Traveloteacher

After strolling the streets of Derry and taking photos of all the gates and murals, we headed back to the Angel House, where we were finally able to use the internet and tell our family and friends back home everything about our journey that had taken such an unexpected turn. In the meantime, the stranded five were desperately trying to cross the Irish Sea, but were destined to do it in the middle of the night, at 2:30. Luckily, the ferry wasn't cancelled and they arrived in Dublin early Saturday morning, exactly 47 hours after they left Zagreb. It was a real drag, but what the heck, they were there, happy that St. Patrick had finally let them set foot on the Irish soil. However, he wanted them to suffer for another five hours, while they were searching for a rental agency with an available car. Ironically, we booked a car before the trip, but I just didn't dare to drive on the left - I simply couldn't make myself do it, so I cancelled the reservation at Dublin Airport. Le...

I'm really sorry I didn't manage to take a photo of one of the fields of daffodils in the Lake District. The one I uploaded in the previous post is nothing special, but it's the only one I have. Anyway, the Lake District was fantastic. We stopped in Winderemere, such a picturesque little town. We strolled along its streets on a sunny afternoon and later we drove to the lake. Stunning! We enjoyed ourselves tremendously. On our way further north, Google Earth suggested taking a scenic route. So we did and regretted it after only five miles. The road was not only getting steeper, but also narrower, in fact too narrow for our huge seven-seater. The twigs near the road started brushing the car, the hills in front of us suddenly became so uninviting, the sky darkened and there was sleet every now and then. Mladen and I wanted Zoran to turn back and take the proper road, so we nagged at him all the time. Poor Zoran stopped the car at something that we could call a lay-by and ther...

It was good we were in Manchester on Easter Monday, a bank holiday in England. Almost everything was closed at 9 a.m, the streets were empty and we found a parking space easily. The dreamy city center seemed beautiful, with its amazing mixture of old and modern architectural styles. Its magnificent Town Hall was built in 1877 in an English Gothic style. Inside, there is a statue of General Agricola, the Roman who founded a settlement called Mancunium in AD 79. (Hence the people from Manchester are called Mancunians.) On the other side, there is the ultramodern Urbis, a ski slope-shaped building made of glass. In between, the old Royal Exchange and the new Arndale Shopping Centre. Another area worth seeing is Salford Quays. It was also revitalized in the 1990s and today it comprises the Lowry Centre, an arts and entertainment complex, the Lowry Outlet Centre, the Manchester United Museum and the most striking building of all, the Imperial War Museum. Designed by renowned architect Danie...

Great Britain - the decision was made quickly. With so many itchy feet in our household, it came as no surprise to our friends and family. The highlight of the trip was to be the football match between Scotland and Croatia in Glasgow - well, for the male travelers in our party. We, the ladies, decided to go shopping, since that is our favorite pastime activity. But let me begin with our flight to London where the seven of us headed early on Easter morning. The flight was not full so we boarded the plane without any problems. To my boys' great delight, the coach of the Croatian national team was on the same flight together with his assistants. Of course, the autographs were asked for. After landing in London we rented a Kia Sedona with seven seats. . It's strange but the cars made for the European market are much smaller than the American ones. The trunk of our American seven-seater that we had rented in Georgia was almost double in size. Somehow we squeezed in the six suitcases...

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 ...