Summer Holiday, Pt.1

Sometimes life takes a turn for the bizarre. Falling in love when you least expect it; finding out someone you just met has been living two doors down from you for years. Take me, for example - I come all the way to Belgium just to head back to old Blighty for a holiday.

Once more at the grace of my handsome stranger's untold generosity, I found myself sitting at Calais docks on a misty Saturday morning waiting to sail to the motherland for a day of medieval sightseeing in Canterbury, a town I had never visited but of which I had heard good things. Less than an hour from Dover, it's (apparently) a very popular day trip for people fortunate enough to live in Belgium - or unfortunate enough to live in northeastern France. Today was my turn.

By mid-morning the fog had lifted, and the beau and I were walking the picture-postcard streets of Canterbury in blistering heat. (Has Britain always been this hot? I forget.) It's always nice to see how foreigners react to one's home country, and my travel partner's awestruck trip through Poundland was nothing short of adorable. Thankfully, the old architecture and the neatly-tended flowerbeds were just as impressive, and I can report that Canterbury is indeed a rather lovely little town.

We had lunch at Deeson's, a British restaurant in the centre. For £15 you could have a three-course meal of British classics - I had grilled whiting, ham hock and sticky toffee pudding - and the quality of the food was insanely good. We ended our stay in town with a lazy, bloated constitutional along the river, where little gondolas ferried tourists back and forth through the town and a pair of newlyweds posed for wedding photos in the summer sun. If this is a French tourist's first impression of Britain, I can only apologise for the subsequent disappointments.

Before the ferry back "home," there was just time for a stroll along the famous White Cliffs and a little look around Dover, which - although prettier than Calais - suffers from the same "just-passing-through-syndrome" of its Gallic counterpart. Still, Canterbury more than compensates, and today was a happy, sunny and well-fed day all round.