And they're off!

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I'm writing this in our cabin on the Dana Sirena, a DFDS ferry en route to Esbjerg in Denmark. OK, so we're not technically "abroad" yet but we are "aboard" - and at least we've finally left the UK. Not without drama of course… the Ebay van suddenly required "servicing", so was hospitalised for a few days. Then the key parts it needed got sent to Crawley instead of Swindon - a confusion inexplicable by either geography or spelling. Meanwhile we had the last of our Hep B jabs for Asia which was VERY traumatic for three reasons: 1. Claire (the girlfriend) had booked us in to have them done at some sort of drop-in centre for heroin addicts; 2. the administering nurse was in such a bad mood because we'd got there late that she actually took a run up to launch her needle into my arm; 3. I reacted badly to the vaccine and sank into a miasma of ill health for about three days (Googling the symptoms revealed I'd contracted Malaria). Then, when we eventually got the van back I managed to wrench quite a large chunk off the back corner of it by introducing it to a set of iron gates. A quick visit to my brother's fire station meant he, his fellow crew members and some specialised car-bending equipment could manipulate it back into a rough van shape - and I could spend my last night before departure trying to "make good" with some expanding foam, silicon shower sealant and gaffer tape... with a similar level of care shown to me by the nurse earlier in the week.

Anyway, here we are Denmark-bound. We've been joined on board by a large section of the Irish travelling community which means that the boat has taken on the cheery atmosphere of the steerage scenes in Titanic. Only with more vests. Confusingly, we were given a cabin with six bunk beds in it and for a while we were a little worried that we might be sharing our room with some of that atmosphere.

We've still got several hours to go before we land so we are huddled in our little cabin, planning a route through Denmark and eating the food we smuggled on board so as not to pay £50 for breakfast. Denmark is a country, we realise, we know very little about except it's the home of bacon, Lego and Brigitte Nielsen. If we see any one of these three I'll be happy.

Comments

  1. rugbykaren23 May 2011 at 11:42

    Gaffer tape, baler twine and jam hold the world together dude, hope you have plenty of the 3!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Adrian23 May 2011 at 12:58

    Malaria and a prang before you've even left the country? I really look forward to these blogs mate, going to be VERY interesting reading! Ade x

    ReplyDelete
  3. gaz23 May 2011 at 21:33

    helena christensen of course, all you need to know about denmark

    ReplyDelete

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