East to West

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Just lost a MASSIVE group email, with details of my past two months and I´ll be buggered if I'm going to write it again! I could cry. Anyway, no time to sulk ...
In short, I´ve been through Ukraine, Budapest, England, Amsterdam, France and have now found myelf in Spain.
Anyone have any grand suggestions about what I should do here or have any friends here for me to say hello to?
I'm waiting on my Estonian passport to come through, so will just continue to travel until it does. I´m thinking about northern Africa, too.

Briefly,
Ukraine finished with a trip to the Carpathian mountains with a Ukrainian lad, his Russian mate and their would-be botanist Canadian friend. They were intent on meditating at the most inconvenient times, Uncle Pete was mistaken for Steve Irwin (although we never told his fan), and we witnessed dodgy policemen at their best.
Budapest was loads of fun. A bustling, beautiful city by day and stunning, with its ornate mediaeval buildings, lit up over the sparkling Danube, by night. Indulged in thermal baths, were regulars at the huge food markets and we found a superb nightclub, were we partied til the wee hours with a coiuple of crazy English lasses.
England thanks to good friends of uncle Pete and Aunty Di's (Debbie, Peter, Bec: thankyou sooooo much) we were spoilt here and had a memorable week. We sailed to the Isle of Wight and stayed in Yarmouth over a weekend and made day trips to Salisbury, Winchester, Oxford, Avebury, Stonehenge and London. We also took a nice long walk through the South Downs. Here I met a Nepali Gurkha, too. It was the first time I'd met a Nepali outside of Nepal and I was thrilled. London disappointed me a wee bit, but I´m willing to give it another chance, since I plan to live there!
Said goodbye to Pete and Di here and set off with cousin Alex for more adventure.
Amsterdam A beautiful, beautiful city and I had no idea. Received wonderful hospitality from Margret, who taught with me in Nepal for one month (thankyou again! Am checking out Undutchables now). Highlights were wacky bus drivers and a day cycling around the outskirts. We talked our way out of a 50 Euro fine for disobeying road rules, then was humiliated by a street performer in front crowd of 50 or so.
Paris was made for lovers and all I had was Lex (haha!). What can I say, fell in love. A real feast for the eyes and heart. Emma, who I met in Vietnam was our wonderful host and made our last night there seriously French - French wine, French food and the movies Amelie and Moulin Rouge to boot! Merci!
French Riviera Alex and I met our new cousin Erki from Estonia in Paris and made our way down to the French Riviera and Cote D´Azure with his Estonian bus tour. We Stopped in Geneva, Mont Blanc, Provence, Avignon, Nice and Monaco. Nice was really something special and Monaco smacked of wealth. A good place to feel depressed about my middle class existence! Watching some old bloke, dripping in chunky gold jewellery, bet a minimum of 1000 Euros on a blackjack table was surreal. I wonder how many of the Lambhorginis/ferarris/mercs parked out the front he owned?
Bordeaux We stayed here for a few days, in a house surrounded by vineyards! how fitting. We were spoilt by Michele and Emilie here, with warmth, wine (of course) and local delicacies. It was a real French Experience.
Bayonne In the company of Emilie and her very cool friends, for two days and nights I had the party I'd been longing for! I'd never seen anything like this. Red and white were the compulsory colours and Sangria the obligatory drink. French people go nuts!

Bec/Clarky xo

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