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Published: April 22nd 2006
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White Cliffs of Dover taken from ferry Hello everyone,
I don't know why anyone would take the chunnel when they can cross the English Channel by ferry. It was wonderful. It had the atmosphere of a cruise ship. Restaurants to suit any taste. The bus ride to Dover gave me a chance to see another part of London. It was far more interesting than hurtling through a tunnel in a glorified subway and at one third the price.
I take back all the nasty things I said about people from Paris being rude. I got to the bus station\subway station and found out that there isn't an ATM anywhere. I'm staring at the automatic ticket machine that would take a credit card and this woman asked if I needed help. I told here that I needed to get euros. She took me out of the station to a shopping mall, waited until I got my money and then walked me back. I got to the first set of stairs with my suitcase and packback and a young man offered to carry it for me. Before I could tell him I was okay, he had it. He not only carried it up and down every set of stairs--there
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Clown bobby at Covent Garden were plenty, but got me to the train station across town and then doubled back to his stop.
Paris train station is under renovation. No washrooms and no place to sit. Also, very cold. Almost four hours to put in. Glad to see the overnight train to Frankfurt, even if it meant sharing my compartment with five strangers.
Some observations as I left U.K. First, how do people afford to live there. Prices for food, entertainment and gas are double prices at home. Teachers earn $40,000. a year and nurses earn $30,000. Lots of office type jobs in the papers for $20,000 to $30,000.
Their customer service could stand a shakeup. I was told that the office to buy train tickets for Europe was near Picadilly Circus. When I got there I saw a British Tourist Office, so I went in and asked. I was told that Eurorail didn't have an office. They sent me to a travel agency in the opposite direction. The travel agent gave me the adress for the Eurorail office. It was literally around the corner from the tourism office. Seems like that would be a common question people would have. Can give you other examples, but you get the idea. Having said that, the young man who taught me how to put pictures on my blog couldn't have been more patient or helpful. I don't believe it was part of his job description. People in the hotel were also great. Mostly it seems to be the bureaucrats who don't get the concept of customer service.
I was also surprised at how overtly racist many people appear to be. Numerous comments about 'these foreigners.' One example was in a library where I was using the internet. It defaulted to Polish and I finally asked the librarian how to change it. While he was fixing it for me he was mumbling about these foreigners who come here, etc. etc. On a more formal level there is the British National Party. They made the front page of the newspapers the day I arrived because an Greek-Armenian had been selected as a candidate. Many members were resigning because BNP is a white party for white people. The party sells wristbands that say, 'British and Proud' and teeshirts that say, 'cool to be white'. The latest was a poll that showed one in six middle English would vote for BNP instead of the Labour Party. Reason is because of the immigration policy of the Blair Government. People interviewed on TV were making remarks usually attributed to the Klan.
The anti-American sentiments also surprised me. They would rant on about Americans, then notice my flag pin and apologize for insulting me for thinking I was an American. They were ranting becuase they thought I was from the U.S. Can't imagine how unconfortable it must be to be an American tourist.
On a personal note, I'm getting more comfortable with my nomadic lifestyle. I've got my luggage better organized. I only check my money belt for my passport and credit cards six or seven times a day instead of hourly as I used to. I get some odd looks when I start digging in my pants for money. Come to think of it, I saw some of that going on at the Paris train station, but I don't think they were all wearing money belts.
Bye for now,
Donna
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JOhn H
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better than watching television
Great blog! Your humour, thoughtfulness and ability to write keep bringing me back. There are sao many thoughts about "the County" that keep running in my head.