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Published: January 9th 2007
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After leaving Scotland we headed South by train from Edinburgh to Lundin.
We spent a wicked time hangin out with our hommies Lorz (bestie) and Jonathan in the big city and enjoyed muchos champers, great Spanish food and a night out to see the Blue Man Group, which was v funny!
The first day in London was taken up with picking up travel tickets for our world tour and catching up with London Geezer Derek who took us dan the market to spend a couple of Jacksons…innit…
Leaving London we headed to Brussels on the Eurostar then to Gordon and Ingrid in Wakkerzeel for the New Year celebrations. We stayed with Gordon and Ingrid and made full use of their hospitality for a few days. We enjoyed great food and lots of wine and trips into Leuven and Brussels (although deeply regretted missing Gordon’s rugby training session - ha ha no more club foot feeling). As scabby backpackers we really are making the most of sponging good homecooked food off family before starving in deepest darkest Africa (or that’s what we keep on telling ourselves as we pile on those extra kilos!)
Having some time to spare
before leaving for Africa, we decided to treat ourselves to some final luxury and took off to Paris. We spent two nights by the Seine in a beautiful hotel and took in the sights of this wonderful city. Not exactly in the typical backpacker budget but since we haven’t quite got round to doing one yet we made the most of it!
In a moment of spontaneity we jumped the first train to leave Paris, regardless of destination, and ended up spending a night in a cute wee town in the Somme region of France called Amiens (well actually a city as it is home to the largest cathedral in Europe - yeah wha eva!). It was also home to the largest number of inbred looking weirdos known to man and the pavements were full of giant size dog poo! We still had a wonderful night there drinking vin rouge, talking really bad french and standing in dog poo before heading back through France and Belgium for our last night in Europe with Gordon and Ingrid.
Turtles on Tour - a collection of memorable moments
“Mali Embassy”
Armed with our shiny new back packs and heads full
of dreams we thought we were all set up for any experience that travelling could throw at us, then we visited the Mali Embassy in Brussels for a visa. Although we do regard ourselves as being ‘almost’ fluent in French there was something about the Malian french dialect I couldn’t quite pick up and I’m sure the visa form we had to complete wasn’t in correct French. Anyhoo after 3 attempts at submitting the visa application we left with our stamp and ready for a well-earned bottle of vino.
“Cheap Guitars”
Being hardcore rockstars and song writers it was important for us to take our music with us on our travels, so we set out in Leuven one day to buy a low cost, small spanish guitar to take with us. We found a great small music shop and the very nice gentleman supplied us with a basic guitar, a case and a spare set of strings. Since we were his first customers of the new year, he threw in a tuner for free (valued at 6Euro). Such generosity was unexpected and rather touching to be honest.
The kind, generous flemish man (that’s the language they speak here
Lorraine and not some nasty cold!) totalled our purchases at 76 Euros - a bargain. Unfortunately he couldn’t take our credit cards and we only had 70 Euros in cash once we had counted all our cents. As smelly backpackers we were a little embarrassed when he grudgingly accepted the 70 euros and sent us on our way with our guitar. This was our first experience of being tight arsed backpackers - GOLD! I did offer him my apple but he appeared less than impressed!
“European Geography”
When in the dog poo capital of France, Amiens, luckily we managed to get a map from the Tourist Information Centre which showed us that we were North of Paris and South of Brussels. It was only then that Stuart demonstrated his geographical intelligence by showing surprise that Paris was indeed south of Brussels. Coupled with Wendy’s amasing sense of direction aren’t we in for an adventure! ……..
“Je Parle Francias”
One evening, we headed out for an early dinner in a small creperie in Amiens. We were the first customers of the evening and sat ourselves down. The restaurant staff sitting near by us completely ignored us and continued to
laugh, drink and smoke their ciggies while we were left doubting whether the restaurant was even open that evening! Eventually one of the chicks came over to talk to us just as we had decided to ask them if the restaurant was indeed open. On her way over to our table she mentioned to one of her colleagues to ‘Ferme La Port’ (close the door). In the heat of the moment, Wendy recognised a snippet of familiar French and mixed it with our inquiry and shouted rather indignantly across the restaurant “Ferme La Port? Are you open?”. Silence from all the staff as they tried to figure out the mad scots woman shouting Close the Door as Stuart fell off his chair in giggles. What a TOOL!
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Blair
non-member comment
007
God help you two! I think you should both get James Bond-style microchips implanted so eventually someone can find you. Sounds like you couldn't find your way out of a paper bag without asking for directions.... ha ha, looking forward to the next update! xx