Hello from England!

[Guest guest]

Just a quick hello from jolly olde England! We're in Newcastle this

evening until day after tomorrow. We took a cruise over here from

Norway. The cruise SUCKED, but so far we've enjoyed this place. I

found a place to run tomorrow morning along the Tyne River where part

of Hadrian's Wall once stood...talk about history! We did a little

shopping today and poking around and tomorrow we're going to some

castle where the Harry Potter movies are filmed. I guess there is a

huge English Garden that Roy thinks I'd like.

We also managed to find one of the two sushi places in town, so we had

sushi tonight. Thank goodness. The food in Norway is horrifying

(except the lox). Everything has butter on it...everything. Yesterday

I paid a prince's ransom for an open faced salmon sandwich and it had

not only butter but scrambled eggs on it too...who puts eggs on a

salmon sandwich? Why does it need butter? Explain this to me! Here I

found actual salad, sushi, lowfat frozen yogurt, and...(blare of

trumpets) STARBUCKS!!! Halle-freakin'-lujah! I nearly teared up when I

saw it!

Roy's family is good-naturedly driving me insane. They mean well, but

I have been an adult now for quite some time, and last time I checked

I understood the number system, could actually walk AND chew bubble

gum at the same time, can feed and bathe myself, and have the capacity

to actually find my way around a city without someone holding my hand

and wiping my chin. They actually explained to us how to use a card

key to open a hotel room door today, and one of them stayed in the

lobby with us when the lift was too full so we wouldn't get lost,

explaining that room 607 is on the 6th floor. Well golleeeee Gomer! We

don't have no hotels in Puddwaddle USA. Thanks for clarifying!

We've gotten lots of exercise...we literally hiked three mountains the

other day. Bergen is built on seven mountains and Roy's cousin's

husband took us hiking on three of them. Not one of those " paved road "

hikes, either. This was real hiking...with sheep! Farmers let the

sheep loose in the mountains during the summer to feed, so all around

we'd run into sheep.Last week we ran ten miles (without getting

lost...Bergen is actually a very small city, but they were sure we

would get lost), and a few three-five mile jaunts. Tomorrow we're

running along the Tyne.

Let's see...what else? I have an entire trip diary I'm keeping so I'll

share that when I get home. Hmmm...we've watched lots of CNN. Channels

in Norway tend to be in English with Norwegien subtitles, which is

interesting. Most of the shows are older, though, so it's reruns to

us. We were thrilled to be in a place where we speak the language, but

today we had a tour from the cruise ship to the hotel that was, you

guessed it, completely in Norwegien. Ironic...

Other than the sad sad lack of fresh fruits and vegetables and

anything even remotely resembling " low fat " , we're having a great

time. We might go out to a night club later tonight, although I was

disappointed to see that they only have foam dancing on the weekends.

Darn. Tonight is actually pretty dead because there is a big football

game on TV and Newcastle is playing.

Okay! I'm off! I'll see you all when I get home!

--

Tory Klementsen, MCP A+

IT Educator

The successful person will do the things that the unsuccessful person will not.