Hong Kong to England

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Hey everyone...looks like I have fallen into the old too busy to update blog syndrome again. Luckily it is so cold here in Canterbury, a chance to warm up in the internet cafe sounded pretty appealing.

Hong Kong...Cool city. We ended up staying in a really nice joint across the road from the space museum/avenue of stars area, after looking at some pretty eye opening more affordable places (at least they made us open our wallets a bit more). Hong Kong was a good stepping stone to europe, very multicultural, a lot more expensive and busy. Fiona and I had the fun of visiting a non-english speaking hairdresser...risky business at the best of times. We caught the longest escalator in teh world, visited the zoo/botanical gardens in the middle of town, cable car up to the peak, convention center, and the symphony of lights. After checking out of our hotel we were plannign on leaving our luggage in a baggage locker at the airport, but were stoaked to discover we could check in for our flight to the UK at the train station and go bagless for the day. For those of you who haven't been there Hong Kong is a really nice city. The buildings are all sky scrappers, and everyone lives in appartments. It's one of the biggest cities in teh world population wise, but because everyone lives in a compact area there is heaps of bush around, transport is easy, and everyone has access to the nature stuff. After a big day of siteseeing in Hong Kong we got a late night plane to the UK.

We were met at Heathrow by Paul Saxton, who presented us (curtsey of Brad) with our tube passes, showed us how to get to his place, Brad and Gillians (whom we stayed with), and most importantly made us a normal sandwich with vogals bread, salad and cheese. It sounds simple, but after being in asia for 6 weeks without bread or cheese of any great quality it was the most perfect treat.

It was raining in London when we arrived, and our first couple of days were a real shock to the system - a lot colder than asia! However, after a couple of days it warmed up (until today), and we got some real pink english walking around the place, their skin not appreciating being kissed by the sun. We tried to do a bit of siteseeing every day. St Paul's Cathedral, Shakespares Globe theatre, Burrough markets, A Themes river cruise, and the royal observatory at Greenwich, The changing of the guards at buckingham palace, a chance organ recital at westminster abbey (we got off at the wrong tube stop, but managed to wonder in on an organ recital as a bonus for our poor tube map reading skills). The tower bridge, Trafalgar square, a picnic in Hyde park. We also managed to get to a couple of house parties. One was Tim Rowes...dominated by Canterbury enginneers, and a few other kiwis. The other, Gillian and Brads friends, so mainly kiwis from southland. We went and saw Jason Norris play (suprise suprise, a kiwi bloke originally from Kaitaia), which was outstanding. London was really easy to get around, there were tonnes more things I wanted to do, but decided to get going. ( I may have actually done other things, but the comp just crashed, and so I lost what I hadn't already saved, which was all my London & Brighton stories...internet cafes aye!)

I left the others - Fiona in London, and Lou heading to Manchester, and got the train down to Brighton. Brighton is best known these days as the gay capital of england, which ensured a wide variety of swanky bars and eateries. I enjoyed some ocean time on the crowded pebbly beach (the water was freezing!). The pier their was nothing like the one at new brighton, with arcade games all along it, and A&P type amusements at the end. I found a really nice backpackers, which was super clean and homely and friendly, a nice intro to solo travelling. I decided to continue with visiting the Christchurch namesakes, and headed to Canterbury. The canterbury Cathedral was a really awesome place. Super big, with lots of charactor. Parts of it reminded me of the asian temples, however, it's still very european. I am staying at a place attatched to the gates of the cathedral...it was built in the 1500's, definately the oldest buidling I have ever slept in. I did a river tour, and checked out a few other historic spots aroudn the town (there are no shortage of them). The most ironic thing about Canterbury, is that there is a University of Christchurch here. The town is really beautiful though, I would highly recommend it as a place to visit.

Tommorow I am off to France to test my french.

Bonjour

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