Day One - The Journey
I’ve slowly turned myself into an early beard, mainly because I’ve been adapting to a normal sleeping routine of going to bed at 10pm and getting up at 7am, however the morning I headed out to Jersey was hell for me. I had only a few hours of sleep due to panicking, this was due to wondering if I’d actually packed everything and also the fact that I lost my tripod a few days before so had no idea what I was going to do with that. I also woke up ill, with a headache and my nose continuously flowing with god knows what. That was just getting out of bed and getting dressed, the day hadn’t even begun.
Once out of the house, and after a short journey to the train station which felt like hours, I was on my first form of transport for the day. I had three trains to catch, and two hours to keep myself awake so I didn’t miss any of my stops. So I did what most young(ish) people do and shoved on a TV show using the train wifi, and binged the hell out of it for the majority of the journey. The time that wasn’t spent doing that was most likely either me changing trains, or attempting to awkwardly vlog in public as I still wasn’t too keen on doing that.
Off the train I was rushed into a taxi and taken over to the port. After awkwardly having to ask the man if I had to check in, which I didn’t, I was then placed into a queue which I accidentally held up as they discussed my ticket between the majority of the guards. Through the security gate I went, my baggage taken away to the ship, and the only thing standing between me and being on the boat was a van they were using to shuttle walk ons. One silent drive over and we were all on the boat, thankfully we were the first ones on so I instantly figured out where the plugs were and settled in, laptop on the table and ready to spend the next 9 hours distracting myself with movies I had in my hard-drive. Not going to lie, the majority of the journey dragged a lot, it wasn’t until I started to play cards in which the time started to fly, I think I’d probably had enough of staring at a computer screen for the day. The rest of the journey on the boat was a blur, it was a mixture between hoping people wouldn’t notice I was walking around with no shoes on, and trying to figure out which of the chairs were making my skin itchy (it was the leather ones).
The reverse order of events that had taken place getting on the boat, took place when getting off it. We were all chucked into a van and shuttled over to the port. The person who's house I was staying in was amazing, he came to the port to pick me up due to there being no buses so it would have been a long walk back for me if he didn’t come. And then he was so kind as to give me a tour of Jersey, one so I could see some landmarks when trying to find the house again, and another so that I could figure out what I remembered from my holidays as a child. Unfortunately, I don’t remember much, however I do remember the port and the swimming pool complex nearby to it. That was about the limit of my memory from the journey we took, it wasn’t until later on in the week to which I discovered more places that seemed familiar to me.
When finally at the house I was astonished, the house was absolutely beautiful. I had my own personal flat; you entered into the lounge with its own balcony looking over St Helier, then upstairs was a modern kitchen and bathroom, as well as a bedroom with a super king size bed as well as another view of St Helier. It was the kind of place you would walk into and want to buy, something you’ll always remember and I’m glad I stayed there rather than at a hotel or camping. What made it better was the man who was allowing people to stay in his house, Gil. Not only did he give me a lift up to his home, he also discussed the fact that I had lost my tripod with me and then was kind enough to find the one he uses for his telescope and let me use it for the week to help with my work. As well as this he gave me some tips to public transport around the island, and discussed my project with me which came up a lot during the week and he wished me much luck with it and with finished university.
Day 2 - Illness and Wild Winds
Woke up with a headache, runny nose, and the radio telling me it was a code red outside. The wind was apparently up to 20mph in some areas of Jersey, and I can tell you now I am so happy I sailed over the day before.
After an hour or so of trying to calm my illness down a bit I decided to trek outside, I regret this decision cause it probably made me more ill. It was strong cold wind mixed with rain the entire time I was outside, and I had decided to walk to St Helier town which was about 15 minute walk away at the time because I had no idea where I was going. Wrapped up in 20 layers and a raincoat, I managed to make my way down to the market to buy food, this was something I remembered from my childhood so accidentally finding it was really strange. I then thought it would be a good idea to attempt to look around St Helier a little, this decision was quickly changed as the weather got worse so I decided to head back to the house and spend the rest of the day there. It was not eventful.
Day 3 - Aftermath and Zoo
After waking up and feeling 10x better, I decided to open my curtains and see how the weather was doing. The weather wasn’t the best, however it was good enough to actually leave the house and not get taken to Oz in a tornado. So today was the day I would explore St Helier for the first time, and its not too interesting to be honest. Like most towns it has shops, churches, libraries, sometimes it felt like I could have been anywhere in the world and not on an island. I feel this is the one thing that lets certain parts of Jersey down, that instead of having smaller companies run shops, it allows the bigger ones to do it as it creates more money for Jersey itself, or at least thats the way I perceive it.
The weather was slowly getting better, so I thought it would be a good time to pop to the Jersey zoo and have a relaxing afternoon since I wasn’t feeling terrible. The zoo is one of the most prominent memories in my brain, I used to remember walking up to the front gates where there’d be a looming entrance with the words Jersey Zoo written on top, and gorillas on the side. Unfortunately when I got there it wasn’t what I imagined at all, it was a small building that was the entrance to the park, maybe because I was smaller I imagined it larger than it was. However, this didn’t make the experience any less amazing, the moment you walk into the zoo you are greeted by the bears, and although I’ve been to various zoos in my life I’d never actually seen a bear so close which was awesome. Throughout, I discovered animal after animal, from otters to gorillas, theres not much to say really, its a zoo so I did what you do in zoos.
The end of the day was spectacular though, the sun had come out and we had glorious weather over in Jersey so the best option of things to do was to go to the beach. Alongside St Helier beach front there are this platforms, I believe its to stop waves crashing or flooding of the area above it, but they made great seating. So I sat down, with a view of Elizabeth Castle, and the sun setting to my right. The world almost went silent, it was such a beautiful sight, especially after the previous events of the day before. And the sunset, it was golden and spread colour throughout the clear sky.
Day 4 (onwards) - The Journey Begins (and continues)
This day was the first day I actually produced work for my project, and possibly the longest. I’d be lying if I said I woke up with pep in my step, in fact I just began worrying about what I’d be able to photograph, or whether the day would go well or not. Along with the fact that most of my buses were every hour, so timing was a big thing that loomed on my mind. After I’d finally got myself up and dressed, double checking that everything was fully charged and in my bag, I was off on the first adventure.
Walking into town itself was a trip into memory lane for me, I decided to take a different route to the centre to see what I could find. Not only was there a Blockbuster, the ultimate throwback, but as I walked further towards the town centre I found the one place in St Helier that I remember as a child. There was a square within the town, in which there was various cafes and shops, a toy master, and several sculptures of cows. Seeing this instantly boosted my mood, I was upset from the fact that all I recognised in the days before was the market.
Once in the town I popped onto a bus and made my way towards my first stop, Gorey. Gorey is a small village, which has a castle overlooking it from the top of a hill called Mount Orgueil. Unfortunately, due to being on a schedule I decided not to go into Mount Orgueil, and also my mum never really mentioned it too often so there was no need for me to go round. However, if I went back again I’d definitely go in, from research I have done about the place it has some spectacular views of the island surrounding it. Gorey itself was as I remembered, it had many restaurants and a few little shops, although there wasn’t really much there as its quite small. So I waited for the next bus over to Archerondel tower, which was about 40 minutes away, and spent the time staring at the harbour and people on their boats.
After completing a trip over to Archerondel tower by bus, and realising that Jersey roads are definitely not made for buses to go down, I was dropped on the side of the road and had to make my own way to the martello tower. Walking towards Archerondel was a strange experience as I remember it being in a different place when younger, however the cafe that stood by the tower was somewhere we used to go. Of course, by this point I was getting a bit hungry, so I decided to do a throwback to my past and had a delicious meal at the cafe, all freshly caught fish and my god it was the best meal I’d had over there. I also had what I believed was the best view, I was sat directly in front of the tower and could take in the whole area. Knowing the stories of what my mum would get up to there, with her youth club, made me look at it in a different perspective and was something I wanted to capture. Once food was finished I walked around the beach area and took photographs from different places, trying to capture a new style every time. Inside though I felt like it was too general, and I wanted something more from it to portray my mums memories. So I ventured over to the tower entrance, and off to the side was a little pile of rocks, separated by a tiny pool of water. I did what any person in their twenties does, and did a bit of rock climbing over to this island. From over there I got a different view of the tower, with the beach behind it, which when I showed my mum she mentioned that there aren’t many views of it in that way.
That was really the end of my day, I headed home to view what I had taken that day and see if I could go back another day to take some different photographs. At the time I felt this way, so the rest of my time over in Jersey was spent retracing the steps I had already taken, so that I could try and take a variety of photographs of the places.
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