Dear Everyone,
Well, I'm off on my travels again. I would first of all like
to apoloigise to everyone that I didn't manage to get to see before I left.
I somehow managed to be a bit disorganised and didn't get to see everyone. I
was working up until the last minute in the Dull Summer Job then
went Oop North to spend the weekend camping with family at Kielder in the
direct path of gale force winds (note: the family were in a caravan). I
froze my buns off on the lakeside due to my unintelligent selection of
a pitching location. While worried at the time that I might wake up in the
morning suspended from a tree, I now feel more confident about my little
tent's ability to hold on to the ground, even if it was my weight that was
stopping it from moving.
For everyone who is in the dark about just what excuse I have
for rejecting the world of proper work for another year, the plan was
originally to spend some time teaching English in China. I had a few
offers but they were all for year-long contracts and I wanted to
work for six months then travel for four, before coming back to the UK in
mid July for a wedding. One school offered me a six month contract and were
prepared to let me start a week later than the official start of term over
there because I had to attend my graduation ceremony in London before I
went. So I had a firm job offer back in April, to start in September.
They could not process my visas, however, until I showed them proof that I
had a degree and my degree result did not come out until 24th June. So they
said to just email them the result when it came and they would go from
there. A week before the results came out I had an email from them
asking if I had my result yet as they had two other teachers interested in
the post if I didn't want it. I wrote back to them reminding them of my
results date and assuring them that the result would be sent to them as soon
as I had it. The email bounced back as Hotmail couldn't connect to their
server. This went on for the next couple of weeks, with me sending my result
and every successive email failing to get through to their address which had
worked OK in the past. In the end I tried phoning them and faxing them but
the line was constantly engaged no matter what time of the day or night. At
the beginning of July I wrote a letter to them as a last resort, telling
them that I couldn't connect to their email, phone or fax and that I was
still interested in the post. For the rest of the summer I heard nothing and
had to just assume that because they had not heard from me, they had given
the job to someone else and had just ignored my letter. So I made other
plans. Then, on the 2nd September, a day after their term started, I
received an email from them using a different email address, apologising for
the problem with the email and saying that they had also lost the other two
teachers because of it. They had just received my letter and was I still
interested? Two months after I send an airmail letter that should have
arrived within a week they receive it just by coincidence when they
realise they've got no other option? I emailed back to tell them that
I had made other plans and had already paid for my tickets so no, I would
not be bailing them out.
So that leads me to where I am now. Vienna. I started out
from London on Saturday 18th September on the overnight bus to Paris. The
plan for the first three months of the trip is to go overland all the way to
Beijing. From Paris I went to Prague and from here I will be travelling this
afternoon to Budapest. From there to Bucharest, Sofia and Istanbul, across
Turkey and into Georgia and Azerbaijan before crossing the Caspian Sea to
western Kazakhstan. Then I will go through Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan before
entering China through the tradesman's entrance to Kashgar and going east to
Beijing, following the Great Wall from one of its ends to one of its other
ends. From Beijing I'm flyng to Japan for a fortnight before returning to
China for Christmas and to meet Him Indoors (the very tolerant J) who is
meeting me out there for ten days. I'll then be going to Mongolia for a
month before coming back to Beijing for Chinese New Year, then going south
west to Tibet (permits erm, permitting) then Nepal and India. From India
it's on to Cairns, from where I'll spend three weeks travelling down to
Sydney before flying to Tahiti. From Tahiti I'm flying to Easter
Island (the 'navel of the world' as its a couple of thousand kilometres away
from anywhere) and then finally I'll be spending six weeks in Peru and
Bolivia before flying home to arrive back in London on the 13th July.
I nearly didn't get away at all. I originally had a ticket
for the Paris bus on Friday morning and on Thursday I busied myself with the
last minute preparations. Every year since the summer of 2000 I have been
known to buy travellers cheques. The bank has records of these transactions
with the likes of Thomas Cook and so on, not to mention things like plane
tickets, always paid for by card and hence always on my bank statements as
being spent in travel agencies. This year, however, the bank's Fraud Squad
decided that I was trying to steal money from myself (yes, when you buy
currency and travellers cheques you usually have to give one or two forms of
photo ID) and put a stop on my card. My card was rejected in Thomas Cook and
the cashier could only suggest ringing the bank, as I showed her a statement
from that very morning proving that the money was in the account. I
called the bank as was put through to a call centre in India, where I was
passed from one clueless person to another until my phone credit ran out.
Meanwhile, Fraud had rung my mum at home to tell her that someone was trying
to steal money on my card. After they realised their mistake and took the
stop off my card, the shops were shut and people were going home. With no
chance of getting travellers cheques that evening, I had no choice but to
abandon my plans of travelling on the early bus and hence lost my
non-transferable ticket. I could have bought the cheques in Paris but on top
of the usual commissions, I would lose out on the exchange rates and also
the 2.75% charge that the bank levies on overseas debit card transactions.
Thus I had to buy another ticket for the bus and finally got away on
Saturday night. I shall be writing a very sternly worded letter to the CEO.
Anyway, I had a very enjoyable day in Gay Pareee on Sunday,
visiting the Sacre Coeur, the Eiffel Tower, the Latin Quarter, Notre Dame
and the Champs Elysees, where the MacDonalds has a white 'M' as all of the
lights have to be white. I also used the loo without buying
anything. On Sundays entry to most things is free which was just as well
considering the price of food. They call it a 'croque monsieur'
and charge people €7 for what is basically cheese on toast. A 500ml bottle
of water in the centre of Paris can cost up to €4, or just under three
quid.
A long overnight train jouney via Frankfurt took me to
Prague, where I finally found the hostel after walking round for hours with
my behemoth of a backpack on my shoulders, pulling a different muscle at a
rate of approximately one every half an hour. I spent the rest of the
morning sitting up very straight in a coffee shop on the main square,
reading and trying to put my back right. By Christmas I'm going to look like
a bodybuilder. I was determined to eat Czech food so after an afternoon
wandering the streets and looking at all of the pretty churches and the nice
architeture, the swarms of tourists and the 600 shops all selling
Swarovski Crystal, I slunk into a small cafe to try the traditional local
meal of goulash and draught Budvar (yes, it was 50p per pint). Goulash,
although it sounds like something you would only be served in prison, is
actually a tasty beef stew, which they serve with big doughy dumplings. Mmmm.
The next morning I went to see the Astronomical Clock, which is in the main
square on the side of the town hall. A crowd of around 200 tourists gathers
under it every hour to see a procession of 12 tiny apostles, followed by a
skeleton parade round in a circle. Having waited for around 15 minutes in
the freezng cold rainy morning with a horde of shivering Americans, we all
stood there a little underwhelmed. The look on everone's face said "is
that it?". While all very cute and quaint etc, the crowd looked a bit
disappointed not to have seen an 80-piece orchestra and the Virgin
Mary.
I had planned to camp in Vienna, as there is a campsite about
eight kilometres out of town. However by the time my train got in it was
dark and I didn't fancy a wild goose chase around ome dodgy area on the
offchance that the reception would even be open by the time I got there,
then have to attempt to erect a dark green tent in pitch darkness. So I
found a hostel, although not after a couple of hours carrying my pack
around with neither a map or a clue.
Vienna is a really beautiful city, though it has rained for
the most part. I have walked all over, seen St Stephen's Cathedral which has
the bones of 11,000 plague victims in its catacombs, and last night I went
to the Opera for two quid as they sell standing tickets to the peasants an
hour before the performance. The one I saw was a French one called 'La
Favorite', which I had never heard of but then I don't really know a
lot about opera. Fortunately there were English and German translations on
little screens so that the story could be followed.
Well, I am off to Budapest on the train this afternoon. I am
having fun with my new digital camera and will eventully work out how to get
the pictures off the memory card and into my emails.
Got to go so take care
Lots of love from Caroline xx
Archive
Article