Amterdam is fab

July 26, 2005 - Tagged as: Travel

I'm in Amsterdam now. I have to make this quick because the Internet in the hostel is expensive and time is running out. I ended up sticking around longer in paris than expected so that I could watch the last stage of the Tour de France. It was hard to tell what was going on because the commentary was in French. I'm glad I stayed in Paris for the Tou though.

The Paris Ghetto

July 22, 2005 - Tagged as: Travel

I am staying in the Paris ghetto. It's ok though. I just try not to walk around by myself at night. Paris has a lot to do, so even though I have been here for a few days, I'm not sick of it yet.

Here is the rundown of what I have done so far:

Day 1: Went to the Louvre and then sat outside and ate a disgusting amount of brie cheese with a baguette and made myself feel sick. Next, I walked down Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. I did stop for a while to watch the 3rd Star Wars movie. I know I said I wasn't going to watch any more movies before I got home, but my legs were really tired after walking to the Louvre and then walking around inside for 4 hours.

Day 2: I decided to be lazy yesterday and use the Metro to get around. My first stop was the Eiffel Tower. I took the stairs to the 2nd level and then took the lift to the top. I think I picked a good day to go up because it was really sunny and quite clear. The view from the top was amazing. After I got down from the tower, I sat on the grass and finished what was left of the brie from the day before. Again, I felt sick afterwards. Next I took the metro to the Notre Dame. It was probably the most interesting church I have seen. I think it's funny how many churches I have been to in Europe considering how little I care about religion. I do enjoy the architecture though. After I left Notre Dame, I went to the other little island (which I can't remember the name of) and walked around for a while. While I was walking around, I decided that I should try a crepe while in France. I ordered a chocolate crepe and it was quite possibly the messiest thing I have ever eaten. The girl that made the crepe did an absolutely terrible job of cooking it, so it was filled with holes. Next she absolutely coated it with chocolate, wrapped it up and put it into a paper bag. The crepe glued itself to the paper bag and there was chocolate everywhere. Somehow I managed to eat it all without getting chocolate on my clothes. I don't think I got any chocolate on my face either, but there weren't any mirrors around, so I couldn't really be sure. I watched peoples faces very carefully as I walked to Jardin du Luxembourg to see if they were staring at a guy with chocolate on his face. The park was big and filled with people running, playing tennis and others just relaxing. After returning to the hostel (in the ghetto), I had a couple Kronenboug 1664 (yum) and then walked with a group of people up to the Sacre Coeur.

I'm not sure what I am going to do today, but I need to get out of this Internet cafe soon.

My Nipples Hurt!

July 16, 2005 - Tagged as: Travel

Yes, you read that title correctly. I rented a surf board today and went surfing in San Sebastian. The guy at the surf shop said that it was warm enough that I didn't need a wet suit and he was sort of right. When I first got into the water, I was nice and warm and I actually got up on the first wave I caught. After a while, my chest started to get a bit sore and I started to realize why rash guards were invented. I think the salt water, waxy surfboard, my hairy chest and my sensitive skin were a bad combination. I toughed it out for a while longer, but then I started to get really cold so I went in.

I went in again after warming up, but it took a long time because it wasn't very sunny today. Surfing was fun. I think I will do it again, but not without a wetsuit or rash guard.

San Sebastian is really expensive. I'm paying 28 euros for a crappy bed in a room with 3 other people. In Lisbon, I paid 15 and I had my own room. That was much nicer. I fear that Paris will be brutally expensive. Travelling by yourself is very expensive when hostels aren't available and Paris doesn't seem to be a big hostel city. The good news is that I have a reservation at the bulldog hostel in Amsterdam which is supposed to be really good.

Porto

July 14, 2005 - Tagged as: Travel

I have spent the last couple nights in Porto. I think I liked Lisbon better. Porto seems to be quite poor in most places.

I spent yesterday going to 3 different port wine cellars. They all had tours and tastings. I think I can now safely say that I don't like port. I tried 11 different types of port and I didn't really like any of them. The most bearable one was the only one I paid for which was a glass of 1982 vintage Kohn port.

I'm heading to San Sebastian today. I don't have anywhere to stay, but I think I will be arriving from a night train, so I should have lots of time to look for a place.

Surf's not up

July 11, 2005 - Tagged as: Travel

I have beein staying in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal for the last few days. I took a day trip to Sintra yesterday and hiked around a palace and a large park for most of the day. I have a nice big blister on my right heal to show for it. Sintra was a beautiful town though. I suggest you all visit the next time you are in Lisbon. :)

I discovered recently that Portugal doesn´t dub their movies, so over the past two nights I have seen Batman Begins and War of the Worlds. I was suffering from movie withdrawl, but I think I will be alright now until I get home.

I decided that today I would take a day trip to Cascais and give surfing a try. Not knowing any better, I took a train to Cascais and hoped for the best. I found the tourist info booth and they suggested Praia de Carcavelos and Praia do Guincho. I decided to try Praia do Guincho which was actually back in the direction I came from. There were no waves there and the guy who rented surfboards and spoke broken english told me that the rental place was closed today. So I took the train back to Cascais where I am now killing time until my bus leaves for Praia do Guncho at 1:05. So much for getting an early start.

I think I will go to Porto tomorrow, but I'm not really sure. Time to catch the bus now. Hopefully this beach will have waves and surfboards.

Portuguese Squid

July 7, 2005 - Tagged as: Travel

Granada was an interesting place. The tapas included with the beer in many bars were a nice surprise. The problem was that I wanted to try so many different tapas that I ended up drinking quite a bit during my first night in Granada. Actually, the problem was not so much the drinking, but getting up early the next morning to go see the Alhambra.

There were a couple of Portugese girls staying at the hostel in Granada, so I tried to get some information from them about where to go in Portugal. They suggested Tavira on the Algarve and I am glad they did. I'm in Tavira right now and it's very beautiful. The beach here is massive and the weather is perfect, so I spent quite a bit of time at the beach yesterday and today. I managed to give myself a bad sunburn on my chest and stomache yesterday. When I got back to the place I'm staying, I took off my shirt and it looked like I was wearing a red shirt underneath. Today I coated myself with sunscreen and spent more time in the shade.

I am staying in a "hostal" which is basically a cheap hotel. I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to meet anyone here, but I ran into a couple of Danish girls who are sisters. We had dinner last night and then had a a bunch of drinks at a little bar that was surprisingly good. I was at the beach with them today as well, but they vanished tonight which is why I'm here on the Internet.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow. I was thinking of going to Lagos for a day because I have heard it has great beaches as well and more to do at night than Tavira. If I don't go to Lagos, I will probably end up in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal.

I had a funny experience on my first day here in Tavira. I wandered into a small cafe/restaurant and saw a sign with a picture of a squid on it. I can't remember exactly what it said, but it was ___ frita. I figured frita probably meant fried, so I thought I would get calamari. I was very wrong. After a long wait (I missed my ferry to the beach), a platter arrived containing salad, french fries and an entire squid. The squid was fried, but not deep fried, so it was different from calamari, but very good. I'm quite amazed that I managed to eat it all, but it was tasty. Writing about food has made me hungry. I think I'm going to go get some dinner.

Happy Canada Day

July 2, 2005 - Tagged as: Travel

Freiburg Germany was a cool city. I climbed up a hill which had a big observation tower on the top that gave an amazing view of the city. The hostel I was staying at rented bikes, so I spent one day pedalling around and getting lost. One night while I was wandering around aimlessly in Freiburg, I was approached by someone handing out flyers for a club. The girl handing out the flyers described the place as "a bit seedy", but I was bored, so I checked it out. It was in the bottom of an old metro station so it was indeed quite seedy, but it was fun.

My next stop was Marseille, France. The train I caught arrived at the Marseille train station at approximately 10pm. Note to all of you: the Marseille train station and the surrounding area are not a good place to be at night. After walking through the streets filled with garbage and drunk homeless people for a while I found an Internet cafe and was able to locate a hostel.

The hostel was a long way away from the train station and in a much nicer area by the beach. The next day I hung out on the beach and watched a big skateboard competition at a park that supposedly is world famous. I also got my second worst sunburn of my trip. The first being when I forgot to put sunscreen on my feet while I was on a beach near Venice.

As an aside, I should point out that I have started referring to my travels as "The Ice Cream Tour of Europe". The hot weather and the seemingly universal availability and tastiness of ice cream has created somewhat of an addiction. Best ice cream so far: chocolate chip mint from Freiburg. Sorry Venice, better luck next time.

I was lucky enough to meet a French girl who was working in some sort of promotions job, so I was able to get a ride into central Marseille in a garish Smart Car. It was early in the day, so I walked around for a quite a while even though I was carrying my heavy backpack. I walked to the train station which was much less grungy during the day and got on the next train to Miramas.

Miramas is a small town about 40 KM from Marseille. I went there because I thought it would be fun to go somewhere small and family friend Jan Oliver had done an exchange there with a very hospitable French family who would probably be willing to give me a place to stay. I was a bit apprehensive about calling people who I didn't know directly. I also didn't know how much english they spoke, but I knew that I spoke very little French. I think my French teachers would be very unimpressed. At this point, it wasn't clear whether the Delcros family even knew that someone might call them, so I didn't call.

Instead of calling, I walked around Miramas casually looking for accommodation and getting to know the town a bit. After walking around for quite a while and eating some food without finding anywhere to stay, I decided to walk to the next town. This was a bad idea. I reached the edge of Miramas and I saw a sign that said "Istres 9". 9 was the number of kilometers to the next town. For some reason, this did not discourage me. I thought to myself, "I can run that far, so walking with a backpack should be roughly as difficult". I arrived in Istres a couple hours later (about 11pm) very tired and sweaty. In the 9 Km, I hadn't seen anyone else on the road except for people in cars. This made sense because the road was definitely not designed for pedestrians, as it had virtually know shoulders.

I wandered through Istres a bit and found a bench in a small park to rest at. There was a large group of police officers hassling drunk drivers at a roadblock. I saw them pull a number of people over and it seemed like the more drunk they were the longer they were hassled for before inevitably being allowed to continue on without so much as a ticket.

I asked the police if they knew of any hotels in the area and one of the officers directed me to one very near by. The sign outside the hotel read "complet". It means full and it was a word that I would see many times that night. The police directed me to a second hotel that was also full. Rather than return and bug the police for a third time I decided to look around myself. I didn't find any hotels, but I found a large group of people playing boules. I hung out there for a bit and tried to talk to people who spoke english about as well as I speak french.

As the boules was winding down, one of the players offered to take me to a hotel in the neighbouring city where he lived. I can't remember the name of the city right now, but what I can tell you is that it was full of hotels with "complet" signs outside. Eventually, my driver gave up and went home. At this point it was pretty much determined that I would end up sleeping outside. I had realized much earlier in the day that there was a possibility that I might be sleeping outside, but I never would have guessed that it would have been in a town 20 Km away from Miramas.

At 2 AM, the streets of the unnamed city were very quiet. I think I was actually on the outskirts of the city in an industrial area. I walked around trying to find the train station so I could catch an early train back to Miramas the next day. I used a map on a bus stop and my trusty Mag-Lite flashlight to locate a train station nearby. What I found was very disappointing, but perhaps a blessing in disguise. I walked up a small gravel road to the tiniest, oldest, most run-down and pathetic train station I have ever seen. It was off the main road and nobody could see me there, so I decided to add a layer of clothing and go to sleep.

I slept uncomfortably with the mosquitos for a few hours and then awoke to the sound of a car behind me. I think it was just someone who took a wrong turn, because they took off again shortly. In the daylight, I was able to see a train schedule that was out of date, but indicated that this crappy little station was used twice a day. I walked to the next station which felt really far away at this point because my feet were killing me. I arrived at the train station just in time to catch the first train to Miramas.

The day before, I had looked around for quite a while before finding a computer store that offered overpriced Internet access. Unfortunately, I had arrived back to Miramas on a Sunday morning so the computer store was now closed.

I was pretty sure that the Delcros family would know by this time that I was in Miramas, so I was going to call them shortly. First I asked in a book store using a very crude mix of english and french if they knew of anywhere I could find a computer to use the Internet. The clerk said no, but as I was leaving the store, a middle aged woman asked me if I wanted to go to her house and use the Internet. Obviously I did, so I went with her and met her husband who spoke english reasonably well.

I was releived to find an e-mail in my inbox saying that Jan had called the Delcros family and they were expecting my call. The people whose computer I was using offered to let me use there phone as well. I said a few words in horribly weak French before the French man whose name was Eric I think, took the phone and said a bunch of stuff in french.

Eric told me that Jannine Delcros was waiting for me. They offered me a ride for the roughly 1.5 km to the Delcros' house, but they had done enough for me already so I walked. The walk was easy knowing that I would be able to sit down and rest when I arrived.

I met Jannine, Pierre and their daughter Lorre. I'm not sure if I have the daughter's name right, but that was what it sounded like when they said it. The hospitality there was wonderful. I ate well, and slept extremely well the first night I was there.

I stayed two nights with the Delcros family which included watching goldeneye dubbed in French. For some reason, a wussy sounding actor had been chosen to voice James Bonds role. I think goldeneye was easily the best Pierce Brosnan Bond movie. During the day, I rode a number of trains to Barcelona which is where I am now.

I stayed at a little hostel on La Ramblas which is the big party street in Barcelona. The hostel was small and crowded, but had a good social atmosphere, so I was able to meet people easily. I went to the beach and a park with Anna and Charlotte from Belgium. The next day I went to The Picasso museum and Sagrida De Familla (sp?) with Michelle from Chicago. We went to Parc Guell which was designed by Gaudi and wandered around the former Olympic village yesterday. The Olympic village was actually a bit of a wasteland.

I thought I would be in Granada right now, but the night train I wanted to catch was full, so I stayed another night in Barcelona. I ened up in what I'm pretty sure is an unlicensed hostel, but it's comfortable, so I'm not complaining. I now have a train reservation and I have reserved a bed in a hostel for when I arrive. I am actually feeling fairly organized for a change. I'm not so organized that I know where I am going after Granada, but hey, it's a start.

I have just one final thing to add that will shock and amaze you all. I have actually been reading on my trip. So far, I have read

1. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
2. Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
3. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
4. The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown

The Wurst

June 21, 2005 - Tagged as: Travel

I'm in Germany now. I have to be quick because I don't have much time left. Berlin was fun. I spent most of my first day in Berlin getting lost on the U Bahn and sleeping, but I was recharged for the evening. I went out to a club that I can't remember the name of. It was a very late night and I didn't get back to the hostel until the sun was coming up.

Somehow I dragged myself out of bed and went on an excellent walking tour of the city. Yesterdaz I tried going to a few museums, but everything was closed for some reason. I'm now in a place called Freiburg. I'm not sure why I'm here. I think I was getting a bit sick of big cities.

One interesting thing I have found about being in Germany is that since I look fairly German, a lot of the time people start speaking German to me and I have no freakin clue what they are saying. Time to hunt for a hostel now.

Hangover, Turkish Style

June 16, 2005 - Tagged as: Travel

I did a tour of the underground city in Cappadocia yesterday. The underground city was impressive. It must have taken ages to dig out. It goes 8 levels underground. I'm a bit caved out now after the tour and sleeping 2 nights in a cave. Sleeping in a cave sounds pretty cool and it was, but it's not something I would want to do all the time. If it were any more humid in the room, I think it would have started raining. Actually, it might have started snowing because it was also freezing cold.

Last night I went to a thing called Turkish Night. It was definitely a highlight for me. When we arrived, there was bread, raki, wine and a bunch of small plates of food on the table. In Turkey, every meal is served with heaps of white bread. I think I must be eating about a loaf of bread per day. In case you were wondering, raki is Turkish alcohol. I can't tell the difference between raki, ouzo and sambuka, but apparently they aren't the same. To me, they all taste terrible, but that's probably because of the bottle of ouzo I split with Brian while we were in Greece.

Shortly after we sat down, the lights dimmed and some whirling dervishes came out. They spun around in circles for about 15 minutes and somehow didn't get dizzy. I ate a bunch of food, but the waiters took the plates of food away before I was really done. The waiters came back with big plates of lamb and rice. I had eaten almost a full meal of appetizers thinking that it was dinner. I didn't let this stop me from eating about 2 more meals worth of food.

Since the drinks were free, I drank like a fish. One glass of Raki was enough for me, but the wine and the Efes went down easily. Efes is a Turkish beer. It may be the only Turkish beer because I haven't seen anything else. I'm taking it easy today because I'm feeling a bit fragile.

I'm getting hungry now, so I'm going to try and find some food that won't liquify my insides before the overnight bus trip to Istanbul.

Stupid Airlines

June 14, 2005 - Tagged as: Travel

I was hoping to change my flight out of Turkey so that I could spend a bit more time here. It turns out that changing my flight out of Turkey is pretty easy, but changing my flight from Amsterdam to Vancouver could be very expensive and inconvenient. Unless something unexpected happens, I'll be sticking with my original flights.

I'm in Cappadocia right now. It's known for its underground cities and faerie chimneys. I spent last night on an overnight bus to get here (ugh), but the night before, I spent at Kadir's Treehouses in Olympos. It was a very relaxing place except for this one guy named Rob. He was probably the most irritating person I have ever met and I'm ashamed to say that he is Canadian. Everyone who I have talked to who came into contact with him was repulsed. The tree houses were cool though. Olympos has an area where gas leaks out of the ground and generates natural flames. I didn't see it though because I was too busy doing nothing.

I'm going to explore the underground cities tomorrow and then the next stop is Istanbul followed by a flight to Berlin.

Turkey Time

June 10, 2005 - Tagged as: Travel

Sorry I haven't added anything here in so long. I wrote up a bit long post while I was in Athens, but it didn't submit properly and I lost it. I'm in Turkey now and so far Turkey has been awesome.

After leaving Athens, I decided to move quickly towards Turkey because I don't have much time here. This meant that I didn't have time to see the Greek islands at all. I took a ferry to the island of Samos and then another ferry to Turkey a few hours later. When I arrived in Samos, I was a little worried that I didn't have anything planned in Turkey. I went to a travel agent and he suggested that I go with the Fez bus. Fez offers a hop-on hop-off bus around parts of Turkey. I have heard that travelling by public transit in Turkey is pretty easy, but given my compressed schedule, I didn't really have time to worry about looking for hostels and bus schedules.

I think I was a bit ambitious when I planned my travel itinerary. Actually, I always knew it was ambitious, but at the time, I had a girlfriend to get back to so I didn't want to leave for too long. For those of you who don't know (probably most people, since I haven't told many people), Lauren and I broke up the day I left. So if you know any single women in Turkey, Germany, France, Spain or Portugal, let me know. :)

Currently, I'm on a boat trip between Fethiye and Olympos. It has been good to sit on the boat and relax, but the churning Mediterranean and the diesel fumes are making me a bit sick. The water here is crystal clear and warm, so it's excellent for swimming.

One final anecdote before I head back towards the boat. Yesterday, the boat was anchored near a small, uninhabited island that was covered with ruins. I swam over to the island and started climbing up the path barefoot (ouch). I made it about half way up the mountain and I approached a small graveyard. I glanced over to my left and noticed a long black tube. I thought to myself, "That's an odd place for a garden hose". A moment later, I realized that I was standing next to a huge black snake. The snake was shiny in the sun and had light orange stripes near its belly. When the snake noticed me, it turned around and went through some rocks. When it came out, I saw it in full view. It was approximately seven feet long and about the width of a large egg at the thickest point. I decided that I had walked far enough and it was time to head back to the boat.

I almost forgot to tell about The Pink Palace. It was a lot of fun. It definitely tested the limits of my liver. On my second night there, I drank my weight in Ouzo and woke up the next day with a ripping hangover and a huge bump on my head. Good times.

Athens had some impressive ruins, but the garbage in the streets was disgusting. I have to run now or the boat will be off without me.

The Isle of Pink

May 29, 2005 - Tagged as: Travel

I just arrived at the Pink Palace in Corfu, Greece after a 22 hour ferry ride from Venice. Brian was supposed to be on the ferry with me, but he somehow missed his flight out of Luton airport in London. He then went to Stansted because some guy at ryanair said he could catch another flight from there. Apparently that guy was full of shit, so the last I heard from Brian he was heading back towards Luton airport.

The ferry was long and boring, but I did get to see an amazing sunset and the following sunrise. It's time to go buy a phone card and talk to Brian. My fingers are crossed.

Canadians don't know squat

May 26, 2005 - Tagged as: Travel

Squat toilets are officially the worst idea ever. It's like a regular toilet except you take off the most important part. I just don't get it.

I'm in Venice right now and the weather is great. I put sunscreen all over my body today because my plan was to head to a beach on an island called Lido. At least I thought I put sunscreen all over my body. After spending a bunch of time on the beach I realized that I didn't put any sunscreen on my legs. I think my legs are alright, but my feet are as red as the tomatoes here.

On the topic of tomatoes, it's nearly impossible to find unprepared food in Venice. I spent so much time today trying to find a grocery store or even a corner store. When I did finally find a corner store, it was closed for the middle of the day. Lazy Italians!

The beach experience was a bit weird. It wasn't like any beach I have been to in Canada. There was a lot of really soft sand that was very flat and sterile looking. They have what looks like a ski grooming machine going around the beach. I think the idea is to scrape up the garbage, but it also gets the seaweed and twigs, so the beach ends up looking like a sandbox.

I couldn't figure out what was going on at the beach when I got there. There was a fence on the street, but the gate was open. There was a sign on the fence that said spa something or other, but my Italian is terrible, so I just walked through. I tried not to be seen by anyone and that wasn't very hard because there was nobody around. Before I got to the water I had to walk between hundreds of little, identical beach shacks. Almost all of them seemed vacant. It as very strange.

After wandering up and down the beach for a while and pretending not to look at the topless women, I walked back up towards the little beach shacks. I noticed a sign that said '.... millitare ...'. I was even more careful to not be seen on my way out.

Brian gets into Venice tomorrow. Hopefully I will be able to find him.

A step backwards

May 23, 2005 - Tagged as: Travel

I have a bit of time to kill now and I have a bunch of new pictures, so we are going to take a step back to when was in Brighton.

View from the pier in Brighton

Brian showed me around the Chichester Cathedral a bit and they had a very brightly colored and large stained glass window.

You guessed it, the stained glass window

During my last night in the south of England I wasn't in Chichester, but in a place called Hayling Island. That name might not be right, but it's close. A group of us from the school where Brian is at including Jarrad (the aussie gap student) and Brian went to a quiz thing in a community center. The questions were hard, but that didn't stop us from getting loaded.

After the quiz closed down, we made our way to a bar until that closed at 11:00 (stupid alcohol laws). Finally we ended up at a house party where I drank some nasty liquor and danced like a drunken fool with these girls.

I wasn't dancing so well

Sunburn in London

May 22, 2005 - Tagged as: Travel

Somehow I managed to get a sunburn while I was out in London today. I did the hop-on-hop-off bus tour thing today. I went to the National Art Gallery and the Tate Modern Art Gallery. I think I saw more art today than I have in the last 4 years. The National Art Gallery was amazing. It was more impressive to me than the Tate Modern Gallery. It's not that their was anything wong with the Tate gallery, but I prefer portraits to modern, abstract art.

Tower Bridge

I didn't realize that so much of the art from the 1500-1700's was so god-centric. It seems like almost every painting in there has some biblical character in it.

I also saw Nelson's monument in Trafalgar Square. It's huge. I'm a bit overwhelmed there is so much to do here, and I don't have a lot of time. I think I may be spending tomorow night in Stansted airport tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to that. I have to figure out how to get there now.

Nelson's Monument

Rain in England

May 20, 2005 - Tagged as: Travel

Ugh... wet

I guess I wouldn't really be getting an authentic England experience if it wasn't raining. It pissed down all day yesterday. Luckily I spent a good chunk of time inside at Arundel castle. It was a pretty spectacular place. I'm forgetting already, but I think it is the home of the Duke of Norfolk. There is a family that lives in part of the castle today. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

Arundel Castle

Unfortunately, you weren't allowed to take pictures inside the castle. What's the deal with that anyway? I have heard that flashes can damage paintings, so I could understand not allowing flash photography, but why ban photography completely?

The day before yesterday, after waking up stupidly hungover from a night out in Chichester, Brian and I made our way to Portsmouth. We checked out Nelson's flagship, The Victory and the Naval Museum.

The Victory

A boob

Two boobs

Once I get out of this Internet cafe I am hopping on a train to Brighton. I'm not sure what I'm going to do there, but it will be a change of scenery at least. I'm doing some sort of pub quiz thing tonight. I'm not sure what to expect, but hopefully it will be a good time.

A day in Chichester

May 17, 2005 - Tagged as: Travel

The Chichester Cathedral spire

I spent a full day in Chichester today. That isn't really true, I spent quite a bit of time in the next town over called Fishbourne. I caught a bus over there, but it was so close by that I walked back.

While I was in Fishbourne, I saw the Fishbourne Roman Palace. It is a museum that is situated on the ruins of a Roman Palace. It was ok, but not mind blowing. There were lots of old tile floors, but the most interesting piece was an amulet that had a penis on one end and a hand showing "the finger" on the other end...the Romans were truly brilliant.

A Roman hypocaust used for central heat

On my way back towards Chichester I stopped at a Tesco Express and picked up a bag of salt and shake chips. I wasn't really sure what shake meant, so I thought I would give them a try. I opened them up and they were very plain. When I was nearly finished the bag, I reached for a chip and pulled out a blue packet...of salt. Salt and shake makes sense now. So that's what I have learned today.

The trip begins

May 16, 2005 - Tagged as: Travel

Notice the conveniently placed sign

I'm writing this from The Prebendal School in Chichester, England where Brian is doing his GAP year. It's a very nice campus. No really interesting stories yet. That's probably a good thing though.

A wall next to the playing fields at the school

I ran into a guy I knew from high school named James Thom (sp?) on the ferry. That was good because he had done a trip through europe a few years ago, so we talked a lot about that.