Wazza's European Adventure!!

Hi, and welcome back!

After being here for a couple of weeks, I still haven't really gotten used to the fact that there are so many roundabouts here. There are hardly any traffic lights anywhere, and if there is, it's because it's to sort out the traffic for a bloody big roundabout!

We live not far from what my cousin's call "The Hamburger" - which is - a roundabout, that has a road (in this case a motorway) that goes right through the centre of it, making it look like a burger. There, is where I saw my first traffic lights besides London. It's weird, strange, but there aren't really any traffic jams around here. I'm actually waiting for a car accident!

What else I can't get over, is that most of the roads are only single carriageway. I mean - the population of Harlow isn't really that big, but Essex is a very big county. And there are a lot of people here. The terraced housing is what I can't get over. People living in a dog box. It's crazy - why don't you all just come to Australia? There's heaps of room here - but please don't make your bloody terraced housing here!

There aren't that many petrol stations either. In Australia (talking about Western Australia - the best bit!) there are station EVERYWHERE, and that's because we really have to drive everywhere. Our metropolitan district is 100kms in all directions (except West of course, where you get the water and the islands of Penguin and Rottnest). I mean, the entirety of Greater London could probably fit in Fremantle lol!

I was helping my cousin help his grandson with his car. We had to pick him up (Oliver) from the car repair place, which does certain checkups that the English motor system has people do with their cars every year or so. We picked him up and then dropped him off. He was going to France to see the European Championships, and he was going to stay in the fan zone for the next couple of nights during the games. 

I'm not that far off my own stay in France. I've booked my trip via the Channel Link, which I'm quite interested in seeing, and experiencing the whole "English Channel Tunnel" thing.

We decided the next day to go see family, which I have already documented. Harlow to Crawley is one hell of a drive. Unless you want to go through the centre of London, you take the Orbital (which is called the M25 Circular Route), go round the outside of Greater London, and continue on a straight route after you get off. 

I've seen some places, but England, I'd have to say is quite pretty. There are acres and acres of farms between towns, villages and hamlets. Turns out we were not far from Gatwick Airport in the end. A day there, turned out wonderfully, as the sun stayed out for most of the day, and it was good to see familiar faces again, even though they had all aged 30+ years! I found out that one of my cousin's husbands actually lived not far from where I live in W.A. Mandurah as a matter of fact. True!

After a weekend of sitting in front of the TV and watching football and English TV, the cousin took me to Audley Ends. 

I'll be telling you about Audley Ends in my next post!

Till then!

Travel and be happy!

Waz