island to go to Marsalforn forced me to change my mind. My wife was very clear when she asked for the phone number of a diving centre in Xlendi but it seems it was more interesting that I go dive in Marsalforn for the person who gave her the phone number. The renting agency I called was also located in Marsalforn but luckily for me vehicles could be delivered all over the island so I asked them to meet us at the ferry terminal.
I met my wife at the hotel after work and from there we took the 645 bus to go from Sliema to Cirkewwa where we would take the ferry. We didn’t find any place to buy our tickets before getting on the boat, a man explained to my wife that the fee would be paid on arrival on the island. Once we got there no one was there to ask us to pay anything: thanks for the free ferry! We grabbed the scooter and were on the road around 7PM, with open helmets on I couldn’t stop my eyes from crying like crazy and it was tougher and tougher to see were I was going. The crying was so much that I stopped to put my sunglasses on and also took the opportunity to put on a long-sleeved t-shirt, it would have been a shame to catch a cold in the evening and not be able to go diving in the morning. Here we were on our way to Xlendi and the road was in really bad shape and in many places there was no light on the side of the street; good thing because my scooter light was so weak that it didn’t help me at all to see the street. As if things were not easy enough for us, the road was being repaired so we had to go through smaller roads with no lights that went through the fields. We finally got to our destination, it was quite nice to get to the city in the evening, you couldn’t see the bay but you could get a nice view of water front. I was quite happy with myself because I had managed to get us there with no maps without forgetting to always drive on the left side of the street.
There was no booking in our name at the hotel, we had to get it back from hotels.com to prove the room was already paid; the hotel finally got our booking the day after even though it was done 2 days earlier. The hotel had an internal courtyard and our room had a window on it, there were rooms with the street view and rooms with the bay view. We paid the price of the bay view room and ended up in the cheapest room, we paid our room 2.5 times its price when booking with hotels.com.
I woke up early on Saturday morning because I had to be at the centre at 7:45 AM, I felt like eating breakfast but breakfast only started at 7:30 AM. I went to the restaurant just in case I would get lucky and could see all the food on the tables but sadly the restaurants doors were closed and I left with the memory of the food in my mind to fill my belly. Outside I found my scooter covered with bird shit, the day before I didn’t see that I had parked it an area completely full of bird shit. I didn’t know bird shit when they sleep. When the cleaning was done I drove to Marsalforn with an empty belly hoping I would find a shop where I would be able to buy something to eat and I would not get lost on the way, in any case it would still be easier with daylight. In Gozo the small villages don’t have any directions signs so you can drive for a while not really knowing where you are going and end up in the wrong city. I was driving, trying not to get lost and turning when I found the proper indication. I found myself on a road that led to the sea, I expected to go through Victoria at some point but without any indications decided to wait until I was in a village to find out where I was. I followed the road till the end and found Marsalforn, I found the diving centre after short while.
We hoped on the minivan as soon as the gear was chosen, I was the only one who didn’t speak German among the divers, I tried to hear if I could still understand the language but they were talking much too fast for me. We got dropped close to the dive site and walked the rest of the way. On the sea shore I saw some small pools that were used to catch the salt water, I quickly took a few pictures and put the camera inside its waterproof box because it was starting to rain. What a pleasure to start gearing up under the rain, the guy next to me had a dry suit he just had to step inside the suit to be ready to go as I was still fighting with my suit. There was no wharf, we had to walk on the sharp rocks, jump in the water then put our fins and masks on. The water was quite hot thanks to the rain, once everyone was ready we went underwater; there was four of us: the instructor, an experienced diver, a level one diver and me. As we were around 3 meters under sea level, the level one diver was already 5 or 6 meters deep and not showing any sign of slowing down, the instructor had to go and grab him or I don’t know how deep he would have gone. His ears must have taken quite a beating from the pressure. I saw some tuna hunting and wanted to take some pictures but the camera didn’t power on when I pressed on the switch; I put the camera backwards when I put it back in the waterproof case and forgot to check it before going underwater. It’s a pity but I will have to use my memory to remind myself of the barracuda and the octopus I saw. I came back outside with 100 bars after 40 minutes, I had never breathed so well underwater. The exit was quite tricky, you had to remove your fins and use a rope to climb out; if you were not careful the current would shove you against the rocks so you would really have to wait for the right moment to climb out of the water. It was still raining outside at the end of the dive, I really wanted to keep my suit on because it was keeping me warm but only people in proper clothes could get on the minivan. The blanket felt great on the way back but I felt like taking a good warm bath.
You will get the end of the story next week.
La suite!
