Travelling through Europe

In July I did a bit of travelling in Europe with Gareth. We bought an Inter Rail ticket  - which put simply means you can hop on to almost any train you like and let it take you across Europe! This is the main method we used for getting from country to country. We also took a few flights, many buses, a few taxis and did lots of walking! I got to see quite a bit of Europe which was fascinating and really enjoyable for me.

The first thing that struck me as really different from what I have seen from my (relatively limited) experienced in visiting other countries so far, was the sheer scale of God's creation. Huge mountains and lakes, deep valleys and long rivers. I had never seen it on such - a - scale! I can't really explain it. For those who have holidayed abroad all through their childhood you might not get this - and even from the few places I'd been to I thought I'd seen a lot of what 'scenery' has to offer (and appreciated it, definitely) but...yeh. Big. SO big. ...I'll stop going on about that now.

Stunning surroundings as Gareth goes for a dip in Lake Como, Italy.

I'd love to share a few pics of where we went and stuff but I'm thinking to do it in smallish doses so as not to bore you to death :-P

I'd like to show you a map of the route but not been able to plot that out yet.

There were some places we arranged to be at for certain times - i.e. because we were seeing friends or family there and so had to be there at times that were good for them as well as us, but generally we made up the route as we went along.

The first thing we did - the day after Gareth's birthday - is get the train to Manchester Airport, and from there got a plane to Belgium, along with two friends.

BRUSSELS:

 

 BRUGES:

 

And of course we sampled Belgian beer, chocolate and waffles ;)

Our next stop was Luxembourg, and then on to France!...But I will talk about this in my next post :) Hope you like the pictures! We had great fun in Belgium :)

Food and Fun in The Land of Thais.

Had a lovely time in Thailand! A very different experience in many ways from the last time I was there (here are some posts about that if your interested...here and here) but even though I've only been there for a relatively short time, almost 2 years ago, there was a familiar feel to it - even though I was also staying primarily in a different part of the country! So that was interesting to notice.

Dragon Temple, Sam Phran

Last time I visited Thailand was in November time, so it was interesting to see it at a different time - this time it was Monsoon Season!:

I went into school with my friend a few times to see her teaching, which was really amazing. She is an excellent teacher and the lessons are a lot of fun! Wish I'd had language lessons like that when I was at school!

 

 

Whilst in Thailand I went on a little cooking course in Bangkok to learn how to create some Thai dishes such as Pad Thai, Spring Rolls and others. I really enjoyed the course and especially eating what we made!


Cooking Thai Green Curry

With the main teacher and other students at the class

The food I made!

I'd love to try out making some of the dishes at home but perhaps depends if I can get hold of all the ingredients !

Of course I also had lots of yummy food outside of the course :) I do like a lot of Thai food :)

 

 

During this trip I also got to visit the coast, which I'd never done before in Thailand so that was really nice.

 

 

 All in all I had a great time and the best part was of course seeing my friend and catching up. :) But great to see other bits of Thailand I'd not experienced before also.