Biking from Bristol to Bath

Bath, the thing you take when you fill up a large porcelain tub with water. The first of what we now know as baths were taken during the time of the Romans in England. It was from the large Roman baths constructed in the area that our destination town and what we call the bath tub is named after :)

Matt had taken the journey a few times before and explained how it was a 15 mile journey along a paved road that was nice and flat because it used to be a railroad track. The path was really gorgeous, with sweeping willows that would brush along you as you rode and blackberry bushes galore with an array of fruit ready to be picked and eaten (there is so much wild fruit growing in England in parks and just anywhere outdoors, its great because anyone can pick and eat them!)

After a few water and stretch breaks (the rented bicycle seats were extremely uncomfortable) we arrived in Bath, a town of remarkable architectural uniformity. Building are made both from the same stone and in the same style and while that could get boring (I'm thinking American cardboard box/track houses) these buildings were pretty magnificent.

We biked through town and down a number of side streets too small for cars to pass through in search of a good place to have lunch and arrived at a large restaurant with views of the wooded hillsides speckled with the beautiful white buildings of the town and a vast park (that charged everyone but residents to get in!).

As far as English food goes, I actually am a pretty big fan of most dishes. They really fit with the weather I that they are hearty, with lots of potatoes and a lot of thick, stew-like dishes. I'm particularly fond of the pies (think pot-pie in the US) and had an awesome one at the restaurant in Bath.

After some perusing around the outskirts of the park and a lie-down in a grassy city square, we hopped back on the bikes to get back to Bristol. We had to play some bike musical chairs as Jackie was having a tough time because her seat was really uncomfortable but the seat was too low for Matthew, resulting in the three of us swapping out bikes every few miles along the way back.

Once home, Matt and Jackie were totally tuckered out while I was still good to go due to my love of biking and exercise of any sort. I did a bit of yoga while the other to couched it then cooked up a big dinner to share.

Tired from a good long day of physical exertion we got cozy and watched No Country for Old Men (excessively violent and not something I would recommend) before resting up for our next bit of travel the following day.

Breakfast, Buckingham Palace, Alumni interview, Chunnel

Waking up to our last few hours in Bristol we packed our bags and headed off to breakfast with our newly made friend Heather. First dropping off our bikes, we went and had a delicious English breakfast before grabbing a train to London.

Once in London we stopped quickly by Covent Garden then decided to walk our way down to Green Park, a place I spent many lunch-times and afternoons two years ago when I worked in the area. With our heavy backpacks we lounged around a bit before I realized we were near Buckingham Palace, a place we didn't visit and so Jackie had never seen (and if you're in London you must see Buckingham Palace right?)

After some pictures there we made our way with a decent walk to Victoria station where we could catch a line out to Ed's new apartment.

He chauffeured us from the station and brought us to his awesome new flat (he moved since the last time we were in London) where we proceeded to watch the movie The A-Team (only watch this if you'd like to watch what seems like a movie composed entirely of fast-paced action-filled movie trailers that you'd see on tv) and ordered some delicious Indian food.

The next day, I arranged to meet with Delphine, a UCSD alumna of Muir College since 1983. The day after she graduated, Delphine used her French residency (from her mothers heritage) to move to Paris where she worked in fashion and makeup for a number of years. After a while she decided to get a MBA from the London Business School and from that she moved into her current field of Management Development.

We both had to get running and I hopped on the tube, met Jackie at the Covent Garden platform and made our way to the Eurostar part of St. Pancreas station to hop on the train to Brussels. (Yup, a train to cross the English channel, going through the tunnel underneath the water, sometimes referred to as the "Chunnel" (channel+tunnel, get it?)
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Friendly beats Non-refundable

It seems like every time I hang out with Tom from Leeds, something in the transit somehow goes wrong. A flight is delayed, a train is missed, or a reservation accidentally wasn't made. Well, on our way to the station in Manchester for a train to Bristol, I managed to misplace our non-refundable tickets that had to be printed from a computer. I of course figured that it would be easy to just reprint them somehow at the station, but alas the part that said they had to be printed and in hand was correct.

So, as with what always happens with Tom we arrived at the station with about 10 minutes to get to our train platform and went straight to the ticket counter to see what we could do about having tickets reprinted. Of course the self-service machine only had record of our later trip back to London (and subsequently printed those tickets, so we had to be sure not to loose them). The guys at the help station counter pretty much told us we'd have to get new tickets and after they finally understood I could access them on a computer they pointed me out of the station and mumbled something about a post office with computers I could try.

Leaving Jackie in the station with our bags I sprinted out of the station and ran down the street looking for a shop that might let me borrow a computer and printer. I finally came across a place and jumped on the computer. Of course when I clicked on the file to open the tickets it didn't work, I asked the annoyed attendant for help and received a roll of the eyes, so I tried a number of tricks I've acquired over the years to confuse the computer into working. Finally it did and, ready to run out the annoyed lady told me it was £2 for printing 2 pieces of paper. (So frustrating!)

I ran back to the station and swung the bag onto my shoulder and Jackie and I ran to our platform...2 minutes after the train had departed.

I went up to a random platform attendant and he suggested we take a train to Birmingham and then switch to go to Bristol, implying it wouldn't be an issue. On board when the attendant came by, I explained that we had some ticket and platform confusion and that a platform attendant said it wouldn't be an issue for us to take this train.

Kneeling down with our paper ticket in his hand the gentelman pointed out amongst the fine print the statement "ticket is not valid on any other train or at any other time". We were looking at a £50 ticket each to cover the new journey we were taking. This guy was feeling nice though because he took the ticket and said he'd see what he could do.

About 5 minutes before our arrival in Birmingham he came back with the tickets and had written on it to allow us on this train and a subsequent train to Bristol.

We got into the platform and showed a new attendant the note and asked which platform the train would leave from. It was #9, we were at #2. And our train was 12 minutes late in an original layover period of 15 minutes. The attendant explained that the new platform was at least a ten minute walk away so I grabbed the tickets back and told Jackie to run.

Running is not particularly easy in flip flops with a big backpack in a crowded station. We found the platform and ran down the stairs, the doors on the train to our right were closing so we lunged onboard, hoping that we had made it on the correct train.

And we had. With no seat reservation we had a hard time locating seats near each other, but out of breath and a little worried we were on board and perfectly happy about that.

Phew it was a crazy one!!
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Manchester-Cigarettes, Couchsurfing, and a Great Library

I had no clue what to expect of Manchester except for the descriptions that my friend Phil gave me while he was on his year in America. Industrial. And no I did not smoke any of the mentioned cigarettes, it was just that the city seems to be host to a smoking competition between those who lived there.

We got into Manchester pretty late, went out for a nice dinner with Tom (same Tom we met with in Edinburgh) and planned to make a day of things on Saturday. So with an early start on Saturday we first had to move out of Tom's house and into our first CouchSurfing experience! And an experience it was. Our host was a really nice guy originally from Sweden who had been in Manchester for a few months and was previously CouchSurfing around Asia. He was able to give us a good tour of the town before heading off to take care of his own business. We went to a Manchester CouchSurfing movie and debate night and watched a film about gang violence in Rio and got to meet a good number of other travelers) If you'd like more of that story please feel free to ask.

But for Manchester, other than the cigarette smoke, it was lovely (and for an industrial powerhouse it was not what I had imagined). The city has kept up with its UK counterparts in having a good amount of truly incredible architecture. Tall and tightly stacked buildings of the same light stone (I think it's white sandstone?) that is the preeminent building material across England. It has an incredible town hall that at the time was the backdrop to the Manchester Jazz Festival (which I got to watch a bit of).

And then there was the library. The John Rylands Library. One of the days of wandering around, I had heard great things about their library so I ventured off to have a look. It was in a building reminiscent of the cathedrals that are scattered around the country, but instead of religion it held Books! I was totally in heaven.

I made my way up to the third floor reading room up stairs lit by what one would assume would be candles because of the warm glow. The reading room was a large wooden hall with cabinets three floors high of old, well-worn books. To each side were rooms with the most perfect study tables-really deep with lots of room to spread out random papers. I honestly think I would have spent all of my study time there had it been an option, as well as any other time that I wanted to be in a cozy and quiet space.

I got to watch some music at the Jazz Festival, the Jeni Lamb Quintet before we made our way back to our place to sleep for the night before we left for Bristol.

Ghost Tours, Arhtur's Saddle, and Street performers

For day 12 and our second day in Edinburgh we wandered around even more of the beautiful city. Princess Street is the main high road which has tons of shops, Scottish tourist stops, and even some street performers!

There were a few cool food shops and we stopped in to get some cheese and then later some delicious fudge (this stuff was incredible!)

After the shops we were persuaded to stop and watch a Polish street performer who enticed us with talks of sword swallowing, 10 foot high unicycle riding, juggling while on a "rola-bola" (oh if only you could hear his voice as he exclaimed how tough it was to ride his "rola bola", which was essentially a 3 foot long board that he balanced on a can on the floor). While his explanation of his stunts weren't spectacular and the tricks were somewhat ordinary, the crowd couldn't help to like the guy. And guess what...I got picked to help him out with tricks from the audience!

First he handed me three squishy red balls and had me tell the crows how many there were. Then he did a bunch of magical hand games making the balls multiply and disappear and I honestly had no idea how he was doing it (he even had his sleeves rolled up!) Then he asked me to hold his fire juggling sticks for a while as he got assistance from two men in the audience so he could mount the gigantic unicycle. Once there, he tossed me his lighter with the instructions to light the juggling sticks and then throw them to him! After the first successful light and throw he decided I had tossed him the wrong one. So after about 5 tries he finally had his flaming juggling sticks and let me go back to the audience with a round of applause. It was so fun!

Later we decided to do a hike up to Arthurs Saddle, a large hill outside of the city with some spectacular views. After the hike, we made our way down the backside of the mountain to have a Sunday roast at the oldest pub in Edinburgh, the Sheep Head Inn.

We also got to spend some time at Calton Hill, another hillside with superb views of the city and the castle, and definitely well worth the short treck up some steep stairs. At the top are some Romanesque ruins and other interesting buildings that make for a great place to lounge around while seeing the views.

Edinburgh is also known for it's haunted underground tunnels, so we had an evening tour of the tunnels which was interesting, and somewhat cheesy. But the history was interesting as the tunnels were originally built because of the immense overcrowding in the city. So they were devised as storage places and shops, but due to wars and other misfortunes they eventually became a place for the homeless and down-and-out.

Edinburgh: 24 hour Day

When we got to Edinburgh, we were both cold and tired. The plane from
Dublin was a small propeller plane that was extraordinarily loud and
seemingly without a heater. We managed to find a bus to the city
center where tom met us at the Waverly stop and we walked with out
gigantic bags back to his friends flat. Guy, a graduate in Literature
who lived with Tom during First year, was kind enough to allow the
three of us to crash in his two-bedroom flat for the weekend.

We were hoping to get in a nap at the flat but from the bus we saw the
beauty of the city and were excited to go and see it. Tom lead us up
to Princess street and along the Royal Mile, areas known for their
shops and the latter for its street performers.

Scotland was much more quirky than I expected it to be. Bagpipers in
kilts lined the streets, kilt shops promoting with posters of handsome
young men posing with their plaid skirts decked the walls. And
offerings for haunted ghost tours were thrust upon you as you passed
each streetcorner.

And the architecture is spectacular. I think Edinburgh now tops my
list as the most beautiful city I've yet to see. It was breathtaking
in every sense of the word with roads built up along jagged rocky
hillsides and tall beautifully constructed rock buildings lining the
pathways. There were loads of small alleyways off of the
main roads that took you to a small alcove with seemingly spontaneous
shops or markets nestled inside.

The main attraction in Edinburgh is the Edinburgh Castle, purched atop
the highest point in the city its brick walls have protected it from
capture for hundreds of years. But it costs £15 to enter and on my
budget that's not really feasible.

We walked in and saw a few of the views, then decided to go enjoy all
that is free in the city instead. First we found a small private art
gallery with some painted mosaic renditions of the city. Then we
wandered down and alley and found The Writers Museum ina beautiful old
house with narrow circle staircases and the personal belongings of
three of "Scotlands most notable poets", Robert Burns, Sir Walter
Scott, and Robert Louis Stevenson. This museum inspired a change in my
reading plans for the rest of the trip, and after I finish my current
book ill be focusing on the writing of local and historical authors
such as these to entertain me as I travel.

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Final day of Ireland-Howth and Alumni!

After much advice from everyone in Anna's family individually, we
decided a day-trip to Howth, a coastal city famous for its coast and
lighthouse, would be a good way to spend a relaxing final day in
Ireland.

We bussed our way to the city center after worriedly leaving Anna's
house because the alarm system makes lots of weird noises when we
tried to leave.

Howth is a beautiful seaside village with a dockland area and a famous
hike with lighthouse. Its about a 30 minute train ride from the city
and though we jumped onto the wrong train to start our journey, we
made it there in good time.

I'm really realizing that all the traveling and sightseeing is
exhausting so I'm starting to be better about taking time for naps.
The hike we went on was beautiful and took us up above the city so we
had some superb views of the sea and the enormous rocky crags jutting
from the water. The area has a huge array of birds as well and they
were happily floating about above the land and sea.

The hike up to the top of Hoath hill was a random one-lane road past a
number of cliff-side villas with beautiful flowers spilling over the
high fences. Atop of the hill one can look down ragged rocky cliffs to
see the seaside below. We decided to take a rest at the top and found
a great patch of grass to lie on. There was just enough sun in between
bouts of cloud-cover to keep us warm but after a while the hunger lead
us back to town where we went to a "chipper" (a fish'n'chips shop) to
get the traditional fish'n'chips meal consisting of battered and fried
cod and potatoes.

A note for all you language lovers out there. In the UK and Ireland
chips=french fries while crisps=chips..

We needed to get packed up for our journey to Scotland the next day so
we headed back to the city. Jackie proceeded to the house to rest up
and I stayed in the city to visit a few more galleries and locations
before meeting with an alumn of UCSD for drinks and an interview.

We met around Grafton street, a huge shopping area also hosting a
number of offices. Describing myself via email as being in jeans, a
black shirt and rainbows, Suzanne a UCSD Roosevelt College graduate
from 1996 found me amongst the huge crowd outside of Kehoe's an
after-work hot-spot of a pub.

Suzanne was originally from the east coast and saw San Diego as
somewhat of an escape during here college years. It was a little
tougher than she expected to be so far form home for college (no
internet or cell phones remember) but after that and a year abroad in
France she is definitely one to wander. After obtaining a masters
degree in Denver, she moved to D.C where she met her husband.
Eventually he moved to London and she joined, moving to Dublin
together about a year ago for new job opportunities.

It was a great evening and, as Americans abroad, we spent a good
amount of time comparing the political and social environments of the
US and places in Europe, comparing the drinking cultures and talking
about traveling. After a few drinks of Guinness and some Thai food I
had to catch the last bus of the night home.

After four hours of sleep, we got up at 330 to get to the Dublin
airport for our early flight to Edinburgh. Of course security only
took us about 20 minutes so while we were prepared for huge waits, we
ended up as the first to arrive at our gate and sat in the freezing
airport, too cold to sleep but too tired to do anything else.

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