Jolly Olde, Fish n' Chips n' Almost Home

In 4 days we will touch down in Vancouver. Mixed feelings now; happy that we will see home and loved ones, sad that the adventure is winding down, fear of trying to fit back in and how odd it will all seem, a bit at loose ends but it's one day at a time and we will be more than bloody happy to put down the backpacks. We're a bit round shouldered and tattered around the edges but we've got good sturdy legs now! Apart from that, it's definitely time considering Ivan's broke his tuner, his hearing aids are on the fritz, I've got mostly long grey hair, my shoes are thrashed and we look a little more than suspect dragging our tatty old bags around fashionable London these days.

Leaving Poland was bittersweet. One of my newfound cousins had promised us a lift to Krakow - approximately 4 hours from the family village and sprung it on us at the last minute that he had work obligations and that he would have to drive us to the nearest train station at FOUR IN THE MORNING! Egads, up we got - a bit slow on the uptake and away we go roaring down the road to try and make the 6 AM train which we did, although just barely. The train was hot and stuffy and we were dog tired when we got into Krakow and humped around looking for a taxi driver who wasn't going to fleece us. A 30 minute ride to the airport where chaos was the order of the day. A gzillion people crowded into a tiny terminal and waiting for our flight to show up on the board made for an agonizing wait but 2 1\2 hours in the air and we were landing in Gatwick.

Another train to another train and then wandering around the streets looking for our cheapie hotel. A bit grotty but boy, were we happy to get there! We spent 3 days in London spending the all-mighty £ (pound) - geez, I thought Australia was expensive but £1.00 is TWO Canadian dollars. Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, Hyde Park, Big Ben, The Tower of London, Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square - we saw them all (albeit briefly) on the BIG BUS Tour where you hop on and off a double decker to see the sights. Not all it's cracked up to be with all the traffic and annoying route changes and waiting. London is pretty cool though and we took an awesome ride on the EYE - the world's biggest ferris wheel with pods that carry you high above the skyline. Just trudging around the streets of Soho and all the ye olde places you've always heard about was good fun.

A couple of days later we hopped the tube (which is truly a great transport system) and another train - starting to get the drift of England travel? - and headed to Ipswich in Suffolk County to meet up with our friend John Mundy who we met in Thailand and kindly invited us to come stay with him. He drove us to his village of Chelmondiston where we have been for the past week bunking down in his altogether charming and hospitable home. It's like staying in an English postcard. Tiny cottages, narrow roads, misty harbours and perfect pubs. We've chowed down on yummy fish n' chips every chance we get and go round the pub for a pint and the local lowdown, and Ivan's jammed in a couple of rollicking pubs, and John has taken us to seaside villages for little side tours. We've met his friend Geraldine who invited us over to her huge converted barge called The Reliance, where she lives down the harbour right next to the Butt n' Oyster pub. I have barge envy! Lots of people here convert tugs and barges to houseboats and have the best views in town. It's really been delightful and restful and we can't thank John enough for opening his lovely home to us.

This, I guess, is getting close to my last blog (though check in again as there's always the fateful last leg where everything seems to go wrong)! I shall miss doing this diary and I hope that I've given at least one or two snow-bound friends a glimpse of our amazing journey during the long, long winter. Hey, what's up with the Yukon weather??!! Oh yeah, just can't wait for that. And work, ya, that's going to be a treat.

While we are entirely grateful and ever-indebted to all the wonderful people who have invited us in, away from the grotty hostels and low brow hotels, to their home and hearth, we will surely be most happy when we finally have a place to call home again. I invite each every one of our hosts to please come and stay with us in the Yukon when we are settled. Our door is always open and we'd love to have the opportunity to share our special corner of the world with you. I mean that now, y'all come! Well, maybe not all at once but definitely come.

So, tomorrow it's a bus and a train and another train to another train back to our hotel where we have only one night booked and have been bumped due to high season and will have to find another hotel again. It seems through all the ratty, crappy, uncivilized places that we've been, we've always managed accommodation and transportation easier than we have here in civilization. Either we can't get a hotel, we can't book a flight or we can't find a place to crash for our first night back in YVR and it's just really bizarre, but intrepid travellers that we are, we will manage. If in the next weeks you see a couple of zoned out, stoop shouldered, round-heeled souls wandering around Whitehorse with glazed eyes and dazed looks on their faces, say hello - it means we're home!