TWO YEARS ABROAD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22344, 15 February 1936, Page 22

TWO YEARS ABROAD

LONDON TO THE TOURIST YOUTH HOSTELS IN ENGLAND "The youth hostels throughout England and Scotland are amazing," said Miss Rose A Hum, who has just returned from a two years' trip abroad, the last year of which was spent in England and Scotland. It was possible, Miss A Hum said, to travel, cycling or walking, all through the country, going from hostel to hostel. They were placed conveniently about 15 miles apart, and handbooks gave routes, distances and sights to be seen on the way. The most interesting people travelled like this, and the hostels themselves were clean and fresh. Fires were ready laid for newcomers, and the charge made was about one shilling a night.

"London is, to me, the most wonderful city in the world," Miss Allum said. "Next to it I loved Rome. Being there one lost all sense of time. I did not know if I was living in the first or the twentieth century. One somehow always thinks that old Rome will be right out of the new city, but it is not. It is right in the heart of it. The two are mixed up, and this gives the weird impression of timelessness. It was my ambition to see the Coliseum by moonlight, and before I left Rome I did. I shall never forget) the strange feeling of 'other-world I iness' it gave me." Although the spirit of Mussolini was throughout Italy, he was never mentioned, Miss Allum said. In fact, English friends who were discussing him in a restaurant were politely asked by the waiter not to speak his name. Miss Allum spent a great deal of her time in Switzerland, studying French at the University in Lausanne. The beauty of this country made a deep impression on her. "Looking through my window I could see the deep blue of the lakes, or the clear blue of the mountains," Miss Allum said. "Switzerland was one of the places I saw that came up to expectations." The Passion Play at Oberammergau was another treat. She Btayed among the villagers in their quaint little houses, and their earnestness about the play quite belied the opinion many people had—that the play was spoilt by being commercialised. "The villagers are so sincere that one is sure they are not thinking about anything but their artistry," Miss Allum said. "They put their whole soul into the play, and the effect is astounding. Everyone in the village takes an interest in it, and from day to day lives and thinks with the artists. It absorbs their whole time." The village people, Miss Allum found, were friendly and sociable. They spoke very little English, but made English people welcome among them. In England Miss Allum had a wonderful time. She went through Devon — through the little village of Clovelly. "It was rather too tourist-conscious," Miss Allum said, "but very lovely. I just had the feeling that it was trying to be too much like the picture postcards, and spreading itself out before my eyes. So many of the English villages that were once so lovely are now being spoiled by this tourist traffic, which pours in from everywhere. Broadway was like this. Entering it from one side it is beautiful —a real village. But from the other approach it is a cluster of modern bungalows—hideous in the extreme. The crowds of tourists have ruined its natural beauty, and it has become self-conscious and commonplace." The London theatres were a delight to Miss Allum. "I went every night for a fortnight," she said, "seeing all the best shows that were running. The littlo newsreel theatres on railway stations delighted me. If one misses a train, one just steps into a little theatre, and is kept amused or interested until the next train comes along. There is a huge clock and one cannot miss the next train."