Fellow travellers

Pei's a dinky-dai Aussie girl from the Hurstville area, in Sydney's south. Her family's of Chinese origin, although she can barely speak Chinese herself, and considers herself to be as true-blue as the rest of 'em. Pei's travelling for several months, and has just arrived in Europe from sunny Thailand, where she's been backpacking for the past several weeks (so I had plenty of questions to ask her — since I'm off to Thailand after Europe). I went out with Pei and with several other people at Gulliver's House this evening, for a bit of dinner and fun.

Jochen, his wife and his 12-month-old baby girl are on vacation here in Sicily, and they're travelling round for a few weeks in their campervan home. I met them this evening at Sabbiadoro, where they were camped near my tent. The couple are mad about cycling: they've brought their racing bikes down in the campervan, and are getting in a few hours each day; in the past (i.e. pre-baby), they've done such ambitious cross-country cycle trips as the famous Carretera Austral (in southern Chile); and they currently own and operate a bike shop, in northern Italy where they live (they're both originally from Germany).

Christina's at the tail end of a 3-month trip around Europe, where (among other things) she's gone with several of her girlfriends on a road trip through the south-east (including the former Yugoslav Republic — brave girls!). She's in Bath for a few days (at St. Christopher's), before continuing on to Cornwall and south-west England. She's from the Bay Area in California — even better, she's a Berkeley girl.

Ayuko is a lovely Japanese girl, who's studying to be an English teacher over in Birmingham. She came here to Bath for a weekend holiday, and she's staying at St. Christopher's along with the rest of us. Her English is pretty good, but she'll have to keep working on it before she can start teaching it. She enjoys the odd cocktail or two, and she carries origami paper with her wherever she goes — in case she needs to make anyone an emergency Japanese souvenir.

This unique couple are staying with me at St. Christopher's, here in Bath. The guy is from Harvey Bay in Queensland, and he's been travellng and working for about 2 years straight; and (in true Aussie backpacker style) he has no idea when he's going home (if ever). The girl's from somewhere in Scotland, and nobody can understand a bloody word she says — lucky I'm not going to Scotland!

Nice bloke who's staying at the same hostel as me, here in Bath — St. Christopher's. Tom's also on ye 'ol round-the-world trip, although (like most Aussies) he's spending considerably longer in the UK than I am.

This young couple from Holland were two of the people that tried to come on the tour this morning — they ended up bailing out, and doing a bus tour instead. They're staying here at The Generator, on a short trip from home for a week. Very strange set-up that they have: they're best friends, but strictly not boyfriend and girlfriend; they have a private room here in the hostel, but with two single beds! Anyway, they're very friendly, and wish they could be travelling longer.

This lovely Canadian couple are, they claim, from the French-speaking park of Ottawa. They've just finished a few weeks down in Portugal (which they report as being cheap and sunny — not a bad combo), and are now on their way back home. I did some touring around London with them today, to enjoy the sights and the sun of the city while they lasted.

These two girls — Ashley from Nevada, USA; and Megan from Ottawa, Canada — have both been staying here at Aquario with me all week. They're both blonde, beautiful, brash, talkative, and fresh from Oktoberfest, which they just celebrated in its true home — Southern Germany. Now that they're down here in Brazil, they're still living that Oktober spirit, by continuing to drink copious quantities of whatever beer they can get their hands on, and by continuing to rant and sing gregariously whenever the moment takes their fancy. Awesome free spirits — the girls, that is, not their beverages :P.

I made acquaintance with these two boys, on today's hike to Dos Rios. Both of them are from Italy, and they're old friends: however, one is just in Brazil for a short holiday; and the other one is currently living in São Paulo. When we finished the hike, they invited the lot of us back to their cosy little guesthouse, for a barbeque and some drinks. Great lads: warm to all around them, and always ready to have a good time.