I took a bus to Oxford , and then another out to my next Servas host's house, in a little town called Eynsham. She was a sweet old lady, who, despite my short notice in coming, welcomed me with a pot of tea when I arrived, bedraggled and sleepy on a Sunday night. She told me all about her travels around the world, and about the thousands of people she knows in every possible corner of the globe. Everything in her house was a gift from 'such and such from Romania'...

Soph, Olivia, Ariane, their friend, who joined us in Bristol, and I, went to Bath on our last day in Bristol. We did a walking tour and I marvelled at the buildings and the streets, and the grand Crescent and the Assembly rooms and felt I was in a Jane Austen novel. We visited the Jane Austen centre, listened to her life story and bought such touristy things as can be expected, had a nice lunch, wandered some more, then wandered back to Bristol at the end of the ...

I went to Wales, if only for a day...Soph, Olivia and I caught a train from Bristol and were in Cardiff in about an hour. Mist entwined itself into everything, and by now, un-filtered sunlight seemed a very distant memory. First, we traversed the shops, which were near empty of people. Perhaps everyone sleeps till midday in Cardiff? Then we made our way to Cardiff Castle, which, for my first castle experience was pretty lovely. Turrets and towers, a tunnel and mo...

So I left London, feeling I'd been there weeks and not seen a zillionth of it, though I'd only been there a few days and already seen so much. Meeting up with Sophie was wonderful after so long, and the bus ride allowed us to catch up on a little of the three or so years worth of news. Her friend, Olivia came as well, and it was great to meet her. We stayed with Sophie's cousin Jess and her husband Dave, who were warm and welcoming, and didn't protest at the crow...

London, London. What can I say? Not enough in praise of this funny little town. A bit of a late start to the recording of my travels, as London is behind me, and all the thoughts I put to paper are no more than jumbled words, graffitied in exclamation marks and trailing unfinished sentences as I dumbly took in everything. I ran aground on the 3rd of November, overwhelmed, tired and a little lonely, but managed to navigate the large network that is the Undergrou...