E-mail
Tue, 12 Jun 2001
Orlando
Well, My time is up.
I am leaving for europe today at 8:30 pm. Flying
virgin atlantic. My tour starts with 3 days in london
then 8 days in rural england and scotland, then on to
Belgium, Netherlands(Holland), Germany, Switzerland,
Austria, Prauge, and France. I am going to be staying
in hostels and will do my best to send postcards but
I am not sure of the cost. I should be able to check my
email and upload pictures, when I do upload them the
pictures will be posted here:
http://community.webshots.com/user/cjr71244/1
I will be back in orlando on august 2nd, so see
you
then.
Chris Roberts
Thu, 14 Jun 2001 03:26:50 -0700
(PDT)
London
Well, Im in london right now, the first thing I have
to say is these keyboards are different, shift 3 is £
and the @ is next to the :; .
anyways I got here yesterday morning took the 30-45
minute train to victoria station some rugby or
something guys helped me find my way to the
undergroud which is the subway then I got off at the right
station but finally found my hostel with the help of
a nice couple of ladies walking thier kids. Im still
not used to the time and I didnt get much sleep on the
plane cause the seat was way too small but my seat
neighbors on the plane were small and real cool. They
give you free beer on virgin so I highly reccomend it
as long as you dont mind your knees rubbing on the
seat in front of you the entire trip. the stewardesses
on thier are all very pretty.
After I got here I took about a 3 hour nap and then
went in the underground to westminster abbey and
parliment/big ben, I reall really like pariment the
building just goes on for days and has lots of cool
things carved into it but it wasnt open for tourists
and wont be until august :(
I saw some other stuff Horse gaurds and london eye
but nothing else too exciting yet, I also went to notting
hill but thats no big deal. Im surprised how clean my
neighborhood is I think I just go lucky picking this
place thanks to my friend max and his girlfriend
reccomending it.
everything is very expensive here, the way I see it
the prices are about the same but change the $ to a £
and you got it. so the exchange rate I have been
getting when I change money is about 1.45 , that is 1
pound for every $1.45.
well Im off to see soho, buckingham palace and tower
of london and maybe ride the london eye. Im staying
in the same place tonight and tommrow night and leaving
for salisbury on saturday the train there takes 1
hour.
I have uploaded some pictures but only a few with me
in it as I havent met hardly anyone to help me take
them.
pics are here or at least they should be I uploaded
them but it should take 30 mintues to kick in.
http://community.webshots.com/user/cjr71244/1
Fri, 15 Jun 2001 14:34:11 -0700
(PDT)
London Day 2
Hello,
today I went to the tower of london that took about
3+
hours and it was very cool lots of blood and gore
stories king henry the 8th killed like 3 or his wives
here, and there is a church there which has like 1500
people buried under it. I met another solo back
packer and we teamed up for a bit helping each other taking
pictures. IM leaveing for salisbury tommrow and there
I can see salisbury hill and stonehenge dont know the
internet situation over there so we will see. My
extra 8 meg card for my camera doesnt work at all!. I
shoulda tested it before hand, and IM going to run
out of batteries.
London has so much to do I still have about 6 things
I want to do but dont really have much time. anyone who
hasnt been here should come and visit, allow a week,
and make sure you have an open mind and dont be
cynical and you will love it. so many things that I
have heard of I actually got to see. Yesterday I went
to the royal greenwich observatory where they they
keep GMT greenwich mean time. The park that surrounds
it has some of the nicest foliage trees and plants
that I have ever seen. I wish we had parks like this
where I live. all of the parks here are so green,
they say cause it rains so much.
Ok bye
and cheers.
Wed, 20 Jun 2001 03:12:08 -0700
(PDT)
Lake District and Nottingham
well day before yesterday I went to nottingham it
is
not a very clean city but the nottingham castle is
pretty cool. I didnt have enough time to go to
sherwood forest. I next went to the lake district
which is on the central/north west side of england.
this is the most beautiful place I have ever been.
Everyone who appreciates great scenery and nice small
towns should visit, Its the highlight of my trip so
far. I stayed in windemere and other towns close by
are bowness, ambleside and gresmere. I hiked 4 miles
up the side of the this hill along the lake, this
area is known for its hiking trails and this particular
trail had 2 huge caves on it one of which was from a
slate mine. Next trip to england I am going to stay
here at least a week there are so many trails to
hike. Many of the trails are closed right now since they
are still trying to get rid of foot and mouth. Check out
the pics there are some great ones.
http://community.webshots.com/album/16003145vqctPWiErS
and the main page:
http://community.webshots.com/user/cjr71244/1
Right now I just got to Edinburgh, Scotland and am
hearing some very funny accents. I already was
exposed to some down in the lake district and manchester but
here they are real thick and the names of the towns
are barely pronouncable. Im staying the night at a
place called loch ness backpackers up at inverness.
Oh yeah the other thing about Britian is you can
drink a beer practically anywhere you want and the drinking
age is 18 so kids are on the train with their parents
having a beer just like it was a soda.
I only have until saturday on my britrail pass and
by
that time I have to be in dover which is south east
of london to catch a ferry to ostende, belgium.
Ok be seeing you and cheers.
PS I sent most of you postcards, if you didn't
send
me your mailing address then you wont get one unless you
email it to me.
bye!
Chris Roberts
Fri, 22 Jun 2001 19:20:17 -0700
(PDT)
Edinburgh, Loch Ness, and Stirling
Ok I didn't have access to the Internet for a few
days, but if you didn't see the pics from Edinburgh
there is a sweet castle there right in the center of
town. There was a couple other things I wanted to do
but I skipped em cause of time constraints, they
were:
the HMS Britannia an old ship, and a tour of the
underground tunnels it was like at 8 PM and so I
would have had to stay the night which I didn't want to do.
anyways.... that night I got to Inverness which is
6
miles north of loch Ness and about 15 miles north of
Drunmnadrochit where I was staying and wouldn't you
know it? I missed the last bus.I considered
Hitchhiking but there aren't any phones along the
road, so I took a cab which was 15£ ouch. So I got to
the hostel and it was nice enough, went to the store
and made some spaghetti that night and talked to a
girl who worked there she was from Georgia. There was
an aussie guy who worked there who would say
'Crikey!'
all the time he was pretty cool too. that night after
I ate I walked through this wooded area just next to
the hostel that goes out to the loch it was really
cool, like a fairy tale forest with stream next to it
and rocks over the streams etc. After a bit of a walk
got to the loch appreciated it for a few and walked
back. The bed was a small bunk bed I was on the
bottom
but was very comfortable later on the girl told me I
had a new mattress! what luck.
The Scottish accents are really strong up there
and
some people I really couldn't understand nor them me
sometimes. And they say wee bit a lot.
Next day I walked to Urquhart castle which you may
have seen on shows about the Loch it was pretty neat
but I was very tired from the 1.5-2 mile walk there.
then I had to walk back, later that day I walked up
to
a waterfall which turned out to be about another
2.5-3
miles to it. that was a tough walk and the waterfall
was nice enough but impossible to appreciate after
that walk uphill with Midges(Scottish mosquitos)
bothering me the whole way.
Today I left Loch Ness and took the train to
sterling
where there is a William Wallace Monument. I hope
everyone knows who he is, anyways the monument is
really tall and very picturesque on top of this hill
called something crag, or cragmony I forget. I got
some good shots of this I think, take a look. they
have his original sword but it has been refitted to
reflect the sword of a hero whatever that
means(refitted). I took the 8 hour train t London and
now Im here in a 24 hour cafe trying to stay awake
until my 5;30 am train to dover where I am going to
catch the hoverspeed ferry to ostende on the coast of
Belgium.
My next few days will be spent in Belgium and
maybe
Luxembourg, Then on to Amsterdam. I hope you are
enjoying reading about my travels and that Im not
being too long winded.
your wee friend
Chris Roberts
P.S. after talking to many english and a few Scots
many of them believe that we have more freedom over
in
America, I just tell them the facts about what they
ask then they say that it sounds like America is
portrayed differently from what it sounds like it
really is. I think they are more free here in some
ways: Just for some silly examples: you can drink at
18 smoke at 16, but you cant drive till your 17.
But on the other hand I think they are much more
formal and proper here in england, they really hate
to look bad, or to be shamed. But thats just my opinion
I could be wrong....
Tue, 26 Jun 2001 09:01:02 -0700
(PDT)
Waffles and Merde!
Im in amsterdam now I was in brussels yesterday but I
hated it there, its way to hectic and the only place
I could find a hostel with 1 bed free was in this area,
I lovingly call "little Lebanon" anyways I got the
hell out of that city as fast as possible cause many
of them don't speak English and I couldn't even buy
dinner with out a big hassle, Im trying to work with
it but they need to work with me too ya know?
I loved Brugge its very nice. I am going to try to
put pictures up but IM having trouble at this cafe cause
they delete everything you download so thats a
problem.
Amsterdam seems really cool and I like it so far
anything is better than the culture shock I was
having in Brussels. I wanted to eat at this place and I was
trying to ask the price and they lady didn't
understand what I wanted to know, I felt really bad
cause the food looked really good. The beer in
Belgium is really, really good, I like it a lot I had a local
beer called tongren in brugge which is awesome, most
of the ones I like are 8.5% alcohol and triple
blonde, the other common one that is good if you get used to
it is hooegarden, another one jupilier is the most
common and isn't especially good. I also had a leffe
which is great and another one verboten fruchten
which means forbidden fruit. I will see if the beers here
are any good later on today. lots of the hostels are
full here but where im staying is a bar so its kinda
a secret.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~nellys/nellmain.htm
whereas all the ones in lonely planet book are full
or over full. Im probably going to stay here 3 days not
sure about the hostel but it seems OK.
in about 4 days IM going to start traveling in
Germany so wish me luck and if you have any places in
Netherlands that you loved then tell me so and Ill
see if I can fit it in.
Im going on a bike tour tomorrow at 4 pm I think
should be good.
cheers
Thu, 28 Jun 2001 02:54:36 -0700
(PDT)
canal bus
well Amsterdam is a very interesting place it
kinda
reminds me of new Orleans or key west put together,
and a little cleaner and more modern but still dirty
streets in its own way. I have met lots of ppl and
went on a bike tour yesterday mikes bike tour. the
beer is too expensive for me here. a pint is about
8.50guilders which is like 3.50 each so I bought a
six pack but there are no fridges to use in my hostel
anyways Im over this town so Im going to visit a lake
today that my hostel owner recommended, nature is
more my style than the bustling city with lots of trouble
makers and weirdos. saw a couple tranvestites which
was funny and crazy at the same time cause one of
them was wearing next to nothing in the middle of the day
on a crowded shopping street.
On the bike tour we saw a windmill that some ppl
live
in which was neat and they talked about archemides
screw which routes the water from the canals I think.
we also went to this barn where they make gouda
cheese and clogs, but they call clogs something else,
kluppendham or something. they want me to join the
futbol team but its really soccer so I don't
understand why they would want me cause its not
really a pushing shoving sport and I cant run fast anyways
except when Im trying to get away from the beggars
and hustlers on the main street here.
Im leaving tomorrow as this town is a bit much for
me. Im going to Frankfurt and down the Rhine.
The thing I miss most of all other than my friends
and family is the little songs I never thought I would
miss. At least they played the whole eagles album at
this Irish bar last night.
anyways
dos vidana.
Sat, 30 Jun 2001 03:41:59 -0700
(PDT)
blister on foot disease
howdy, I'm in dresden germany which is south of
berlin in the eastern part of germany, and it is very
noticable that this used to be communist or
socialist. My friend Alejandro is working here and he has had
some problems with racism, which surprised me. I got
here yesterday and we went out to eat and some
outback ripoff place to eat and I had the cheese plate and
some yam and cream soup which was strange but very
tasty. There was a big festival on the river and a
couple bands were playing all american cover songs
but sung in german it was an interesting event. Just on
the other side of the river there was another concert
STING! It cost 70 marks to get in and was outside
between these old cool looking buildings and the sky
was very nice looking. It looked like there were more
ppl outside watching the concert from outside the
fence, which is what I did. The germans in this area
of the country can definitely tell when they see a
tourist either by my big white shoes or cause we
laugh too loud but they sure do stare a lot, when I was
alone they thought I was german a couple times and
tried to talk to me when I told them I speak english
they just make faces and walk away, I have met some
People that were very cool and nice so dont get the
wrong impression, but they sure do stare a lot.
Tommrow we are going to prauge which Im really
looking forward to I hope they have some places with
gargoyles(buildings or castles). they only have 2 tv
stations in english MTV pop and cnn.
I have some big time pain on my feet but at least I
finally got new socks all the other countries didnt
have big socks. So am I missing anything in the US I
havent seen any news so I assume everything is cool.
auf wiedersehen
chris
Sun, 1 Jul 2001 14:59:37 -0700
(PDT)
praha
Ok today I took the train from dresden to prauge it
was very interesting there is some really good
scenery along the way bad schandau very cool name is like a
spa town apparently any place that has bad in front
of it is a spa or bath town. The train conductors had
armed gaurds with them when we reached the border and
I was asked for my passport more here and on the
train then on my whole trip.
Yesterday I went to a bbq at a german couples house
and it was great I talked to them alot about different
cultural things and the way things are in germany it
was very enlightening. The guy was talking about some
band I never heard of but it was so funny and cool.
the bands name was " prince charles and the city beat
boys" I think he was super cool and then we went to a
german cafe thier beer is pretty tasty but not as
sweet or as strong as the belgium beer which is my
favorite. next Im going to back to germany then to
austria and switzerland. Im really looking forward to
those places. on the train I met 2 girls from argentina and they
dont speak much english so I have practiced my spanish
quite a bit today its great. I love prauge they are
filming blade 2 with wesley snipes here and this is
where the first 30 minutes of mission impossible 2 was
filmed I was on that bridge today where the boss(jon
voight) was stabbed Prauge is very cool and very
cheap!
Ok adios.
cheers
dos vidanya
pictures
Mon, 2 Jul 2001 15:57:07 -0700 (PDT)
I'm back in dresden, tommrow I am headed for munich,
germany and then to switzerland and austria...
if you havent seen my most recent pictures look here:
http://community.webshots.com/user/cjr71244/2
there are some from yesterday(prauge)
adios
Sat, 14 Jul 2001 01:43:57 -0700
(PDT)
amstel dam duex
I am back in amsterdam meeting some friends and
just
relaxing. baden baden germany was very nice but didnt
have much time to see anything so I want to go back.
next I will try to go to copenhagen, then to ludwigs
castle in southern germany for the day and then
austria for 4 1/2 days then berlin and after that the
french and italian riviera.
looking forward to getting back home.
chris
Fri, 27 Jul 2001 02:02:10 -0700
(PDT)
Riviera
Bon jour,
I am in the French Riviera right now, in Nice France
and I am going to cannes later on today. I spent
yesterday in Monaco its hot here but not quite as hot
or humid as Florida. Im Monaco I saw some yachts and
there are lots of tan, fashionable people. the day
before that I was in the Italian Rivera, cinque terre
the town was named levanto. It was so pretty there,
the water was blue and calm, its on the
Mediterranean,
which is awesome. The village was very nice and lots
of Italian places to eat and not very expensive. I
was almost out of money there for a few days but It all
is worked out now. Im going to Paris tonight on the
night train but the train is full so I may have to sleep in
the aisle like I did on the train from Amsterdam to
Munich its not that bad. Im spending 3 night and 4
days in Paris and then taking the bus through the
chunnel to London to catch my plane home. I enjoyed
my trip but Im very mentally tired of traveling and
ready to be home with my friends and family. Ill be back
the 2nd of august.
Au revior
chris
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