Simply Sofie

On December 1-8, 2007, Autumn-Winter time, we had our one week golf vacation in Cyprus. I said Autumn-Winter time because astronomically, it was still Autumn, but meteorologically, it was already Winter. We flew from Zurich, Switzerland to Larnaca, Cyprus via Vienna, Austria with Cyprus Airways on December 1, 2007. The flight was fine, but I found it a little bit long. We left Zurich at around 2:38pm and after an hour, we landed in Vienna. About 50 minutes later, we left Vienna and landed in Larnaca, Cyprus at 7:14pm. Well, Cyprus time, it was 8:14pm already. So, travel time was at least 4 hours and 30 minutes.

We were able to leave the airport at around 9:25pm. We actually joined a group of more than 50 people who also played golf like us at the golf tournament week organized by Take It Travel and ASGI Golf. Then we travelled from Larnaca to Pissouri, Cyprus where Columbia Beach Hotel is located. We arrived at the hotel at around 10:45pm, meaning travel time was at least an hour and 20 minutes.

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It was Saturday, June 30, 2007 at 5:34 in the morning when we left Weggis for our trip to Ireland. Since travelling by land to Ireland is possible, we brought our car so as to be more mobile. We decided to take the car ferry in Calais, France going to Dover, England. We arrived in Calais just after 2:00 in the afternoon. The trip from Weggis to Calais took at least more than 8 hours but not more than 9 hours as we had several stopovers along the way.

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On October 25, 2007, my jetsetter childhood friend ever M arrived in Switzerland for just a weekend. I always asked her to come here but she had been here twice so she opted to go to other places and met some other friends. She was always on a business trip to Germany and this time she decided to visit us, instead of going to Spain, Scotland, Austria, Italy, France, or whatever. I was ecstatic of course, as I was not able to go to the Philippines this year. She lives in Singapore now but we always see each other in the Philippines in April every year.

I didn’t fetch her, Hub did. When she asked me before, calling from Germany, if I will fetch her, I told her that I can’t. I told her that I needed to clean the house and she laughed crazily. I told her, of course I was cleaning because she was arriving, and we both laughed. She volunteered to help later. I told her, she was my visitor so she didn’t need to clean but she can cook.

If only we didn’t have to go somewhere else the next day, maybe we didn’t sleep anymore. We just chatted like crazy. But then, she was staying until Sunday so we still had a lot of time to talk.

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It was April 25, 2007 when Atinna, Thess and I left Bath and went to London. I don’t know anymore what time did we arrive in London. The train was delayed so I also can’t remember what time did the train leave Bath. We finally arrived at the Paddington Station after more than 2 hours of travel from Bath. Then we took another train from Paddington Station to Victoria Station.

I was not impressed with the London train stations, they are not friendly to commuting tourists who have big or even small suitcases. Nevertheless, we still made it to the Victoria Station, which is located along Buckingham Palace Road.

When we were walking along Buckingham Palace Road, despite that it was drizzling, I thought that the area was polluted. I can tell because my nose is quite sensitive to smoke and dust. When I started sneezing, I knew it was not a good sign.

Instead of taking a cab from Victoria Station to the hotel, we just walked along Buckingham Palace Road to St. George’s Drive. The hotel is located along St. George’s Drive.

When we arrived at the hotel, it really looked good from the outside, and mind you, the location was just great. But my my, really, looks can be so deceiving. We checked in at the hotel. The person, actually a lady, at the front office was not accommodating. We were asked to pay right away, unlike at the other hotels where we only paid when we checked out, the normal way of paying hotels as far as I know. It was my first time to be asked to pay immediately.

Once we were inside the room, it was even worse, the curtains were dusty and the toilet was not properly cleaned. Oh no!!! I started sneezing again. Oh no, not again! I actually got sick.

We could have transferred to another hotel but you know that hotels in London are quite expensive considering that we already paid for 4 days and 3 nights accommodation.

I will never, never recommend this hotel! I have been to small hotels too but this one is not at all recommendable. I won’t write further, kindly read Atinna’s entry about the hotel.

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