My house in the UK is in Chlemsford, one of the areas in Chelmsford is actually called Springfield. When I moved there my girlfriend at the time also moved there with me. Her surname was Simpson but she wouldn’t let me rent a flat in Springfield. I should have really rented one their, she might have left quicker than the six months it took me to get rid of her.

Who on earth would want to host anything in my home town of DUDLEY.

It doesnt rain, it pours.

Gareth & Angry you help keep it real.

The recent ‘competition of the Springfields’ brought back to mind something that happened in the early 1970s. A companion and I were hitch-hiking around Europe. A French guy in a big Mercedes picked us up somewhere in the south of France and gave us a rather long ride. He was friendly and very chatty, and despite the fact that he knew almost no English, and our French was ‘passable’ at best, we managed converse non-stop.

At one point he told us that — before us — he only had met one other American, a tourist who had become his girlfriend-for-a-summer. He wondered if maybe we knew her: he said her name was Cathy and she was from ‘Springfield, USA.’ We said no, we didn’t know her. He then asked if we knew where Springfield, USA was. We looked at each other for a second, not knowing how to explain about all the Springfields, so one of us just said, “Yeah, it’s a nice place” and changed the subject to something else.

This was wa-a-ay pre-Homer, of course. ;-}

Nice story Sullivan, any relation to Ed?

Sullivan, you were lucky to escape that car with your dignity and pants intact, not fussy those French, long trousers, short trousers, skirts, kilts (same thing really), Jodhpurs, pajamas, saris, bare assed, you name it - those Gallic guys will worry it!

There’s a reasonable zoo on the hill in Dudley, and i also once went to a narrow boat festival there. My last visit, was to be thrashed at Rugby by Dudley Kingswinford, who had a little chink playing at stand-off.
So you have something to shout about - it ain’t that bad compared to Chernobyl

lemmy - no, no relation to Ed!

gareth - hitch-hiking in Europe (and everywhere else) was a lot safer in the early 1970s than it is now. My companion and I never had a hint of a bad experience. These days I would not recommend it — in France or anywhere else!

Hey B.N & GIC is europe unsafe for traveller? It’s still on my list of things to do, the euro rail with wine n cheese…is it no go?

So B.N Sullivan I went to your blog from here, I wanted to do that as a kid, my dream. I assume you are or were a pilot. Whats the best place you’ve been to in your travels?

Oh my, I didn’t mean to end up hijacking these comments. Hope Jim and Emma forgive, but I can’t not answer — wouldn’t be polite.

fab - I think that travel in Europe is as safe as anywhere else — maybe safer than a lot of places. What I meant was that I would not recommend hitch-hiking around Europe these days. I think that’s riskier than it was years ago when I did it — not just in Europe, but everywhere.

lemmy - thanks for visiting my blog. I’m not a pilot, but I do work in aviation. I’d be hard-pressed to name one place as THE best travel destination.

Now, back to our original program…

FAB,
I was just playing around. Europe is a lot safer than the US as we don’t sell guns to kids, nutters and general fruit loops.
I’ve been to almost every country in Europe and would recommend the following trip through Slovenia and Croatia.
Try traveling from Trieste on the Italian border through to Bled (the most beautiful town in the Alpine mountains and has a great lake to swim in with a monastery on an island in the middle) and Kranskia Gora (great skiing). Then on to Ljubljana and from there down to Croatia. A few days partying hard in Zagreb followed by a week touring down the coast from Split to maybe Hvar and Dubrovnik.
Probably one of the nicest journeys I have made and then best thing is it was for work so I got paid doing it, just had to stop in at a few sewing plants on the way and show them the new designs for the Ford CMax (250 East European women in each plant - hmmmmmmmm happy days).
The costs are really low in these countries and a Balkan mixed lamb grill is possibly the best meal in the world when done right regardless of how many people tell you meat is bad, this is the ultimate dining experience.

But I would still be wary of the cheese eating surrender monkeys!

Hey B.N Sullivan no problems - you can answer questions directed to you on any thread and if it leads people to your blog then great! No problem at all if its addresses a specific question. Just be careful where you use the term hijack and plane in the same sentance :0)

GIC / B.N Sullivan - Great info for FAB.

Thanks for the advice GIC & BNS - Euro tour is back on but not hitch hiking. Hadn’t considered Croatia!

Hey don’t miss Slovenia, its great and a good place to start prior to Croatia.

BN Sullivan

did the man who picked you up give you ‘much love?’

fab- if you want to come to europe I wil show you round PROVIDED you aren’t milk-curdlingly ugly.

If you are worth a game I guarantee you will ‘whine’ and be inundated with ‘cheese’.

Ahem.