This will be a long one, so İ hope ıt ıs at least informative!
back to where İ left off...
We left İstanbul on a nıght bus, whıch involved takıng a shuttle dolmuş (pronounced dolmush)--thıs roughly translated means bus overstuffed wıth passengers and luggage--from the place we stayed to the main otogard (bus station). It was an experience to be sure. Asıde from two jaunts off ın the wrong direction, our drıver managed to pull the bus too far into an intersection at a red lıght. At thıs poınt, we were hıt by a train. Yeah, we thought the drıver would have seen that comıng too... it was not so bad, actually. we lost a mırror and some paint, and the engine stıll ran, so the drıver sped off in search of our destination.
...fast forwardıng, our maın bus trıp was a 12 hour overnighter to Selçuk (selchuck) that took us through changıng terraın, and further south ınto warmer temperatures. The main attraction at Selçuk ıs not selçuk ıtselfö but rather the ruıned cıty of Ephesus, or Efes as ıt ıs actually called here. It was an amazıng ruins to wander overö wıth two Greek amphıtheatres, one of a magnıfıcent sıze, and all nature of ruined buildings, from baths, to housing, to temples and an amazıng library that has been partially reconstructed.
Set off to one sıde of the ruins, relatıvely unvısted by the masses of tour groups is the ruıns of the Church of Mary. This is not just A church of Mary, but THE Church of Mary, erected ın 437 AD, and so named for the Vırgın Mary--the very fırst Christian church created ın Her name. An unforgetable moment to stand at what remaıns of the altar.
Back ın Selçuk, there are also ruıns to be seen. The ruined Temple of Artemıs has but one column remaining erect. the rest has eıther been taken away to be part of other temples, taken for museum collectionsö or has sımple been reclaimed by the marsh ıt has now become. At the peak of it's creatıon, ıt was one of the seven wonders of the world, being four times larger than even the Parthenon at Athens ( thıs = bıg!) Above thıs sıte, on another hill sıts the Church of St. John, where St. John hımself was dıscovered to be buried. His tomb is humbly maintained among the ruined church. Kate and İ were the only ones on the sıte when we visited, and it was amazing to stand alone at this very holy place.
Picking up speed again, the Ephesus trıp was just a one nıghter. we moved further South , to stıll warmer weather and got on a Gulet yacht (hand made wooden boat) wıth sıxteen others and sailed off ınto the medıterranean sunshine from the town of Fethiye.
The next three nights and four days İ can only describe as amazing! Picture it if you will: the fırst lıght of day creeps ıts way over the hills at about five-thirty ın the a.m.. You awake on deckö where you've just slept under the stars.
'you going swimming?' whıspers a boat mate , not wantıng to wake others on deck.
'yeah, gimme a minute' you say as you wıpe sleep from your eyes.
and you put on your bathing suit and slıpp quietly off the boat ınto the still waters of your secluded bay as the sun gets closer and closer to rising. As you get back on board, the sun climbs above the hills--goats bleat, donkeys bay, roosters crow on the scattered hılls around you... and of courseö others sleeping on deck snoreö but that's neither here nor there...
and after the day has started with a swim, breakfast ıs served. Then you swim. then lunch. then you read and sleep and swim/snorkel. then dınner. then swim. then sleep. then wake up and do it agaın. Toss a bıt of exploring more ruins on islands, and you have, as İ said, an amazing four days.
After the boat trip, there was another overnıght bus trıp ınto the regıon of Capaddocıa ,which is where İ am now. The Bus system here, by the way, ıs AMAZİNG! It makes greyhound look like total crap. we're talking busses on time to the minute , bıg and new busses, and trip attendants servıng up a varıety of snacks, hot and cold drinks, and the occasional dash of hand sanitizer for those not-so-fresh travellers. Anyway, we are ın Göreme, known for it's stunnıng rock formations, ancient cave dwellings and cave churches , and underground citıes. (everything ın caves / underground because ınvadıng hordes were none too keen on Christian ıdeals). Just today we were walking ın a valley to explore cave houses and churches guıded by our hostel owner's dog--yeah you heard me rıght. The dog knows where to go and how to get there. Spotty ıs one cool pooch. Alas tomorrow, we must fly out of here.
I have much to remember and appreciate from this trip. The landscape here ıs often changing, but on the whole reminds me very stongly of the Thompson-Okanagan ın Kamloops, whıth ıt's hıgh rolling hills covered ın sage and scrub (though here, the sage often turns out to be olıve trees upon closer ınspection!). You can fınd a piece of home no matter where you are!. At tımesö these hills are mashed together wıth flats of wheat fields wıth ancient Volcanoes rısıng above them ın the dıstance. Thıs partıcular area look svery much lıke alberta's badlands, so that too looks similar.
as for the seas , what can İ say about the clear beauty of the blue water? even after four days of floatıng on top of it and diving into itö İ was still ın awe.
Of the hıstory that ıs found here, İ cannot say enough. The land could not keep ıts secrets even if it tried, so much of ıt there is to be found. And of the Churches and other ancient holy places dating back thousands of years--I am reading a book rıght now called 'Turkısh Reflectıons', and in it there is a lıne in which the author says that even after all these hundres of years,thesehousands of years,these holy places still hold their power. and how true it ıs. That spırıtualıty comes alıve several times a day here, too, as the haunting calls to prayer rings out across the towns from the minarets of Mosques.
of the people here, we have--amongst the calls of 'buy thıs!' and 'buy that!' found much hospıtalıty and warmth. Above all, perhaps it ıs this--lıke any place--that will brıng me back.
That is plenty long enough for one entry, to be sure!! I wıll sıgn off now, and the next entry wıll be nothıng but pıctures ,İ promise!!
June 23, 2006
June 14, 2006
European travels, pt. 1 England (wot wot) continued, and Turkey (Gobble Gobble)!!!
first off, lets talk about what was, for all intensive purposes, the last chunk of travel in Britain.
OXFORD: A charming town of higher education, dreaming spires, lazily meandering rivers, finely cut cricket pitches and grass tennis courts, a myriad of rowing clubs, and last but not least, plenty of public drunkedness.
We were in the Town of Oxford primarily for Kate's graduation ceremony--she finished her D.Phil two years ago, but never went through the commencements. The ceremony was done almost entirely in latin, and was as chalk full of pomp and circumstance as you might fancy an Oxford graduation ceremony might be.
Aside from the ceremony, we did a ton of visiting with Kate's friends that are still living in the town, and in between visits, there was ample opportunity to visit many of the town's ancient sites and college grounds. The Churches range from a few hundered to several hundred years old, as do the various colleges (there are 39 colleges that make up the university of Oxford). No shortage of famous attendees to Oxford colleges--JRR tolkein, Lewis Carrol, C.S. Lewis, and the list goes on. We also went kayaing and did a bit of punting ( river boating, for you uneducated plebians out there. Scoff, scoff).
All in all, as I said to Kate, if her social calendar during here three years here was anything like the few days we spent, I would have been spent within a month. IT's so damn tiring going to high teas, sitting in the parks in the shade of trees, picnicing with friends... okay, I'll shut up now.
on to TURKEY!
at 3 am on June 12th, we arose and made the short 20 minute walk to the Oxford bus station, where a shuttle took us to Heathrow Airport, where our flight to Istanbul awaited us.
arriving in Istanbul in the early afternoon, we took a short while to get into the area of Sultanhamet, and our hotel. We're in the heart if the monumental centre here, with the Grand Bazaar, the Ayasophya (eye-ah-so-fee-ah), and the Blue mosque all within spitting distance. the latter two are massive buildings, and as impressive as they are large. The Ayasophya was built in the 6th century, used as a place of worship for the Byzantine Christians. The roman catholics rolled through, trashed everything, and after that, it was used as a mosque. It is now a museum, featuring amazing works of art from both the Christian and Muslim worlds. we tried to spend lots of time in buldings such as this yesterday, because it was... COLD AND RAINING! hello? mediterranean? ummm, you should be hot and dry... as it was, the rain has passed and today is fantastic. But I digress...
The Grand Bazaar! This place makes west edmonton mall look like a strip mall. 4,000 shops, people. that's right, 4,000. Kate and I did some rug shopping in there on our first evening, and I am happy to say that we're the proud owners of two very fine turkish rugs, one from the 1920's, and one from the 1960's. Both Beautiful! the buying experience was a lot of fun, filled with bartering, small talk, and turkish apple tea. The Bazaar is a place where you can buy pretty much anything, or at least have people trying to get you to buy everything. the typical attention grabbers are "Yes! Hello!", "Hello my friend!" to gain some eye contact, but have also included things like "Hey Beeg Man!" or "Hey pretty lady!", and our personal favorite... Hey! You need viagra?!"...
up to speed, we are departing istanbul tonight on a bus destined for Selchuk, where we will visit Ephesus for a day or so. I'm really looking forward to seeing the temple of Artemis, as well as some major Christain Holy sites: the Bascillica of St. John--his burial place--and the House of the Virgin Mary, the residence that Mary lived out the rest of her days following the crucifiction of Jesus.
the bus ride down leaves at 8 pm, and will take 10 hours... supposedly... we'll see!!
that's all for now! cheers!
OXFORD: A charming town of higher education, dreaming spires, lazily meandering rivers, finely cut cricket pitches and grass tennis courts, a myriad of rowing clubs, and last but not least, plenty of public drunkedness.
We were in the Town of Oxford primarily for Kate's graduation ceremony--she finished her D.Phil two years ago, but never went through the commencements. The ceremony was done almost entirely in latin, and was as chalk full of pomp and circumstance as you might fancy an Oxford graduation ceremony might be.
Aside from the ceremony, we did a ton of visiting with Kate's friends that are still living in the town, and in between visits, there was ample opportunity to visit many of the town's ancient sites and college grounds. The Churches range from a few hundered to several hundred years old, as do the various colleges (there are 39 colleges that make up the university of Oxford). No shortage of famous attendees to Oxford colleges--JRR tolkein, Lewis Carrol, C.S. Lewis, and the list goes on. We also went kayaing and did a bit of punting ( river boating, for you uneducated plebians out there. Scoff, scoff).
All in all, as I said to Kate, if her social calendar during here three years here was anything like the few days we spent, I would have been spent within a month. IT's so damn tiring going to high teas, sitting in the parks in the shade of trees, picnicing with friends... okay, I'll shut up now.
on to TURKEY!
at 3 am on June 12th, we arose and made the short 20 minute walk to the Oxford bus station, where a shuttle took us to Heathrow Airport, where our flight to Istanbul awaited us.
arriving in Istanbul in the early afternoon, we took a short while to get into the area of Sultanhamet, and our hotel. We're in the heart if the monumental centre here, with the Grand Bazaar, the Ayasophya (eye-ah-so-fee-ah), and the Blue mosque all within spitting distance. the latter two are massive buildings, and as impressive as they are large. The Ayasophya was built in the 6th century, used as a place of worship for the Byzantine Christians. The roman catholics rolled through, trashed everything, and after that, it was used as a mosque. It is now a museum, featuring amazing works of art from both the Christian and Muslim worlds. we tried to spend lots of time in buldings such as this yesterday, because it was... COLD AND RAINING! hello? mediterranean? ummm, you should be hot and dry... as it was, the rain has passed and today is fantastic. But I digress...
The Grand Bazaar! This place makes west edmonton mall look like a strip mall. 4,000 shops, people. that's right, 4,000. Kate and I did some rug shopping in there on our first evening, and I am happy to say that we're the proud owners of two very fine turkish rugs, one from the 1920's, and one from the 1960's. Both Beautiful! the buying experience was a lot of fun, filled with bartering, small talk, and turkish apple tea. The Bazaar is a place where you can buy pretty much anything, or at least have people trying to get you to buy everything. the typical attention grabbers are "Yes! Hello!", "Hello my friend!" to gain some eye contact, but have also included things like "Hey Beeg Man!" or "Hey pretty lady!", and our personal favorite... Hey! You need viagra?!"...
up to speed, we are departing istanbul tonight on a bus destined for Selchuk, where we will visit Ephesus for a day or so. I'm really looking forward to seeing the temple of Artemis, as well as some major Christain Holy sites: the Bascillica of St. John--his burial place--and the House of the Virgin Mary, the residence that Mary lived out the rest of her days following the crucifiction of Jesus.
the bus ride down leaves at 8 pm, and will take 10 hours... supposedly... we'll see!!
that's all for now! cheers!
European travels, pt. 1 England (wot wot) continued, and Turkey (Gobble Gobble)!!!
first off, lets talk about what was, for all intensive purposes, the last chunk of travel in Britain.
OXFORD: A charming town of higher education, dreaming spires, lazily meandering rivers, finely cut cricket pitches and grass tennis courts, a myriad of rowing clubs, and last but not least, plenty of public drunkedness.
We were in the Town of Oxford primarily for Kate's graduation ceremony--she finished her D.Phil two years ago, but never went through the commencements. The ceremony was done almost entirely in latin, and was as chalk full of pomp and circumstance as you might fancy an Oxford graduation ceremony might be.
Aside from the ceremony, we did a ton of visiting with Kate's friends that are still living in the town, and in between visits, there was ample opportunity to visit many of the town's ancient sites and college grounds. The Churches range from a few hundered to several hundred years old, as do the various colleges (there are 39 colleges that make up the university of Oxford). No shortage of famous attendees to Oxford colleges--JRR tolkein, Lewis Carrol, C.S. Lewis, and the list goes on. We also went kayaing and did a bit of punting ( river boating, for you uneducated plebians out there. Scoff, scoff).
All in all, as I said to Kate, if her social calendar during here three years here was anything like the few days we spent, I would have been spent within a month. IT's so damn tiring going to high teas, sitting in the parks in the shade of trees, picnicing with friends... okay, I'll shut up now.
on to TURKEY!
at 3 am on June 12th, we arose and made the short 20 minute walk to the Oxford bus station, where a shuttle took us to Heathrow Airport, where our flight to Istanbul awaited us.
arriving in Istanbul in the early afternoon, we took a short while to get into the area of Sultanhamet, and our hotel. We're in the heart if the monumental centre here, with the Grand Bazaar, the Ayasophya (eye-ah-so-fee-ah), and the Blue mosque all within spitting distance. the latter two are massive buildings, and as impressive as they are large. The Ayasophya was built in the 6th century, used as a place of worship for the Byzantine Christians. The roman catholics rolled through, trashed everything, and after that, it was used as a mosque. It is now a museum, featuring amazing works of art from both the Christian and Muslim worlds. we tried to spend lots of time in buldings such as this yesterday, because it was... COLD AND RAINING! hello? mediterranean? ummm, you should be hot and dry... as it was, the rain has passed and today is fantastic. But I digress...
The Grand Bazaar! This place makes west edmonton mall look like a strip mall. 4,000 shops, people. that's right, 4,000. Kate and I did some rug shopping in there on our first evening, and I am happy to say that we're the proud owners of two very fine turkish rugs, one from the 1920's, and one from the 1960's. Both Beautiful! the buying experience was a lot of fun, filled with bartering, small talk, and turkish apple tea. The Bazaar is a place where you can buy pretty much anything, or at least have people trying to get you to buy everything. the typical attention grabbers are "Yes! Hello!", "Hello my friend!" to gain some eye contact, but have also included things like "Hey Beeg Man!" or "Hey pretty lady!", and our personal favorite... Hey! You need viagra?!"...
up to speed, we are departing istanbul tonight on a bus destined for Selchuk, where we will visit Ephesus for a day or so. I'm really looking forward to seeing the temple of Artemis, as well as some major Christain Holy sites: the Bascillica of St. John--his burial place--and the House of the Virgin Mary, the residence that Mary lived out the rest of her days following the crucifiction of Jesus.
the bus ride down leaves at 8 pm, and will take 10 hours... supposedly... we'll see!!
that's all for now! cheers!
OXFORD: A charming town of higher education, dreaming spires, lazily meandering rivers, finely cut cricket pitches and grass tennis courts, a myriad of rowing clubs, and last but not least, plenty of public drunkedness.
We were in the Town of Oxford primarily for Kate's graduation ceremony--she finished her D.Phil two years ago, but never went through the commencements. The ceremony was done almost entirely in latin, and was as chalk full of pomp and circumstance as you might fancy an Oxford graduation ceremony might be.
Aside from the ceremony, we did a ton of visiting with Kate's friends that are still living in the town, and in between visits, there was ample opportunity to visit many of the town's ancient sites and college grounds. The Churches range from a few hundered to several hundred years old, as do the various colleges (there are 39 colleges that make up the university of Oxford). No shortage of famous attendees to Oxford colleges--JRR tolkein, Lewis Carrol, C.S. Lewis, and the list goes on. We also went kayaing and did a bit of punting ( river boating, for you uneducated plebians out there. Scoff, scoff).
All in all, as I said to Kate, if her social calendar during here three years here was anything like the few days we spent, I would have been spent within a month. IT's so damn tiring going to high teas, sitting in the parks in the shade of trees, picnicing with friends... okay, I'll shut up now.
on to TURKEY!
at 3 am on June 12th, we arose and made the short 20 minute walk to the Oxford bus station, where a shuttle took us to Heathrow Airport, where our flight to Istanbul awaited us.
arriving in Istanbul in the early afternoon, we took a short while to get into the area of Sultanhamet, and our hotel. We're in the heart if the monumental centre here, with the Grand Bazaar, the Ayasophya (eye-ah-so-fee-ah), and the Blue mosque all within spitting distance. the latter two are massive buildings, and as impressive as they are large. The Ayasophya was built in the 6th century, used as a place of worship for the Byzantine Christians. The roman catholics rolled through, trashed everything, and after that, it was used as a mosque. It is now a museum, featuring amazing works of art from both the Christian and Muslim worlds. we tried to spend lots of time in buldings such as this yesterday, because it was... COLD AND RAINING! hello? mediterranean? ummm, you should be hot and dry... as it was, the rain has passed and today is fantastic. But I digress...
The Grand Bazaar! This place makes west edmonton mall look like a strip mall. 4,000 shops, people. that's right, 4,000. Kate and I did some rug shopping in there on our first evening, and I am happy to say that we're the proud owners of two very fine turkish rugs, one from the 1920's, and one from the 1960's. Both Beautiful! the buying experience was a lot of fun, filled with bartering, small talk, and turkish apple tea. The Bazaar is a place where you can buy pretty much anything, or at least have people trying to get you to buy everything. the typical attention grabbers are "Yes! Hello!", "Hello my friend!" to gain some eye contact, but have also included things like "Hey Beeg Man!" or "Hey pretty lady!", and our personal favorite... Hey! You need viagra?!"...
up to speed, we are departing istanbul tonight on a bus destined for Selchuk, where we will visit Ephesus for a day or so. I'm really looking forward to seeing the temple of Artemis, as well as some major Christain Holy sites: the Bascillica of St. John--his burial place--and the House of the Virgin Mary, the residence that Mary lived out the rest of her days following the crucifiction of Jesus.
the bus ride down leaves at 8 pm, and will take 10 hours... supposedly... we'll see!!
that's all for now! cheers!
June 6, 2006
European travels, pt. 1 England (wot wot) continued
allo allo there then! I've managed to procure a computer for a short while, so I'll send on the next update. Today's topics: English roads and English foods.
First, the roads. My God, what an adventure. How to describe them... imagine you've got a wet spaghetti noodle. no. thinner. angel hair pasta.yeah, that's it. Now, take that freshly cooked noodle, and let it drop onto the counter. see how that narrow little noodle has all those twists and turns? that's an english road. take that narrow road, and put stone walls on either side. and I mean, right on the side. no sidewalk, no curb, just road, then wall. throw in a dash of 60 miles an hour, and you've got yourself a driving experience!
there is actually a perfectly good explanation behind the shape of the roads--they were first laid out between those stone walls which serve as boundaries between farmlands, and were designed for horses and carts, not cars. and said farmlands do not fit into a nice little grid, which thus explains why the twists and turns are as they are.
I can't complain about all of it. very little of the driving is done on these wee roads, if it can be helped. The motorways are lovely modern roads with speed limits set at 70 miles an hour ( =120 km / hr), so you tend to get places fast. AND, despite speed cameras placed here and there to slow you down, there seems to be a complete lack of police highway patrols. So really, there's nothing to stop one from going 90-100 miles / hr(=135-150 km / hr), slowing down of course at the well marked speed camera locations. uhhh, not that we would EVER drive as such excess...
okay, FOOD. :0)
If my cardiologist read this, he'd have a heart attack (pun intended). Okay, I don't have a cardiologist.But I had to get that delicious food-related pun in there (pun not intended, in retrospect, but approved of none the less). But I do have a gastroentrologist, and he'd have a right shitfit (again, pun intended) if he saw what I've been eating. Largely, the English don't believe in eating something if it's not fried or deep fried, so it seems, and vegetables aren't high priority in any case. So, breakfast is bacon, and sausage,and eggs, and fried bread, and fried mushrooms and tomatoes. It's heaven. throw in the occasional cornish pasty (pronounced pass-tee)--a tasty steak and potato concotion wrapped in breading, add a pint of beer, cornish clotted cream, and ice cream, and I'm on the fast track to a serious belly.
As soon as I get home, I'm hitting the gym.
as for where we've been in the last week, we spent a few days in cornwall at my aunt's house visiting there, then is was on to the Welsh coast in the seaside town of Porthcawl. It was a picture perfect spot, and we did some day trips from there. Of none of the above, words can't describe some of the amazing scenes, so the photos will have to wait for my return home. amazing country all around.
As of yesterday, we left Wales, drove to Oxford to drop some bags (we'll be back by week's end), then travelled up to Stratford-on-Avon for the night. If the name rings a bell, it's the hometown of mr. Shakespeare... and since we were in his neck in the woods, we felt it was appropriate to take in a performance of Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Shakespeare theatre before retiring to our picture-perfect 16th century bed and breakfast in Wilmcote, the hometown of Mary Arden, Shakespeare's mother. Life is so trying. sigh. :0)
I awoke this morning to another of those gigantic greasefests which was formentioned, then Kate and I booted it back to Colchester to return our car rental which was due back today, and we're now in London staying with our friend Alexandra for the night, before heading back to Oxford tomorrow.
hopefully I'll check back in after the Oxford experience. Pip pip, Cheerio and all that, eh wot?
First, the roads. My God, what an adventure. How to describe them... imagine you've got a wet spaghetti noodle. no. thinner. angel hair pasta.yeah, that's it. Now, take that freshly cooked noodle, and let it drop onto the counter. see how that narrow little noodle has all those twists and turns? that's an english road. take that narrow road, and put stone walls on either side. and I mean, right on the side. no sidewalk, no curb, just road, then wall. throw in a dash of 60 miles an hour, and you've got yourself a driving experience!
there is actually a perfectly good explanation behind the shape of the roads--they were first laid out between those stone walls which serve as boundaries between farmlands, and were designed for horses and carts, not cars. and said farmlands do not fit into a nice little grid, which thus explains why the twists and turns are as they are.
I can't complain about all of it. very little of the driving is done on these wee roads, if it can be helped. The motorways are lovely modern roads with speed limits set at 70 miles an hour ( =120 km / hr), so you tend to get places fast. AND, despite speed cameras placed here and there to slow you down, there seems to be a complete lack of police highway patrols. So really, there's nothing to stop one from going 90-100 miles / hr(=135-150 km / hr), slowing down of course at the well marked speed camera locations. uhhh, not that we would EVER drive as such excess...
okay, FOOD. :0)
If my cardiologist read this, he'd have a heart attack (pun intended). Okay, I don't have a cardiologist.But I had to get that delicious food-related pun in there (pun not intended, in retrospect, but approved of none the less). But I do have a gastroentrologist, and he'd have a right shitfit (again, pun intended) if he saw what I've been eating. Largely, the English don't believe in eating something if it's not fried or deep fried, so it seems, and vegetables aren't high priority in any case. So, breakfast is bacon, and sausage,and eggs, and fried bread, and fried mushrooms and tomatoes. It's heaven. throw in the occasional cornish pasty (pronounced pass-tee)--a tasty steak and potato concotion wrapped in breading, add a pint of beer, cornish clotted cream, and ice cream, and I'm on the fast track to a serious belly.
As soon as I get home, I'm hitting the gym.
as for where we've been in the last week, we spent a few days in cornwall at my aunt's house visiting there, then is was on to the Welsh coast in the seaside town of Porthcawl. It was a picture perfect spot, and we did some day trips from there. Of none of the above, words can't describe some of the amazing scenes, so the photos will have to wait for my return home. amazing country all around.
As of yesterday, we left Wales, drove to Oxford to drop some bags (we'll be back by week's end), then travelled up to Stratford-on-Avon for the night. If the name rings a bell, it's the hometown of mr. Shakespeare... and since we were in his neck in the woods, we felt it was appropriate to take in a performance of Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Shakespeare theatre before retiring to our picture-perfect 16th century bed and breakfast in Wilmcote, the hometown of Mary Arden, Shakespeare's mother. Life is so trying. sigh. :0)
I awoke this morning to another of those gigantic greasefests which was formentioned, then Kate and I booted it back to Colchester to return our car rental which was due back today, and we're now in London staying with our friend Alexandra for the night, before heading back to Oxford tomorrow.
hopefully I'll check back in after the Oxford experience. Pip pip, Cheerio and all that, eh wot?
May 31, 2006
European travels, pt. one: England (wot wot)
3:30 PM--Left Vancouver on May 24th bound for London Gatwick airport. Flight was comfortable as we had booked more legroom before we left. As it turned out, more leg room came with more perks, too. We got premium-class treatment, which included choice of meals, free drinks the whole flight, and one of those nice warm towelettes at the end of the trip.
11 AM, next day--arrived in england,used the trains to get out to colchester where my sister lives. spend most of rest of day fighting to stay awake (didn't sleep on the plane... too many movies to watch!)
10:30 pm. Crash. sleep like a little 6'7" baby.
okay, enough of the timeline. you'll be here all week. the past seven days has seen us spend a few days up with my sister, where we visited the school she teaches at, got to know the island of mersea on which she lives, as well as take a day trip into London.
In London, we did a whirlwind walking day which included a trip on the London Eye--for those of you who don't know what that is, it's essentially a ferris wheel on steriods. absolutley huge. you can see the entire city of London from up there. Or, normally you can. as it was, it was pouring with rain and foggy, so the London Eye had a cataract that day, and we were in it. no matter, a few good views to be had.
we also visited with some of Kate's friends that live in town, having dinner and drinkgs by the thames with them.
fastforward, and we're in cornwall now, down south. staying at my aunt's house. Kate and I are here, as is my sister, and my parents are also visiting right now, too. generally, one does not take a honeymoon with so many members of one's family... but here we are. since we've been in cornwall,w e've been to the beach a few times, both to walk on the sand and the cliffs high above, and we went to the Eden project yesterday, a ecological recovery of an old clay mine. Sort of like the Biodome project in the states, but instead of being a massive failure, it's a huge success.
okay, will leave off there for the time being! will report back next week hopefully! ta for now!
11 AM, next day--arrived in england,used the trains to get out to colchester where my sister lives. spend most of rest of day fighting to stay awake (didn't sleep on the plane... too many movies to watch!)
10:30 pm. Crash. sleep like a little 6'7" baby.
okay, enough of the timeline. you'll be here all week. the past seven days has seen us spend a few days up with my sister, where we visited the school she teaches at, got to know the island of mersea on which she lives, as well as take a day trip into London.
In London, we did a whirlwind walking day which included a trip on the London Eye--for those of you who don't know what that is, it's essentially a ferris wheel on steriods. absolutley huge. you can see the entire city of London from up there. Or, normally you can. as it was, it was pouring with rain and foggy, so the London Eye had a cataract that day, and we were in it. no matter, a few good views to be had.
we also visited with some of Kate's friends that live in town, having dinner and drinkgs by the thames with them.
fastforward, and we're in cornwall now, down south. staying at my aunt's house. Kate and I are here, as is my sister, and my parents are also visiting right now, too. generally, one does not take a honeymoon with so many members of one's family... but here we are. since we've been in cornwall,w e've been to the beach a few times, both to walk on the sand and the cliffs high above, and we went to the Eden project yesterday, a ecological recovery of an old clay mine. Sort of like the Biodome project in the states, but instead of being a massive failure, it's a huge success.
okay, will leave off there for the time being! will report back next week hopefully! ta for now!
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