San Francisco Well, San Francisco was warmer than London that’s for sure. Most folk we saw were wearing jackets, but Pen and I were in Shorts and T-shirts. It was mostly quite warm while we were there. We arrived in downtown San Fran and wandered up towards our hostel, which was up. The thing about San Francisco is that there are a lot of hills. Some of them you just look at and feel the burn in calves already. We were approached by an older black fellow who said to us, where you going? Where you going guys? We said to [View Full Entry]

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St Gallen We arrived at St Gallen and jumped on bus number 3, we stayed on the bus for 6 stops and then Aunty Alice was there at the bus stop waiting for us. We walked back to her place, which was literally 2 minutes. Thank god she had a lift to the fourth floor as my legs were still killing me from the walk down the hill in Locarno with flip flops on. We put our stuff away, had a quick chat and then had a traditionally Swiss meal called Raclett. This involves heating up cheese on little trays and [View Full Entry]

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Trieste to Italy So we are off to Aunty Alma’s place in Ivrea (near Aosta and kind of between Milan and Torino), we are going to spend 4 lovely days, chilling out and doing nothing. So we got on the train in Trieste 14:30 and started our journey, we did the following transfers: Trieste to Veneto Menstre to Milan to Ivrea and finally arrived at Alma’s about 20:30. We walked from the train station up the hill, to which Scott kept saying to me, “ it is all training”, grrr… I think walking up at hill in 28 degrees whilst carrying [View Full Entry]

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Italy to Switzerland (Ascona) We finally got to Locarno, a little bit later then planned….my cousin Victoria was there to pick us up. We were originally supposed to arrive at 7pm, however after a missed connection do to the riot in Italy (see our last post!) we didn’t actually get in until about 10:30 and it was still about 20c defo warm enough for shorts and t-shirt!. Victoria took us by bus from Locarno to Ascona where she lives and works. This is the Italian part of Switzerland and if you didn’t know better, you really would think you were still [View Full Entry]

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Postojnska Jama Today my dad’s cousin Ivo was going to take us to the Postojnska Jama (Jama is Cave) as Penny and I had seen the cave on a show on Discovery Channel (Nick Baker’s Weird Creatures). Then after the caves he was going to take us down to Ankaran to meet more family, and also because Ankaran was close to Triesta or (Trzt) where we were getting the train to Ivrea to see my aunt Alma. So when Pen and I woke up that morning we went next door to say goodbye to Ula (who lived in a small flat [View Full Entry]

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Ljubljana Scott and I arrived in Ljubljana around 19:15, we said our goodbyes to Minka and then we were met by Scott’s cousin Zvone and his partner Nusa. They took us for a lovely walk around the city of Ljubljana and show us the major sites to check out the next day. So we walked from the train station ( Zelezniska postaja ) to the center ( Center Mesta ) and down to the old square ( Stara Ljubljana ). Ljubljana is definitely one of the most beautiful European cities that we have seen in our travels. The city is very [View Full Entry]

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Scotland to Kanal (Photos to follow when we can find a decent internet connection!) Leaving Scotland! I got back from work on Friday, much worse for wear thanks to a few drinks with a few folk from work. I was quite hungover and of the opinion that Slivovitza is not your friend. I also ended up with half my face missing for some reason, I had two scrapes on my forehead and one big one above my right cheek beside my ear, and behind my right ear was a mess. I can assure you when Penny saw my face she wasn’t [View Full Entry]

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Well, tomorrow is my last day at work, and I'm getting excited now, a little worried because my passport still hasn't shown up, and because Penny still hasn't had her Canadian Visa application approved yet....but hey. by Sunday there will be nothing we can do. On another note, I've just found out that some of my dad's family in Slovenia are happy to meet us in Ljubljana, so that is very exciting! I might have met some of them when I was younger in Georgetown where I grew up, but I don't remember much. One of them Ivo is even saying [View Full Entry]

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So here we go! Today we sold off the last of our posessions at a car boot sale, and boxed a few bits and pieces to post to my brother in Vancouver. Then tomorrow I go down to work in Macclesfield for the last time, and come back on Friday. Then it's off to my cousin Brian's place for 2 nights to say goodbye to my family in Moodiesburn/Muirhead. After that, it's the start of what promises to be a very interesting year. We're going to be going to Italy, Slovenia, and Switzerland to see some family and also where my [View Full Entry]

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