Happy 4th of July everyone! I'm super late posting an update, and for that I apologize (not that I expect many people to still be reading these posts ha!).
Since my arrival in the great U.S. of A, it has been a whirlwind of activity. I arrived in Boston, Massachusetts on June 10th and then stayed in Essex, MA with my brother and his family. Instead of traveling back to Maine, I will be staying in Essex working at a restaurant in town to earn some much needed money before school starts up again in the fall.
Now for an update about the 10 day trip of the UK that Mathilde and I embarked upon last month.
Day One-
Our trip started with me waiting in the cab for Mathilde to come down from her apartment (French people...tsk tsk). However, after dealing with a random girl who insisted the cabbie would bring her into town because no one was waiting for the cab (...even though I was in the back seat...), we set off! Cue us arriving in Edinburgh! Finding our hostel was a hot and weary experience, especially with all the luggage we had. Thus concludes our first day.
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| My luggage...crazy I know |
Ah, day two. Day two involved a short train ride to St. Andrews, a quaint city near the ocean (famous for being the birth place of golf I believe). However, Mathilde and I were just excited that there was a beach to walk on! After a run in with the infamous Donald Trump*, we continued to explore the city (with a stop for coffee and gelato of course).
Day Three-
We spent day three exploring more of Edinburgh. Mathilde and I have a peculiar and dare I say more fun way of exploring new places. Other than some basic information about the cities we were to visit, we embarked on our adventure armed only with ambition and money for coffee. This basically means that everything we saw was new to us because we had no idea what the highlights of each location were. The money for coffee part should be obvious and needs no explanation.
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| Nimmo at the Hidden Doors event |
Day four was a sad day. It was sad because we had to pack up all our luggage and go up a large hill, down another, through a train station to get to our train. Then we had a five hour train ride to Birmingham, England where we had to do the same thing all over again. It was fun (in case you are bad with subtle sarcasm, I lie).
Birmingham was probably my least favorite location. It is not a terrible city, however it was extremely crowded and primarily a shopping destination. I like neither shopping nor crowds. Our hostel was fun, however it was 300 feet away from an outdoor club that played very very very loud music from 5PM to 3AM in the morning. Mathilde and I were so slap happy, we accidentally kept our Canadian hostel mates awake because we kept laughing and snorting because our Facebook chat was just so hysterical. Okay, she was laughing...I was snorting like a pig in heat. A bad image. I know.
Day Six-
Bath! Bath, England! My all time favorite city on our trip was Bath, England. We hit the timing right because the tourism scene had yet to kick off and the city was practically empty after 7PM. Mathilde and I went to a spa to relax and regain some energy (and because duh! It is Bath! Home of the Roman bathhouses and Jane Austen scenes!). If I could go back to any city in England, it would be Bath.
Day Seven-
We spent half the day wandering around Bath, then we began the last leg of our journey to London. We had a hostel outside of the city, so we spent time in the playground next door getting extremely dizzy on the tire swing. Don't judge us when you know you want to be us.
Day Eight-
London was a dream. You see places in the movies and you form an idea of what it looks like. Traveling to the place is a whole different thing. Seeing the Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abby, Westminster Palace and the Big Ben is such an amazing experience! Mathilde and I got tickets to go on the London Eye- breathtaking views!
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| Rain, red bus, Big Ben, such a stereotypical photo of London |
Day Nine-
Sadly Mathilde had to end her journey with me on the eighth day. After dropping her off at the bus station, I continued on to grab lunch in a public restroom. You heard me...a public restroom. London has several underground restrooms that have been restored and flipped into various new uses. The one I went to was a small coffee and sandwich shop. The coffee was amazing, and the sandwich was absolutely delicious!
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| This is the infamous bathroom...great food- trust me! |
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| Um, Hello! |
I mostly wandered around until I decided to go to the Natural History Museum of London because it was air-conditioned. Hey! It was hot out and I needed something to do!
My journey back to the US. *Sob*
So as you can see from this very long entry (congratulations if you made it down to the bottom), the trip was breathtaking, eye-opening, and down right exhausting with all that luggage. But! We made it! And I for one think it was entirely worth it.
Thank you George Mitchell Peace Scholarship and the Maine Community College System for allowing me to take such an amazing adventure. It has changed my life, and I would do it all again in a heart beat.
Annnnnnd now lemme show you some selfies! Mathilde is so going to kill me but its okay! She is thousands of miles away and can't retaliate muhahaAAHAHAHAHA!
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| People can't bring me anywhere |
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| Aw...we so adorbs |
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| Rain=sad faces |
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| Classic Duck Face |
*My lawyers advise me to clarify that by run in with Trump I really mean we found a newspaper clipping about how Trump thought the windmills near his golf course would diminish the views. Gosh, the American can't even escape the dude while in another country!
