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Now it's time for The Travel Show.

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This week, the American guidebook that may have helped save lives.

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It took a lot of courage for a black family to get in their car

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and hit the open road.

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Lighting up Jordan's most treasured monument.

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And dressing up in a Polish castle.

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If you have misplaced your ties, I'm sure Mr Derbyshire

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can be of assistance.

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We are starting this week in the United States of America.

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Nowadays, a largely safe place to visit, no matter

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who you are all what you look like.

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80 years ago, travelling around some parts of the country could be

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a dangerous prospect if you were African-American.

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But, help was on hand, from one very special guidebook.

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Travelling on the road if you were black during this time,

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you were taking your life in your hands.

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We estimate that there were over 10,000 Sundown towns.

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Sundown towns were all white towns, they could have a sign at the border

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saying they would run out all the black people.

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It took a lot of courage for a black family to get in their car and just

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hit the open road, which is something that in America

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we take for granted.

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They called and Jim Crow laws, and those laws make it illegal

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for people of colour to stay, to eat in restaurants,

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to stay in hotels, to use bathrooms, they have separate bathrooms.

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Some places, you couldn't walk on the sidewalk with a white person,

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you had to get off the sidewalk and walk in the street.

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The green book was an historic travel guide published for black

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people during the Jim Crow era.

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It was more than just gas-food-lodging, there

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there was everything for anything you might need on the road,

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whether it was a doctor, or churches or department stores.

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Haberdashers, tailors, drugstores.

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There were golf courses.

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Disneyland was listed in the green book.

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It was a pretty major guide by the 1960s we estimated it had

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been sold to over 2 million people.

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My mother is from Kansas, my father is from North Carolina,

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so we travelled mainly back and fourth to those places.

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My parent would use the green book to plan places where we might stop,

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without it, it would have been far more difficult,

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if not practically impossible.

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Because people used to pack food, for us to get to Kansas,

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we had to pack food that is going to last us for two or three days!

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Where are you going to stay?

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My grandmother owned the only hotel in Charlottesville,

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Virginia that black people could stay in in the 1940s,

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1950s and 1960s.

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The Green Book listing was very important to the business

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because people travelling through the south, and even places

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in the North, really relied on that book to figure out

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where they were going to stop.

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The Inn was just this fantastic vibrant place filled with relatives

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and people that I've never met.

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Because the University of Virginia is located in Charlottesville,

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many entertainers, famous entertainers and figures would come

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to the University.

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If they were African-American, they had to stay at my grandmother's

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place.

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One of the things that I am very proud of is this picture

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of Louis Armstrong, that he autographed former grandmother.

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It's an artefact in my family that I hope will be passed down

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from generation to generation.

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It was a great moment but in the early 1960s,

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when desegregation began, the business started to fail.

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My grandmother was getting older.

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Was not as well.

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Had some health problems.

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Most people, when they had a choice of staying in the Holiday Inn down

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the street or the Motel 6, or whatever, they decided

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they would rather stay there.

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It was modern.

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It was different.

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For many black people, it was a point of pride to be able

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to go where they had been denied access before.

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It closed in 1967 or so when my grandmother got ill.

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It doesn't exist any more.

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It's sad.

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I don't think it would have been able to have been sustained.

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We've made progress but we lose something when we make progress.

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I stumbled on the green book by accident, I was writing a book

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on Route 66 and found that it was in Beirut 66 exhibit,

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and there was a Green Book, under glass, tucked away

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in the corner.

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When I first put my hands on a Green Book, it was magical.

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It's this feeling of you too can enjoy America.

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It was a very hopeful, positive guide.

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I'm in New York because I am a scholar in residence

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at the Schoenberg Centre for black research.

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And it's amazing because they have the largest collection

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of Green Books in the world.

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I have scouted about 1600 Green Book sites so far,

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and of those, less than a quarter are still standing.

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But I'm also working with city planners to have them recognise

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these sites as culturally significant.

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And historic sites.

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The Green Book was an innovative and resourceful solution

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to an horrific problem.

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For me it is a source of pride.

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That African-Americans, that black people were resilient,

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they were resourceful.

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I think our ancestors would be proud of the green book,

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that we survived and came up with these tools.

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They had a lot of courage, a lot of drive.

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And were not going to be denied.

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I think those lesson should be a comfort to people facing today's

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America.

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Next up, we are in Petra, in Jordan, meeting a man who guides tourists

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in the ancient city after dark.

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Petra by night...

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I love it.

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Petra by night, we started to do this programme 17 years ago.

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In order to give a chance for our visitors to see Petra

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during the night.

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To enjoy the atmosphere.

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And we start from the main gate here.

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About two kilometres through the city.

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And we light more than 1500 candles.

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Soon, we arrive here.

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We start the show.

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We have two Jordanian instruments, ancient instruments,

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the first one we call it shababa.

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Shababa the flute.

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The other one we call it rebaba.

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We sing about the Bedouin.

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The Bedouin live in the tents.

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The caves.

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They breed horses.

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Goats.

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Raise camels.

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In the desert.

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APPLAUSE

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Before the Arab Spring, before the problems,

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many tourists, I remember, 1000 in a Christmas time.

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But after, for five years, six years, slowed down.

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Sometimes 30, 70, not many tourists.

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The best thing for me, when the tourists sit together,

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friendly, I tell them to keep their camera ready to take

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a photo together.

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It means we are one heart, one eye.

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When I can, every night, it is like a dream.

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When I can, every night, it is like a dream.

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I like it.

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It is an honour for me to ride through all the countries.

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To make them happy, to see Petra.

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Still to come:

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I'm role-playing in Poland, trying to get some

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answers out of this.

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Where were you last night?

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I've had reports that they saw you quite late in the evening,

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with a mysterious young lady.

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Mysterious?

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The Travel Show, your essential guide wherever you are headed.

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Next this week, my travels take me to a part of Poland that is well off

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the beaten track.

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This is Lower Silesia, about an hour and a half's drive

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from the regional capital Wroc?aw, not far from the Czech border.

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What a beautiful place.

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It's been here for a long time.

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Absolutely stunning.

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Really sets the scene for what I'm going to be in full for the next

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couple of days.

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I've come to this Gothic palace to take part in a live action

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role-play, or larp.

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next three for the next three days this is not much in a castle,

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but Fairweather Manor, an English country house,

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and the year is 1917.

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Right in the middle of the First World War.

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This is the costume room.

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This man is the brains behind it all.

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What is larp?

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Have you ever played house, as a kid, Henry?

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Yes.

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You played a father who is angry and scolding of his children

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because they did not do their homework, or maybe

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you played one of the kids, not wanting to do homework

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and wanting to play soccer instead.

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This is that, just with more complex stories, better costumes

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and hopefully a little bit more interesting locations.

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It's pretend play for adults.

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Larping grew out of the Dungeons Dragons scene in the 1980s.

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As some of his players got older, their ambition grew,

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and these days, some events can attract huge crowds.

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In Germany, for instance, 7500 people play this,

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the most recent game of conquest.

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Its organisers claim it is the world biggest larp.

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Klaus creates elaborate games mainly in Poland and Denmark,

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people have travelled from as far afield as the US and Canada

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for this.

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Tickets start at ?330, or $420, including

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food and accommodation.

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So, I need some tips, because I am obviously going to be

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diving headfirst into this.

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I'd say some of it is character portrayal, you want to be believable

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as what you are, first off, but secondly, you also want it

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to be interesting.

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It is pretty easy to be a believable old grumpy man sitting

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in the corner not talking to anybody but it is also boring,

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it is boring for you and boring for everybody else.

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The night before the action begins, we are all given the laws

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of the house...

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A few ballroom dancing lessons...

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Europe is burning.

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And then, the sombre opening speech is delivered,

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in character, "in game," as the larpers put it.

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All over Europe, brother fight brother.

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The stage is set.

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Welcome to Fairweather Manor.

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APPLAUSE.

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So, this is the morning of the larp, and I have my outfit

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for my character, I have my character details,

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my name is Robert Adam, I am a former war correspondent,

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a journalist, and I have seen all the atrocities that have been

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happening on the front line.

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"You are short tempered.

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"You won't always this way but war has changed you and not entirely

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for the better."

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"Your sense of being lost in a world that no longer makes sense and a job

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"Your sense of being lost in a world that no longer makes sense and a job

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which seems insufficient to the task given to you,

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and leads you to easily become

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frustrated and lash out at the people around you."

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"You have met too many people who simply do not want to see

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the truth that is in front of them.

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And their wilful ignorance infuriates you."

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The first challenge is to actually find the other guests.

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I think we're a bit late for breakfast...

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Am I the only person in the castle?!

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Huh!

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Nobody.

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I don't think I've kind of got into it yet.

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How is the easing into it?

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Do you just jump in?

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That's a good question.

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Is it safe to say that it is all in game right now?

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You must believe that everything is in game.

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If it is not, then you would know in some way.

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People would do something.

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I hope so!

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Because these ladies here...

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The one on the right is crying.

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I want to ask her if she is OK...

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But I shouldn't?

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Nope.

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Unless you are in character, if you want to do something

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about it, in game, of course it is all right.

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But it is a trial.

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I do want to feel that.

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But I'm quite conscious, because I've got these

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guys following me...

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All of a sudden I am handed a lifeline, a mission in the form

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of a little scandal.

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So it seems like one of the young maids was spotted alone

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in the forest with one of the German nobles.

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Ruffled hair and everything.

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And in a state of undress?

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I wouldn't quite say so...

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But...

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LAUGHTER.

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I'm sure it was not far away!

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Not all the characters are welcoming me with open arms.

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Robert, from the Sunday Times.

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Nice to have you with us.

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Thank you very much.

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If you have misplaced your ties, I'm sure that Mr Derbyshire can be

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of assistance, so that you can look proper,

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at least for the rest of the day.

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From my impressions, this could be perceived as very

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geeky and a little weird.

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Somebody that sits there and knows every single football stat of every

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single player ever, yeah, would also be considered

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a little bit geeky.

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It is no different.

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For this particular type of larp, a lot of research has gone

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into the time period, the costumes, everything.

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If you've a hobby where there is a passion involved,

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doesn't matter whether it is a sport, something more indoors,

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something more intellectual, or something like this.

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the people involved have an aspect of geekiness to them.

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Because that passion drives them to be very focused.

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Excuse me, ladies.

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Could I have a moment of your time?

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I feel like it's down to me to expose the shady baron

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for what he is, and slowly but surely, actually begin

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to have fun.

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I don't know which maid...

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Probably for the best.

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Do you know which baron...?

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Everyone seems to be getting a different name.

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A German baron.

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Where were you last night...?

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I've had reports that they saw you quite late in the evening...

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You were there with a mysterious young lady...

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Mysterious?

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That is what they said.

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It's nothing mysterious, it's the lady and me talking

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about family relations.

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We talk about the war.

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I can't get anything out of the baron himself,

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so my only other route is to head down to the servants quarters

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to find his mistress.

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But I find my way barred.

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For us it's just getting down to the bottom...

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Larps are still usually high fantasy events with wizards and elves

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and the like,

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but Fairweather Manor is billed as an emotional larp.

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Players here want to be moved.

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I think, to me, when I design larps, I want to give people

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an emotional journey.

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I hate when you are like, you see talking heads,

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"some more tea for you."

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I want them to feel something.

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So that's what I try to decipher.

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And then of course having a war, death!

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That is like, love may have been sucked out of things

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but there is a big passion that you can make people feel.

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Love and war.

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And changes in society.

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Still pondering my next move, I get dressed for dinner.

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The actor was heard shouting, "No, Alexander, I am not your man."

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The nuggets of gossip I have been given delight my dinner mates.

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I would not lie!

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But little do I know, there is a plan in store for me.

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OK, so what we have here is a telegram which will be sent

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in the game to be delivered to Robert Abbott, at 7:30pm.

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What this telegram says is:

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"To Robert Abbott,

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Robert, your correspondence accreditation has been revoked

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by the War office.

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We did everything we could but they wouldn't budge."

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"I'm sorry, you won't be going back to the front,

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come back to London, we will sort out what comes next."

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This is preposterous!

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I came here with integrity of journalism and you throw it

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in my face!

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All of you!

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It's not my fault that the baron can't keep his hands of women,

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a servant, nonetheless.

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So away with your press pass, away with your nobility!

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And I still don't know if the baron was telling me

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the truth, but anyway...

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Next time, there's a chance to catch up with some of our best trips

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from the past year.

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We went to more than 70 countries in 2016, did everything from ninja

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training in Japan to penguin spotting in Australia,

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to attempting one of India's most traditional dances.

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Don't forget, you can join us on all of our travels wherever

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we are in the world by signing on to the social media feeds.

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If you want to see what it was like behind-the-scenes at this week's

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larping adventure, you can look at the website.

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But from me, Henry Golding, and the rest of The Travel Show team

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here in Lower Silesia, in Poland, it is goodbye.

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Good morning.

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It is very quiet weather at the moment.

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Even our Weather Watchers found it difficult to find any sunshine.

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