AchtungBaby

Tom had planned for us to go to Brighton for the weekend, and I was excited to go somewhere outside of London for the first time since getting here. We left on Friday evening and headed down there and it's only about an hour away. The hotel was in the marina and very nice. We had some amazing seafood and tried to carry on but it was pouring and we couldn't find anywhere that was open. That's England in the winter for you I guess. The next day we went to a place I had looked up on the internet and desperately wanted to go to (because I'm a dork like that). It's the Royal Pavilion, a sort of castle which looks like it belongs in India, not in Brighton England. It was the summer home ... read more

Getting to Oxford took quite a long time, as the train must have made about 15 stops. I got to see quite a bit of the middle of England though! Once there I went exploring as best I could, since everything had closed and it was dark and cold. That night I met some interesting people in the hostel, including a guy from Zimbabwe, who told me of the country's condition and how his friends, family, everyone has left. He was going around Europe trying to decide basically where he wants to live and try to make a new life. Also met Larry, a very nice British guy, who was originally from Oxford and as such on the second day took me on a tour of the city. I of course spent a lot of time ... read more

So after four months of what was about the worst/most difficult semester of my life, I was MORE than ready to take off. I went on a cruise in the Caribbean with the fam, which was fun and relaxing, and then was home for Christmas, thank goodness. It was really important for me to be home because last year, despite being in Oz, I was miserable and lonely! Delta started direct service from Atlanta to Edinburgh so I took advantage of that and flew out on 27 December. I tried to brace myself for how cold it would be but...I was not prepared. I also had been to busy that I had not had much time to plan this bit of travel; the only definite was that I had to be in London for my course ... read more

So I had planned to go on a 2 day trip to what, in my bit of research, sounded like the nicest chilled out beach closest to Bangkok, Ko Samet (I had from the get go decided I couldn't be bothered to spend all my time trying to get down to Ko Samui et al to be surrounded by a bunch of partying Aussies and Brits). Cameron and his Chilean friend who had arrived, Max, wanted to get to a beach too because they were leaving for Vietnam soon so decided to come along. We left on Monday morning on the bus and let's just say it was another one of those trips where you feel like you could walk it faster! It took nearly half the day to get to the pier in Ban Phe. ... read more

The flight to Bangkok took considerably longer than I thought. On the way, I was entertained first with trying to figure out who the guys around me were. It was a large group of predominantly Americans and Brits, from mid-30's to probably about 60 in age. Some of them looked clean cut whilst others, including the guy next to me, looked a bit more...punk rock. Turns out it was Toto (remember the songs Rosanna and Africa from the 80's?) and their roadies. The Brit roadie next to me seemed surprised that I was unaware that yes, they are still together, and yes, they are still touring. Um, did anyone know that? Who actually goes to see them perform around the world these days? Lots of amusing roadie/music/travel stories later, I declined the invitation to hang out ... read more