In 1993, on my way to England, I made a quick stop over in Italy. I got aboard a train in Milan and headed for Venice. Truly a city for lovers. After doing the rounds there I boarded another train and headed for Rome. I literally saw Rome in a day. It's a most beautiful city with lots of lovely old architecture. I climbed to the top of the cathedral, up a narrow staircase (and I mean narrow, as two people cannot pass each other) and got to see the setting sun over Rome. The next morning another train took me to the small town of Genova where I could hardly pull myself away. I decided that if I ever got to settle some place in Europe it would be in that little town, with it's crumbly old churches and it's narrow, winding cobble streets.

When I was a kid we lived in the south of England for 2 1/2 years. That was when I fell in love with the place. I managed to return, but this time to London, when I went to study Osteopathy there in 1993. In the year and 3 months that I was there I felt a kind of universal freedom that I'd never felt before. The Brits are a friendly bunch. I quickly made friends and started enjoying myself.
I had a mountain bike on which I cycled from London to the Isle of Whight. Once there I did a leisurely ride around the small island. In all it took me 3 days. I also cycled around the top half of Wales during my vacation break where I got to see some of the most beautiful little cottages and villages. The weather wasn't all that good but one day on leaving the town of Llandudno I saw a riding school. I chained my bike to a post at the stables and exchanged my metal mount for one of flesh and blood. As Llandudno is by the sea the lead rider took myself and another rider up to the cliffs overlooking the ocean. The low cloud added to the atmosphere and made it all that more fairytale-like.

In the middle of my stay in London I also managed to fit a trip to Cyprus in. Now that is a place of rich fabrics, of strong coffee and unusual beaches. The beach that I went to had very fine black sand, which, if you stood still long enough, you would slowly sink into. I enjoyed the various traditional dishes and the folk singing and dancing. The only thing I would say I didn't enjoy about the place was that the locals made me feel like an outsider, a mere visitor. In every other country I have been I have always managed to merge with the place, almost seeing it from the eyes of the locals. In Cyprus it was as though the tourists only got to see what they wanted the tourists to see.