My travelling adventures...

Hi! - well I finally had some blue skies - they lasted a morning - grey skies are here again...
went to the catacombes in Paris (got in for free - woohoo!) but it was très creepie!!! - passageways were fenced with skulls, rib bones and other boney bits in bizarre patterns... and i went to the Rodin museum which I absolutely loved - they have his bronze statues out in these gorgeous gardens, and then in this old building they have some of his marble ones which i think are brilliant!
also managed to make it to the top of the eiffel tower for sunset which was nice... and went to Chartres - little suburb outside of paris - to this old 12th century church that has apparently one of the best collections of stained glass in the world from that time... -climbed its gothic spire with all its goblins etc hanging off it just like notre dame in paris...  - and realised i had actually made it to paris for the springtime - altho not much of a spring!
I pretty much had the room to myself at the backackers the first two nights - so was feeling a bit dislocated as only had little chats with people - usually funny old french men! - on the trains etc going places, and also at breakfast it only seemed to be this huge american tour group of 19yos. But on the last night finally shared with some people and did some wanderings with them around paris.
am in strasbourg at the moment - raining - but the hostel has fantastic rooms!!! - it is very swish! - altho it is like a firemans ladder to get to the top bunk!
I have enjoyed france - they give you hot chocolate in bowls - now that is the way to do it!!! - and it is the only place i have been where if you pull out a map people actually stop in the street and offer help (usually you have to ask others to help).
I had a good 4hr train ride - which turned out to be 5 due to train incident -from paris to strasbourg - again with friendly french people - checked to make sure i had validated my ticket etc and then one of them wanted to practice their english so that was entertaining... - was the first offer for a drink (just a friendly one!) i have accepted as he was just nice and he wasnt persistently creepy like the others...
Most of the time i am rushing to type this out etc so make spelling mistakes (particularly with this french keyboard!) and probably sometimes it doesn`t make much sense as i think sometimes i begin to say a story but get side-tracked...
looking forward to the black forest tomorrow - altho am a bit unsure how i am actually getting to the hostel as they have bizarre directions on the website - and am hoping i am not the only one there!
and - as i am sure you all want to know - i am finally getting round to doing laundry -cant wait for nice machine-washed clothes (have been hand washing)!
later!

hi! how is everyone? well being doing ok so far... really liked belgium... Luxembourg was good too.  Would appreciate a bit of blue sky tho!
Isnt it weird how you are attracted to things that you fear or whatever... my cousin has a fascination with sharks, and me I will go wherever there are caves or whatever - i went to the trenches in Luxumberg, the hidden passageways of the fort in namur, and the limestone caves in Hans (Belgium) - I was the only english-speaker on the tour to the limestone ones so i had to stick to the front of the line so the guide could give me a bit of a speel in english! - turns out he is the 7th generation in his family to be a guide/explorer of the caves - his great great grandfather had discovered one of the galleries that we went into... they were really spectacular tho - and ended with a boat ride out of the caves - felt like i was in charlie and the chocolate factory! to get to the limestone caves i ended up catching a taxi - (as id just missed the bus and wouldve had to wait two hours for the next one) - with this guy who was in a band playing in rochefort for a week then going to berlin for a 3month tour - exciting!!
hqve been doing the walking tour of paris and went to versailles today for the gardens - beautiful - they had the fountains going for an hour and were playing classical music. It was pretty busy but you could still go along these little walkways and find yourself your own secret garden - magical!
later!

hi! belgium chocolate, fries and waffles ) i dont know how they arent all just rolling down the street - but i got to say i like their taste!! and the smell of belgium - you can smell waffles cooking nearly everywhere you go - yuuummmm....
i got to antwerp for the markets - apparently that was lucky for me I got told at the tourist bureau - not sure how lucky tho... but i did get to pat some baby bunnies! and went thru this underriver tunnel to get to the left bank which was pretty cool...
Brussels is ok - the central square is very impressive - particularly as it put on a rainbow backdrop for me! but i agree with everyone that Bruges is definitely nicer (altho the backpakcers in brussles at least has shower doors unlike in Bruges where it ws a mere flimsy shower curtain separating you from the outside world!) Bruges it reminded me of venice a bit - but more laidback and less touristy (altho bruges is touristy for belgium!) and i suppose if you are going to get picky different architecture etc and seemed a bit friendlier... but would definitely recommend Spa - oldest health spa in europe - it got famous from the russian tsar Peter the Great getting cured from its waters... it was a really quaint little village - really nice - would definitely go back there.  it is near the longest underground river in the world - you can go on a cave boat ride thru part of it... Spa is in the Ardennes - which is hilly for Belgium - train goes thru lots of tunnels etc - and the cillages are along little ravines next to the mountains - very pretty.
but holland - was brilliant tolday - got to Kinderdijk- or something spelled like that -- a UNESCO WH site with 19 windmills - was brilliant - I wanna live in a windmill!!! - went round the village with an italian guy i met at the bus stop - we were pretty much the only people there due to the rain! - cleared up while we were there tho...
anyway had to log on to let the backpackers in Paris know i still wanted a room or something...
so later!

Well I arrived... :)  The bus journey was... went across the channel on the ferry - so had to get off the coach for the 90min ferry ride which wasn't that great - as had just gotten cosy!  And I had a german guy sitting in front of me that was trying to cough up phlegm from between his toes I think he was trying that hard - very gross! But really it wasn't that bad - got to see the white cliffs again - and it is amazing all the traffic and ferries down there - even at midnight! But yep - am a bit tired now, so I decided to do the walking round Bruges thing today (and go to Ypres and Ghent tomorrow).  I've been for a wonder, gazing into chocolate shop windows and went to the chocolate museum - yuuuummmmmmmm!!
FYI: Belgian chocolate tastes better as they don't add vegetable fats (only use cocoa butter) and they grind the beans a lot smaller! - so there you go!
I have bought a rail pass so am going to go to Luxumberg and to Holland (Rotterdam) for a day trip each! - amazing huh? - to go to different countries just for a day!!! And then doing a few other day trips...
And what is with this weather - why do you come to England in Dec./winter they ask - so mcuh nicer in summer/spring - personally I can not tell the difference!!! - it is EXACTLY the same - the wind is chilly, it is rainy and everything - great travelling weather ;) - has to get better tho doesn't it!
Well that is it for now.... wonder who'll I'll be sharing with in my dorm...!
Later!

Well I am about to head off tomorrow - have a 9pm bus from London that gets me to Brussels at 5:30am - eek!!! - makes it more of an adventure, early start, no sleep etc etc... Have refrained from chocolate for a bit so i can tuck in while in Belgium! 5 weeks seems a long time at the moment - bit apprehensive about the journey - but I know it will be great when i get going!  for some reason the concept of shared dorms is one of my main concerns... - but i guess by the end i'll be very used to it all!
I've ended up booking a lot of the accomodation as when i wanted to change some dates etc places were booked out - so I would've been stressed about where I was going (if i was going to) stay next - busy time of year I think. I am ending in krakow (catching night train there from Berlin - exciting) and then onto Warsaw and then overnight bus to Riga - I get back to the uk on the 26th June.  My mum arrives the day before, and then leaves a month later 25 July.
My Uncle Guy and Auntie Lynne are joining mum and I on our 10day Spain/Portugal tour which should be fun! Then mum is talking about perhaps heading up to Wales or Yorkshire after that...
And then I have booked to go to Iceland on 31st July for 5 days - cripes! - they aren't kidding that it's an expensive place - altho the air fare was pretty good. I've got a hostel in the city centre and will just do day tours from there.
Then am still planning on doing around Lake Baikal for about a week - looking at doing a bit of a train journey around it from Ulan-Ude to Irkutsk and spending a few days at Olkhorn Island (a shamanistic site) - not that those place names probably mean much - but it is all those details I am trying to decide upon at the moment!  Hmmm anyway - I am going to try and 'blog' about once a week - just to let you know how i am going, that I am still alive etc etc! :) - And still keep emailing me!!!
Bye!

Anyway some more photos again...
Bye!

 Chamonix 
 Dover cliff
Richard cycling along the Thames

Read the rest of this entry ... (29 words left)

Hey!  Have been busy checking out the neighbourhood... went to Wimbledon the other day - saw the famous courts, and then walked thru Wimbledon Common to check for wombles - no luck!  Have also been thru Twickenham (love the name! - unfortunately rugby or something assocated with it tho!), and also went to the dog racing with Richard, Anna, Neil, Lena and Kate - was fun! - 10p bets for me! - won 40p!!! :) Have been sorting out accomodation for Europe - the jolly world cup is making it a bit difficult so have booked some places a lot in advance (super hard to find places in Munich and Berlin)...

Read the rest of this entry ... (307 words left)

Howdy! Have been for a couple of decent bike rides along the Thames with Richard... one to a park near Hampton Court - it was very nice - saw heaps of stuff - the deer were absolutely huge - like moose!! And then yesterday I got a FREE haircut! - how good is that! - it was a training day at the nearby college :)

Read the rest of this entry ... (31 words left)

- all little places along the english coast! Kristin, Tom and I went along the White Cliffs on Sunday - was very pretty (remember hearing that song heaps thanks to my dad when I was a kid).  And don't know what the deal was but all the fish and chip shops in Deal (haha) were closed - but we did manage to find one yesterday evening to have our dinner...  So I have now moved from Kristin's to Richard's place at Surbiton...
Have been into London a few times this past week, and doing a bit of research for my europe adventure! I have to decide pretty soon about what I want to do in Russia etc and get the visa underway before I go off into Europe (which will be in about 2 weeks)...
I've managed to get to 3 dinner parties since i have been here (Kristin had one Saturday night) - have a knack for inviting myself at the right time :) - all have been very scrumptious!
Richard, Anna (Richard's girlfriend) and I wandered into Richmond along the Thames today... Richard has a few stand-by days this week (he's a pilot) so will be just hanging out with him a bit... and starting to book stuff for europe.
Anyway that's all for now folks :)