SEPTEMBER 1998 - MAY 1999 PART 1

On 1st September a phone rang at home. This call changed my life completely. After many few years of trying to get either to the US or UK I got lucky. I was offered to go to England. Even though I had been accepted at university and it may have happened I would never get accepted again I decided to leave everything in the Czech Republic and go to England. If it hadn't been for this I would have never created this website and met all my friends from England, from my travels, internet, ... I'm so grateful.

OK, I got to Coxheath which is a small village near Maidstone, which is a city in Kent county, Southeast England. I went there to be an au-pair but I also attended a college there - Midkent College - CAE and CPE courses and find myself a job. In my class there were so many great people and we've been good friends since then. I've visited a couple of them on my travels and they visited me here also.

I thought this would be a kind of guide to Maidstone which it was if you visited this page some time ago but I don't think there are many people going to Maidstone so I'll put a couple of pictures here from Maidstone, Coxheath (village close to Maidstone where I lived), my trips and family.

London:

This was my very first trip in England. As Maidstone is just few miles from London I had to go there. I knew a girl that was friend of my uncle and she was there the same time so I met her and we started discovering London. I think this may be a good advice for you if you want to see everything important in London you should follow what I did.

Since we met at Victoria train station our first steps led to the Buckingham Palace. There is not going to be much written about these places so I hope you enjoy the pictures more then what I'm writing. I'm telling you English is not my mother tongue, anyway, so I suggest you should pay attention more to what I shot.

Then we walked along the Pall Mall (blimey, I don't know if the street's really called that or if it's the other one) to the Big Ben and Parliament. I was very cloudy that day so the shot is really impressive, isn't it?

From then the best was to see the famous PM's Downing Street, Traffalgar Square and Piccadily Circus. On the Piccadily there is a place called Rock Circus where all the music stars are kept in their wax bodies. The big one is close to Regent's Park and Baker's Street. 

Anyway, we wanted to see that so we took a break from walking. I was so excited when I saw Lenny Kravitz, Bob Marley, Freddie Mercury, Rolling Stones, Sting, U2 and obviously the Beatles.

After that we thought we could do some shopping and the best is Soho, Regent's Street, Oxford Street - the part we weren't far from. We didn't buy much as we were on budget because we just paid for our classes which was pretty expensive. And since I earned just 35 Quid a week (obviously my accommodation and food at home was for free) and it was before I started working I couldn't afford it that time.

Well, after some shopping it was about time we had a rest. OK, Hyde Park. This is so cool. Fortunately, it was on Saturday and we didn't see anyone speaking at Speaker's Corner. 

In my country you are usually not allowed to step on the grass. There were people everywhere. I wish we could have something like that at home. I would finally take my in-lines out of my drawer and start skating again.

There are much more things to see in London. Eg. the Tower, the Docks and many more but for one day I think it was enough. I knew I would come many times so that trip was over.

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