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Saturday, July 6, 2013

England (Nottingham, Manchester and Glossop)

Nottingham


A fat and short boy- Robin Hood

John at Sherwood Forest

Newstead Abber


Manchester


Science industry museum: making silk. Manchester used to be the world largest silk exporter.


Glosso

Snow in summer


Chatsworth House





Vase for tulips

Emperor Fountain

England (Nottingham, Manchester and Glossop)


Nottingham is famous for Robin Hood. I was disappointed that Robin Hood was just a fat and short boy. His status definitely did not link to Russell, the American actor. Nevertheless, I enjoyed Newstead Abbey and Sherwood Forest very much. Byron, the famous poet writer  had spent few years of his life here (not more an abbey but his home). Even though I despised his attitude to women, he was a good poet writer. John Burton was the best host I meet, I stayed in his cherry cottage for 8 days. He was a retired lawyer and I have asked many questions related to laws and free of change. I was disappointed to find out that John Grisham’s novels are ‘novels’, nothing to do with ‘true stories’. I thought John Grisham may exaggerate the stories based on his experiences or true stories.


Manchester is a city where public transportation services are good. It used to be a world class silk industry centre.

 

Glossop is a small village near Manchester. Quiet and peaceful. Good for hiking. I stayed with Helen, Les and Dean, just opposite the library. Our neighbour was Linda and her family. They bought the church and refurnished the interior to accommodate a family. In order to do this, they has lived in a caravan for couple of years.

  People that I met

John Burton: He retired early and spent seven years to look after his parents and they had passed away now. He suffered diabetes too. He is a gay but he treats surfers as VIP. He bought a hair dryer on a surfer request, he almost bold though. Toiletries always ready in case surfers need them; chocolate always ready, he never eaten though; I supposed to stay three days but end up with 7 days. Breakfast, lunch and dinner all were free. I just like a VIP in his home. He is not a Christian but got a kind heart. He drove me to sightseeing and picked me up from airport. I think he is the best host that I ever met. He has two dogs: Shadrach and Judie. Shadrach was the boss but he was dying. I am worry about John for this but its veterinarian will only make a decision whether to put it away after my leaving. I prayed that John not to suffer for its death. Judie was a dog which wore the skin of a dog. She was lazy, clean and scared of people.

Hellen Russel and Les
They picked up Dean who was former Hellen’s student from a bus station at a winter time. Hellen planned to give him a shelter for couple days but Dean stayed with them up till now (4years+). Glatio was the boyfriend of Hellen’s surfer. He came from Greece in order to find a job in United Kingdom and he surfed Hellen’s couch for around 8 months (from October 2012 to June 2013). Finally he found a job near London in July. They bought a trishaw for their trishaw driver in India; They set up a fund to buy a 6 hectares land in India after listening a stranger sharing on train in India. During a Christmas time, they hosted too many surfers and they stayed in hotel for four days since all of rooms were occupied.
They drove me to Chatsworh house, blue john cavern, paid the admission fee and bought me a lunch in farm restaurant. The biggest lesson that I learnt from them is to LOVE.
 
I also met quite a number of The Church of England, Manchester. They were all kinds!

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Croatia 29 May-14 June


 Dubrovnik





Split
wedding in Split
Brac Island

Superstar sunset




Postira

Postira

Bol

Bol: famous beach




Zagreb







Zadar
Zadar: full of ships and boats

Zadar: Old town

Solar

Croatia
I have joined many local activities in Dubrovnik such as biking, traditional silk workshop. I also attended the performance of Dubrovnik students who celebrated the semester ending. I love Dubrovnik very much.(http://dubrovniknet.hr/novost.php?id=24298#)

Brac is a peaceful and attractive island too. Dol is a small village, Postira is a quiet tourist destination, Superstar is somehow like Postira but it is the center administration of Brac, so there are more shops and activities; Bol is famous for its beach and water sports are popular. 

Zagreb is a great city.

If compare to Split and Brac, Zadar is full of ships and boats. I love the old town of Zadar because of the sea organ. There are so many old towns in Balkan : Kotor, Dubrovnik, Herceg Novi, Mostar, Sarajevo etc. However, sea organ is first experience. I celebrated my birthday in Zadar since I was hosted by Rafael in the last minutes. I brought a bottle of red wine. That’s all.


People I met in Croatia
Dubrovnik: Ivana. Ivana is an ambitious lady who fight for the right of local. I learn many tips for reuse and recycle from her. She brought me to join a lot of local activities. 

Brac: Pero, Katirina and their three kids, Yakhsha. I helpx in Friendly Place for one week. It was a great experience. Work is not so hard and they were very friendly. I join Yakhsha for fishing early in the morning (430am) and in the evening (7pm). He spread the net in the evening and then collected the fishes early in the next morning. It was such as waste that he threw away many sea cucumbers which were expensive in Asian market. Unfortunately, he cannot speak English so it was impossible to make him understand that he had thrown away around 100 Euro.

Zagreb: Vladimir is a German teacher who teaches in a high school. Consequently we have a nice conservation about teaching experience. He is too mild to be a teacher. I ate free at his home. He doesn’t cook and picky for gastronomy. Therefore I mostly cook for myself only.

Zadar: Rafael had a lot of questions to ask Jasmine and Claren (another two Singaporean surfers). Claren has a great knowledge about Singapore and Malaysia. I am glad that he answered all the questions of Rafael.

Friday, June 7, 2013

Bosnia and Herzagovina (14 May - 29 May)

Konjic


Konjic : beautiful


Sarajevo

Traditional Bosnian custumes
 Bugojno

Graduation of high school students
 Mostar






Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia is not Herzegovina because Herzegovina is full of nature of beauty.  The most impressive was I hitchhike with a driver who took cocaine. He stopped few times at the roadside to inhale some cocaine and then continuing the journey. I was a little bit scare but he was kind to me. They told me that alcohol is more harmful than cocaine! They hate alcohol. Secondly, I felt so lovely to stay of Zoran’s family. Mostar is an impressive city too. I was molested by a horny host in Sarajevo, therefore I hate Sarajevo. However, I am safe!



Summary of Balkan
1.      Hitchhiking in Balkan is not difficult. The problem is the low number of cars. However, I get lifts in many places.
2.      Balkanians are more conservative and emphasize much in family relationship comparing to western Europeans.
3.      Balkan is cheaper than Western Europe except Croatia.
4.       They share the same languages root and traditional foods.
5.      Drivers didn’t lock the cars when they went to have a drink in cafĂ© even in the centre city of Skopje.