The last six weeks or so has been a real hap-hazard period of my travels. I unfortunately picked up COVID in September and have been struggling to kick those longer lasting symptoms, so I have spent as many days in bed as I have out and about which has been a bit of a bummer and the primary reason I haven’t put a blog together. Guys, I have been tired. Running has had to take a break while my lungs are like deflated balloons and I'm still struggling with the classic covid cough and some pretty intense insomnia but. The show must go on. It took me a while to discover that whilst running made me feel like death by emphysema walking made me feel really good – it seems to be an intensity issue rather than a volume concern so hikes and walking are at the top of the activity agenda until I recover fully.
Nevertheless, the last several weeks have been full of
adventures in different cities and featured a quick trip to Barcelona (I believe
I picked up Covid from the airport, what can you do). Barcelona was super fun
and the weather was stunning. I also got to catch up with my work buddy Karen which
was great! My UK travels re-started in Bristol, strategically positioned for
visits to Bath and Stonehenge. Both were great. My initial honest reaction was
that the stones (of Stonehenge, not Bath) are much smaller than I thought – not that I had specifically researched
their size but for whatever reason I was expecting much larger! Still, very cool and worth seeing.
Bristol itself is also pretty cool, for the size of the place the number of restaurants and
bars is insane. The markets in Bristol are also top-notch, particularly for
food. They really like food here, I appreciate that. From Bristol I went to
Cardiff, my first taste of Wales but it would not be my last. I was sick most
of the time I was in Cardiff so I wasn’t able to enjoy the city properly. There
were a lot of brew pubs and the food scene seemed great here too, I lost most
of my sense of taste so I could not appreciate any of it, saddest of times. The
weather also got cold fast, having left Spain in lovely high twenties
weather the single digits were a shock to the system. I have not experienced winter since 2022. The city of Cardiff is
lovely and a visit to Cardiff Castle is worthwhile. I think I’d appreciate
another visit with my taste and ability to sleep intact.
My next destination was Birmingham. There is a bit to unpack
about Birmingham; firstly it’s a really beautiful city! One of my favourite
cities of the journey to date, perhaps the first time I have genuinely thought to
myself this is somewhere I would live. It’s very clean and the canal network makes
it very pretty! Its also a nice size; big enough for city things but small enough you can walk everywhere (if you are committed and it's not raining). Whilst I was still shaking illness I got out a little more and
loved my time exploring B’Ham. My time here also coincided with the AFL Grand
Final – despite the distance and time zones I had been following the results closely all
season (I tried listening to the commentary on the radio like an elderly person
but PSA there is no worse way to follow football) and was SO
excited that my Lions had made it to the big dance! I was far less excited to
realise the GF would be happening at 5:30am English time, but I was committed. My thoughts at 5:28am: "Darcy Moore is very tall" and "Boo Collingwood" and "Time for a big coffee". The
5am alarm was arguably not worth the heart break I was feeling around breakfast
time but to be fair I’m not sure how I would have celebrated had we won as it
was around 9am Saturday morning. A solo bottomless brunch, probably. The other
interesting part of my time in B’Ham was that Shania Twain was playing whilst I
was there! It made getting in for dinner a pain in the tookus but I
absolutely loved seeing a slightly older demographic dressed up in pink leopard
prints and fluffy cowboy hats! Slayyy! I was a bit disappointed in myself for not
realising this cross over early enough, what a vibe. Yee-Haw get it girls! I
mean, Lets Go Girls!
From Birmingham I went to Liverpool and based myself here to
see the Lake District and Northern Wales – both were spectacular. Whilst I got
some pretty average weather at The Lakes (there is an unflattering photo below that captures
this) I still absolutely loved it! Beatrix Potter has my eternal respect for
her efforts in conservation of the National Park, it was also fun thinking
about Peter Rabbit when in the gorgeous towns like Grasmere! I also got the
proper gingerbread, almost incomparable to the gingerbread we know – more crumbly
and the spice flavour is much stronger. It’s also not shaped like ‘men’ or iced.
My takeaways from Wales; absolutely beautiful, the people are very friendly and
helpful, they value good food, drink a lot and their language is straight up gibberish.
Yeah I said it. Literal nonsense. No wonder it’s dying out. Liverpool is
also a nice city, particularly along the river! I really enjoyed Liverpool and arguably
adventured too much here causing my covid to flare up pretty bad and forced a
few days in bed. No fun.
From Liverpool I went to Blackpool. I only went there as I
had got tickets to see Jack Whitehall live! Jack did not disappoint! Many manyyy laughs. I love stand-up! I will say that while I’m so glad I went to see the
show, Blackpool is not a place I would go back to or recommend. It’s rough. You’d think a
seaside town would be a lovely place to visit but it was one of the few places
I didn’t feel safe walking around.
From here, I went to Manchester and then to Sheffield. I got
explore the Peak District quite thoroughly from both cities and it was
excellent! I think the Lake District gets most of the attention (understandably,
it’s spectacular) but the Peak District is also beautiful and has a lot more towns
to explore – it’s also well connected with public transport so much easier to
see without a car. There is a never-ending list of hikes to do in both the Lake
and Peak Districts, so I feel like I barely scratched the surface. I would go
back to both areas in a heartbeat!
I don’t ever try to hide the fact that I am a big old Swiftie
(Taylor Swift fan – almost time for 1989 TV! Woo!) but despite my BEST efforts
I have not been able to get tickets to any show of her Eras Tour. Heartbroken.
But, I did manage the next best thing and went to the Eras Tour Movie in
Sheffield! It was amazinggggg. It was Fearless. Enchanted, even. As good
a 2h48mins as I have spent. I can only imagine how good the real thing would
have been – my Wildest Dreams. Considering I was very close to spending
$800USD for a re-sale ticket in Chicago I figure I have saved over a thousand
dollars by going to Odeon instead – by the way getting a recliner at the theatres
is game changing. I’ll probably go again. ‘tis the damn season after all Don’t
Blame Me. #sorrynotsorry you can be really creative with TS song titles.
I also signed up for a gin-tasting tour in Sheffield, I’m
not necessarily a massive gin person but I have found that tours including alcohol
are usually fun and I get to meet other fun people (I’m putting myself into the
category of 'fun people' but you can make up your own mind) and try some new things. I
turned up to find that I was the only one! I thought about calling it but instead
I had a one on one tour (how intimate) which was actually a lot of fun as my
guide was a cool guy and he gave me far more tastings than I would think was
standard. You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes,
well, you might find you get what you need. I had no intention of this
being such a musical update. I do not plan these posts at all – I just write.
At this time, I have enjoyed 3x cream teas. Surely I can
sneak in another one. I believe in me.
I am currently typing away in Leeds on a chilly but sunny Sunday afternoon with a glass of Savy B – life is good (apart from the covid). Another city that has surprised me with how pretty it is! I’m still managing my post-covid health but I’m getting a lot better at doing so – no full days in bed for a fortnight! I only have one more English destination (York) left on my itinerary and then onto Scotland for approximately 10 days before my travels move on from the UK! Somehow, I’ve been here for 10 weeks so it feels a bit surreal that these days are almost over. However, I am very excited for what’s to come so no time for sad feels! OTTNO.
N.b.: I am at the annoying age where a large chunk of my online social world only uses FB and another large chunk only uses the Gram so I have to use both to reach everyone. Millennial life is so annoying. I'm sorry to the other millennials that get my double-ups but I know you understand. Also, for the FB demographic - if you want my daily updates you have to get Instagram. I'm not doing FB stories, I will not do FB stories.
