Day 16 Report

Everything went wrong this afternoon.

The morning was okay though, because we only wrote stories. First we had to rewrite Cendrillon (Cinderella) in groups, which took up the whole two hours. Then after the break we had to write a modern-day Cinderella story. My group was all Asian so we agreed to write it in typical-Korean-drama-style. In fact, when Denise proposed a typical-Korean-drama-style-plot, it occurred to me that I had once watched a Korean show with almost the exact same plot. :P

We were near the ending when 1 p.m. rolled around. We were let off roughly on time and, since the weather was quite good, Denise and I ran out of school to the bus stop to catch the first bus to Brest.

Things went quite smoothly at first: the Brest-bound bus came on time, as did the Le Conquet-bound bus - which was one of those huge tour buses. The weather kept getting better on the journey, till the overgrown fields were all alive with colour and gleaming under the sun..

About 50 min later, the bus entered a seaside resort and most people got off. So we did too, for some reason neglecting to ask the bus driver where we were.

We didn't see any signs with the words "Le Conquet" on it, so we went to ask at the big tourist office by the beach.

It turned out that we were at the resort town of Plougonvelin, about three stops before Le Conquet - which was 16km away!

So we had to wait for the next bus - the one that supposedly leaves Brest at 3.26 p.m., also known as the one that didn't turn up yesterday. :P We had "lunch" (if a chocolate bar and a muesli bar can be considered that) by the beach, which was small but very pretty. The water was very clear and the sand was very fine and white.

Not long after, we headed to a bus stop across from where we had alighted. We didn't expect the wait to be long - until we saw the notice at the bus stop. From April onwards, the 3.26 p.m. bus from Brest will arrive at 3.55 p.m. instead! Which of course explained what happened yesterday, and also increased our endless wait for the bus.

FINALLY the bus arrived at the same stop we had gotten off at (we had to make a mad dash to it), and we had to fork over another €1.50 for the ride to Le Conquet.

The ride wasn't long, but by that time my gastric problem was acting up again, so it was not very enjoyable. :P We reached Le Conquet at nearly 5 p.m., which gave us around an hour before we had to leave on the 5.5o p.m. bus.

Thanks to the girls' directions, we didn't have too much trouble finding the beach, although it was quite a long walk down a narrow passage out into the sunlight and down a hill across a long bridge that spans a river (it was low tide at that time so there was barely any water), then uphill again and on and on (here we got lost and had to ask for directions) until we reached a small carpark.

And beyond that, the Blanc Sablons (White Sands) beach. So there we were, at the westernmost point of Brittany (and France itself), standing on a hill leading down to a 2.5 km stretch of sand, beyond which wave upon wave rolled in from the Iroise Sea. The sea itself was different shades of blue, and stretched out to the horizon. At the far left of the coast was some fort or something, and at the far right there were some windmills.

Time passed very fast at the beach. First I sat way back from the water and enjoyed the view and the wind and the sunshine and the sound of waves crashing onto the shore. Then I got up and made my way across the huge expanse of sand, which started off soft and fine and became increasingly coarser and damper and harder-packed. Finally I reached the shoreline, where particularly large waves of extremely cold water rolled under my feet.

Unsurprisingly, we got so absorbed taking photos that we forgot the time. With ten minutes left before the bus was due to arrive, I hurried back to my shoes and shook the sand out (unsuccessfully, as usual) before walking as quickly as possible back to the town.

We arrived five minutes late, and there was no bus in sight. Since the buses here are usually late anyway, we went across the small road to sit down. After a while, it seemed that we might have missed the bus and would have to take the 6.15 p.m. bus (the last one) instead.

But by 6.30 p.m. the bus still had not appeared.

Finally, around 6.35 p.m. or 6.40 p.m. a bus pulled up at the kerb and we got on, but it was empty. The bus driver said that he wasn't going to Brest and that there were no more buses going there for the day.

!!!

To cut a very long story short, all hope was not lost: Denise and I found ourselves at a bus stop in Recouvrance at 7.05 p.m.

Recouvrance, by the way, is the neighbourhood connected to Brest by the Pont de Recouvrance (that big bridge I crossed last week to get to the Tour Tanguy). The bus stop was situated along a straight road leading all the way to central Brest, but it was at the far end of Recouvrance and the walk was a few kilometres. And we were sick of walking plus it was getting late, so we decided to wait for the bus.

But as we were checking the bus schedule, I spotted a notice that stated the buses would not be stopping due to a cycling race from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. that evening. And like I already mentioned, it was 7.05 p.m.

Grumbling, we began our long walk back to Brest.

We had been walking for only a few minutes.........when the bus passed us.

!!!

Grumbling even more, we made our way back to the bus stop and caught the next bus 10 min later.

Those 10 min turned out to be crucial time lost, because we arrived at the bus terminal just in time to see the 7.40 p.m. bus 27 leave.

The next bus would only arrive at 8.20 p.m.!!!

I finally struggled home at nearly 9 p.m. (my gastric was not being very kind) and apologised profusely to Mrs Stephan, who said it was all right since I had called her earlier. But I felt the need to explain my horribly frustrating evening, which I did over dinner (a carrot salad and two ham quiches) whilst she looked through her atlas (I'm not sure what exactly she was looking for, but she found Singapore along the way). Then I had to excuse myself and go take some medication before I could fully enjoy my dessert of raspberry pie.