One Last night at the Hostel

Well, we almost got to move into our flat today...
Unfortunately, everything here depends on everything else. We couldn't move into the flat until they confirmed that I had a job. The job needed to meet me in person and have me sign things before it was totally 'official', and it needed me to have a UK bank account. Luckily, the first day here, Adam and I went to a bank to try to set up an account, but they had no open appointments until this morning! So, we went in today and set up an account. I immediately called the teaching agency to give the account number and make things final and 'official' there. Then, they had to fill out these forms and fax them back to the housing agency. Yay! We can move into our flat... except... the girl that Adam and I have been dealing with at the agency apparently only worked until noon today, and so we can't sign everything over and get keys until tomorrow now. What a pain in the arse!

On a lighter note, we walked all the way to my new school today to check things out. On the way, we stopped off at our flat, just to look longingly at the outside of it, of course. Still there. Good. We also stopped off for our first taste of real British fish and chips. Very tastey. The school is really huge. (Almost as big as John's house - which, by the way, is only half a duplex!) I think I could get lost quite easily in the school. There are so many corridoors that lead one way or another. But, we did manage to find the drama studio, which is really big. Yay!

Then, we walked home, well, back to the hostel for one last night. Sigh. Not before stopping at an H & M store though! (By the way, about three blocks from our flat!!!) If you didn't know, H&M is a wonderful clothing store that I discovered in San Fran back in March and absolutely loved it! (Remember me telling you about it, mom?) The clothing is very decently priced, and very trendy too. (I may have gotten a certain cousin who's birthday is next week a present or two there.) Kim, you'll definately love it, I'm taking you there when you come to visit! Don't worry, Kevin, they sell men's clothes too.

Well, I suppose that's all that's new for now. We do have an address, as of tomorrow, so if you didn't get the email and would like the address, just e-mail us or post a comment on the blog. And if you are thinking about sending a care package or anything, PLEASE SEND JUICY FRUIT!!!! LOTS AND LOTS OF JUICY FRUIT!!!

So that's what everyone was talking about when they say 'Don't eat out at a restaurant'!

Yesterday was a bit more relaxing than the previous two days. We went out for lunch with two of John's friends, Clare and Teri-Ann, for lunch. It was for Clare's birthday.

We went to this place in Exeter called 'The Jack in the Green'. It was quite a nice place, though it was expensive. It was pretty much 'normal' according to the three of them, but Adam and I had our jaws dropped as each plate was £18.50 (which in Canadian dollers is about $40!). It came with two courses, so you could have an appetizer and a main dish, or a main dish and a dessert. Adam had an appetizer, I had a dessert, and we shared them so we could try more. Everything was really good, and there were also several side dishes that everything came with that everyone shared. John was really mean though and wouldn't let me and Adam pay, so we'll have to get back at him somehow.

Afterwards we drove the two girls home, but stopped to jump on Teri-Ann's trampoline. John was the peak of athleticism.

I don't think that we have anything really planned for today either, but we are heading back to Bournemouth tomorrow as I have a meeting in Southampton (which is near to there) on Wednesday.

Dartmoor Forest

In Canada there are mountains. Not so in England. In the UK they have moors, which are as close as the Brits get to having mountains.

A moor is a huge barren outcropping of granite and limestone rock that nothing substantial grows on. Supposedly the moors used to be covered in forest, but it was all logged away thousands of years ago and never grew back. The moorland is capped with hundreds of exposed granite hilltops known as tors.

Today we went to Dartmoor Forest. The Brits have this habit of naming things after what used to be there. That is probably why there are no trees in Dartmoor forest. There are a lot of sheep though. And a bunch of wild horses. And several random cows. And a cat. Basically, it seems like the British just let all of their livestock wander around on the moor and eat the grass and moss that grows on it.

We thought that British driving was odd before. On the moor it was even crazier - the sheep have the right-of-way on the roads. Several times the roadway was congested because sheep were in the path. Another two times we had to stop beacause a motorist was talking to a wild horse that had stayed near the road.

First we went to Grimspound. It was the site of a Bronze Age (approximately 2000 BCE) city. We wandered among the ruins of stone huts and a picnic lunch in an ancient house. We also climbed to the top of a tor and were able to see amazing distances.

Then we went to Haytor - another tor. This one was a lot closer to the roadway so there were many more people visiting it. It was still a bit of a hike though, and both John and Troe were winded by the time we reached the base of the tor. The view from the top made the hike worth it though. This tor was a little farther south, so we could see the ocean and Teignmouth on the coast.

Castle the second - Castle Drogo

Castle Drogo was the 'last castle' built in England. It was built from 1911-1931. It was built for Sir Juilus Drewe, the founder of Home and Colonial stores. Later, his daughter turned the home into a place where orphans could come during/after the first world war. Then, she also turned it into a school. Today, it is just a tourist attraction, although some of the family still live in it!

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We weren't really supposed to take pictures inside the castle, but we did anyway. Unfortunately, they aren't very good pictures. The whole castle was furnished though, some really neat furniture too.

After touring the inside of the castle, we got to tour the gardens as well. There was a formal garden and a rhododendron garden.

Castle the first - Berry Pomeroy

Today we went to our very first castle. It was built by the Pomeroy family in the eleventh century.

Our tour of the castle included these handheld audio guides. Basically they looked like walkie-talkies from the eighties and played audio information clips about different areas of the castle. At first the audio tour was interesting, but quickly degenerated when the audio clips started to include skits involving "inhabitants" of the castle.

There was still a lot of interesting information though. Supposedly Pomeroy Castle is one of the most haunted castles in Britain, and two of the tour clips each talked about a ghost of the castle.

During the sixteenth century the Pomeroy family sold the castle to Edward Seymour the Duke of Somerset. At this time in English history being a duke actually meant something. Today being a lord or duke or earl or whatever, doesn't really afford you that much power.

Somerset's newphew was Edward VI, the only son of King Henry VIII. Apparently Edward became king when he was still a child and Seymour was Lord Protector of the Realm (meaning that Seymour ran the actual country) until Edward became old enough to rule on his own.

At one point this castle would have been fairly magnificent. When Seymour took possesion of the castle he started making all sorts of improvments and additions. He wanted to make the castle more suitable more entertaining aristocracy, like Queen Elizabeth I.

Seymour never finished though and the castle gradually decayed into it's present ruined state.

English Country-side

Well, we have arrived in Teignmouth!

It was a really nice bus ride, actually. We sat in the front seat in the upper part of a double decker city bus, and rode for 4 hours all the way to Exeter from Poole for only £5! (Then John picked us up in Exeter and drove us the last half hour to Teignmouth.) It was weird cause it was such a long ride on a commuter bus, but it was really great cause we got such a good view. There were definitely a lot of neat things to see. At one point we saw where someone cut into their field to make it look like a man riding a horse.

We took a really scenic route that took us all along the southern British coastline. For a lot of way you could see out over the English channel. (Don't mind some reflection from the windows on the bus i the picture.) We got to see a lot of the English country-side and a whole bunch of small villages that travellers usually don't see if they take the main road.


The roads are really bloody narrow! The roads are only wide enough for about one and a half cars to pass through comfortably. The bus had to squeeze past in a bunch of places. There was even one place where all these cars had to pull over in order for us to pass. Sometimes cars would have to go up on the sidewalk or into the bushes and some even had to pull their side-view mirrors in so that we didn't hit them. Apparently, though, this is just common place driving over here. Also, drivers are constantly driving into on-coming traffic to pass each other. Troe's family here said that people drive like this all of the time. Everyone seems to have a fairly casual attitude towards doing whatever they want while they're in their cars.

Now we are at John's house in Teignmouth. It is huge! They have six bedrooms, two kitchens, two dinning rooms, three living rooms, several bathrooms, a butler's pantry, and a bunch of other rooms. And all the rooms are pretty big too and they have high ceilings. It's really nice.

We'll be here for a few days at least, so maybe we'll see some of you on messenger or something.

Bournemouth mis-adventures

Well, now we are in England. Overall - the trip from Munich to Bournemouth could definitely have been better. It was raining in Munich and we had all of our luggage with us so we spent most of Tuesday in the airport killing time until our plane left. Then when we arrived in London we had to waste an additional four hours (between midnight and 4am) at the Stansted airport until we could get a bus to Bournemouth.

But we got into Bournemouth Wednesday morning, just fine, around 9:30am and spent the day here. We left our luggage at the bus/train depot and immediately set off to look for a new flat. Unfortunately things work a little differently in the UK and it takes a minimum of one week to secure a flat. Still, we were able to look at a number of places and we've started the process of renting one. Hopefully we can be in by the end of the month.

In contrast, something that is set up much better in the UK is the mobile phone system. It only took us about ten mintues and £30 to get a cell phone. It's on a pay as you go account, but all incoming calls are free. Even better, the entirety of the UK counts as local area, so we can receive calls for Canada with no charge to us, regardless of where we are over here. So call us.

The phone was easily the highlight of Wednesday, though. When we returned to the bus/train station to retrieve our luggage yesterday, it had already closed. Apparently we misunderstood, and missed closing by just 20 minutes.

So, with only the clothes we were wearing (and had been since we left for the airport in Munich Tuesday morning) we had to go check into a hostel. It was an alright place, but we had to share a room with two messy girls from the Chech Republic.

Now it's Thursday morning, and we're going to go visit John (Troë's cousin) in Teignmouth for a few days. We're sure that today will be a much better day.

Photos from Munich

Troë in the Vancouver Airport, waiting to board our flight.












Inside "The Tent" .















Where we slept.
































Around the very multi-cultural campfire.

Hello from Germany!

So we made it to Munich safe and sound. Our flight was delayed leaving Vancouver by about an hour, but it took us 3 hours to get our bags checked and through security and everything anyway, so it wasnt (cant find the apostrophe on this computer - German keyboards are confusing) that big a deal.

The flight was 10 hours long, but we both slept for about the first 8 of those hours. The seats were a little cramped - as Sara warned us they might be on air transat - but when you're asleep (I found the apostrophe) it doesn't really matter. At least we got two meals. And we got to watch "Cheaper By The Dozen 2".

We took first a train and then a bus to this youth hostel called "The Tent" that we read about in our handy travel Europe book. It's pretty neat. There was a campfire last night outside, then we slept in this huge-ass tent on a mat with a bunch of wool blankets. There was a group of girls that wouldn't stop talking and giggling, and FINALLY when they did, one of them was such a loud snorer. I think the comments "baby elephant" and "kazoo up her nose" were both used. (Although, I still think Allanah has her beat.)

But now it is 8am, Munich time. After having a shower and drying off with paper towels, we seriously wondered why it was we didn't bring any regular towels. But we are now dry and have eaten nd still have 13 hours until our flight to London leaves. So we'll have to leave for the airport in about 8.

last day before we leave...

Well, we leave today! Our flight is so late though, so we have some time to kill. Everything is pretty much all packed up, just have to vacuum up the vacuum seal bag of mine, hopefully they won't make me open it at the airport, or I'll never get my clothes back in there!

This is a very cute picture of one of our cats, Link. I can't even stand how cute it is, and I am going to miss our cats so much! (And everyone else, I suppose...)

Stay tuned for an update from Germany perhaps!

a chance to relax

today is my last day of work at Chapters. as of 2 o'clock this afternoon i become officially unemployed.

i can't hardly wait.

i'm excited about being able to finally relax now. this summer has been a constant endurance test for me. having to get up at 5am for work, everyday for the past four months, and still try to maintain a social life was exhausting to begin with. (i've become a huge advocate for afternoon napping.) but then having spent the last month juggling all of the tasks associated with both moving apartments and embarking on a major trip in addition to a taxing schedule? thank god troë had the summer off - or we never would have been ready to go on time.

and now i'm anxious to actually leave for england. we've been packed for over a week. we've been moved since tuesday. we've been saying "good-bye" to friends and family since the end of july.

now we just have to wait for sunday to arrive.

five days and counting...

it is 5 days before we are off to England. this seemed like a good time to set up our blog because we are done moving all of our things into storage and have nothing to do for a week. we will post updates and pictures as often as we are able to so keep checking often!