first it was BSE. now that's finally gone, and we're faced with a much more dire situation. foot & mouth. i suppose in some respects it's better. humans can't die from it, and it takes a long time for an animal to die from it. that's foot & mouth's better qualities.
on the other end of it, we're not supposed to leave london. well, actually, we can. provided we stay away from farmland. ok, if you're reading this in the states, you're probably thinking "what's the problem then?" the idea to stay away from farmland would be nice if the entire country weren't one big farm! unfortunately, foot & mouth is so contagious that having people walking around outside can spread it. so it basically puts a damper on anyone's weekend plans, and they're encouraging london-ers to stay in london.
i'm trying to look at the positive side. if this disease spreads rapidly, we may been confined to london for a long period of time. at least i have travelled around the country, including to places that are now officially infected (avebury, wiltshire, and worcestershire.). i have seen a lot in the past two months, but it's only encouraged me to try and see more. there's so much more i need to see! this weekend, john & i are going to a b&b in abergavenny, wales. it's our two-year anniversary, and i know he loves hiking, so i thought that this would be special, since the b&b is within the borders of brecon beacons national park. since we bought the train tickets, though, the national park has been shut down. not like there are even alternatives, though. every other park in the country is shut down as well, and the only places one can hike are the tube stations in birmingham, manchester, and london. so we're going to go to abergavenny, and we'll make the most of our weekend, even if it means taking five tours of the same castle, becaue there's nothing else to do! i certainly hope that i have the chance to see other things while here, though. london's sweet, but the countryside is exquisite.
on a brighter note, how can you go wrong in a country that counts an 83.3 on a test as an A? as well as a 70? and if you get a 59, that's really only a low B. can't go too wrong i suppose!
i'm heading off to the continent of europe in three short weeks now, and i'm totally enthralled. my basic itinerary is as follows: eurostar (chunnel) to brussels, two nights in brussels, two in kemlis (belgium)(with my friend's mum), taking in the small towns of belgium, holland, and germany, two nights in amsterdam, visiting edam, three days in paris (to meet up with a friend who'll travel with me to nice), one night in mainz (rhineland of germany), two in munich, and one each in zurich, geneva, and nice, with a sleeper train between geneva and nice. from nice, i'll head off for a week in rome with john (hopefully visiting florence & naples as well) before meeting up with my mum & dad in rome and flying to london together for a week in a london b&B and all of the expensive sightseeing here i haven't been able to afford on my own. it should be quite lovely, i think. some of the highlights currently are: paying $30/night for a single room in the centre of paris, paying $12/night/person for both my friend & me to stay in nice only a block from the ocean! french riviera here i come! i'm also looking at hostels for most other places at this point...but my europass, all $388 of it, is on its way, as is my eurostar ticket. europe, here i come!!
talk to you soon, if you've even managed to finish this lengthy, boring page. kudos to you!
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