UK Part One

I left for the UK on an overnight bus/ferry/bus. When we arrived in Holyhead, Whales, we had to stop for immigration and then we were on our way to London. For some reason, most of the busses I have been on have a serious problem with temperature, and the little fans that are above the seats…NEVER WORK. So I didn’t get much sleep, but when I arrived at the Victoria Coach Station in London, I was extremely excited to get things rolling. It has been truly amazing to end up in new places and then constantly be in aww and say, “Holy Crap, this is awesome; I can’t believe I’m here!”

My original plan was to rent a car for two weeks and use that as my transportation/housing. That would have given me the freedom to go wherever I wanted; whenever I wanted and not really worry about anything except making sure I was on the left side of the road. But, plans changed because it would have cost way too much to get the car and then gas on top of that; so I ended up getting a two week bus pass that allows me to pretty much hop on and hop off wherever I would like. The coach busses don’t go to some of the smaller places so local transportation is needed, but in the long run it is a much better deal; and if I want, I can take an overnight bus that way I don’t have to spend money on housing.

After getting the bus ticket, I walked around. Haha, let’s just say that from the start of day one in London to the end of day two I was in a walking motion for at least seventeen hours. I have never felt that kind of pain in my hips before, but London is a pretty big city. I was able to see Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park (where I took a short break to lay on the grass and rest for few minutes), and had a rather tasty chicken and asparagus risotto for dinner (sorry, I’m an idiot and didn’t take a picture, must have been how tired I was). The second day I was determined that even through my tired legs, I would make it to Stamford Bridge where my favorite football club, Chelsea F.C., plays. I didn’t have my hopes up for getting a ticket to a game while I was here because most tickets sell out within hours of being posted, but I said, “What the heck, it won’t hurt to try.” After standing in line, I was then told there is a Capital One Cup game on the 24^th against Bolton Wanderers and they still had tickets. Let’s just say it didn’t take long for me to say “Yes please, I’ll take one!” So, if you can watch the game somehow, let me know if you saw me.  And I will be honest; there will probably be an extremely long post about the game that week because I am STOKED!!!!!!

Once I had my ticket, I walked around a little more, but decided it was best to wait at the bus station until I was to leave for Edinburgh, Scotland. Just before getting on the bus, a conversation was sparked between me and Jaden, a girl from Canada doing a bit of traveling herself before she heads to Australia for eight months.  We talked for a while on the bus before falling asleep and then ended up spending the entire day together in Edinburgh. We saw, Edinburgh Castle, walked through museums, cathedrals, churches, the tallest hill in Edinburgh where you can see the entire city and later that evening went on a “Ghost Tour.” Now, I put that in parentheses because it ended up being more of a history tour and not so much about ghosts, but it was still extremely interesting. I did learn that Edinburgh, when it was built, was built up instead of out. Many cities build outwards to expand the land, but the people who built the city wanted to seem dominant with high buildings. This honestly makes for some incredible architecture and probably one of the more beautiful cities that I have seen on my trip. Jade and I ended the night out… yup you guessed it, dancing, as well as meeting other people that were traveling.  

She left in the morning and I spent the day doing a bit of city exploring myself. My third day in Edinburgh actually took me to Motherwell. I’m sure many of you have never heard of the place, but my mother told me that her side of the family was from there before immigrating to the US, as well as the home of the football club that my best friend Jeff plays with against me on FIFA and for some reason, I CANNOT BEAT HIM. So I thought it best to visit the city. Even though I wasn’t able to find out anything specific about my family because I didn’t know enough information; it was still really great to be somewhere that past generations would have lived and worked. Of course there wouldn’t have been a McDonalds, or a shopping mall, but I have a good enough imagination to look around and see where farms, old school houses and taverns would have been. I was also able to convince one of the staff at the stadium to take a picture of the field for me. I was up early this morning headed to Glasgow to spend a couple nights there before exploring some of the highlands where I hear the scenery is absolutely amazing. 

Thanks for reading!!