And so it begins....

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We made it... we're here ('think that we'll use that as the opening line to all of our future entries...?).

36 hours of travelling (we missed our first connection in Ireland and had to wait almost 5 hours for another one) finally got us to Amersham, and the safe-haven that is the home of my aunt and uncle, Christine and Paul. Very good food, comfortable beds, suitably delinquint son who is very useful as a beer-oriented tour guide!

Spent the first couple of days recovering from the flight over. Then stayed at Ken's (delinquint son of Christine and Paul) friday and saturday night. He lives in London with his soon to be wife Jo (hanna Webb), and a couple of pretty 'hip' friends of his, Will and Emma. Went to Camden Market on saturday; crazy stalls, lots of bizarro 'ethnic' food (sometimes - literally - thrown at you), and despite a HUGE selection of random and eclectic stalls/stuff, absolutely nothing gift-worthy for the upcoming wedding. Everyone in Ken's flat (US = apartment) has done a crazy trip like ours already, so we had nothing especially new and exciting to tell them... 'did get some very nice (and scary) insights into some of our intended destinations, and almost left with about 12 lbs of books on India. 'wish we could take them, but we already have too much paper in our packs! For anyone that is interested, the following books come highly recommended (caveat; recommendations were from Ken-delinquint-son-of-Christine-and-Paul, and his pretty 'hip' friends...);
"Holy Cow" by some autralian woman that used to be a radio person of some sort
and
some indian word that we can't actually remember, but we'll likely read it on the trip and refer to it another time...

Ernst is doing well... I think... actually... he may be suffrring from horrible jet lag, given that he refuses to move unless he is carried... maybe he's hung over... which would make us mad, because he has not invited us to a single party os of yet...!

Cousin Ken's wedding is this coming weekend (16th), in the middle of the hinterland of south-west England. Almost the end of Britain in fact. Hope Cove, Devon, if you care to google it or goodsearch it or whatever. Spending a couple of days to drive down there, stopping at some B and Bs on the way if we see someplace good. Maybe stop in to see family along the way...

Istanbul is fast approaching; we go there almost straight after the wedding... 'don't have a clue where we're staying or anything like that yet... ooooer.

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Photos

Big Ben/Parliament
Walking along the Thames for a pub lunch.

Comments

[Ken]

yo
That book is called "Shantaram". I'm not sure I like being described as delinquent so many times, maybe carefree or super-cool would be better?

[Gary P]

Hi I just wanted to get something on here! Glad u made it to blighty ok!

[Jody]

Awesome
Be sure to send some India pics!

[ariadne]

my address for all those lovely postcards!
Hey dudes! So, you're on your way! Should be there by now, which is pretty cool. Hop you have an amazing time...Im so jealous! Best place to get me is prob Jamie's : 5 Croft Square, West Linton, Peebleshire, EH457EF.