The end of the road... for now

Bristol - Slough - Windsor - Oxford - London

Hey everybody,

So, after over 2 years of travelling through Europe and the Middle East, I’m finally on my way home. What an amazing eye opening time I’ve had, with many places visited, friends made, memories cherished, lessons learnt, dreams fulfilled, and beers drunk. Although doing all this meant a departure from what most people consider real life, never on my travels have I ever regretted what I’ve done. Sure, now I’ll come home broke, with suspended career and old friends moving on and settling down, but it is all worth it. The way I see it is that I am in almost the same situation as I was two years ago, except that I’ve seen a great part of the world and experienced things that not many people ever will, and can never be taken away from me. Anyway, enough of this reflective tone, must be the music on the radio...

Anyway...

CATCHING UP WITH OLD FRIENDS IN BRISTOL
Flew from Dublin to Bristol to spend one whole day in Longwell Green, in order to catch up with old friends that I have made during my time working there as Barman and Internet Education Consultant for the schools in the area. First was Sue, girlfriend of John Barnett who I lodged with, then Helen, ex-Librarian for SBL (the school down the
road I based myself at), who I enjoyed gossiping with when working there. Then it was to SBL to quickly see my old bosses Jez and Tony, a few teachers (Terry, John, Jane) and students (Sadie, Amy, Stacy, Toni). Then to a pub to see Donna, ex waitress from the bar I worked at, cool chick who steals my heart whenever I see her , followed by
going to another bar to see my old drinking mates Tina, Nick, Tom and Luke. The next morning I visited Juliet and her kids Zoe and Robert, responsible for introducing me to Jana, their old Slovakian au pair and my secret girlfriend during my time in Bristol. Phew! I did say this was a whirlwind tour didn't I?

And then I caught a train to Slough.

SLOUGH - OF ALL PLACES
Well almost, since the train decided to not stop at Slough and take me to London instead, despite assurances from station manager and ticket inspector that it was going to stop at Slough. Anyway, another train later and met up with Tim and Karin, an old co-worker back at etechgroup where I used to work before I went travelling. Here I was to also base myself for the next couple of nights as Slough is close to the airport.

Ironic how after two years of travel, the last place I go to before heading home is the backwater that is Slough.


WINDSOR
We did a pub crawl in Windsor, home of the Queen. The palace is pretty impressive, but ill lit at night which was a little disappointing. Could not tell if the queen was actually in or not.


OXFORD - WHERE PEOPLE ARE SMART BUT NOT PRACTICAL
Slightly hungover, the next day we did a day trip to Oxford. Oxford is quite a pretty place with cool stone architecture full of detailed sculptures and gargoyles of peoples heads and animals.

There is usually much debate over which is better - Oxford or Cambridge. I must say that Cambridge gets my vote as the better city. Oxford is larger, with more tourists, and seemingly impractical people. In oxford you would see bridges designed for water being built over roads, crooked misshapen doorways on houses, and crowds that like
to congregate at places in the narrowest part of a street for no apparent reason except to slow down people trying to walk down the street, which proved quite infuriating.

There is also nothing less welcoming than paying 3 pounds to visit a university (Christchurch), then upon walking past the ticket booth find a sign saying "Cathedral and Way Out". What, they want us out already? Plus the main hall was closed, leaving only the Cathedral to visit, which wasn't really that exceptional. The grounds were pretty
uninspiring also. The city's amazing architecture saved it from me declaring Oxford a complete letdown otherwise.

Anyway, got back to Slough, where I then went into London on my own (Tim and Karin had to work) to try and meet up with people I knew in London, and spend my last night in Europe partying in the town!


MY LAST NIGHT IN PARTY LONDON
Went completely awry when I discovered that the only person capable of joining me on my planned night of boozed fuelled revelry was none other than Jennie, who came all the way down from Birmingham to join me! Everyone else was either busy, sick, or just didn't bother. Oh well. Anyway, the immediate problem that dawned on us was that none of us actually had a place to stay. Although I had many offers to crash at people's homes, we decided that we would try to find a hostel or hotel instead as it meant we could stay out longer instead of going home on the last tube train at midnight.

2 pints later and a mad trawl through Coventry, Piccadilly and Earls Court amongst fully booked hostels and hotels, we finally stumbled across a hostel with available beds - at 11:10pm! By this time, despite the countries move to 24hr liquor licensing taking effect that night, most of the bars in Earls Court had closed at than their usual 11pm time! However, we were not perturbed, as we managed to find a club that was open till 2am, playing karaoke and disco music. So we happily consumed much pints while amusing ourselves with the awful singing of drunken British louts and dancing to cheesy disco tunes. All this goes to show that things always work out in the end. It also shows that you should try to book a hostel in London in advance if you want to stay on Saturday night, and not when you how up in the city at 8pm that night! Still, alls well that ends well


SO NOW WHAT?
So now here I am in Slough, where, after miraculously getting out of being mugged on the street (long story), am about to head to the airport in a few hours time for my flight back home to Melbourne!

Plans for the future involve 1 year teaching English in Asia, followed by 1 year travel in Asia via Transmongolian and Silk Roads. Then 1 year working holiday in Canada followed by 1 year travelling the US and South America. Finally 1 year volunteer working and travelling in Africa. I also think 1 year working holiday in Ireland is also on the
drawing board.

Who knows what the next year will bring me. But whatever I do, I will try to keep you all posted

Till my next big adventure,
Adios!
James Lee
Sunday 27th November 2005, 5:45pm