I’ll be honest, I’ve been a little surprised by how time has flown by the last few weeks. I’ve been in the UK for over a month and struggling to accept it’s been that long since I last collected my thoughts about my adventures. It’s approaching five months since I left home – some days it feels like a lifetime ago I left Brisbane Airport for LA and others it feels like yesterday. I have a day, every now and again, where I think going home might be nice. Then I go to bed, wake up and laugh because the nomad lifestyle is as much suited to me and my personality than any other way of life I’ve tried so far. Do I sometimes find myself a little lonely? Yes. But I must remember, I was desperately lonely living in Tasmania feeling like an outcast; the little black sheep that doesn’t fit in. It gives me some perspective that a return to my hometown is unlikely to be a winning formula for me and onward travel is undeniably the best course of action for now. And travelling is great.
After a few days seeing sites in central London, I left to be based in the charming area of Kingston. I loved it there. Kingston is a beautiful river-side town with more running trails than you can poke a stick at. Add in great food, great coffee and a great Airbnb host I was thoroughly in my element! The Kingston/Teddington area is also the home of the first ever Parkrun (Bushy Park) and I loved getting a chance to participate in such a massive community event – a bucket list item ticked off! They have over 1000 runners every week which is incredible. A Saturday morning well spent! One of the local Teddington Pubs even had a stand-up comedy night which was brilliant and gave me a great chance to meet some locals and have my accent mocked a little more! I was in Kingston during the Matildas recent epic run at the World Cup – I did pluck up the courage to watch the semifinal at a pub and oh my was I scared. I did not speak the entire time I was there as I didn’t want the local angry soccer people to know there was an Australian in the room... but I did involuntarily let out a little yell and fist pump for Sam Kerr’s goal. Terrifying times. I made it out in one piece but that is probably because we didn’t win… but up the Tillies all the same! #ytg
I left Kingston for Brighton by car. This is an important detail for later. I spent a week based in Brighton and got to explore a fair bit of the south coast area which is stunning. My highlight was seeing the Seven Sisters cliffs; one of the most magical and beautiful areas I have ever been! The dramatic cliff faces and countryside are something else, photo’s don’t do it justice but best believe I tried my best to capture this area as best I could! Having the flexibility of a car meant I could also explore the smaller towns in the area. I spent half a day in Litlington – a small village with a local brewery (yes I sampled – my first warm beer caught me off guard) and a beautiful tea room. It has taken me three weeks in England to come across scones/cream tea which was shocking to me – I has assumed scones were just served up everywhere, alas no. But my Litlington cream tea was proper English delight that I thoroughly enjoyed! My next little road trip I took some very narrow rural roads (read: stressful driving) to a small-scale vineyard called Blue Bell. Despite a tricky drive I had a fabulous lunch and wine tasting here. Unfortunately, my good day was destined to turn to shit when the clutch of my hire car decided to pack it in the vineyard car park. Joy. I did pay the extra for roadside assist (responsible AF) but nevertheless it took them over two hours to get to me. The staff at Blue Bell were incredibly hospitable and generous to me during this long afternoon wait – they brought me coffee and chocolate and even drove me to the nearest train station so that I could get back to Brighton as the car was in no way drivable. If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend a visit – great wine, beautiful estate, and amazing staff. At the time I write this, my hire car troubles have not yet been sorted. After several tedious phone calls, I'd got nowhere. Then, they charged me over $440 (extra) with no warning or heads up I think because they thought they should charge me extra days of car rental... because the car was at the mechanics. Which I was having none of. I don’t want to bore you with litigious details, but my contract was silent on the matter of mechanical breakdown, so they have no legal standing to charge me for it. I will continue the good fight for my refund. Stay tuned for details.
*Update (because I have been dragging my feet on finishing this post) I got an almost a full refund on my hire car once I talked to the right person. All is good again and I don’t need to argue with anyone else #winning
On my first morning in Brighton I got locked inside my flat – oh great start Sandy. After a trying *very* hard to get myself out I conceded and called my Airbnb host for help. He was in Scottland (handy) but was able to talk me through getting out via the fire escape! An adventure I did not see coming - the things that happened while travelling! My Airbnb host was quite horrified I'd been locked in, and boy did he give me a glowing review! (I get a bit too pumped about good Airbnb reviews, reminds me a bit of school reports... apparently, I like people saying nice things about me)
Car issues aside, getting a hire car to travel this area is a must if you are interested in getting out of Brighton/Hove. These excursions were brilliant and really made my week in the south a good one. One side note for anyone thinking of going to Brighton with a car: parking is a nightmare. Parking is very limited, expensive and will require you to use the local parking apps – this can be tricky for internationals depending on your bank and access to the internet. I ended up booking a space online, the closest space I could book was almost a kilometer away from my flat. I think I spent near 80 pounds on parking – ouch. But, Brighton/Hove is a really fun, bustling place (in summer) and it was nice to get back to the coast – I forget how much I miss it.
I returned to central London and stayed almost a week in Hackney/London Fields and I honestly loved this area. There were parks and paths to run on and close to shops, cafés, restaurants, and pubs. So basically, I ate and drank and ran around a lot – I am basically a Labrador. I also found a local brewery and took their Saturday night tour and tasting for something to do. No regrets. The weekend market scene here was also top notch – much amazing food and other typical market goods. My last few days in London I stayed in Shoreditch which is a super hipster area. Great coffee there and the nightlife scene was pumping although I think it would be a better area to visit rather than stay as the nights are noisy. During this time, I also finally got myself to the Harry Potter Movie Set at Warner Bros Studios where I fangirled harddd and lost my shit for hours. For all the other HP nerds out there definitely put it on your list! You get to walk around all the actual movie sets, some that they have set up with the special effects used for filming. I was like a kid in a candy store (or a Hogwarts student in Honeydukes hehehe). You get to walk along the Hogwarts Express too, I was loving life a little too much and taking just so many selfies. I’m also now the proud owner of a Gryffindor jumper. Worth every penny.
I get to talk about running again! Post heatwave I have been running plenty and the greater London area has had a lot to offer! I’ve mentioned Bushy Park and I can now confirm it’s a fabulous place to run and yes there are deer everywhere! I ran along the coast at Brighton every day and was reintroduced to a sea breeze, always great to run along the ocean. In Hackney I discovered London Fields which has a 1.6km perimeter loop but the real gem was Victoria Park. This is my new favourite place to run – a flat and pretty 4.2km loop with both road and dirt trails. It’s wide enough that you don’t have to dodge and weave through the walkers and it’s got plenty of shade which is fortuitous as I encountered the early autumn London heatwave so temps were over 30 degrees again. This same area also has close access to the canal path which runs through London, it’s beautiful running although busy during peak times and no shade but that’s only an issue if there is a heatwave. I also had a few runs around Hyde Park which is nothing to be sneezed at – beautiful but very busy in patches. It’s been lovely bringing my fitness back up, I always feel a lot more myself when I’m running most days.
Things to note about London; it’s beautiful, public transport is great, heaps of parks, the pub scene is excellent (ciders and sours everywhere too), it’s easy to eat healthy, people are super polite - but it is as expensive as they say. The Aus dollar being weak right now does not help! My only real pet peeve about the place: they do not seem to know if they want to keep left or keep right. I do not mind which side we go but holy guacamole can you just pick a side? It's infuriating. Unless you are travelling on the tube... where they can all agree to the point of violence that keep right if you're standing on the escalators and left for passing. Why this sort of organisation hasn't been adopted for all other types of pedestrian walkways has me flummoxed.
From London, I am having a quick pitstop in Barcelona to catch up with a friend and get my fill of tapas and wine again! I will be back to the UK after that with plenty more English destinations on the list.
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