England

Up to now I've written only about the US. Being an English teacher I'd love to write about all the English speaking countries I've visited. Beside the US, however, I've been to the UK only - or to be more precise England only.

Back in the 80s, when I was still a student, I spent five weeks with an English family who lived in Norfolk. I had a great opportunity to explore the beautiful countryside of East Anglia and visit the lovely historical cities such as Norwich, Peterborough and Cambridge. I also visited London for the first time and my most memorable experience was the tremendously exciting day spent at Madame Tussaud's.


Later, in the nineties, when we were already able to travel on stand by, thanks to my husband's job, we took our 6 year old with us (and left our 2 year old at home, and after he told his granny that he was going to cry and be real sad, we decided to take the boys with us on every trip - and since then we've done it every time - but one - the 1998 visit to NYC was meant to be for the two of us only).

Anyway, we stayed at a nice London hotel and the three of us had a terrific time - not only at Madame Tussaud's. It was the first time that we tried a pizza at Pizza Hut, on Leicester Square. It was delicious (unlike Pizza Hut in NYC - this one didn't taste like pizza at all). London itself lived up to my expectations - peaceful walks in the parks, a harrowing shopping spree, sights that talk about the times long gone, excellent museums - what more can you want?

In 1999, my younger son 'finally' got the opportunity to visit England. This time we stayed with friends at their Bristol home. We rented a car and my husband drove on the left side of the road for the first time in his life. It all went well, but, gosh, it was really confusing, especially for me, the navigator. Bath was beautiful and so were Glastonbury, Salisbury and Devon, Stonehenge gave me the goosebumps, not to mention the mysterious white horse. It's needless to say that the kids enjoyed themselves immensely in Legoland. And it was in Street that I first learned the meaning of this cute little word 'outlet'.