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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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Monday, 28 May 2001
East End --> Battersea, London (UK)

About saying goodbye to Paul and walk from London East End to London Battersea at the South West in almost 6 hours...

Today I got my regular phonecall for the Dutch radio again around 8.30am. I totally forgot the one hour time difference with the Netherlands, which made it one hour earlier for me.

I tried to get back to sleep, but it was enough for me since the last days of sleeping in ‘till late.

I checked my email while Paul was still sleeping and I must say I get remarkable lots of mails concerning these reports. About the use of funny translations and some very important mistakes are corrected as soon as I have published my story! Thank you!

You are welcome to notify me anny faillures inn my wrtiing as soon as you seee them.

After some breakfast and coffee with Paul I had to pack my bag again, to visit this young couple in Southwest London today. With this Bank Holiday today it was hard to contact any of my London-invitations but Lorraine was at home!

Paul packed his little Gift for them in a shoebox and put me on the right track. Eventually I just had to walk down on Kingsland Road, until I got to the Thames-river (about 1,5 hours) and got on to empty and deserted Fleet Street and walked by Covent Garden and along Piccadilly Circus, trough the Royal Parks, until the Battersea Bridge I had to cross (three hours), where I only had to find the right street after crossing the beautiful and crowded Battersea Park (another two hours). I mean, hitch-hiking through the city of Westminster is just not done…

(click here to see the clickable citymap of London from LonelyPlanet)

When I arrived at Khybes Road and was welcomed by Lorraine Thurston and Evan Maindonald, I felt like I lost my feet a few blocks back, together with a piece of my right shoulder…

Lorraine and Evan have been living together for over 5 years now and they live in a very nice house, which reminded me of the old cottage I stayed in in Brugge, a few weeks ago.

On this same day they got themselves to little kittens, which were really crying out a lot. They are called Morphus Oberon and Merlyn Augostus (Morph and Merlyn for friends), but come from a different nest and just met each other and their hosts in this strange house. This was very fun to see them sneaking around everything, being curious and scared at the same time.

Evan currently works at a telephone company and Lorraine is a nurse studying part time law school, but next to this they realized their dream a few weeks ago when they open their wineshop NewWorldWines a couple of blocks from their home, but also very active online!

Lorrainne had planned to have a barbeque and had also invited Ted, an American friend of them from Michigan. Evan and Ted were asked to buy some more drinks at the shops, so they took me for a ride in Teds’ BMW Convertible. We took a quick visit to Evans’ wineshop and got the rest at the local supermarket.

I had never been into a BMW Convertible before – it was great just having your head out into the open air and feel the sun and the wind…

The barbeque in the little garden was pretty good and Evan tried to show everybody that it was very good to roast the meat on very high flames…

As The Gift from my previous host Paul Greenfield Evan and Lorrainne got themselves a lava-lamp! The immediately connected it and turned it on and at night there was this nice green bulb swirling around in it…



Follow my tracks on Ludo's map! It's in Dutch, but you'll see a lot!


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