The World Trip

Day #25 (10-Apr-2007)

phoebe2007 — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:22:00 GMT

Day #25

Breakfast

(See day #21 for Breakfast description ;)

Plane

We check-out and then get a taxi to L Da Vinci Airport. We got to the Aiport at about 9:00am but our plane is not until 11:55am. I have learnt my lesson after Gatwick and we get here as early as we can. It takes us an hour to get from the entrance of the airport to our gate lounge. The lounge has internet wire internet (which is good) but not power supply (which i s bad - luckily my laptop is charged) so Amy and I hotseat on internet surfing.

London

Eventually we get on the plane and head to London. Oh no! not another baggage problem! This time neither Amy nor my luggage come out. We wait for ages then finallhy we go to the service desk (after doing the round of the carousel to check for stuck/misplaced baggage). The desk tells us that the staff forgot to unpack some luggage off the plane (he implies that they started packing other luggage on before they worked this out) and to wait for longer.

Eventually Amy took our tickets and went back to the desk. She discovered that they had put our luggage in a "secure" holding area for the flight to Seattle, because it was a connecting flight (even though it was not until the next day). Whether it was because we were tired or jetlagged or culture-shocked or any combination we decided not to argue this point and just left the airport.

We then got a taxi to our hotel. Amy was hungry, and she thought it was 5:50pm (she accidently set her watch an hour forward instead of backward during the flight - it was actually 3:50pm), so we went for something to eat.

Dinner

We went down to a pub called the "White Horse" pub (The English hava facination with pubs named after coloured animals). There we get some great conversation from some of the locals. One of them even bought me a beer. Eventually we leave there because they are not serving food, and find a hotel restaurant, where I have a (giant) meat pie, and Amy has egg and baked beans on toast.

Sleep

After dinner, we returned to the hotel where I typed this, watched something about the Roswell Incident, and Amy slept.

Day #24 (9-Apr-2007)

phoebe2007 — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:20:00 GMT

Day #24

Breakfast

(See day #21 for Breakfast description ;)

Train

After breakfast we got a train from Cornelia to Termini. We planned to see the maximum number of monuments today. We got off the train station and went to the bus statoin to get the 714 bus. Amy wanted to go to the (Domitini) Catacombs and the guide said we had to get a 714 bus then change to 218 bus.

We got off the 714 bus and waited. After about 30 min the 218 bus turned up, but it was packed with people and it went straight past without stopping. We then waited for another 30 min (in the Sun) and finally gave up. As we were walking away (about 30m from the bus stop) the 218 turned up again but failed to stop (and it was packed with people). The day was not looking good. We knew the San Giovanni Metro Station was around so we walked to it.

We got the train from San Giovanni to Termini, and it was packed as well. I was getting free sex from the guy behind me :(, and I felt a lot of jostling on my pockets and at this point I started getting worried that we would be pickpocketed (my wallet has been kept in my front pocket for the whole holidays and this was probably a good thing at this point). It was so crowded that when the door opened and more people tried to enter, everybody (all the Italians anyway) started yelling something in Italian that I didnt understand (probably something like "FULL!"). Eventually we got back to Termini (Termini is like Central Station in Brisbane).

After this we changed platforms to the Coloseo train to see if we could visit the Coloseum. This platform was packed with people so we were starting to get despondent. We finally decided in desparation to get a "Day Tour" bus.

We walked to the "start" point (Point #1) of the "Ciao Roma" day tour bus. We had pizza lunch at a nearby restaurant.

The bus was run by about half dozen young people. I was impressed with their organisational ability. I guess running 1 bus may not be too hard but I thought it was a good effort anyway. This was up "hop on-hop off" tour, which means the bus went past once every 30 min and we could hop off and get back on the next round. We got off at the Colosseum (I could not help myself and kept humming the Roman theme from Civiilisation ;).

Colosseum

I am very disappointed with the Colosseum. It is all old, run-down and is falling apart. Half the structure has gone, and there has been no maintenance or rennovation has been done for centuries. You would think that these Italians could put some new plaster down, or give it a paint job.

But seriously ;) It is huge and impressive looking. The down side was that the queue was huge and it took us over an hour to get in (I had decided that I was going not going to miss another monument - after 4 hours of trying to get to 1 - so we perserved through the queue). Rude people kept trying to push in and pass Amy & I at any opportunity. I kept getting frustrated and told Amy to protect her flank. She got very frustrated and was ready to kill the women behind her that kept bumping into her.

But finally we got in and looked around. I don't if looking at the stone was worth the queue, but combined with knowing what the Colosseum is, and its history I would say it was definitely worth it (If you dont know anything about Roman History, you will be disappointed). The thing that pleased me most was that I set foot on the ancient structure.

It is a stone structure of about 3 levels (although we could only get up 2 levels - the top level looked ruined). I think it is pretty much the model for modern sports stadiums and walking around it felt very much like being at the Gabba. I could almost imagine an AFL game going on in the centre. This stadium could even seat 55,000.

We then walked up to Constantine's Arch, which apart from the historical significance, just looked like a 10m high arch.

After this we got back on the Bus. It was now about 3pm and we decided not to chance another queue. There were people everywhere. I have learnt my lesson about Rome in Easter. Dont go there then. Pick another day, I dont know which day but not Easter.

On the bus, we went past Mussilini's palace (it wasnt called that - he just appropriated it), then we went into the Vatican, and passed several other ancient buildings (including Hadrians Mauseleum and the Spanish Steps), we got off the bus at Point #11 which we knew had a metro station nearby.

We got on the train at Babereni Station and I was most pleased to see that it was almost empty. This was real Italy, no tourists (except us ;) just Italians trying to get home. Tourists are like a blight in Italy. They were bad in Venice but it was real horror in Rome. Having said that, I was still happy because this was a learning experience and I learnt as much about modern culture than I did about ancient Roman culture (if not more).

Finally we came to an Internet Cafe so that I could transfer funds (man I hope none of these guys put keyboard loggers on these machines :( ). After this I go to an ATM and get more money out (as we were getting low).

Dinner

We have dinner again at the nice restaurant but this time have pasta instead of pizza (for something different ;). One of my favourite parts of Italy is the food. It is outstanding.

Sleep

We crash, in preparation of tomorrow's flight to London.

Day #23 (8-Apr-2007)

phoebe2007 — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 18:35:00 GMT

Day #23

Breakfast

(See day #21 for Breakfast description ;)

Again, no hot food. It seems the standard offer is salami and cheese pieces, cereal, and assorted breads. Tea, coffee, juice, "Acqua Minerale" are all offered.

Taxi to Mestre

We checked out and got a taxi to Mestre (even though it was walking distance we were now packed with luggage and we thought a taxi might be easier). The taxi took us there and it was 15 EU!! What a rip off!! (I later found out that taxi drivers add extra for Sunday + holidays (i.e. Easter Sunday) + to airports (or train stations obviously ;) + whatever else they decide to add). I was not happy with this amount but being in a country that didn’t really speak English I didn’t know what I could do and just paid up.

Train from Mestre to Roma

The train for Mestre to Roma was largely uneventful except we had a long conversation with a Latvian couple (We talked mostly about beaches, alcohol, temperatures [Latvia reaches -30 deg C in winter], capital cities [Riga], occupations [he was real-estate agent - he said that like Australia, Latvia has had a house price boom in recent years]).

Roma Termini

Finally we reached Rome, and Roma Termini train station. As I stepped off the train, I got harassed by a guy wanting to carry my luggage (not a train station staff member - just some yobbo). I said "no, thank you" and he said a whole bunch of things in Italian (probably better that I didn’t know). I then tried to ring the hotel to work out how far away they were (this is quite a daunting task). One phone said something on the screen that I guessed meant "out of order". So I went to the one next to it. I then dialled the number and an electronic voice said something to me in Italian. To my relief it then said in English "The number you have dialled is incorrect". I tried it again (from the print-out) and it still didn’t work so I gave up on this option. I then went to the railway information and asked how far away the hotel was. They said "go to tourist information near platform 24". So I went there (after dropping Amy off at an icecream shop). I looked everywhere but I could not find it, so I went back to Amy. She "tag-teamed" and got and went to railway information. They told her to go to "Tourist Information near platform 24" too. Amy did this and found the place was closed and then went back. The rude #%*$&# pretty much refused to talk to her after this but the other (nicer) guy with him told Amy it was closed because it was a public and told her to get a bus or taxi from outside the station (he also thought the hotel was a long way away).

We went outside and a "touting" taxi guy asked us if we wanted a taxi. We showed him the address and he said "oooh … a long way". We asked how much he thought it was cost and he said "40 EU". We looked at each other and decided we could accept that. He then took our bags and drove us across town (The train station was on the east side and our hotel was on the west side of Rome so it was a long way). I couldn’t see a meter (and he didn’t have taxi written on the top) so I asked him how much? He said "how much want you to pay?" He said "35 EU - 45 EU" I said "40 EU" he said "ok" and I paid. I don’t know if I was ripped off but after the 15 EU trip that morning this seemed like a bargain (we later read in the guide never to accept trips from these guys - it didn’t say why - He did drive like a maniac through the traffic - but that didn’t worry me - I have 2 brothers who have done some amazing things to/with cars ;).

Check-In

Finally we arrived at our hotel. During check-in some people came up and started rabbit ting off questions to the reception lady. She apologised to us and said how rude it was for people to do that in front of us (this is the most polite I have seen anyone on our trip yet!). She also said that the tour companies should be more elastic (her English is a bit funny - she used the word "kind" instead of "polite").

Dinner

For dinner we went to a restaurant down the road. Nobody here spoke any English which I found very refreshing (it made me think we were finally in a non-tourist area). It was great fun making our orders and telling her that the food was "buonissimo" (the word I learnt from a shopkeeper earlier when I misused "bellissimo"). She was very happy with this (especially as she knew I only spoke English and appreciated the few words of Italian that I could get out).

I went to the toilets and they only had female symbol on them. Amy asked her where the "Toilette" was, and she pointed at the girls toilets. I did not want to set off any alarms, so I said "senora" and pointed to myself and shook my head ;). She said "no, duo" and motioned me in. Ok …. I went in and there was a door inside with a girl on it and one with a boy on it. Why they do it like this? Who knows.

After all this I then asked for "il Conto Per Favoure" and Amy paid (she called me her "Toy Boy" which the waitress seemed to understand, and was amused by) and then we left.

Sleep

One down side of Italian hotels is that neither of the (3-star) hotels we have stayed in have kettles, or tea making facilities, whereas every British hotel did.

Also, one of the most critical items on these holidays is Febreeze - don’t leave home without it.

One thing we have noticed is that in Britain and to lesser extent here people spit on the footpath. This doesn’t seem to happen in Australia (anymore). It means you have to keep an eye out when you are walking :(.

Day #22 (7-Apr-2007)

phoebe2007 — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 18:33:00 GMT

Day #22

Breakfast

(See day #21 for Breakfast description ;)

Train

The train is getting quite easy for us now, especially as we are becoming comfortable with words. I have decided that foreign languages are like a massive influx of consumer goods with strange names (e.g. iPod). Once you get use to them, they become 2nd nature to you.

Internet Café

We eventually we arrive at Venice Santa Lucia (Venice Island Terminating Railway station) again, and we head straight for an internet café (you might say "why would you waste time in an internet café in a beautiful place like Venice?" - well let me tell you, the place was packed). Here we cancel our hotel booking in our stay-over in London (on the way to the US) because we will arrive in Heathrow and depart again the next day, and we thought it was a waste to stay at Islington (now that we understand the locations better). We make a new booking in a hotel in Heathrow (the internet has made this sort of thing so easy).

Post Office (Officio Postale)

After the internet café we head to the Officio Postale to mail off some stuff. The wonderful thing about being in a foreign country is that every new type of place is a new learning experience. The Officio Postale has its own language and most of the words were not in the phrase book (the Government having their own language - never! ;). We unloaded more junk into boxes and after a long and complicated conversation came up with the bill. Silly us, we forgot to ask if they took VISA at the beginning (and they didn’t). We didn’t have enough cash on us either. Luckily the (Colin's) Phrase book had "Where is the Automatic Teller Machine" question it. I started to read it to the guy, but gave up and just showed him the sentence in the book. He then pointed out to the machine (100m away), I went out and got some money and came back and paid.

Pizza

After the post office we got roped into a restaurant by an exuberant waiter standing on the footpath. There I had a Pizza Babaru(pron. - wouldn’t have a clue how to spell it) which tasted very nice (I love Italian Pizzas so far … they are every bit as good if not better than Australian Pizzas).

Boat to PL. Roma

It is now getting close to 2pm and we haven't got to San Marco yet. We decided to get a water bus using our 2 day tickets to use the ferry. The boat ended up going the wrong way and terminating at PL. Roma. It took us awhile to realize that we had to walk 10 metres to another platform for the reverse run (luckily the rest of the tourists were confused too, so we got to the reverse platform before anyone else ;)

Boat to Rialto

We now got on the boat in the reverse direction and a ticket collector ("Biglettio Per Favoure" (don’t trust my spelling ;) came up and inspected ours. She then told us that because we hadn't stamped our ticket it had started at time of issue :(. Which meant we had 2 hours left on it (What a waste! 25 EU each for 2 boat trips - little did we know that she waived the 25 EU fine that you get for not stamping tickets). Amy was quite upset at this, she said wished she had spent the money on Italian shoes instead.

Bassilica(sp?) San Marco

There was a board on the island that gave instructions for having a pleasant time in Venice. One of the interesting ones was "remember that Venice is more than San Marco". I don’t think the tourists knew this because outside of San Marco it was quiet but inside (and on the road to it) it was chockers/overlowing with tourists.

We came to the Bassilica but it had a queue of hundreds of people. I could not stomach queueing for that long (especially as it was now about 4pm) so we went to the Doje's Palace instead.

Doje's Palace

The queue here was better. The Doje's Palace is where the various Doje's (like an Emperor/Governor) lived in the Republic of venice. It also had courts inside and council chambers. It was a huge stone and marble place with giant ornate rooms with paintings all over the walls (no, I do not know who the artists were - art doesn’t do that much for me). The bedrooms didn’t have furniture in them unfortunately (I asked Amy if this house was big enough for her, and after consideration she agreed it was but said it would need more bookcases ;). After these we came to the armoury.

Cool! The Armoury! I was gaining XP here by the minute. There were 1-handed axes, 1-handed maces, daggers, 1-handed swords, 2-handed swords, full plate mail, helmets and chest plates (sorry mages … no staves). Some of the chest pieces had puncture holes in places that made me feel for the person who wore it last.

After this "section" there was another "section" with pistols. I wasn’t as interested in these as I am more of sword/axe type person.

After the armoury came the prisons. There is a bridge that crosses a canal called the "Bridge of Sighs" because (apparently) the prisoners crossing here would sigh as they saw there last daylight. We crossed the bridge and down into the prisons. They were effectively stone cells in which some had wooden beds (no mattress - there was no indication if there was ever mattresses on them though I doubt there would have been). These cells were used up to the 1940s and had graffiti from the prisoners displayed in them. Guess what the prisoners drew in the late 19th century? Pictures of big breasted naked women, and pictures of penises. Sad. There was the occasional piece of art that was half-decent but largely it was rubbish.

At the end of the prisons, I said to Amy that the prisons were not as bad as I thought they would be (there was plenty of head room and some faced out to a courtyard), just after this we saw a plaque that said that these were the "new" prisons ("new" means 17th century ;) and they had been built to replace some "old" prisons to try to improve the conditions for prisoners (such humanitarians ;). One thing that concerned me is that the prisons were down low and I wondered what happened if Venice flooded (which it did quite a bit). I then realized that this was not something I should be pondering.

After this we then had some afternoon tea at the Café and I had an in-depth conversation with the Bar girl about long plane flights and how to keep yourself entertained on them. Amy then came up and dragged me away "for safety reasons".

Pakistani's

After the Palace we went back to the Bassilica and it had no queue. It was also closed. It was now about 6pm (the Bassilica closed at 5pm), so we decided to head back to the boat to get to Ferrovia (the port next to the Train Station). While in the queue a couple of Pakistani's asked us what the fair was. We got talking and they asked me if I thought "Australia would win the World Cup?". I had said that I hadnt been following it because I was on holidays but that "If anyone would want Australia to lose it would be the state players because then the top players might retire and they would get a shot at the top spots". They then said "You mean the Sheffield Shield Players? Warne has retired, and McGrath too - so there should be some spots. I guess Gilchrist and Ponting has some years left though". Damn! These Pakistani's know Australian cricket better than I do! They then asked me if I knew where any cheap accomodation was. They hadn't booked any and were looking down the barrel of sleeping outside. I (helpfully) suggested that they buy a tent and 2 sleeping bags, and they laughed and said they might have to. We then said our goodbyes and parted company.

Boat to Ferrovia

We then got on the boat, and it was packed to the eyeballs. I kept having flashbacks to news stories about vastly overloaded ferries sinking and 200 people dying on them. I said to Amy that if the boat started sinking to make straight out the window. This boat went all the way around the Great Canal and we got to see lots of marvellous building. Some teenager kept waving from our boat to all the people on the gondala's and they waved back (this also generated a lot of smiles and mirth - so it looked quite amusing). Finally we reached Ferrovia and the crowd climbed off.

Train to Mestre

We got the train back to Mestre (we are experts now ;). We stopped at McDonalds where I had some chicken nuggets and a thickshake. We then walked back to the hotel and went back to our room.

Sleep

Damn! Back too late (9pm) to watch Star Trek again! Oh well, we watch one episode of the Italian version of Truth or Dare (for those of you who watch the show, the Italian version has the boxes wrapped in string, and the bank Offerto (offer) comes in on a old telephone), and then we crash for the night.

A word of warning to Italian public transport travellers: buying a ticket does not mean you have a valid ticket. The ticket must be stamped at a "stamping booth" just before you first use it. This activates the life expectancy of the ticket (which can be 60 min, 24 hours, 48 hours depending on the type of ticket). Not stamping ticket is an offence of which a fine of 25 EU can be issued.

Day #21 (6-Apr-2007)

phoebe2007 — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 18:32:00 GMT

Day #21

Breakfast

Breakfast was a cereals with some cold ham and cheese (the guide says that breakfast isn't a big event for Italians and to not expect a hot breakfast). After all the hot breakfasts, I enjoyed something simple anyway.

Train

After breakfast we walked down to the Mestre train station (We are staying on the Venice Mainland in a suburb called Mestra). Amy had bought a 48 hour public transport pass so we were able to get on the train free. Amy knew that we had to go to "Venezia St Lucia" which was venice island train station. There was an electronic train board telling the train times and their platforms, so getting there was pretty easy. The train went off the mainland and across the sea towards the islands. Finally we arrive at the station (the train terminates there as well, making it twice as easy) after about 10 minutes.

Venice Island

Venice Island has a thing the runs around it called the grand canal (It looks like a river that runs around the island - for you WoW crackers it looks like the canal in Undercity - only much bigger, and bluer ;) ). The train station is just outside the grand canal. The area was packed with tourists. There were boats going up and down the canal in droves. I was not keen to get a boat (or a gondola - I have heard about the cost being prohibitive - 60 EU [AUD$80] per ride) so we decide to walk through Venice island. We cross over a bridge that leads to the "inner" circle of Venice Island. The town is very picturesque (I know I have over used this word - I just cant think of a better description). It has beautiful old buildings and narrow stone streets. One tragedy is that the buildings have graffiti all over them. What person in their right mind would graffiti this?

Pizza

It is lunch time, so we decide to stop for lunch - and our first pizza in Italy. We order the Sicilian Pizza (for Sam and Mary - yeh, I know we ordered it in Venice so it doesn’t count ;) and it is pretty good (it is what I expected from what I have heard about Italian pizzas). It was tomato and cheese with some whole olives on top. I am starting to say Bonjourno(sp), Gratzi(sp), and Arrividerchi(sp) more often as I start to gain confidence. As we are eating our pizza, some accordian player and singer come up and start playing music at us. After they finish he says something that I couldn’t understand, but his holding out of a cup (with the shaking gesture) is unmistakable. I give him 1 EU (probably too much but I am learning) and he leaves.

Mask shop

After this we arrive at a nice mask shop. I look up the phrase book for Post Office and it says Offeechio(phon.) Postalee(phon.) which when I say this to the lady she says back "Post Office" (It worked!! ;) and pointed in the direction. We buy some masks off her and then leave.

Guild Hall (Scuola Grande Di San Giovanni Evangelista)

We followed the map of the island (which I have the hang of now) to a "Point of interest" (I have trouble reading the names, both because of the language and my long sightedness :( ). This POI is a old (pre 1369) guild hall (multiple trades) was also a place for the poor (in many ways it was similar to the guild hall in York - with the conference hall upstairs and a poor area downstairs - but was much more lavish and much bigger). It was also a place where people without family who did not want to commit to a religious order could go for support and companionship. It was very beautiful with marble stairs and floors, great stone walls, numerous works of art, and a piece of the actual cross that Jesus died on. One nasty painting was of St John being boiled in oil (at the order of the Emperor [cant remember his name]).

Basilica Santa Maria Gloriosa Di Frari

After the guild hall we went to a church (more like a cathedral) [name above - I am not writing that again ;) ] and went inside. It was huge (and very pretty of course ;). It had giant statues on the walls, and mausoleums too. There was mausoleum that had negroes holding the ceiling up, and some undead skeletons looking over them (they were described as "black demons" but it was obvious to me that they were negro slaves). There were prayer areas and confessional boxes. There was statues of the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist with pews so that you could pray. The floor had tombs under it and it felt disconcerting to walk over them (maybe that is the old catholic boy coming out in me ;).

Spagetti Bolognaise

After the cathedral we needed to visit the Toilette (the guide calls them "Servici" but the toilet door had Toilette written on it - so meh), so Amy and I stopped off at a Ta verna. The guy that served at the bar barely spoke English so I was getting to have more fun with the language barrier (no kidding, I really enjoy it). I am using the old text-based adventure games algorithm where it could only parse 2 word sentences to form my sentences. 2-word sentences seem to have the best hit rate. I manage to ask for "duo aqua minerale", "une gas une no gas" which has the desired result (1 still mineral water, 1 sparkling water". I also ask for "spaghetti bolognaise" (Food is easy - just order pizza or spaghetti and the words are all the same). He then said "blah blah blah lasagna blah blah". I said "si". I think in the end he was asking me the type of pasta I wanted, because when I got my spagetti bolognaise it was with square pieces rather than long "noodles".

Icecream shop

After walking around a bit more Amy has decided to visit every toilet on venice Island, so we stopped at an ice-cream shop. Me, having too much guilt about using a toilet without buying something, went to a chest freezer, grabbed a dessert, and went to the counter to pay for it. The owner came back in (after serving someone outside) and started explaining something to me. With a lot of hand motioning (Italians are good for this ;) I realized that he meant that I had to order it as a "sit down" meal. I ordered the chocolate dessert plus 2 cappucinos (always a safe drink in italy ;). At the end I asked him "il corno par favoire" (which means the bill please). He gave me the bill and I said "gratzi-eah"(phon.), He smirked a lot and chuckled a bit (which I assumed was his amusement at me trying to speak italian - I don’t mind, it is good to be on the foreign side for something different + I am happy if they at least understand what I am saying even if I sound silly). After that I bid him "Arrividerchi" and then leave.

Internet Café

There are tnnnes of Internet cafes on Venice Island and we decide to stop in at one and upload my blog + check email (Mestre seems a bit light on the ground for facilities so we get in while the going is good). We get 2 computers, and they are in italian ;). The dialog boxes have "Ok" and "Annulla" (Try changing your windows to italian just for the fun of it - Thanks Anthony ;) It became apparent to me that I couldn’t remember all the shutdown options when I came to logout and the lady shut it down for me.

Train

Finally at about 4:30pm we headed back for the train. Getting a ticket was a somewhat confusing process. Because Mestre is not a terminating station there is no "Mestre Train", so we have to get help to find out what it is. When we arrive at the help desk, the guy points out that our tickets don’t work on trains (we were told when we bought the 25 EU 48 hour ticket that it worked on ALL public transport - ok, contextual use of the word ALL). I go to an electronic ticket machine (which has an english mode) but cant find Mestre Station. We eventually discover it is called "Venezia Mestre" (This station actually services areas all over Italy (up to Roma I think), so it was like saying "Brisbane Southbank". This silly machine wont give us a ticket so we go to a ticket window. I get the tickets but forget to find out which platform (doh! And there is a big queue too). Amy (the genius) finds a timetable on one of the walls to "Udine" that has "Mestre" on it. Once we know the terminating station we are home and hosed, because each platform has the terminating station written on the electronic board.

Mestre is the first stop on the line (or so we thought) and we are discussing it while an Italian couple look on. At the stop we jump off and they call to us "No Mestre!", so we jump back on saying "Gratzi, Gratzi". At the next stop, we say "Mestre?" and they say "si". We say "Gratzi" and then get off (they get off too, we say "Gratzi" again - I say to Amy "lets hang back so we don’t have to keep saying "Gratzi".

There are 2 signs "Uscita Lato Margharita" and "Uscita Lato Mestre". I take us out the wrong way we turn around and leave the right way. We then head back to the hotel.

Sleep

The food in Italy is wonderful. Full of flavour, and a much welcome change after the British food (sorry guys, its true - British food is not that good).

We watch (for the 2nd night running) an episode of Star Trek in Italian. I think these episodes are even more interesting in Italian than they are in English ;)

Day 20 (5-Apr-2007)

phoebe2007 — Sat, 7 Apr 2007 00:27:00 GMT

Day #20

Breakfast

At first we thought that we were only entitled to cold buffet here so when we saw the all the hot food we tried to ask the waitress what we were allowed to and not allowed to eat. The waitress looked confused. Amy went to reception and they said we were entitled to full hot breakfast. Woot! (It later turned out that the cold buffet was actually during our stay in Italy - more on that later)

We went back to our room, packed our luggage and then checked-out at 8:15am. Our flight to Venice wasn’t until 1pm so we had plenty of time (or so we thought). Amy was even considering a bus tour of the city.

At 8:15am we checked out, and reception rang for a cab. It did not (finally) arrive until 8:50am (and that was after repeated calls by reception). He dropped us to Oxford train station at 9:20am. We thought better than doing the bus tour (luckily) and jumped on the train. We got to Reading about 10:30am. We changed to Gatwick Airport. We arrived at Gatwick Airport at 11:50am. Gatwick Airport is huge, it is made up of 3 terminals a long way apart. We had to get a mini-train to north terminal. We arrived there at 12:05pm. I went to check-in and there was a queue of at least 200 people (and it was moving at a snails pace). Now it was looking bad. Amy went off and did electronic check-in while I waited in the queue. At 12:20am an Airport lady came through calling for people going to Venice (imagine a snaking queue, so that the whole place looked more like a rock concert crowd with someone way at the back calling "Anyone for Venice" - they made 2 passes before I even heard them). I raised my hand and the queue performed a virtual pass-on of my message, tapping her on the shoulder. She motioned me out of the queue and I left (which is an enormous effort in itself - I had to do a moses and part the queue, and also get through all the ropes as well) She then hurriedly led me to the check-in desk via the back way (I grabbed Amy who had gotten the tickets and I was trying to negotiate with other staff) and checked our stuff in. Then we went to screening and got passed through without event (luckily - it was now 12:30pm). At last we had made it or so we thought. The walk from screening to the gate was about 500m going up and down escalators and around winding corridors. At this point we were running and I thought Amy was not going to make it ("go on without me" she said - haha - she actually said "you leave me and I will kill you"), she was in a bad way (I don’t think her having taken her blood pressure tablets yet was helping either).

We finally got there at 12:45pm with 15 minutes to spare. We got on the plane and we were the first ones there! After all that effort (I think other people were mulling around the gates outside - but we didn’t see anyone nearby when we boarded) we got there with plenty of time. Still, 8:15am to 12:45pm to get to the airport was way longer than we had anticipated.

Finally the plane took off. The only eventful thing about the flight was passing over a huge snow-covered mountain range (probably the italian or swiss alps). We landed at Marco Polo Airport and I was delighted to see things written in Italian (with English written in a subordinate font in most cases or not at all occasionally) (In Singapore, English seemed like the dominant language - so I was disappointed there - here it is the opposite way around).

We came up to the guard who stamped our passports and then let us through. (He said "bago" - I still don’t know what that means)

The luggage claim was a nuisance. My bag didn’t turn up on the carousel, and I thought we were going to have to report lost baggage. I did a round of the carousel first to see that it hadn't got caught on something, and found it lying against the wall, and open (I assume some yobbo picked it up, looked in it, realized it wasn’t theirs and then just left it against the wall - thanks scum).

We did an inspection of it to make sure nothing was planted and then left the airport.

We decided to wing it and get a bus to our hotel. We knew it was near the Mestre Railway station, so we got on that bus. One annoying thing, was that there was no hint about the name of the next stop (I guess this is the same for Brisbane buses too), this makes it very hard for a person who doesn’t speak the language to work out where they are. I had to keep stooping at each stop to look at the sign (outside) to work out where we were. ok, this stop is "Fermata", couldn’t see the next sign, next one is "Via SomethingorRather", couldn’t read the next one, next one is "Fermata" - what gives? Amy looked up (Colin's) Italian language book - it turned out that "Fermata" is Italian for Bus Stop. So I had looked at a whole bunch of signs, going "Yep … Bus Stop" - lol. Amy said "Look for a street called Miranese" (where our hotel is). I saw it, so we jumped off the bus (NOTE: everyone drives on the right-side here - so you have to look to your left when starting on a crossing).

We walked the couple of 100 metres to via Miranese (via means Street). Unfortunately it said "via Miranese 30-40" (note: they write their street signs backwards too). The street was way too short (our hotel was at via Miranese 111).

Amy eventually plucked up the courage (I was too shy) to ask one of the locals for directions. They responded in broken English that it was about 2km down the road (Even though most of the locals know English they are not too fluent with it - and it is a bit of a struggle for them - I feel guilty speaking to them in English). Some of the footpaths are very narrow here and it is a struggle to drag our luggage here. My first contact with the locals is with a woman with a pram who cant get past a pole that these idiots have stuck in the middle of a narrow footpath. She is contemplating going out onto the road (there is a step down to the road). There is traffic going past regularly (so she is kind of playing Frogger). I come up to her and offer to help carry the pram (in English). She replies "No thank you, light will go green. I will go then". Amy & I press on. Finally we arrive at our hotel and check in. I say "graccious" to the reception. She looks at me confused (stupid me - graccious is spanish for thank you). I ask her what is Italian for thank you, she says "gratzi"(sp) [I am trying to say "gratzi" instead of thank you now].

We went looking for somewhere to eat. It is funny, people come up to you and rattle off a whole bunch of Italian. When you say that you only speak English (I usually say "Sorry, I cant speak Italian", the conversation changes to English (like I said before it is still a struggle for most of them to speak English and it is unfair to expect it from them). We go to a café, and order these ice-cream sundae type things (mine was called "After Eight" - Mint icecream, with Mint chocolate biscuits and some other sweet biscuit). At last food with taste!!

After this we went to a restaurant (we have to stop eating at restaurants - it costs a fortune - but this was the only place open that served meals). And I had a glorified Chicken & Chips (The waiter called them "Fried Potato"). The waiter also asked if I wanted the "Water with gas" (Sparkling Mineral Water ;). Amy had steak & veges (I am not doing the food justice by describing it like that - it was restaurant quality food). There was a basket full of Bread/Breadsticks on the table that I was not sure if we were allowed to eat, and there was no butter. Amy looked up her guidebook and it said that Bread & Wine was something that Italians commonly consumed while waiting for their meal - and no, butter was never provided with it). At the end of the meal, I asked the waiter how you called for a waiter. He looked confused, Amy said "in french you say 'Garcon'". He said "ahhh … 'Accomaderie'(sp)". I asked him if it was custom to pay the bill at the counter or at the table. He said either (well actually he said "What is better for you? You can pay here or at the counter"). We got up to pay. Amy left 1 Euro on the table (a tip for the waiter - as suggested by the guide book). We went to the counter, and Amy ;) paid. While there I said to the lady "do you know what 'Accomaderie' means?" (I was trying a blind experiment ;). She looked blankly at me. Amy chastised me for torturing the locals, and I said I didn’t want to ask if 'Accomaderie' meant waiter, because then I would be leading the witness. Amy just sighed and we moved on.

We then went back to our room and crashed (it had been a big day).

Day 19 (4-Apr-2007)

phoebe2007 — Sat, 7 Apr 2007 00:24:00 GMT

Day #19

This was a fairly uneventful day. We got a train from Rye to Oxford, changing at London. We got a taxi to our Hotel (Hawkeworth Hotel(?)). We paid 50 pounds per night for it so I was expecting very modest accommodation. I couldn’t have been more wrong. It was a luxurious affair. We went down to the restaurant and had a first class meal (and paid 50 pounds [for the two of us] for it). We then retired and went to bed.

It was shame we didn’t get to see much of Oxford. We checked in after 5pm, checked out at 8:15am. It was a long way from the centre of town. Unfortunately we spent our whole stay at Oxford in the hotel.

Day #18 (3-Apr-2004)

phoebe2007 — Thu, 5 Apr 2007 02:55:00 GMT

Day #18

We woke up to the best breakfast (9am) that I have had so far in England (it was still a Full English Breakfast - standard menu in B&Bs in this country). Then we set off to our next tourist stop - the Laundromat. During that time we visited the Post Office and a privately-run museum (it is a shame that in Hastings there looks like no official support for the heritage of the place - it is all supported by private effort, or so it appears). After we come back from the Laundromat we talk to the owner of the guest house. He used to be an IT manager in London, then decided it was more rewarding to run a B&B (any ideas anyone? ;). He told us he was amazed that Australians keep telling him good the rail service is, when the Brits all complain about it (Ed: no comment ;).

Finally we bid him farewell, and head to the train station where we get a train to our next stop - Rye.

Rye

We arrive at Rye after 20 min on the train. Wow! What a difference this place is. Rye is a beautiful town. Very picturesque with cobbled streets and lots of heritage buildings. The people are more up-market (a travel guide calls them "bohemian"(sp)). As we walk up the street towards our hotel we pass under a giant ancient gate called Land(?) Gate. Then we arrived at the hotel (The Rye Lodge). This was a 3-star hotel but I don’t know why, it looked more like a 4-star to me.

After we checked-in we started a walk around town. We passed a shop called Shamrock textiles (which sold some linen tea towels that Amy desperately wanted) but was closed. Amy was disappointed. When then went to Ypres Tower, it was closed too. Finally we came to St Mary's Church which was open. It had this tower with cool stairs that went up to the bell tower. At one point the corridor up was to narrow for me to walk straight-shouldered in, and I had to turn sideways to get up. The steps were very steep but after 3 levels we got to the top. The view was magnificent (apart from the vertigo I was feeling). You could see the whole town from up here. But it was bitterly cold (from the wind) so we stayed for about 5-10 minutes then went back down. We went to Simon the Pie man Shop and had a cup of tea then went back to the hotel.

Dinner

We had dinner in the hotel, in their banquet room. I naively ordered their fish (Amy had the chicken) but it was full of bones, and this annoyed me greatly. Amy (very nicely) swapped dinners with me, and then she braved through the bones. We then retired to the bedroom after this, Amy fell asleep and I played computer games until midnight (I am starting to miss World of Warcraft - I am playing Civilisation IV but it is not much of a substitute - I have some catching up to do when I get back to Australia - god, I am pathetic ;)

(Also I later read a tourist guide that described Hastings as "seedy and run-down")

England

Here are some general notes about England:

Funny toilet flush - They don’t have a half-flush and a full-flush like they do here, Instead you flush once (for half flush) and then again (for full-flush). This is disconcerting.

Weird language - When I went to get a coffee from a coffee shop the lady said to me "We are closed. If you want a coffee go across the road and get one yourself." What she meant was: "Sorry, we are closed. There is a self-serve coffee facility in the shop across the road". She wasn’t trying to be rude (I don’t think she was) but the language comes across that way, I have seen several instances of this in other conversations as well.

Things being closed - A warning to anyone wanting to visit these sights: outside of tourist season, these attractions may be closed 50% or even 100% of the time. It pays to know before hand what their opening times are like.

Smoking everywhere - In July 2007 England will adopt similar laws to Australia about smoking in restaurants, pubs, etc. I think that a lot higher proportion of Brits smoke than Australians … they are going to be in for a rude shock. Suffice to say my lungs have copped a bit of a beating over here.

CCTVs (Closed Circuit Television) everywhere - London has CCTVs everywhere (a statistic quoted on the radio said that a londoner gets photographed on average 300 times a day). They are going to be adding speakers and voice overs to the CCTVs soon as well, and it will really feel like "Big Brother" after that (the book 1984 - not the TV show you philistines ;)

Day #17 (2-Apr-2007)

phoebe2007 — Thu, 5 Apr 2007 02:49:00 GMT

Day #17

Train

We got a taxi from our guest house at Haworth to Keighley station, then a train to London. We arrived at Paddington Station, and we realized that we had to go to Charing Cross to get the next train to Hastings (one of the weaknesses of British Rail, in all other respects it is great, is that there is not a single station that all the regional trains to all meet at, so there is a bit of station switching in London). Our tickets didn’t cover tube trains but when I asked Tourist Info how much a taxi from Paddington to Charing Cross would cost, they said "Prohibitive". Amy decided to chance it anyway, and in the end it only cost us about 10 pounds (This is not too bad when you are carrying a lot of luggage around). We then got the train out of London (which like a lot of cities in England goes straight from urban to country - there is no suburban in-between) across beautiful country to Hastings. We passed a station (when almost at Hastings), called "Battle". This apparently is where the Battle of Hastings was fought in 1066 (it is actually about 6 miles from Hastings - which in England might was well be a world away). Finally we arrived at Hastings

Hastings

Hastings is a dump. It is actually two towns "Old" Hastings (locals call it "Old town"), and "New" Hastings (locals just call it Hastings). The old town is picturesque enough (although not as good as the stuff we have seen so far), but the new Hastings is a run-down rough looking beach town (they have covered the beach with an amusement park which just looks plain tacky). I think the constant beatings it has copped (1066: invasion by William, 1200s : storm destroys harbour and town can no longer be a port : 14oos/1700s : French smash the town ; WWII - Germans bomb the place) has taken its toll on the town.

The place we stayed at was excellent (with the exception of the place at Hammersmith - every Guest House/Hotel we have stayed at has been equal or better than the town it was in). Before dinner I found an internet (gaming) café and tried (for the first time) to log into World of Warcraft. Amy came back after 10 minutes and said she had seen everything interesting in the town. She was annoyed when she saw me logging into WoW (she thought I was just going in to check e-mail), but was relieved when I found that I couldn’t because it was the old version. The apologetic owner refunded my money as I left, but he & Amy joked about a deal they had made to make sure I couldn’t play (haha - funny guys).

We dropped into 3 pubs to look for dinner, but none of them served food. In addition most of them allowed smoking, and we were filled with smoke. I can (barely) tolerate cigarette smoke but Amy is not a chance.

Dinner

Finally we stopped at a place called Fagins Diner. For entrée I have BBQ chicken wings, Amy has prawn cocktail. For mains I had pizza, and Amy had spaghetti bolognaise. We were very underwhelmed by the food (suffice to say these guys really knew how to work the microwave oven - the thing that annoyed me most is the signs said it was wood-fired pizza - yeah maybe 2 weeks ago it was).

Sleep

We decided then to call it a night and we headed back to our guest house.

One of the cool things about our guest house was the doors were often shorter than I was.

Day #16 (1-Apr-2007)

phoebe2007 — Mon, 2 Apr 2007 21:01:00 GMT

Day #16

Breakfast

Oops! We woke up too late for our "free" breakfast (part of the room charge). These (st/d)ody British wouldn’t give us a discount in a fit. When we mentioned that the clock they provided wasn’t set for summer time (and so was an hour behind), the owner said "Everybody plays with that clock, I wouldn’t trust it for the time" (Time is one of the hardest things to manage when on holidays - someone once said a holiday is nothing to do and all the time in the world to do it - maybe I am not on a holiday?). The kitchen was closed and he was not going to open it for anyone. So we decided to cut our losses and head into town for breakfast.

Howath has 2 parts - the main town (which we largely ignored) and the Bronte Village part (which we spent most of our time). (As previously mentioned) Bronte Village is cobble-stone streets with pubs and small shops lining them. A gentlemen as on the street "fishing" for customers for his café and he roped us in. He asked us where we from and we said "Australia". He then said how impressed he was that Sydney did a lights off day, and Australia was phasing out the incandescent light bulb (and going to fluoros) and pointed out how all his lights were fluoros). The waitress then came out and misplaced the tray on our table, which overturned and crashed pots and tea all over the floor. She ran off flustered, while the owner (who was the "fishing" guy) tried to calm the situation (being Aussies we were much more relaxed about it than everyone else was - I just said "Don't let it happen again" [just kidding ;)]). After breakfast we then made our way to Bronte Parsonage Museum.

Bronte Parsonage Museum

Bronte Parsonage Museum is the house where the sisters grew up and wrote their books. The family has quite a sad history.

Patrick Bronte married Elizabeth(?) Bramwell and had Maria, Elizabeth, Patrick Bramwell Bronte, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte. Maria and Elizabeth both died at roughly 10 years old from diseases (probably TB) that they caught at their school (which was a dump - it is written about under the pseudonym of "Lowood School" in Jane Eyre).

Mrs Bonte died of Breast Cancer (I think) when the bronte girls were small children.

Patrick Bramwell was a brat, who set off for Art school but got distracted by a pub and blew all his money, failed to hold down several jobs and then finally died (at about 30 yo) of TB. Emily contracted TB at his funeral (purportedly) but refused to get medical attention ("its just a cold, really") until it was too late, she died less than a year later (she was about 30 years old too). Anne then died a short time after that (roughly the same year) of TB (probably) in her 20s.

Charlotte was very lonely but managed to hitch up with some guy (Arthur Nicholls) and they married when she was 38 (wow! She was ancient when they got married ;). A year or 2 later she died of consumption (and she was pregnant too ;( ). A short time after that (the now old and senile) Patrick Bronte father died (but he outlived them all).

A life-long friend of Charlotte Bronte released a Biography of the Bronte family which was supported by the father (and would have been supported by Charlotte by all accounts) but was condemned by Charlotte's husband and the town of Haworth in general (because it rubbished the school and exposed an affair in the time).

The Bronte Sister pretty much did not like the town of Haworth (and didn’t have much good to say about it). They mostly hung around the house and wrote and egged each other on with their writings. Because they were women, to get published they assumed the (male) pseudonyms of Currie Bell, Ellis Bell, and Acton Bell (see the connection? ;).

Their writing was criticized by the establishment for being coarse and unfeminine (people could still tell the writers were female). For example their stories contained kissing (god forbid!!) which women in those days should not write about.

Patrick Bronte (the father) did not like the state of the town and in 1850(? - I am writing this all from memory ;), commissioned a guy called Babbage to do a review of the town, The report that came back was damning. 41% of children in the town died before 6 years old, the average life expectancy was 27 years ("worse than some of the unhealthiest parts of London"). Only 1 in 4 1/2 houses had privvies (toilet). The place stank of human waste. He recommended amongst other things:

That sewerage be installed to take away human waste
That water closets be installed
That fresh water be made available on tap
That the town stop the practice of putting stone slabs on top of graves in the graveyard (apparently this is unhygenic because it suppresses the decomposition of human bodies - they never stopped doing this but they did plant large trees to aid in the process - Amy was not feeling well at all these things - and the green moss over all the graves spooked her too)

The Bronte's had a low of opinion of Haworth and I say that in a way I have to agree with them. The town had no intellectual attractions apart from this family and still has none today (in fact its 3 main attractions are the Bronte Parsonage, a wool shed, and some mines). The place we stayed in was very lavish, and the "old" town is cute but otherwise the place just looks like a typical small town. The locals also exploit the Bronte name everywhere even though by all accounts they had a poor relationship with the family at the time.

Bronte Wool Shed

We left the museum and then went to the wool shed (called the Bronte wool shed - the irony is that Charlotte Bronte once described the place as "the chimney that vomited vile black fumes"). It was nothing amazing and apart from an original loom on display was pretty much just a shop.

Dinner

We went down to the Old White Lion again for dinner. Even though Haworth as a town lacks greatness (and probably relies too heavily on its tourism - they better pray that people don’t lose interest in the Brontes), the individual shops in it are excellent. I would recommend the Old White Lion to anyone looking for a place to eat and drink.

(Apart from the bar menu being a limited menu - the usual English faire - but I think this is the same in all English pubs). We then headed back to the guest house.

Sleep

We listened to music again for the rest of the night and then slept in preparation for our big train trip (trips actually) from Haworth to Hastings (Haworth-Keighley-Leeds-London-Hastings).

Day #15 (31-Mar-2007)

phoebe2007 — Mon, 2 Apr 2007 21:00:00 GMT

Day #15

Walk around York

This hotel does not server breakfast which makes things easier for us. We get up late and starting exploring York. We first go to the Post Office to unload. While there the public phone box inside rings and Amy answers it (lol). They said that an emergency call was made from the phone, and did she need help. Amy says that she is in a post office. At this point a lady tells us that her son made a crank call so Amy hangs up. The mother then starts ripping into her kid. This reminds me of Type I and Type II errors in statistics. Do you want the kid to err in favour of ringing 999 (their emergency number - don’t quote me on that!) more than they should or less than they should? (It’s a double-edged sword having kids knowing the emergency number so well).

Amy is feeling peckish now, so we go to a shop that sells ribs (yes, York seems to have a much wider variety of food than other places). Unfortunately the shop is closed and she is disappointed. I wanted to go to Pizza Hut but got overruled :( (apparently Amy is trying to keep me away from Pizza until Italy) and we went to Mark & Spencer instead (which has a café sort of like Myers Café).

Merchant Adventurers Hall

After Brunch, we wander around the streets and come to a historic building called the Merchant Adventurers Hall. This building was constructed in the 13th century when York was a busy trading port. It housed a guild called the "Merchant Adventurers". They were originally called "Guild of our lord Jesus Christ and our lady Mary" (or something like that) but someone (I think it was Queen Elizabeth I) later changed their name (rightly so) to the more trade-oriented "Merchant Adventurers". It had paintings on the walls of the hall of each governor from 16th century and even had some paintings of unknown people on the walls as well. Underneath the hall was a room for housing the poor. One thing weird about the hall was the fact the floor wasn’t level (it sloped upwards quite considerably to the walls). I don’t know if this was bowing of the timber over time or whether the original builders didn’t try too hard to make it flat. This place was wonderful to look through.

York Castle Museum

At the merchant hall we got a tourist map to York and I used to this to get to York Castle Museum. York Castle Museum is a museum built on the remains of an old castle. The museum is well organised and takes you through the life of an English person/family from the 16th century to today. (for example, it had a section called "From the Cradle to the Grave" which showed everything from swaddling to wedding dresses to funeral garb). The museum also focused on the 200 year anniversary of abolition of slavery in UK (that is getting a lot of press her) and makes a call-to-arms to stop the continuing slavery that goes on today (apparently young African girls get offers to come England to become nurses but get kidnapped into the sex-slave trade). The cool thing about this museum (which I didn’t like about the British Museum) is that this museum is very simulation style. For example they will have a whole room done up as an 18th century kitchen. At one stage you walk through a 19th century village (not that I noticed that much difference to that and some modern English villages ;). In this 19th century village they even had people "role-playing" behind the counters in the shops.

Clifford's Tower

As the last past of our tour of the York Castle Museum we climbed up to Clifford's Tower (which is a Mott and Bailey). This tower is somewhat ruins, but still has some cool things (like the circular stairs). From the top we can see all over York (including the Eye of York - like the London Eye, but I don’t think I will get to go on it :( )

Train to Keighley/Bus to Howath

It was now getting late, and so we went back to the Queens Hotel and picked up our luggage. We then got a cab back to York station (the cab was driven by a young woman which is something you would never see in Australia).

Check-in at Ashmount

After another trip that involved a train to leeds/change platform/train to keighley (pronounced Keethly)/drag luggage to bus stop/bus to Howath, we finally arrived at "Bronte country". For those of you who are not literary inclined, the Bronte sisters (Emily, Charlotte, Anne) where 3 famous writers of the 18th(19th?) century (they had a brother somewhere there too). They wrote books like "Wuthering Heights" (some of you might know the Kate Bush song ;), "Jane Eyre" and others.

They grew up here, and there is a Bronte Parsonage Museum nearby which we will be looking at tomorrow.

Tonight we went down to the "Old White Lion" pub for dinner. I had a roast dinner and Amy had a steak & kidney pie. I had a pint of "Tetley Ale". One of the waitresses noted that we were Australian and was excited because she was going to do a tour of Australia in about a month or two. She said she was going to go fruit-picking, and I joked that the fruit-pickers never made money because they blew it down the pub at night. She said that wouldn’t be her problem as she was sick to death of pubs (having worked in one for so long).

After dinner we walked through the streets of (what I assume is) Bronte Village. It is a narrow cobble-stone street with crowded buildings on each side. There is several pubs here and a lot of noise is coming out of them so combined with the cold outside there is quite a bit of ambience here.

Sleep

We eventually come back to our room and enjoy the outdoor hot-tub for 30 min (it is funny to be in 39 deg C water while the air is about 5 deg C. The owner said the hot-tub is best experienced when it is snowing) then retired to our room. The room has cable and so we watched a BBC3 program about the 50 worst pop songs of all times (Things like "Say Say Say" featured prominently in here [in fact a few of Paul McCartney duets did]. They did rip into Vienna by Ultravox - which I like).

Day #14 (30-Mar-2007)

phoebe2007 — Mon, 2 Apr 2007 20:57:00 GMT

Day #14

Breakfast

Breakfast at this place was just a continental breakfast, in fact it was mini-packets of cereal that you opened yourself. They did however make tea + toast for us so it wasn’t too bad. We were in rush to get the 9:26am train so we wolfed down the brekky then got a cab out.

Cab

As we were leaving our hotel for Kings Cross Train Station (monopoly ;), we passed some flowers left on the side of the road. We asked the driver what they were, and he said that some 15 year old boy was walking his dog there (the night before at 5pm), and he was confronted by 4 youths, who demanded he give them his dog. When he refused they bashed him, and then one stabbed him. The poor young guy died. It was peak-hour traffic at the time but no-one bothered to stop to help (Just as I looked at graves and lamented at 20 year olds lying there, I am sure people in 100 years will see graves with 15 years old and feel the same way). One strange thing in London is that they stick billboards up where people were murdered giving you stats on that murder.

We had our own peak-hour traffic to deal with trying to get to Kings Cross. There was a huge new building going up which was a Westfield Shopping town (the driver even acknowledged it was Australian). Given what I think is the inferior level of shopping malls over here (Tesco + Mark & Spencer are the leading ones here) they might find themselves getting slaughtered by the more "advanced" foreign shopping centre franchises.

We eventually made it to Kings Cross train station but we missed the train. Luckily trains in England run about every 30 minutes so we got the next one. Amy was running late for a meeting with the NHS/Xanxa Shared Service Provider but she decided to call in once at Leeds.

Train to Leeds

We got an excellent train to Leeds. We managed to score a double seat (one with a table between them) so I had something to put my laptop on. The power was working, and in addition wireless internet was available (although I had to pay for it, 10 pounds for 24 hours). If you decide to get trains around England (which is a worthwhile thing to do), I recommend you book your seat numbers in advance (otherwise you take pot-luck on what seats you get) and ensure that power/internet is available (if you need it).

Walk around Leeds

We finally arrived at Leeds (12:15pm) and Amy got a taxi to Tingley to meet NHS/Xanxa Shared Service Provider. We agreed to meet again at 2:30pm and I decided to walk around town. I was quite disappointed with Leeds (I was only there for 2 hours so I didn’t get to see much). There didn’t seem to be much to see there. I went to the museum but it was closed for rennovations. I didn’t make it to millenium square (but I figured it was more gardens - and I am sick of those). I had lunch at Burger King but there was a big queue there (England is a nation of queues. People have to join long queues for everything. There is not enough service staff for the population (I guess the culture is here is that they would rather queue for longer than pay higher prices).

Train to York

I met Amy at 2:30pm and we retrieved our luggage from the minding facility (these things are rare as hens teeth now - this cost 5.5 pounds per item). We got on a train from Leeds to York. It was only a 30 min trip so this was more like a commuter train than a long distance run.

Check in + Dinner

We finally arrived at York, and got a taxi to our hotel. This hotel was luxurious and a refreshing change from the last place we slept in. We went down to their restaurant and I had (wait for it …) Bangers and Mash (let me tell you - there is not much variety in British food).

Sleep

I don’t think we got to see much today, although we did get to pass through 3 towns (London, Leeds, York). Oh well, maybe we will see more tomorrow (Woohoo! This hotel has wireless internet!)

Day #13 (29-Mar-2007)

phoebe2007 — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 20:28:00 GMT

Day #13

Breakfast

We woke up and went down to the Dining Room for breakfast. It was a nice affair and we had the usual bacon+sausages+eggs+baked beans+tomato (it is just starting to get a little boring now).

Amy decided to indulge and get some Black Pudding as well. She shared it with me and what surprise, it is really bland!!! (I would have never thought that from British food ;). One thing about British food, they provide copious amounts of Vinegar and Worchester Sauce and load the food with salt. If you ever want to know what British food tastes like, grab yourself a slice of bread, sprinkle salt on it, put HP sauce on it and then eat it. TADA! British food.

Jane Austen Centre

We walked from our room down to Central Bath (like I said earlier, you can walk around Bath easily - we did it this time - We also saw a loveable pussy cat who lapped up all the attention - cats are the same the world over)

Amy had left most of her breakfast so we stopped at a Thai Restaurant where she should ordered food (I was full so I just had drinks) Amy was wrapped that she was finally eating some food with flavour ;). After this we went to the Jane Austen Centre. What a disappointment! When we got there it was closed. The lady there gave Amy a brochure as a consolation prize. I could only see the back of Amy's head, so I had an immediate flashback to the "Hahn Ice" ad.

We were determined to do something this day, so we walked around town looking for a taxi rank. There is only 1 in bath (that I have seen) at the train station.

Sham Castle

We got a taxi to take us to Sham Castle. I joked to the driver that we wanted to see a real castle not a sham castle, and he replied that this WAS a sham castle. He explained that it was just a wall. We asked him to take us there anyway, but to leave the meter running so we could get a lift back. When we got there Amy got out and spent about 5 minutes looking at it. He was right, it was just a wall (and not a very big one). It would have struggled to keep an old lady out. The driver told us that it was built by a rich person in Bath to have something to look at from their house (several miles away). He had money to burn. He was quite critical of Bath (he was a local too) and said that this town had a history of facades (he said that the royal crescent had a very pretty front side, but was ugly behind that). Amy who was now doubly-disappointed asked if he could take us to Prior Park (a stately manor) for us to look at. We got there, and we were in luck - it was open.

Prior Park

We paid the driver and then he left. Disappointment #3: The stately manor was a private boarding school and we were not allowed in. The tour we paid for allowed us to walk around the botanical gardens (I think I am sick of botanical gardens now) but we found this out too late. We walked through the forest seeing all the usual things but the one standout was a giant stone bridge that crossed the lake. Finally we exited the park and started walking toward the town centre (I have a good sense of direction and can usually find these things easily).

Leaving Bath

We got to the town centre and got a taxi to take us to Wentworth house where we picked up our bags and then headed back to the town centre (we checked out at 10am but they kindly looked after our bags until 3pm. One of the nasty things about travelling is the time between checkout and your next trip [and vice versa], and the issue of luggage minding. Since 9/11 this has become a real pain).

Internet Café

It was now 3pm and the train wasn’t until 7:40pm. We were packed with luggage and didn’t feel like sight-seeing as we were right next to the train station (there were luggage minding facilities at the youth hostel but it was a fair way down the road and I was a bit bored with bath). We decided to duck in at the internet café and surf for a while. Amy & I both surfed for 2 hours, and 2 cups of tea served to us. The total bill came to 15 pounds. The hippy guy was embarrassed to charge us that much and ended up charging us 13 pounds (I wasn’t worried - 2 hours of internet/power access + baggage storage was fine for me).

Royal Hotel Sports Bar

After we had our fill of Internet Surfing we headed down the pub to have some dinner. I had bangers and mash, and Amy had a ploughman's platter. The cricket was playing on the TV (West Indies v NZ) so I was entertained, and for once Amy didn’t object to me watching cricket (she was doing postcards). A couple of guys sitting nearby were complaining to each other about how hard life was (his flatmate lost his job, and couldn’t pay Road(?) tax etc), and seemed unhappy, I have had a few conversations now with Londoners and often they go on about how hard life is. (Maybe it is tough here, I have seen jobs here that pay 11,000 pounds pa. That doesn’t sound like a lot in Australian terms)

Finally we get on the train to London, it is only a 1 hour trip and passes uneventfully.

Arriving Hammersmith

We get a taxi from Paddington Station to Hammersmith (13 pounds) and arrive at the Western Premier Hotel. This place is a dump. Our room was in the basement. We had to carry our luggage down a narrow, steep, long flight of stairs. The bed in the room was 6 inches off the floor. The ceiling in the bathroom had severe water damage and looked on the verge of collapse. However we were tired, it was for only 1 night, it was 10pm and we would be checking out early tomorrow.

Sleep

I watched TV and saw a report about some Brit dying from legionnaires disease, and thought of the moldy bathroom next to us. This Brit died from legionnaires contracted while having a shower and that turned us off having a shower here, so we went to bed smelly (It is actually really hard to get smelly in Britain - the cold seems to ensure freshness for longer).

Day #12 (28-Mar-2007)

phoebe2007 — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 02:23:00 GMT

Day #12 (28-Mar-2007)

Leaving St Buryans

We got up early (5:30am) because our train was leaving Truro for Bath at 8:26am. Amy

cooked scrambled eggs for breakfast (the best I have tasted so far in England - I have

eaten quite a bit of it - I am not at all impressed with English cooking), then we

packed our stuff and headed out for Truro (at 6:30am).

Arriving at Truro

We arrived at Truro (at 7:30am) after an uneventful drive except for the thick fog on

the roads which I had never seen before in Australia (not quite pea-soup but

impressive never the less). I dropped Amy at Truro train station and then went to the

petrol station to fill the car up (I saw one nearby on the way in and I retraced my

steps back to it) (petrol in England is about £80-90 / litre - which is very expensive

compared to Australia). From here I set out to look for the AVIS car rental place (I

really should have asked for directions - I had only been there once before and I

really didnt have a clue where it was - it was 7:50am and the place didn't open until

8am, plenty of time!) [Truro is roughly the same size as Toowoomba].

Unfortunately driving around was providing me with much luck, but thanks to the great

British road signs (I am not kidding, British main roads are very well sign-posted), I

manage to stumble across the A39 (when leaving AVIS I didnt have to drive very far to

get onto the A39), so I decided to follow that back into Truro. Then I saw AVIS!

After some tricky maneouvering (which will probably land me on an episode of Britain's

Worst Drivers) I arrived at the AVIS place at 8:05am and handed the keys in.

I then waited for a cab that didnt arrive until 8:15am :( and then we got stuck in

peak-hour traffic. He knew that I was trying to get to the station before 8:26am so

he did some tricky taxi-driver maneouvering and got me there at 8:23am (plenty of

time!).

Train Ride

I bolted to the platform (which was on the far side - typical!) and found Amy on the

overhead bridge, struggling with all our luggage (all 40-50kg of it). I grabbed some

and we bolted down to the waiting train (our carriage was the furtherest away from the

bridge - typical!). We bolted for the last carriage, but halfway down the train

people were shutting the doors on the train, so we jumped on the middle carriage and

put our luggage there. We then walked through the train down to the last carriage (we

were separated from our luggage again), to our seats. The seats on the opposite side

of the aisle to us were double seats (opposing seats facing each other) with a table

between them, and most importantly a power supply (I looked at it with envy, I wanted

to plug my laptop in :( ). There were 4 young women sitting there and the asked where

we from. I cheerfully answered "Australia", and then they launched into conversations

with me about spiders and deadly creatures which I happily indulged in (about this

time I got in trouble with Amy who said that I was chatting up young women ;) ). So I

decided to be unsociable after this, and just sat and read something. I tried to use

my laptop but the battery ran out.

About halfway through the journey (and to my delight) I realized that all seats had

power supplies! I plugged my laptop in and continued on. My laptop then stopped

again, and I realized that they were not active (I even checked the double-seat power

supply and it wasnt either). I then gave up and read the paper instead (some British

soldiers being taken captive by Iran is big news here. reading British papers about

the Australian cricketers is also interesting too - sort of compimentary but in a

left-handed way).

Arriving at Bath

We finally got to Bath, got a Taxi to our next stay and then checked in. We then got

a taxi back to town (Probably no need here but we didnt know the area and we were

laden with post office stuff). We then went to a post office and did more mailing.

After this we hit the town centre (Bath is small enough to walk across the entire area

in a short time - If it wasnt for the steep hills), and started at Bath Abbey.

Bath Abbey

Bath Abbey is an impressive church (not quite as impressive as St Paul's Cathedral -

but good in its own right). I looked at the gravestones that adorned the walls (yes -

gravestones in a church - not sure if there were bodies behind them), and found it

fascinating that some had dates before Australia was even colonised(invaded whatever).

One person died in 1710, another in 1664.

While there I met an old lady in robes (a female priest? - not sure), who was a child

during WWII. Her husband served in the war (they met after it). She talked all about

the rationing and how we had sent her all this nice flour (it was white instead of the

grey stuff that they had), and all the other help we gave, and thanked me profusely

for this (I liked to think I was solely credited for saving Britain during WWII but I

think I had some help ;) ). It was at this point that I realised that she thought I

was American, and I said "oh, I am Australian". she responded (uncertainly) "oh, you

guys helped too" (gee thanks ;).

Roman Baths

After the abbey, we then headed for the Roman Baths (which is very close). If there

is one place that you must get to in Bath, it is the Roman Baths. It is a great place

full of history (the only problem with the place was that it was packed with tourists

[us included] and moving around was difficult). There are many rooms to the Roman

Baths (each room primes you for the next room and then finally the Baths). Originally

men & women came here and bathed naked together but the Emperor (the party pooper)

banned nakedness and they eventually complied. In the time of Jane Austen women would

come here and bathe fully clothed (which would have been funny to see). In one of the

prep-rooms the floor was so hot that you could not walk bare foot on it. so they

would walk in with sandals. rich / powerful people would pose off here by having

servants cover them with oil and perfumes which would be a dead giveaway of their

status.

It is important to note (and we were reminded constantly by our audio-phone guide - a

device that you use like a phone. it has a keypad and when you enter the numbers

which are on the wall, it reads a spiel to you) that this is not just a hedonistic

(although i dont see a problem there - if i were an ancient roman i would have been

down here every day) but also religious (they believed the baths had curative

properties) experience as well. A temple was even erected nearby to Minerva/Sulinus

(sp?) [sulinus was the british healing goddess - the romans loved to adopt other

culture's gods].

the baths were green (nearly opaque) water at the time and still are now (they didn't

look to encouraging to enter - mushrooms were growing on the steps - we werent allowed

anyway). We then went through the last bath room and then left (the tour takes you

through each room by the nose).

Roman Pump Room

We then went to a restaurant called the "Roman Pump Room", which Jane Austen

purportedly had tea in, and had high-tea. This consisted 2 cups of tea (with a pot),

and a 3-layer metal tray thing with sandwiches on the bottom layer, scones on the

middle layer, and sweets on the top layer. Worth doing once but I wouldnt recommend

doing it any more than that as it cost £25. There was also a "Spa" fountain that

served hot water that you could buy to drink (supposed to cure you of illness - yeh,

cured one of critical thinking maybe ;) but we didnt get any. After that we shopped

around bath (and managed to score an alarm clock) until nightfall, and then walked

back to the train station where a taxi-rank is outside (the only known one in this

city) and then got a taxi back to the Wentworth Hotel (our place of stay).

Sleep

We lay down (at 6-7pm) and I crashed big-time. I vaguely remembered Amy offering me

coffee and soup at various times but i was too tired and slept through until 8am the

next morning (something about travelling makes one very tired - possibly sickness too

- although I mostly over it now - yeh!)

Day #11 (27-Mar-2007)

phoebe2007 — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 00:58:00 GMT

Day #11

After the disturbed nights sleep we wake up at about 9am reasonably refreshed. Because we had to self-cater for breakfast (holiday speak for "made it ourselves" ;) we just had some toast and then hit the road looking for castles. This was our last full day in Cornwall and we hadn't seen any yet :(

Mount Michael Castle

After about an hour of travelling, we arrived at a little town called Mazouin(?). We parked in a carpark to go down to the beach to get a boat to Mount Michael Castle. From the distance it looked quite impressive. A guy in an army duck was pulling up anchor and getting ready to cross when we asked (or were about to ask) if we could get a ride across. He told us that the castle was closed until 1st April for renovations and that there were no tours until then. If we wanted to look around the castle ourselves we would have to wait until 5pm until low tide (when you can walk across to the island). Amy was not a happy chappy. We decide to give this place the flick and head further north. We tried to find some "famous" mining pit but the road signs to it vanished just as we were getting close, so we then pushed on to the main attraction: the Seal Sanctuary.

Seal Sanctuary

We drove to the small town of Gween where the Seal Sanctuary was located. I had to drive up very narrow lanes with high hedges on each side. It is very harrowing to think that on each corner you may collide with some oncoming car if either of you are reckless drivers (I am not, I am safe as houses [you know those houses on mud slides that are starting to collapse over the edge?] ;). At one stage, I confronted a large truck on one of these lanes and had to reverse several hundred metres back to a driveway that I could hide in while he passed. Cornwall might only be a 100 miles or so across but it takes forever to get around because of these sort of things.

Eventually we arrived at Gween, and the Seal Sanctuary. This impressive place is basically all the effort of one person. Some guy from north of england came down this way (to St Augustine) to set up a café (he knew nothing about seals) in the 60s. One day, a baby seal washed up at his café, (it refused to go back into the water cause it was sick) and so he nursed it back to health. He even built a special pool for it while it recovered. Anyway one became 2, 2 became 4 and so on. Pretty soon he ran out of space so he sold his café and bought land at Gween. He built a large sanctuary (has a kiosk, shop, café, 3 large pool areas, an otter display, underwater observatories into the pools, and nature track walks. He is now in his 90s and has retired but the place runs itself now. We saw about 20 seals there, and they did the usual things seals do (they did not do tricks though - these people are about releasing them back into the wild). There was even a seal hospital there. The seals seem pretty happy (I am not sure what an unhappy seal looks like - although I am sure that all the anthromorphists [my special made up word ;] can tell me).

Amy walked out of the gift shop with an arm-full of junk (oh no … more stuff to carry and stuff our luggage with :( ). Her new favourite toy being a stuffed seal (not real seal fur though ;) ).

Pendennis Castle

After the Seal Sanctuary we headed further north to Falmouth, the home to Pendennis(sp?) Castle, and another castle (the name which escapes me right now). Falmouth sits in a harbour which is flanked by these 2 castles so any invading ships copped it badly from a crossfire of cannons. They call them castles because they were originally built by Henry VIII(?) in the 16th century as part of the English southern coastal defence against the catholics, It was also used to help repel spaniards, was rearmed again in WWI, and had troops stationed there in WWII as well. Even though it was called a castle, it looked more like a fortress to me, as it had barracks, and the keep was a very small building that only had about 6 or 7 rooms. It did have cool circular stairs, and the toilets were effectively tiny stone rooms (you could not stand in them) with a hole in the ground that dropped an indeterminate distance (they were covered with glass for safety reasons [no - this was not some medieval joke on toilet goers - the glass was a modern fitting ;]. I pity any poor fool who slipped and fell down one). Apart from the governors room that had a bed (and one of these unsavoury toilets), the rest of the building was pretty uncomfortable with only 1 toilet to service about 20 people (it said the place typically had 12 people but could house up to 100 - I would hate to see 100 fit in that place - maybe they meant the barracks nearby which looked a lot more hospitable - it was a later addition). From the top of the keep you could see 360 around the whole area so you would easily be able to spot enemy fleets.

Panzance

After Pendennis Castle we drove back to Penzance to get dinner materials and an alarm clock to get us up at 5:30 am. (Penzance is central to all these places so it is an easy place to stop at)

Sleep

We had no luck getting the alarm clock, but when we got back the owner gave us a cheap one to use. I didn’t trust it so I wrote a program on the laptop to play some music at that time. Hopefully both together will get us up at 5:30am. Anyway time for bed, tomorrow is the day to return the car, and train to Bath.

Day #10 (26-Mar-2007)

phoebe2007 — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 01:47:00 GMT

Day #10

Leaving Mousehole

It is a shame to have to leave this place so soon, It was a really nice place to stay at. I think it is good to move around though when on holidays because we were starting to get used to being at this place and once that starts you are living there and you are no longer on holidays, so like a good little m*a*s*h unit it is time to pick up and leave. We do one more trip to their local post office to send more junk off. There we run into Alister again, and we talk about his job (he is a carpenter) and about tourism in the town. He thinks about 40% of the town is local residents (and 60% tourists). He also gave us his website of his cottage "for hire" (http://www.gonefishingcottage.co.uk) and asked us to tell all our friends about it (there I have done it, I have met my obligations ;). After that we bode one last farewell to Mousehole and then leave.

Penzance

We came here to do some shopping for the next place of stay (which I think will be quite isolated) and to do internet work + money stuff. The place doesn’t look as rough as I originally thought. It is after 9am and I guess all the rough nuts are at school, work, home etc. A lot of the young blokes (especially the big blokes) have shaved heads, so it looks like a lot of Alexei Sayles walking around the streets (didn't you kill my brother?).

We go to the post office to do more mailing :(, then go to the library to do internet stuff (checking a/c's, posting this diary, checking email), and then get some groceries. We then leave Penzance to head to our next place of stay.

Arriving at St Buryan Farmhouse (Barn)

Ok, now we are in the middle of nowhere. We travel for a mile or 2 down a road that is only wide enough for one vehicle, and has high hedges on both sides (makes for interesting sight-seeing). We eventually arrive at the farm (a collection of old stone buildings), and then drive to the barn. Yes, we are staying at a barn. We let one of the horses out to make some room for us, and we gather some tinder to light a fire. We then collect up some bundles of hay to make a bed. Just kidding ;), the place is a renovated barn, complete with kitchen, lounge-room, bedroom, toilet, shower, and washer/dryer. It has oven/microwave too. The lounge has a TV and DVD player. We have a "ye-ole" electric wood fireplace, and the obligatory heaters around the place. In fact, it got so hot up here at night that I had to turn the heater off (and it was still warm for ages afterwards). Barns seem to be very good buildings for retaining heat.

Sleep

We had a quiet afternoon, we walked around the paddock, spoke to some chooks, and then we lay down and read some magazines (I lay on their lounge reading NewScientist/Time Magazine - oh and might have played a tiny bit of computer games ;) ) under a skylight (combined with white walls and brown timber framed A-frame ceiling, gives a nice ambience). One annoying thing about this place is that there are no curtains on the windows (except the bedroom window). This means even when going to the toilet, having a shower people can (in theory) look in. I am sure that there is no human for miles (the main house is unoccupied at the moment), but even so, I find it disconcerting. The people who live here are probably fully secure in the knowledge that there is noone around but we strangers don’t share that comfort (only been here 1 night).

One funny thing, later that night Amy showed me how much frost was on the window by putting "claw" marks (in the frost) on the (full-length) glass door (another candidate for a curtain). I commented that it looked like some evil creature had been scratching the door trying to get in. She got scared from this point. She then tried to draw a heart but I said maybe some psychopath who knew we were alone, Suffice to say, from that point on I had to guard her when she went to the toilet. Unfortunately my frivolity backfired as my imagination started to crank up and the lack of the curtains on the windows combined with the absolute blackness. I had a hard time getting to sleep, and prayed that Amy would not wake up screaming from some nightmare (she had done it before and I dont think I could live through it again). I had some dreams about being chased by the mafia but that is another story again.

Day #9 (25-Mar-2007)

phoebe2007 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:40:00 GMT

Day #9

We had breakfast at the Pilchard Press again, We get all the local gossip off the guy who works there, who is friendly (and also worldly having already toured Australia). We enlightened him on the Aus-NZ rivalry (he was already aware of the US-Canada one). Amy also asked him why one of the buildings said "Save our Fish". He explained the "oppressive" fishing quota laws were hurting the fishing trade out here (He of course wasted no opportunity to rip into those public servants - I didn’t tell him we were public servants - I just said "yeh - damn filthy government" - lol). Because the fish quota is based on fish type, they often catch their quota (his example was cod) in the first 2 months of the year. Apparently then because their nets are not fish "smart", they will often catch cod with the other catches but they have to throw them dead back into the water. They find this very frustrating. (I could have mentioned that this was probably intended for large commercial fishing - or that at least no profit was made from it - but I preferred to just avoid conflict and agree with him). During all this a big black cat (called Bruno) came in with his pet (a man called "Dave") and surveyed the room (Amy loved this). They left together. Later the cat came back looking for Dave. (The owner Graham said that if the cat loses Dave he will go all across town looking for him - very cute).

St Austell

After breakfast we decided to head off on our "Botanical Gardens" run. It was an hours drive to these places and they were near a town called St Austell. I am now used to driving in the UK (except for when it started raining and I put the left indicator on) but I still don’t know what one of the road signs means. It is a blue disc with a red "X" cross through it (and a red ring around it). I have asked 2 people what it means and I get different answers (1. Retain previous speed limit, 2. This is a clearway). I think I will need to find some authoritive advice on this (hmmm … the internet!).

We arrive at St Austell (these towns are all starting to look the same now :( ), and we go to a café ("Tengo") to get some lunch and directions (damn! It has a free internet wireless hotspot - why didn’t I bring my laptop?). The girl behind the counter tried to give directions as best she could but because English roads are narrow and windy people generally have to give fairly long and convulated instructions. Combined with a thick accent, we find it quite difficult to make sense of them (no fault of hers) and I tend to rely on intuition more than anything (it is not too bad a strategy - the towns are small [geographically speaking] and pretty quickly you will hit one of their "main" roads. They are all very well sign-posted, so I havent really gotten lost yet)

Eden Project

We leave St Austell, and start along the A30 (one of their "main" roads) out of town. Pretty soon, we start seeing road-signs pointing to the "Eden Project" (our intended destination). Finally we arrive there. It is still taking me a while to work out what the Eden Project actually is. There are a lot of Billboards/Posters talking about Charities and Saving our Earth but not what they actually do. When you look at the place from the carpark, you see a large kiosk, a convention centre, an 'Elvis' ride, and 2 large Domes (called Biodomes) all nestled inside a gigantic crater. I eventually find out that the crater was an old abandoned clay pit (probably 500m across), and this is a revivication project (it is as they said "a work in progress"). It is getting more impressive now that I realize what they are doing. There are beautiful gardens everywhere (especially when you see photos of the mud pit that it used to be). Eventually we head down to the Biodomes. There are 2 of them linked by a causeway (well cafeteria actually). The first Biodome we enter is the "Tropical" dome. The temperature inside this dome is 20 - 30 deg C. Feels like I am back in Australia! This feels good on my chest as well (still trying to stave off a chest infection). There are tropical plants everywhere, (it doesn’t interest me so much - it is just like Mt Tamborine to me - but I am sure the locals would get a huge kick out of it) and there are things called "Cool Houses" (for locals to go into if the temperature gets too much for them - lol). The other dome (Biodome) we went to was a "Warm temperate" climate dome. This was fairly cool (not as cold as outside though) and was emulating a Mediterranean climate. It had some group singers in there (a bit weird) singing songs (like "Chattanooga Choo Choo" - like I said, weird). After this we went to the kiosk, had a cup of tea then left.

Lost Gardens of Helligan

We drove back through St Austell to a place called the "Lost Gardens of Helligan". It is called this because it was an estate (with marvellous botanical gardens) of some person that died (or something), fell into disrepair and then was forgotten about. Some adventurers chanced upon it something like 100 years later and have restored it back to its former glory (well at least that’s what all the brochures say ;). One impressive thing about it is that it has a jungle area. It is hard to believe that the jungle could survive here, but I guess they have used frost-resistant ferns and plants (I am no botanist ;), although one placard did say that a whole bunch of chinese trees were wiped out in some severe frost in the 19th century. The other cool thing was that normally you have to pay to get in but it was after 4:30pm and the ticket office was closed so we got in for free! Finally we came to a farm area with lots of animals (Amy was in love), and even a naughty rabbit who sneaked into the chicken coup while we were watching. It started getting late (the sun was setting) so we decided to make tracks back to Mousehole.

Dinner

We had a pub dinner down at the Ship Inn (every 2nd place at Cornwall is called "Ship Inn"). I had the usual pint of Cornish Ale then called it a night. Amy tried to strike up a conversation with the bartender. He was in bad need of a personality. He was sullen and when asked about the place he said “that it is ok, I guess”.

Amy then looked for an escape route from the conversation (she did claim that he smiled twice during their conversation but I never saw it).

After that we went back to bed (tomorrow is check-out and move time again).

One thing about the streets around here: They are very narrow. Cars regularly pass each other within 6 inches. The locals are used to it but I find it nerve-wracking. Also cars park, blocking one lane off. The rule here is that as long as there is enough space to fit one car then whats the problem? Lets just say that you have to be vigilant of oncoming traffic.

Day #8 (24-Mar-2007)

phoebe2007 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:37:00 GMT

Day #8

Breakfast

We had breakfast at a place 2 doors down from us called the "Pilchard Press". Shops here (and in London too) are in buildings that look the same as the residences. So if you took the signs off them, you wouldn’t even know they were shops. This is different to Australia where the shops look very different to houses (in most cases). The guy who ran the breakfast house was a nice enough guy. He had children living in Australia and he went and visited them a couple of years ago. He toured from Adelaide to Melbourne to see those rocky things (the 12 apostles? Or the 7 sisters I cant remember which - they are just rocks for christ sake!) but he said that it rained the whole time and he saw nothing. He thought it was typical that a Brit could bring rain with him, and we joked he should holiday all over Queensland.

Penzance

After breakfast, we headed down to Penzance (2-3 miles from Mousehole - it also the "big smoke") to do some shopping and to upload this diary. I was hoping to see Pirates everywhere but alas there were none. Need I say that Penzance is nestled alongside a giant bay and has boats eveywhere. Looking at the town, you can sort of understand why it had its reputation of being a Pirate cove. The place looks rough (a later visit suggested it was not as rough as I originally thought). It also looks a bit poor as well. It was a similar architectural feel to boroughs of London (narrow streets, terraced housing), although it didn’t have the corporate types about and had a lot of fishing areas too. What I did notice was the number of tourists here too, It seems if the whole of Britain is making a grab for the tourist dollar and is undergoing a renovation. Even Penzance (which did seem a long way behind) was starting to show signs of restoration.

After Amy asked copious directions from locals (I am a typical man and I hate asking for them) we came across a library with internet facilities. After checking mail and uploading journal entries, we headed back to town. Amy was bored with this place (I wasn’t that impressed either) and so we decided to find somewhere to look before the day ran out (It was about 2pm - it is amazing how time gets away from you on holidays)

Lands End

We drove to Land's End (which was the place we were originally going to stay out), and when we got there we discovered the place was a dump (my apologies to anyone offended by this). There is a small town nearby and a shopping precinct on the waters edge. The shopping precinct looks designed for tourists has none of the local culture (I don’t think of children play gyms to be local culture), and is starting to look run down. Most of the place was closed (it was 4pm) with only the Restaurant open. It was a typical restaurant with nothing to recommend it to anyone (apart from being the only place within 2 miles to serve hot meals). Everybody that was here had driven here - so it was very much a "drive in, look around, drive out" population. However the views were very nice, with the rough grassy hills (with lots of rocks jutting out of the ground at random points), eventually transforming to rocky cliffs as they approached the waterline. There was a lighthouse off shore (on a rocky island), but I could only see that from a distance (one of those coin operated telescope things helped improve the detail).

Sleep

We drove back to Mousehole after this, and went to the local store and grabbed some bread. It was about 6pm and I was feeling too sick to go to dinner so I had some bread and butter for dinner instead. I then crashed (yes, 6-7pm!!!) while Amy stayed up and read (there is a library full of books and videos in our house).

Day #7 (23-Mar-2007)

phoebe2007 — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 01:45:00 GMT

Day #7

Leaving Islington

Time to up and move again. This is the downside of travelling, having to drag suitcases around. Amy's suitcase weighs nearly 30kg and I have had to carry that up several flights of stairs at various times (expect me to come back to Australia in a wheelchair ;). We walk down to the nearest "Royal Post" (equivalent to Australia Post) and Amy mails off more gear (holidays are a constant struggle between accumulating stuff and mailing it back). When we unload at the Post Office I am amazed at how much we were carrying, the bags fill half the office! (For any of you who remember the movie "Labyrinth", I am starting to feel like the old lady who carried all the stuff in that). Amy sends 3 large parcels home and we leave. We decide (because it is 11am and getting dangerously late for the train [to cornwall] trip) to get a london cab to Paddington Station.

London Cab

The London cab was uneventful enough, except that when we mentioned we were from Australia he told us a story about an Aussie girl who got in his cab and when he asked her if she had visited Trafalgar Square, she replied "Whats that?". He mentioned Battle of Trafalgar and Lord Nelson, and she said that she had never heard of them. He asked "don’t they teach you history down there?", she replied "Yeh, but only Australian history". He said "yeh, but we know who Ned Kelly is". Suffice to say he had a low opinion of Aussie education.

I would recommend any Aussie who goes to England at least get a basic understanding of their history, so that we don’t look dumb.

Paddington Station

This station is a huge "hangar" type place (looks circa 1900 built) with about 12+ platforms. The trains look like your typical high speed "stream-lined" trains. At least I will get to sit down for the better part of today instead of having to walk around all day (what a sad public servant I am ;)

The "First Western" Train

We were told that we could sit anywhere we want except first class. Oh and (as they failed to mention) anywhere (which is 90% of the train) with a reserved tag on the seat. This caused us to get separated from our luggage (they were in luggage racks - I was not about to lug them up half the train) but as Amy joked to one of the people that booted us out of a reserved seat (and then explained how the process worked), "anyone who wanted to steal our luggage would be getting a whole bunch of dirty laundry".

We finally found a "non-reserved" seat and then settled in for the ride to Cornwall. I cant remember the all stations we went through (Reading, Exeter, Plymouth, Truro etc). The countryside is beautiful. The English villages are very cute. At one stage we passed through a forest that made me feel like getting out and running through them calling "Arthur!" (and maybe even get a visit from Merlin).

As we were approaching Plymouth, we met a guy who helped us with directions and we told him we were going to Mousehole (pron. Mowzil - Mow sounds like Wow or ow). Amy said that we were going to visit the Mousehole Cat and he thought that this was hilarious. She also said that she had heard that they had the best fish & chips in Cornwall, he said "no, ours are very average" (not a good sales pitch - but at least honest). He said that we surprised him, as we were not "as brash as most Australians" (I am starting to get the distinct impression that we have a bad reputation over here).

We eventually changed at Plymouth and then ended up on a train that was packed full of people. We had to stand (most of the way) with our luggage. It was at this point that I saw the downside of wheels on luggage.

Truro

We finally arrived at Truro, and got a cab to the "Avis" car rental place. The cabs here look pretty much like Aussie cabs. He drove us through town to get there (I was hoping that I didn’t have to come back this way - I was never going to remember the twists and turns). At the car hire place, they asked for my licence (when I asked if they needed my international licence, they said "no, the Australian licence will be fine". Why did I bother getting the international one? Oh well, better to be safe than sorry). They give me directions to Mousehole, the keys to the car (a Peugot for you car people), and we left.

Driving

Here is my tip to first-time drivers in Britain, drive when it is about to rain. Why? Because the indicators stick is on the left and the windscreen wipers stick is on the right (opposite to Australia - well at least this car is opposite to my car) and every intersection we came to I kept putting the windscreen wipers on. Eventually after the 15th or 16th time I started getting the hang of it. My only hope is that I don’t go back to Australia and have to relearn all over again. The speed gauge is in miles too, so I kept thinking 50 was too slow and wondering if I should speed up. The only other weird thing was the funny arrows that crossed over the dotted line in the centre of the road (I later learnt that this means that overtaking cars must cross back into the left lane immediately as the dotted line is about to become a solid one). They also had a speed sign that was a blue circle with a red cross through it. I thought this meant "No speed limit" (I also later learnt this meant "retain previous posted speed limit" - oh well no more 200km jaunts down the road - I KID I KID ;)

Mousehole (pron. Mowzil - Mow sounds like Wow or ow)

Eventually we arrived at Mousehole (after travelling through Penzance - a place famous for its Pirates and that musical). It is a beautiful village (it might be called Mousehole, but a hole it aint). It has very narrow lanes (it pays for you to note "wide" spots as you drive down the lanes as you may have to reverse up to that point when confronted by another car). It in on bluffs overlooking the ocean, with a stone barracade (quay?) that has been converted into a car park. There are cats everywhere (so Amy is in love), and they own this place. There also noisy seagulls everywhere, and I think this place is a perpetual battleground between the seagulls and the cats (although I think the seagulls are winning).

Kolossi Cottage

We arrive at the place that we are staying at, and it is gorgeous. It is a cozy stone place but has all the mod-cons (heaters all over the place, washer/dryer, kitchen, bath, tv/video, cd-player, fresh towels, milk & coffee etc). It is a double-level place with the bedrooms upstairs and also leads to a back courtyard shared by several houses. It is freshly painted/varnished/stained with new fittings and in top-notch condition.

I think I could get bored with this town very quickly (1 or 2 decades).

Ship Inn

After freshening up we head down to a pub called the "Ship Inn" for some dinner. We have a hot dinner here and a pint of Cornish Ale and then run into the guy from the train (and his wife) and have a quick chat (this is where I learnt about the road-signs etc). It is lively here but I am still feeling ill, and we head home to sleep (it is about 9pm anyway).

Sleep

Time for bed. One thing about this place is that it is beautiful but the people are experts with tourists. I would guess that tourism is their main income now and they "preserve" the local culture but also add lots of things (like clear, detailed street signs and renovated houses) for the maximum benefit of the tourist. I wonder how much different this place would look if tourists weren't here.

It is very peaceful here (the most noisy part is the seagulls). If you are an action junkie don’t bother coming here, but if you want somewhere to get "away from it all" then this is the place for you. Having said that, there are tonnes of tourist attractions around this area (notably the Seal Sanctuary, Tin Mines, Cornish Caves, Castles etc).

Personally, after the hustle of London, I am just enjoying the peace of this place. I cannot do this place justice by talking about so I hope the photos explain it better.

(P.S. We have thousands of photos but the last internet café I went to was uploading them at about 1 per minute so I gave up for the time being)

Day #6 (22-Mar-2007)

phoebe2007 — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 01:42:00 GMT

Day #6

Woke up at about 6am and ready for breakfast at the refectory (or whatever they call it). They have rules here about how many things you can for breakfast (6 serves total, up to 2 serves per item). This is a typical university "communist" kitchen (I remember QUT having the same rules), and the food was fairly poor. I wasn’t too worried, they had endless hot coffee and tea which was the important thing to me.

Russell Square

I have decided to make a concerted effort to visit a few places today (despite being sick) and the first we want to visit is the British Museum. We have heard stories about how great it is and we want to check it out. Testing my theory about always being able to bump into tube stations, we set off down Roseberry Avenue looking for one. After walking for about 30 minutes or so, we come across Russell Square. It is a whole block of grass and trees (It is always interesting to see London with its buildings on every block and then a green area - like they just knocked down buildings and planted trees there). We had tea at a tea house (London weather encourages constants stops for hot beverages). While there we asked for directions to the British Museum. Little did we know that we were right next to it!

(Damn, I am good - even when I don’t know which way to go I can just walk straight to it)

Thanking our good fortune, we head over to the British Museum.

British Museum

I am not as impressed with the British Museum as I thought I would be. Granted it is very large. There is a lot in there (I am not going to go into detail of what is in there, it is typical museum stuff). But what I found disconcerting was its focus on Ancient History (especially on Ancient Greece, and Ancient Rome - these eras have been done to death guys!). This was evidenced by only a small area of the museum being devoted to the 0 AD ->, I went to the "Europe" section, and they had a fair bit on 0 AD - 1200 AD. The section from 1300 AD - 1900 AD was effectively one (not very large) room. The 1900 AD -> room was probably about as big as a toilet block (I have a theory that Europeans don’t consider anything after the 1500s to be worthy of collection because it is too "new"). I guess considering some of the ages of various buildings around London, it is one big museum of those more "modern" times (This is of course museums all over London specializing in various eras).

It was at this stage that we decided to start looking for a backpack for Amy (you would be amazed how hard it is to find shopping in London, as I previously mentioned they don’t have the concept of a shopping mall [I haven't been to the 'burbs yet] and so finding your way around is more based on experience. This was evidenced by the fact that when we asked a couple of locals where we could buy a bag they were able to quickly rattle off long and complex directions ["Walk straight down this road to the end, then turn right then left, at the green head down Euston Road, then you will hit markets, from there head to the south end … blah blah)

At one stage we wanted to locate the nearest tube station. Amy had bought me a shirt with the London tube map printed on the front of it. She started asking people for directions and pointed at my chest. Very soon a crowd (well 5-6) of helpful Londoners (some quite amused) were using my chest as tourist map and pinboard, pointing out the various directions to travel. This (slightly erotic but mostly embarrassing) sight was actually quite amusing and it was the most lively I had seen Londoners in my time here. Later that afternoon Amy bought me some London tube map underwear and I wondered with trepidation what would happen the next time we asked for directions.

Undeterred by our lack of success at finding a backpack, we ventured forth looking for Coventry Markets. We finally got there and realized that this place would be a good place to get pick pocketed. It was a typical market with lots of stalls selling nick-nicks, touristy stuff and … backpacks! We buy a backpack from a polish girl (There is a hell of a lot of Eastern Europeans in London). I am very tired by this stage (sick - not to mention grumpy) so we decide to get a cab to St Paul's Cathedral (thinking it is somewhere nearby). This is my first (but not very dramatic) London Cab.

St Paul's Cathedral

We arrive at St Paul's Cathedral after a distance that I decide was lucky we didn’t walk. St Paul's Cathedral is quite an impressive building with 3 main attractions:

1. Beautiful Architecture

2. Nice (and relaxing - too relaxing for Amy, she nearly went to sleep) Choir

3. Free seats (my legs were thanking me profusely)

We got there about 4:30 pm and at 5pm a mass started up. I sat in the mass while Amy went to the café underneath it (yes, a church with a café). I was disgusted when during the mass some guy's mobile rang (despite the warnings all over the place telling them to keep them turned off) and he started talking on it. When the lady (guard) came over and told him to switch it off, he handed the phone to his wife and walked off. She continued talking on the phone (but looked like she was trying to wrap the conversation up), and then hung up. It was at this stage that I tried to will myself into believing in God, just for the sake of him striking them down with a large lightning bolt.

After about 30 minutes Amy (the philistine ;) could take no more and dragged me out of there. Since the price of the first London Cab didn’t seem to bad (about 7 pounds) we decided to get another cab home.

London Cab

I am starting to think that cabbies are the same the world over. I seeded him with some right-wing propaganda and he just went off. It was the usual stuff about foreigners taking all there jobs and get free handouts on their social security system etc etc. I (being the stirrer that I am) said that in Australia we dump them on an island guarded by the navy and in the desert. He said that "Australia had the right idea" and that England should adopt their model. I tried to fire him off about youth today but he was far too engrossed in those damn foreigners so I let him continue. Eventually we reached our destination (Roseberry Hall - our current home) and we asked him where the nearest shops were, He mentioned that Tesco Supermarket was "just down the road". We also told him that we had previously stayed at Earl's Court and he said that is where all Aussies start in London and the place had been nicknamed "Kangaroo Court".

Later we walked "just down the road" (more like 2km from where we were staying - after resting in St Paul's Cathedral - and popping some pills, I had my 2nd wind) to tesco supermartket.

Tesco Supermarket

At last! A real supermarket! It wasn't as large as a Coles (except perhaps the Coles in the Myer Centre), but it was good enough for our needs.

Laundromat

Well for the business end of the holiday. It is 5am in the morning and we are in dire need of washing. Put the washing on, and I am typing here as the washing/drying is done.

XXX Adults only (sealed) section

One thing I have noticed (I don’t know how I can say this in any gentler language - any children/people with weak hearts, or high morals stop reading here) but there is a distinct lack of adult shops in London. The worst magazines that the shops sell is FHM and Zoo. There is no B&D shops, no strip clubs, nothing. This contrasts with filthy pictures stuck inside the various telephone boxes around the place. London is place of contrast, you can see well-healed corporate types walking amongst the poor and downtrodden, and I there seems to be a high moral/puritan feel (but with a nasty undercurrent) about the place too. Nobody swears, but yet a knife-stabbing / shooting is common. So I would wrap up by saying there are really two Londons, and I will leave it up to you to decide which one you would like to explore.

(P.S. Amy said to tell you all that she keg partied all night with half naked cute guys who poured beer over themselves [or her - she didn’t specify which] while I was asleep. I didn’t mind … I needed the sleep badly ;)