Blogs from Europe - page 14213

After years of saving, months of planning, weeks of researching and buying the bikes and various new equipment and gear Erika reckons we needed, then trying to sell/give away/store all of our personal possessions, finishing work and sorting out all the red tape that somehow seems to be involved with becoming an unemployed vagrant, we are finally ready to start our journey! Many thanks to my folks for generously donating a large part of their attic to all the stuff we really couldn’t throw away or convince anyone to buy from us, and for putting up with us in the final few stressful days of preparations. Finally everything was set for our departure on the morning of Monday 11th April - true to form we fail and manage to start cycling away at 1pm in the ... read more

It rained today, and hailed a bit too. I was supposed to go into the village while Sonya had a work meeting in the flat, but it was too wet so I just read magazines and stuff in her room. The meeting was with 2 guys, Bronze n Black, who want her to do some adverts for them. She got a call today to say that she's got a job to do the advertising for Jack Johnson when he tours here in September. Didn't go on our pub crawl tonight as it's too wet to go out. Just had dinner and watched sex and the city and some friends episodes. Might go into Greenwich or something tomorrow as Sonya has the day off and has to take some photos for her photography assignment for college.... read more

Well, originally I was only going to be here for 2 nights....really, I was. Then, I started hanging out at the beach, met a bunch of people, and next thing you know its 4 days later and I'm still here. I'm staying at this really great house that this woman from Lagos, Zelinda, owns. She's so friendly and helpful, it's great. There are a bunch of people from Canada here, and most of the Portuguese people speak English, so I've kinda been slacking with the real travel thing, but oh well. I've been eating lots of great Portuguese seafood dishes, and of course have discovered that 'free-pouring' drinks is not a good thing for me. The first night I went out here, this really nice bartender named Hugo ended up looking after me. We swapped some ... read more

Venice was a blast. We cruised into its beautiful harbor early one morning and were greeted by a strange sight: a large beautiful city busy with foot traffic and boats along its waterfront, but not a vehicle in sight anywhere! Mile after mile of beautiful old buildings seemly perched directly atop the water, interspersed with canals alive with pole-driven gondolas, taxis (motorboats) and buses (larger boats, like a small ferry). The effect was a bit like Catfish Row in Charleston suddenly dragged out into the harbor. After the ship docked in an industrial area, we promptly took a smaller boat directly to the heart of the old city, the Doge’s Palace on the Plaza of St. Mark’s Basilica. The place and the old cathedral, both built hundreds of years ago, stand side by side. Our Venetian ... read more

Nearly everything's gone, our tiny flat is empty and spacious again. Just a few more tasks to do and we're off. Then, hopefully, these entries will get slightly more interesting. The most exciting thing I've done this week is get an international driving permit. Now I can legally drive in Cambodia. Hurrah! Not that I was thinking about it. In fact, I probably won't. We bought an MP3 player this week and now I'm trying to cut down our 300+ albums to a choice of just 30. If I had a Room 101, it would involve this task. I've had to cut out so many indie riffs that I feel heartbroken. But, it's better than lumping around 300 CDs. And, at least I get to leave most of Gem's R&B safely locked away on the PC. ... read more