Wait...Maine isn't a peninsula?

Dad was doing business in New Brunswick so he asked us if we wanted to head up to the land of Tim Horton's, toonies, and socialized medicine. We all flew into Manchester, NH and drove up through Maine to get there. Since most of our weather maps show the US as an island, I thought Maine was a peninsula, so you can imagine my surprise when we drove across the border. Fredericton is a nice city. We were very centrally located on the river off Queen St. Two blocks from a Tim Horton's which I ate at daily, 10 minutes from a coffee shop called "Crumbs", and literally across the street from a paint your own pottery place (Em's dream come true). There are some nice trails for jogging, walking, and biking in the area although I didn't use much of them because of the rainy weather.

Saturday and Sunday, we all headed out to Alma on the Bay of Fundy, home of the biggest tides in the world. We arrived exactly half way between low and high tide. You can see it literally coming in. Having already been on the road for a while we decided that it would be better to head to Prince Edward Island now and get a hotel there rather than go back to Fredericton and make the trip again. 

I, Em, PEI

So we hit our HI Express breakfast (that's where we get our money's worth ;) ) and headed out toward the Anne of Green Gables house. The grounds around the park are nicer than the actual exhibits. Afterwards we headed to Cavendish Beach where we met a few locals that were soon to be transplants to the Tampa area. The ride back was a long one. Em and I spent the next day locally, packed up and headed back into the states to fly back home.

--Joey

(7/31/08)

Detained in Gatwick

So after my flight from Split landed in LGW, I duly got into my Non-EU, non-CH, passport line which happened to be a bit shorter than the others. U-S-A! U-S-A! I walked up to the desk and gave the guy my passport with a Spanish Passport cover (possibly my first mistake). The guy took it and began the following dialogue:

"Where are you from"
-"The states"
"And are you flying in from Croatia?"
-"Yup, Split"
"How long are you staying in the UK?"
-"About 24 hours then off to home"
"How long have you been here?"
-"In the UK?"
"Well in Europe"
-"Almost 6 months" ( I should have said 5 months but I was tired)
"Oh? That's a while. Just traveling around?"
-"Yup and yeah it has been I am looking forward to heading back home"
"Do you have your reservation for tomorrow's flight?"
-"Umm no, it's an E-ticket"
"So you may not be returning tomorrow?"
-"No I am going home tomorrow unless the flight is overbooked"
"Don't you need to contact the airline days in advance?"
-"No, I don't think so"
"So it isn't an open return ticket?"
-"Nope fixed dates"
"But you don't have a reserved seat?"
-"Nope I will pick my seat when I get to my hostel"
"But you don't have a reservation/confirmation number?"
-"I have it for the flight over not sure if it is the same for the return or not?" (it was)
"Hmmm..."
-"If you have a computer here I can pull it up and make the seat assignment permanent or heck, if it is possible, I will change my ticket and hop the flight today if the option is available"
"Well, you know, this isn't a cybercafe" (What a smug douche)
-"Hehe yeah I suppose not"
"What do you do for a living?"
-"I am a student"
"What and where are you studying?"
-"Electrical Engineering at the Unversity of South Florida"
"And this isn't a problem, you being away for 5 months? Or is not being present for courses not a problem for you?"
-"Well, no it isn't a problem, I will just graduate with my Master's a semester later"
"So it IS going to affect your studies"
-"Yeah I suppose so, but postponing it a semester doesn't bother me"
"How much money do you have?"
-"I don't know 100 USD, 5 GBP, 700 CZK, 30 ZLTY, 10 Euros..."
"So 5 GBP..." (Yeah man, GBP is the only currency worth anything...I get it)
-"And of course, I have a credit card and ATM card...so I will get 50 GBP or so"
"So how much can you get all together?"
-"Not sure I have a limit of something like 250 GBP a day"
"But how much can you get from your account"
-"Um, around 2000 GBP or so"
"Do you have a job when you go back to the States?"
-"No, I will be resuming school and looking for coops, internships etc."
"Have you been working in Europe?"
-"No I wasn't able to get a visa for Spain so I have just been traveling"
"So you don't have a job, you haven't been working yet you have a couple thousand pounds. I don't understand how you can travel for 6 months, without working...how does one fund something like that?"
-"Um, well I still live with my parents so I banked my salary for a year it isn't that difficult...some people buy fancy cars or eat at nice restaurants or have a 5 quid a day Starbucks habit...I travel instead"

(I guess the story sounds improbable to most non Americans. I would have assumed with the exchange rate being 2:1 that EE's in the UK would earn the same amount as we do in USD. After all everything is TWICE as expensive and the taxes are higher. Nope. Even with more experience, they still earn less in gross dollars. Oh...that's right, I forgot they have free healthcare :slaps forehead:)

"Hmm okay, well I got to tell you a lot of your answers are raising red flags so we are going to have to investigate your case and examine your luggage can you go sit in the detainment area"
-"Ummm..really? Okay..."

So I walk over to the detainment area. I was the sole 1st world national there (A few Pakis, West Africans etc). I understand people may be sneaking into Britain but Americans, I am guessing, aren't doing that in any appreciable numbers. So I waited for about 30 minutes before his coworker came to get me. I brought my backpack upstairs and I was thinking man these guys have no sense of humor (being painfully aware of how uptight our own Customs officials are) when I met up with the baggage checkers upstairs. They look into my backpack and conclude within 20 seconds that I am backpacking around Europe.

I think the stale smell of my beaten clothes, maps of 15 cities were tip offs. We were laughing and joking around, I was translating the guy's Japanese tie. It was cool, I just happened to get Gareth Keenan as my inspector downstairs.

He comes back (roughly 90 minutes from getting off the plane) and says "My colleagues examined your case and we have decided to permit you into the country. In the future please do not be so unprepared."

He also said something about how had he arrived in the US with so little documentation that he would have been arrested. Yeah sure you would.

I planned to crash back at Palmer's Lodge off Swiss Cottage but Em logged on to Gmail and sent me a message she wanted to do a curry dinner. It was a strange combination of being elated that she was willing to give that a try and cursing her for not doing it last time. So we headed over to Aldgate East, the closest stop to Brick Lane. Every curry shop has a guy out front hawking their specials. The offer was a meal, appetizer and beer for 9 GBP. Sounds good to me!

I ordered the forehead sweat and nasal drip factory more appetizingly referred to as Chicken Vindaloo. It was nice as whenever you ask for something hot here the cooks always pull the punch. Like a medium steak that gets served medium well, they assume that they will be dealing with a complaining customer if they give them what they ask for. To be sure, that wasn't the case here. Cheryl and Em liked their first real chicken curry so the meal was a success and we headed back through East London and the financial district.

So with our last few hours we headed back to the hostel to make arrangements back home, select my seat and the rest. I was in a 20 bed male dorm that didn't have air conditioning (or it wasn't in use) but it was just for a night and I was already pretty exhausted from the previous day which was starting to run together with this one.

Unlike most days when I need to catch a morning form of transportation in a rather do or die sort of way, I slept incredibly soundly. Em did too. I was actually a little worried she wouldn't make the flight to the point that we took the Gatwick Express instead of the regional train. The extra few quid would be well worth ensuring we didn't have to call Dad from Gatwick...again.

We arrived with about 20 minutes to spare so with that we called the trip a success. I hopped the nonstop flight to Tampa while Em made a stop in Philly. Mom and Granny were waiting for me at the airport and got a kick out of my scruffy beard and long hair. While we waited for Em I got a Sam Adams at TIA. Ahh hops. How I missed thee.

This was arguably the best trip I have taken. It was longer and while I did cover a lot of the same territory again I also saw a lot of new places (Croatia, Montenegro, Portugal, Poland, Czech Republic and a variety of new cities Bremen, Berlin, Barcelona, etc). Sightseeing often took a back seat to the journey itself (which I was fine with).

For my favorite cities from before, I have a new appreciation that is a bit more realistic. I made some friends that I will probably see again, I had experiences that were really unique and having worked in real life, I also deeply appreciated what I was able to do...much more so than in 2006. It reinforced that I need to continue backpacking since I am running out of time to do it (or at least do it properly). With some luck, I'll be headed to China in May and the blog will fire back up. In the mean time I have school and a coop in the power industry. Which I am super stoked about, btw.

--Joey