The longest blog

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Met a nice bloke at my terminal from England who was nervous about flying alone. Flight was good with good food. Met two girls at the bus terminal to brim that helped me find my way, and offered to take me a night on the town (I may take them up on it). I got off downtown brim and was pretty lost as to where I was supposed to go. Walked past a church and a new market building that looked funny and was very contrasting to the church, also out back the church there was a beach set up, very wierd. I do have pictures, but no way of uploading them as I forgot my cable, so I may not upload them untill I get home or Jer gets here.

At this point I realized that the clip on my pack that goes across the top of my chest was also a raep whistle..... I now feel a lot safer walking around becuase I have a trusty whistle.

It was a little confusing what bus to get on so I hopped onto a double decker and sat up top. Turned out being close enough and I got off at the right stop. Spent an hour or so walking around looking for a map, ran it to a hangout for kids (black kids) and they were listening to a mix between techno and rap from their cars and it was actually really good and I sat listening for a while while I figured where I was on my map.

//just lost the rest of this blog so i get to retype it, yaay

Stopped for lunch on a square of grass and a guy from birmingham (brumy) stopped to chat with me when I told him i was Canadian. (apparently when you tell people your from canada they are more likely to stop and chat). He was a nice chap and felt much better after having a break as I found my pack to be heavy (wheighed 28lbs at home plus my day pack, so im thinking of sending some of my cold weather gear home with my dad and buying new stuff if need be). He told me about the flooding that England has been having this year due to lots of rain, though apparently it has stopped raining just in time for me, we have had lovely sunny days ever since I have arrived and I hope it continues.

Ended up walking down the same road I walked down first where I had asked the old guy where I could get a map (I must have good natural intuition or something). Stopped in at a pub for a pint, a pee, and a plate of chips (I really had to pee otherwise I probably would not have stopped). The pint was £2.50 and the chips were £1 (good news for me and jer as we will probably eat a lot of food in the pubs). I watched the cricket and tried to figure out what the rules were. It looked liek a big game between south africa and england.

Found wins house and my sister Claier answered the door, I was happy that I found the right house with just an adress. Met up with my nan and my mom a little later, and managed to stay up till dinner, then I slept for 13 hours. When I awoke my sister Adrienne and my Dad had arrived. We took a walk around the golf course while my mom visited old school friends.

Drove up to simon my cousins house (and his fience Zoe) and his son Cieran is here for the day. Their house is very nice, and we had a fun time getting here with the GPS in the car (we went to the wrong street the first time, because the two streets have almost the exact same name. Tomorrow we are all of to the british equavlent of heritage park, my uncle frank and his wife and daughter and her two newborn kids will be there.

I told Ian Elliot that I dont think I could trek around the way he does with a tent and a sleeping bag. This may be true but I very much enjoyed the half a day I spent traveling by myself, though i'd rather stay in a hostel then a tent. I was going to goto Croatia and Italy by myself before Sarah decided to come (no complaints), but at some point I hope I get a chance to go travelling alone. There is something so peacefull about making all your own decisions without haveing to worry about making mistakes. I get to set my own pace, and stop when I like. Or maby I was just out of it because I was so jet lagged but the whole time I was trekking thru the british streets with my heavy bags I had a huge grin on my face because I was enjoying it thouroghly.

Cheers,
Ian

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Comments

[sarah - from stats =)]

hey ian! sweeet.. sounds very exciting.. and this is just the begginning.. i suppose being somewhere new is usually pretty exciting.. i'm curious to see where your travels will lead you =)