The joy of travelling and visiting other countries is a passion that as yet cannot be matched by my financial resources so I have been content with traveling to places beyond my reach from my PC. The world wide web has afforded me this luxury. However, I have been fortunate to travel over 20 years ago after my three-month course in Bradford, England in 1979-80. I have glimpsed a bit of England, and visited my friend Kathy's sister Tess in Hull, and on some weekends got to see Haworth (the Bronte Sisters lived there).
I traveled to Italy and then to the United States for a total of 6 weeks, starting with Rome then Florence for approximately a week in December 1979. Blame my camera that I only had two pictures from that first trip to Italy. It was a very lonely time traveling alone, first because I had fallen in love while in Bradford and missed him at that time.
Among my adventures were missing my Laker (a defunct airline service now) flight to LA from Gatwick airport. I thought my flight was from Heathrow so I travelled from Ascot to Heathrow. I had to take the helicopter link from Heathrow to Gatwick and still missed my flight. Although the bargain fare Laker ticket was not refundable, the woman at the counter gave me a ticket as I was bawling my eyes out for missing the flight, and booked me for the next flight the following day. Hence, I took no chances and slept at the airport. There I met a wonderful elderly couple Dolores and Eric from Southampton, with whom I corresponded for years until they stopped writing. They even visited me in the Philippines when they went for a tour in Asia. Since they were well on in years, and I did not know how to reach any of their relatives, I could only surmise that probably Dolores might have passed away.
My visit to the U. S. A. started in Irving, Califormia, where I was met by my friend Kathy and her American fiance now her husband Jamie (now have a teenage son named Travis, my godson). Then I visited my cousin Carm and my uncle Deo and other relatives in Daly City. Of course, I was overwhelmed and charmed by the city of San Francisco, and traveled by BART to view the famous Golden Gate Bridge then take the famous cable car up and down the hills of downtown San Francisco.
On December 30, 1979 I flew to New York via Pan Am to be with my friend Eugene, (my classmate in St Bridget and we also attended the same university), who was married to Dodong and had a baby girl called Misha. She brought me to watch the ballet performance of the Alvin Ailey of Harlem dance troupe at the New York State Theater, and then a Broadway play at the Uris Theater, to see "Sweeney Todd" (The Demon Barber of Fleet Street) by Stephen Sondheim, with who else but Angela Lansbury in a leading role (this Broadway hit was in fact created specially for her). What a delight she was! Of course, who would miss the museums of New York? Hence, I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MOMA) twice (saw the works of Degas, Monet and other artists), the American Museum of Natural History (which featured the "Gold of El Dorado", and the famous Guggenheim Museum (to see the different periods of Picasso and other contemporary artists). The Empire State Building, the United Nations building, and World Trade Centre were also not to be missed. Mary Rose, another former classmeate in St Bridget was also a willing tour guide apart from Eugene and her husband Dodong who lived then in an apartment within Columbia University. It being winter, I did not venture far into snow-covered Central Park.
My first trip overseas from Australia included a holiday in the Philippines and Thailand to visit my friend Betcha and her husband, Thamrong and their three-year old son, Net (also known as Natta, another godson). It was a wonderful time with them.
My next trip overseas was to Europe with my parents. Papa had retired in 1989 and so I convinced them to travel with me to Europe while I took care of our land arrangments. If you know what it's like to travel with your own parents then you would smile here. We had our little disagreements, and the main thing was we had too many pictures. We traveled to England, spending two nights in London, where we saw the crown jewels (a must!), Buckingham palace (we only saw the outside unfortunately as it was closed that day we scheduled to visit), Big Ben, and Madame Tussaud's wax museum.
Next stop was Dover from where we crossed the English Channel to Calais, France by hydrofoil, then we took the coach to Amsterdam. We had Eurail passes so we took the train (the express trains were great) to Paris from Amsterdam. Paris was a wonderful cultural trip for us as we visited the Louvre and other places. From Paris we went to Lourdes (a pilgrimage to the site where our Lady is said to have appeared to St. Bernadette of Soubirous. It was amazing to view the huge mosaic representation of the 15 mysteries of the rosary at the Cathedral and then join the Angelus at 6 PM and procession in the ground of the Cathedral. We then joined a Cosmos Tour "St. Paul to St. Peter," which included tours of Paris, Lucerne and the Alps (Mt. Titlis), Pisa, Venice, Florence, and "Eternal City" of Rome. From there we went by train to Vienna meeting up with my friend Joy and her mom and cousins, who lived there. The cleanliness of the city of Vienna, the beautiful buildings, and it's subway system was impressive, but the highlight of our trip was our visit to Salzburg, Mozart's hometown and "The Sound of Music" location. We visited the gardens location shooting of scenes from my favorite musical was made. The Mozart Museum was also very interesting. From there we travelled by train again to Frankfurt, to fly back to Manila (to bring my parents home) and return to Sydney. All in all it was a great adventure.
From February to May 1999, I again visited the United States of America on a voyage of rediscovery, to meet and spend some time with my beloved, Howard, as well as visit relatives and friends. Details of this trip will be posted in a future web site so please visit my Dream Place for future updates.
Suki
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