White Cliffs of Dover

On 10/25 nine of us went to Dover in Kent. We had to get up and meet by 710 to head to the coach station in town to catch the bus to Dover. It was a 2 ½ hour drive but I slept almost the whole way. We got there and had 10 hours to spend. We had no idea where anything was or what we were doing, other than seeing the White Cliffs. One of my friends/planner of the trip told us about this 6 quid boat tour so we headed toward the beach, where we took some pictures and I stole a rock off the ‘sand’ (which was all rocks) as a keepsake. We bought tickets for the Southern Queen, our trusty vessel. There were 5 other people on the tour we got, so we decided it wasn’t tourist season. The boat tour was about 40 minutes and it let us get an ocean view of the cliffs. We could see the coast of France in the distance, since its less than 30 miles away. After the boat tour we went to a pub we had seen that was very cheap. We all got some drinks, pear cider for me, and then some food. Since it had been a while since we ate, it was now 1 o’clock, we all started to feel the drinks and got the tingly feeling.


After lunch we headed for the Cliffs. We climbed a steep hill and then a steep set of stairs, where we were met with a ticket man. We didn’t want to pay to see the Castle, just walk around on the Cliffs. He told us to walk up the road and it would become a narrow, winding country road. He explained it would take about 40 minutes since we didn’t have a car. We began walking up the regular road and saw some beautiful views. However, the narrow country road was exactly that; a very narrow and very windy road. We walked on the shoulder but I thought we were going to die. Eventually someone suggested for the second time we walk on the footpath on the other side of the brush, I suggested it the first time and no one wanted to listen.


The footpath was fine and followed the road, but all of a sudden turned into woods. We risked it and continued. We kept trying to locate the road again so we could follow that. Eventually we heard it and continued risking our lives on it. Way past 40 minutes we made it to the top! It was a gorgeous sight. You could see France a little clearer, but it was still foggy; the English Channel and all of the boats coming in to the port, which is the busiest in England because of its location. We were on top of the white masses we saw on the boat cruise. There were footpaths to walk around so I went off exploring to find a place to get close to the rock and take some pictures. I walked and walked and finally found some places to take pictures. I wanted to go down to the next ‘level’ of footpaths but it was too steep to climb down, trust me I tried to do it. It was serene and beautiful, even though the voice of a woman talking about security at the port kept coming over the loudspeaker. Caity took out a piece of paper on which we wrote the poem ‘Dover Beach’ and we all took turns saying a line from it. It was very cute. We decided to walk down before it got dark so we wouldn’t have an even greater risk of dying. However, we then found a staircase which led right down into town. I still have no idea why the people we asked for directions from didn’t say go here and take the staircase. It led us down to the port where there were some houses, one of which was Matthew Arnold, who wrote the poem ‘Dover Beach’. We walked back into town and ended up having dinner at the same pub we went to for lunch. There were some cougars in the pub, which is a slang term for a woman after 35 who dress sexually to get attention from men, especially younger men. Their table was full of bottles and glasses already and it was only 7 at the latest. We watched them for a while and men coming up and flirting with them, and allowed the woman to sit on their laps. It was pretty funny because they were all sloppy drunk. Our bus left at 830 and I passed out yet again on the way home. I was exhausted after the amazing day we had.