Stratford, London & Horley

After settling into my two star hotel, I napped and then decided to go for a walk around Stratford, which is very close to their Olympic Village. I walked for about 20 minutes or half an hour and saw many things, mostly small dingy shops, and some less dingy shops, with more ethnicities and languages than my own. It reminded me of Whalley in Surrey, except with the odd cathedral or historical building thrown in.

I didn't get terribly far because a whole area of streets was blocked off by the police, and people were frustratedly trying to get around the blockade. I overhead an officer tell someone it was due to a stabbing. Yup, just like Whalley. ;)

I would have loved to take out my large camera and just spend a few hours taking photos around town, but I decided to save that for when I was back in central London the next day. Besides, I felt like I was already a tiny bit conspicuous since I was the only one with pants and a long-sleeved jacket on. If I took out my camera TOO, then the jig would be up and they'd know for sure that I was an imposter. So, I used my small camera and got a few shots before getting groceries and retiring to my room for the night.

Finished reading A Long Way Gone that P lent me.  What a powerful book! Now I am on to 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I also have 4 other books downloaded to my iPad (and 3 movies) to keep me busy. Sometimes I get tired of looking at the screen, though.  Maybe I should've thought to download an audiobook as well. Ah well - I can't be in the middle of too many things at once; information overload!

The next morning I decided to take my friend Jennie's advice and go do a riverboat cruise.  I have never been down the Thames, and it would give me a chance to sightsee as well as relax. Sounded just about perfect. :)

Well, it wasn't totally perfect. I don't know what I was thinking when I booked the return ticket. I probably wasn't thinking that the entire trip would be eight solid hours on a boat. I probably didn't think that taking the train the way back was the smart thing to do - even though that's what everyone else was doing. I probably didn't think that dragging my suitcase around with me would be that big of a deal. 

Despite the imperfections, though, the cruise was great. It went all the way down to Hampton Court Palace, which was beautiful.  Got some photo evidence to prove it! :) After I finally got off the boat, I headed to Victoria station and made my way to Horley, which is where I met S! She was waiting for me outside our little guest house.  Yay!  Dinner, a walk, and bed. Our flight leaves at 6am for Oslo. The Scandinavian portion of our adventure awaits!

Cheers,

E!

p.s. - always super amazed by the public transportation system here

 - when someone asks you if you want "salad" with your sandwich, they just mean lettuce. On your sandwich.

- look before you cross (both ways), and mind the gap

- apparently the weather here is crazy-unusual-hot

- what the heck is "brown sauce"? I don't know, but I don't want it...

Arrived safe & sound in London. :)

So, the first of my 6 flights is done and over with! Not without a few stories, though. :) The woman seated next to me looked to be in her mid-50's, very prim and proper. We exchanged a few niceties but she was more interested in complaining about how airline service has deteriorated over the years, and doing her makeup, which she did, three times.

I think she would have been even more horrified than I to realize that a woman behind us was slowly inching her bare feet up the backs of our arm rests and into our personal space. I don't have any issues with feet except when they belong to strangers and encroach upon my personal space. Lucky for Ms. Prim & Proper, she was in the washroom when it happened, although she may have been wondering why I kept looking behind both sides of me (obviously trying to head off a foot ambush).

Flight went quickly, I might have slept a little although I don't know how much. Managed to find the right train station that took me to the subway that took me to the bus that took me to my hotel. However, I almost fell backwards down an escalator (made an incredulous save), got my luggage stuck in the subway doors as they were closing and required 3 gentlemen and 1 lady to help me get out of that mess (thank goodness), and missed my hotel by several stops. And to top it off, even though I was able to check in early, the gentleman who showed me my room beat a very hasty retreat when he realized that there were some loud extra-curricular activities going on in the room next door. Ha!

Oh, but the best thing? I forgot to mention that when Ms. P&P and I were getting acquainted, she asked me if I was on my "gap year."  Isn't a gap year students take to travel in between finishing school and starting work?? Awesome!!... I fooled HER. :) Naw, I fessed up to being a teacher. I just didn't let on that my gap year would have been 13 years ago.  I'll just cherish that accidental compliment for a while. :D

Meeting with the wonderful S tomorrow after I change hotels. Not sure yet what to do today or tomorrow. I was trying to arrange a tour to Stonehenge but it didn't happen. Honestly, I might just take this time to relax! :)

Cheers

E!

The Grand Adventure is Drawing to a Close

Hi everyone,

At the moment I am in London and this time tomorrow I will be happily in my own bed, so you're looking at the last of my emails (yay!). I am looking forward to enjoying so many familiarities and comforts of home that I have been doing without for the past 33 days, including not-living-out-of-a-suitcase!!

So, we went to Spain. Dan, Tracy & I piled all our stuff into Dan's car and we took a road trip north. The border between Morocco & Spain is totally insane. These guys run up to your car and give you a border entry card, (and expect payment, of course), then you fill it out and have to park your car - right at the border - and go to a wicket to get the stamp. Then you go through about 4 or 5 passport checks and questions from men who sometimes look like they are buddy-down-the-street and are sometimes carrying guns. It's all chaos - people bud in line, yell over top of each other... and it was a Sunday when we went!

Anyways, we arrived in Ceuta/Sebta (Spanish/Arabic) and it was a lovely departure from our travels so far. Like being back in Europe. Tracy got us by with her Spanish skills (is there any language she doesn't speak?? apparently she hasn't been formally trained in either Pig Latin or Arabic) and we had an awesome time, soaking up the atmosphere. We walked around town, ate ice cream, took photos, soaked our feet in the Mediterranean and went to a pizzeria for dinner.

Ok, so we're at the Pizzeria and the server asks if we want to share a Caeser salad to start, and we agree. Let me tell you what was in the salad. No, wait, let me tell you what wasn't in the salad: the kitchen sink! It had lettuce, tomato, corn, artichokes, rice, olives, carrots, cucumbers, palm hearts, tuna, beets... and more. We're not kidding. And strange thing is, it was pretty good! But it ain't no Ceasar salad!!

The next day (Monday), we got up early and drove back to Rabat. Dan only tried to kill us a couple of times by looking somewhere else other than the road, but little does he know how hearty we are from weeks of crossing the street in Egypt! So, we made it all the way to the train station unscathed. Sad goodbye to Dan who was a very generous host - thanks Dan!!

Arriving in Marrakech, we checked in to our Riad and two young guys seemed to be running the place. They amused themselves greatly by continually quoting us ridiculous times for things - i.e. 4 hours to get to the airport, 3 hour walk to get to the main square, etc. However they were really friendly and helpful once they had their laugh. The Riad was very nice, as well. My only complaint is that there was no door on the bathroom (just a curtain), and you don't realize how important that is until you don't have one! Yeesh.

We walked to the main square which was called Jemaa El Fna, and it was crazy there at night! So alive with kiosks selling orange juice, crowds of people around storytellers, food stands, henna tattoo artists, kids trying to sell you tissue, and shopping shopping shopping. Marrakech is the Moroccan city most like Egypt in that people hassled us the most here out of any place in Morocco.

Tracy had another henna done on her hand and we decided to walk back to our Riad. Then, I was rudely welcomed to Marrkech by having a tomato thrown at me!! I was shocked and dismayed; I certainly do love my vegetables, but not when used in an unfriendly projectile sort of manner. There were Arabic guys walking on the street towards us and they were really shocked too, apologizing and making sure all was ok. I was pretty upset - but we wrote it off to random kids driving by and being idiots. Everybody else in Morocco has been so nice, it was such a shame, really. Washed out my clothes when I got back to the Riad.

The next day we took Marrakesh by storm and we spent time again at Jemaa El Fna (saw snake-charmers!), the Tombeaux, Marjorelle Gardens (an oasis in the middle of the insanity; we loved it), Palace ruins, Marrakech Museum, Ben Youssef and some famous monument thingy that we don't even know what it was - but was neat anyways.

Totally strange coincidence - while at the Museum we ran into 2 people that were staying at our Dar in Fes! Really specific places to be running into each other. Almost creepy... :) And then at the airport later we ran into more people that were staying at that Dar in Fes! What a small, small world. There were only 3 people at the Dar that we didn't see in a different Moroccan city (the strange English/French family that kepy insulting Tracy... maybe it was good that we didn't run in to them).

Our last Moroccan meal was delicious; cucumber soup, Moroccan chicken curry, vegetable pastry and poached pear & ice cream for dessert. We will definitely miss the food! Our last night in Morocco was a little annoying because there was really loud music going on at some neighbouring building - and it went on all-night-long!! Seriously, it was still going when we woke up this morning at 5:45am.

So, we flew to London. We had a proper English meal of fish n' chips and we stocked up on snacks and whatnot for travels ahead. I fly home tomorrow and Tracy has a few more days in the UK before she's back in the GVRD.

Here's some random thoughts:
- we've tried 4 types of Fanta: apple, orange, black current & lemon.
- the Moroccans eat their french fries with dijon mustard; Tracy has now converted.
- we saw several instances of Moroccans hitting their children out in public. Hard. :(
- shoving clothes into your bag willy-nilly makes them really wrinkled, but sweating de-wrinkle-fies anything pretty quick.
- there was regularly no shower curtain and you need a certain amount of skill to not get the bathroom floor flooded.
- I have eaten more pizza and drank more pop on this trip than any other one food/drink.
- there's no row 13 in airplanes? Like elevators I guess. I mean, who wants to sit in row 13 in a flying tin can?
- my Canada flag keychain was stolen off my suitcase. It would have been very difficult to remove. My carabeener clips got stolen off my luggage, but they would have been easy.
- a bunch of songs I paid for through iTunes, about 30 of them, still 'play' on my iPhone but with no sound. I have restarted the phone but to no avail. Strange! They were definitely working before, and went blank about halfway through my trip. Anyone know why?
- I have played inordinate amounts of cribbage on my iPhone and am now convinced that I am a better player. Anyone wanna take me on?
- if I were to do Morocco again, I would do Marrakech first, then Fes, then end with Dan in Rabat because it was so nice to have some real relaxing time without a crazy agenda.
- how do pilots know, when they are flying right IN the clouds, that there isn't another airplane in there coming the other way?? Karl??

Thanks all of you for reading these emails (or, well, for receiving them anyways!). Typing out my experiences is much faster than writing them all down and they are often things I want to remember too. Hopefully you've gotten a giggle or some helpful info out of them at one point or another. I'll send links to photos sometime in the next few weeks.

If you are in the GVRD, look me up before I go back to work on Sep 8th! If not, I hope we can get together sometime soon for a visit. Take care, and be good.

Cheers,
Elaan

Shakespeare & Tate

Hi all

Just wanted to send another short message!

We started the day with the London Eye and 360 degree views of the city. Nice! Saw Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, went to the Tate Modern Gallery, had a tour of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (woo!!), went to St. Paul's, and then went back to the Globe to watch a show.

Here's the short sheet:

- My back aches and my feet hurt. Walk, walk, walk!
- It's been windy but it did NOT rain on us today. Thanks heavens! :)
- The Underground is awesome. And humid and sticky and crammed full of sticky people.
- The Tate Modern art gallery had lots of nudity in it and reaffirmed for me that men are not pretty naked (sorry guys).
- Shakespeare's Globe is AWESOME. Tour was totally worth it.
- St. Paul's had amazing architcture and sculpture.
- As You Like It at the Globe was AWESOME. A little uncomfortable, but still awesome. Now I am officially complete (and Shakespeare-d OUT - I've had enough to last me... well... until next year).

Tomorrow we are gonna try to get half-price tix to a musical, see the changing of the guard, go to Piccadilly circus, London Tower, Harrods... and meet up with Mark nd possibly Frank. We leave Wed morning!

Thanks for all the messages. Love you guys!
Cheers
E!

The Eagle Has Landed

Hi all

Just a quick note to let you know that I am in London! This place is crazy, busy, filled with a million people and there are a million things to do. Too bad I only have a few days here. :)

I didn't sleep on my flight, so I am pretty much a zombie - but it didn't stop me & Tracy from making sure we got some sights in! We have already seen Buckingham Palace, the Institute of Contemporary Art (should have been Institute of Confusing Art, but perhaps I not cultured enough.), had a picnic in the park, went to a pub for drinks, went to the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square.

Tomorrow we are going to see the changing of the guard, the London Eye, and watch As You Like It in Shakespeare's very own Globe Theatre!
Woo! Which reminds me, when I was packing, I ignored all references to rain gear since 31 of 34 of my days are in a very hot/dry climate.
But guess what - those three days? Yep, the forecast is RAIN. Not quite sure what I am going to do about that. Suffer, maybe. :)

Have overheard the locals complain about Americans a couple of times, so I make sure that if I must speak - Canada gets mentioned in there.
Yeesh, those Yanks giving us Nucks a hard time on our travels!

Anyways, there's not much more to say except that we are already having fun and having some laughs. More to come...

Hope y'all are well!
xo
Elaan