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Reports

During my travels, I received free accommodation for a night in exchange for writing a daily travel diary. This diary documented how I reached my next destination, the hosts who welcomed me, the food I was offered, and other experiences along the way. Below, you will find the archives of these extensive reports. Please note that English is not my native language, and most entries were written quickly, often around midnight. Enjoy!
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Saturday, 4 August 2001
--> Ealing, London (UK) 2nd day

As my next host for today did not really return all my phonecalls, Dan and Karen told me I could easily stay another day. They enjoyed my company, they said, so way make a problem of it? It became a smooth day, without any worries of travelling, and I enjoyed a day out in Notting Hill and we watched a big screen movie at night.

I expected to have the biggest hangover ever, because I had never drank so much Tequila before, but in fact my body wasn’t that hard to me.

I did need to drink some glasses of water. I have learned that too much of alcohol makes your brains shrink a little, causing the hangover-headache I did have a little bit. So by drinking water I hoped that the ache would end soon.

Today, after some breakfast, Dan and Karen wanted to take me to Notting Hill. As every Saturday, there would be a big market on the streets.

Of course, my hosts are a little bit dissapointed of the statement that the London town Notting Hill got world famous through the movie Notting Hill, starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts.

The movie is about every man's dream coming true as William Thacker (Hugh Grant), a successless Notting Hill bookstore owner sees Anna Scott (Julia Roberts), the world's most beautiful woman and best-liked actress, entering his shop. A little later, he still can't believe it himself, and William runs into her again - this time spilling orange juice over her. Anna accepts his offer to change in his nearby apartment, and thanks him with a kiss, which seems to surprise her even more than him. Eventually, Anna and William get to know each other better over the months, but being together with the world's most wanted woman is not easy - neither around your closest friends, nor in front of the all-consuming press.

(View the trailer of this movie, Windows Media Player acquired)

The location where the movie was shot, in Notting Hill of course, is now a hang out for Grant- and Robertsfans. The door, through which Grant came out in his underwear with the press taking mass pictures of him, has even been removed for a while, because everybody was writing on it.

The neighbourhood protested a bit about that, so now that same famous door is back again.

It was a fun experience to walk through Notting Hill, where the British high-class walks together with the low-class, sauntering along the market booths.

The weather was perfect, the sun was shining on our heads. No hangover could defeat this pleasure!

Dan and Karen had also once lived in Notting Hill and their showed me their previous top floor apartment. But it was just too small and after they married in May this year, they moved to a bigger spot in Ealing.

Dan introduced me with Shawn, his brother, who currently works in a silver distribution shop, located along the market lanes. He was amazed when he heard the story about me.

At a butcher Dan bought some meat for tonights dinner and we later drove along the Tesco supermarket to do some more groceries.

It ended up the way many people spend their free Saturday, which was very lightening to my thoughts.

At home, Karen prepared me one of the best and longest sandwiches I have had during the last 96 days and I did some reporting on their ADSL-internet connection while the cats were jumping around the desktop – in real life.

Dan and Karen would take it easy tonight and we got to the idea to watch a movie.

As Dan collects a lot of DVD’s (which he can play on his laptop), he installed this beamer to project the image on a white wall in the living room.

So it was entertaining to watch the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, an unknown comedy movie for me, but I got to see as I was in a cinema. And halfway the movie the dinner was eaten from the lap.

As the title suggests the story covers one day in the life of Ferris Bueller. Being a fine weather day in Chicago, a fairly rare event in my experience, Ferris decides to skip school. The trouble is that he has no car and thus needs his best friend Cameron to pick him up. And what day off would be complete without his girl by his side. The level of planning and immaculate execution required to achieve these things sets an example for all of us. If he can do all of this from within the restrictions of the school system, then what limits do the rest of us really need to acknowledge?

Once the three main players are assembled we are treated to a wonderful tour of Chicago. Though the stock exchange, art galleries, observation towers, restaurants, baseball games and street parades, we get to experience it all. Meanwhile in the humorously detective styled underbelly of the film, the principal is methodically tracking down Ferris, which is really entertaining.

The sub plots in Ferris Bueller's Day Off don't stop there however. Included are such beauties as an insanely jealous Sister trying to expose Ferris' machinations to the world, a morbidly but fascinating psychology in the form of Cameron's relationship with his clinically insensitive parents, Ferris' off sick excuse into almost inhuman proportions (Save Ferris! is the slogan), and an improbable series of near discoveries by Ferris' father.

I really enjoyed this movie.

It will leave you feeling on top of the world, so give this film a go when you are feeling low.

But what happened with my host I would visit tomorrow?
“Dan, Karen? I think I have a problem…”

Goodnight Ealing!

Ramon.


Today some readers noticed a publication about my project in the Spanish La Vanguardia.


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