England Travels.

As soon as studies had finished in England, it was time to actually see the place. We had been to so many other places so far, but not really seen the country we were living in for 5 months! So, the decision was made with three of my closest pals, Sabrina, Emma and Viktor, that a road-trip around England was definitely on the cards. We hired a car, booked a few hostels and off we went. Because we only had a couple of weeks to fit everything in, we unfortunately couldn't go everywhere we wanted and compromised that we would go to Oxford, Bath and Cornwall. We set off super early on our first day so we could get to Oxford in good time and explore the city. We checked out the university and all of the other amazing architecture around the place, climbed the Cathedral tower which had incredible 360 degree views, found a funky burger cafe for lunch, explored the nooks and crannies before heading back to the hostel for dinner and a few cheeky bevs at the pub down the road. On the walk home, we also found a hidden walking track next to the canal which was like a beautiful winter wonderland covered in snow.

After Oxford we drove to Bath where we stayed for the next couple of nights. Bath was such a beautiful city, so much more than I expected! The city was also covered in snow at every turn, and for someone who previously had only seen snow twice, it was sweeeeeeeeeet. In Bath we went to all of the main places like the Roman baths and the Bath Cathedral, Bath Abbey, the main bridge as well as a lot of shopping and eating at great places. Sabrina's boyfriends family who are from a town close to Bath also met us for a few hours for tea and scones, let's just say we felt pretty English at that point. 

The last place on our itinerary was Cornwall. We decided to spend the most of our time traveling around there, because we knew it was such a big place! We stayed right on the beach front which was the absolute best after not going to the beach for over 5 months. The view as soon as we woke up, to when we went to bed was incredible and we were all in awe the entire time we were there. Cornwall was basically a big nature adventure which suited us fine. Everywhere we went was so picturesque and beautiful.

The whole road-trip was so so so so much fun and we all had the best time. It was awesome to actually see the place we had been living for so long, and also realise how diverse it is!!

C H R I S T M A S & N E W Y E A R

After four months of not so hard study in England, post a few close friend good-byes, it was time for Christmas. Four months of being overseas, and I had not had a flicker of homesickness. Partly due to the amount of amazing friends I had made, but also because we were always keeping busy. Eventually, it did come. Christmas time was the first time that I was upset about being away from my family and friends. The weather was another thing that didn't help my mood. Although there was a possibility of a white Christmas, I was wanting sunshine more than ever. I didn't expect my body to feel strange about being in cold weather when it was supposed to be warm, but boy did it. Things were made even worse when friends began posting copious amounts of updates about Falls Festival, but I kept reminding myself - You're in Germany, snap out of it! Thankfully, once New Year came around, I was back to my old self.

Let me begin by saying I am absolutely in love with Germany. Maybe because I left Europe with so many close German friends which tainted my view, but the place is so beautiful and the people are so great! I stayed with my German flat mate Jackie and her family over the Christmas break which I will be forever grateful for. Her family were so generous and lovely natured, and her Dad spoke amazing english which made my life 10x easier! They also had two ridiculously cute pups who I didn't want to stop playing with...

While I was staying with the Peukerts in a typical German town called Ingolstadt, I went to the Christkindlmarkt (Christmas market) in Ingolstadt, traveled to Munich and Nuremberg where we also went to the Christmas markets, ALMOST had a white Christmas, experienced German Christmas - which is celebrated on our Christmas eve with dinner, presents and family time, went to the sombre Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial, Bavarian alps, Linderhof Palace and Neuschwanstein Castle (the real Disney castle!!!) and met a bunch of awesome Australians which momentarily eased my homesickness. 

New Year was spent in London, as well as the first few days of the new year before heading home to Sunderland. New Years in London was a night I will never forget, well - the parts I can remember at least. Plans for New Year included dinner at an Italian restaurant on The Strand followed by a walk through the crowds to try and get a good view of the fireworks over the river Thames, oh yeah, and A LOT of drinking. The crew and I began drinking on New Years at about 5pm, three hours before dinner at 8pm... let's just say that when we got to dinner we were feeling merry. Dinner was amazing, good food and company for a couple of hours before heading toward the Thames and finding a spot at Trafalgar square and a perfect view of Big Ben. Obviously, because we thought the fireworks were over Big Ben, we fought through the crowds to get the perfect spot although it ended up to be not-so-perfect. The fireworks at midnight ended up being to the right of Big Ben (our left), and OF COURSE there was a equivocally large building directly in our view. So, New Years consisted of listening to the fireworks and watching them on the big screen behind us. Maybe not the most clever idea but we were so drunk by this point we still were having the best time. The next couple of days consisted of some more London sight seeing as well as maxin' and relaxin'. All in all an amazing Christmas and New Year!!!

 

The Land of Scots

This post is much overdue but I will make it short and great because:

1. I am back at uni in Australia and I have started writing for Luna Magazine (yay!) AND I have been madly applying for jobs because trips like the one you are about to read about guzzled the lot of my money.

2. I still have to write about the rest of my trip...

3. Lets just say I am not doing well for time at the moment.

Never the less, my trip to Scotland for the second time was just as fantastic as I could have imagined it to be. It began on the megabus to Glasgow, as Zoe and I had decided to go there for one night and check out the city. Also, Matt Corby was playing! Tickets that we had tried to book to his Edinburgh show the night after were completely booked out, so being the fan I am, we HAD to go and see him play. As the bus to Glasgow arrived just before the show started, Zoe and I got to the hostel - changed, guzzled a few drinks and off we went. We had planned it so the hostel wasn't too far away from the venue, which ended up working perfectly as we arrived for the end of the support act and before Matt started. We pushed our way through to the bar for a couple of ciders before perching our selves near the front of the stage.

Now, I have been to a few gigs in my time and I have never EVER seen a crowd as bad as this. When Matt and his band were playing people were talking, and not paying attention at all, (which is rather hard when he literally looks like he is pouring his heart and soul into every song played). At the end of the gig, the atrocities of the audience got worse. Matt and the band walked off the stage and didn't come back for an encore... To be fair, if I were them, I wouldn't have either. As soon as the music stopped, the crowd dispersed in every direction, seemingly Zoe and I were the only ones who were interested in hearing him play some more tunes. The most devastating thing about it all was that my favourite song of his was GOING to be played as the encore. At every other gig I have been to of his, My False is always it, and after a sneaky look at the set list at Matt's feet - my suspicions were confirmed! Although, we didn't hear My False we still had so much fun and the rest of the music played was amazing.

After the gig Zoe and I hung around for a bit chatting to the support act called The Bear's Den. We asked them where was good to go as we had literally arrived in the city 4 or so hours prior. They suggested a place called Nice'n'Sleazy which we immediately laughed at. " Nice'n'Sleazy? Are you sending us to a strip club? " The support act told us no, and that it was where they were going after, but we mutually decided they were messing with us. So, instead we went across the road to a little bar with balcony seating. A good choice. After a while of hanging out there, we wandered whether Nice'n'Sleazy was actually a cool bar like the lads had told us.  We turned to the guy sitting next to us and asked whether he knew where and what it was. " It's a cool bar just down the main road! ". Great, we could have potentially hung out with the band that we saw play, and maybe even Matt and his entourage.

After deliberation we thought it probably was a good idea to go - just incase! Boy did it pay off. When we got there, it happened to be a funky indie looking bar with a ridiculous amount of drinks on the menu and an equally ridiculous amount of people inside. We bought ourselves a drink, had a look around and low and behold - the support act were there. Of course we didn't expect them to remember us, let alone sit with them but it was worth a try. So we went up to them and pointed out that they weren't lying to us. After a bit of a lol and a chat they told the biddies next to them to make room for us. Score! After an hour or so chatting away to Joey from the Bear's Den, Matt's band members walk in. MATT'S BAND MEMBERS. Unfortunately Matt himself wasn't there, but the rest of his band were. I gave Zoe a nudge and she immediately knew what I was referring too. Of course they came straight up to the guys from the Bear's Den and Joey introduced us to Joel (the electric guitar player), T-Bone (the bass player) and Chris (the drummer). I seriously couldn't believe it, first of all we hadn't even been able to get tickets to the Edinburgh gig, and now we were hanging out with the band in Glasgow! Awesome stuff. As the night went on I was having a good chat to Joel, originally bonding over the fact that I was an Australian in Glasgow. I told him that we had been to the gig and I was a big fan of the Corbs, which made what came next even less imaginable. Joel told us to write our names on a piece of paper because he wanted us to be on the guest list for the Edinburgh show on the following night. WHAT?! YEP. GUEST LIST.

After an amazing night in Glasgow, the next day we were on the road to Edinburgh. We arrived there relatively early in the afternoon so we decided to take this as an opportunity to get a feel for the city. As we had both been there before, we both had a fair idea of where we were going, but exploring a city is always fun.

The next two days in Edinburgh were so much fun, we went to so many great places, scouted out an organic health food store (a pot of gold for two vegetarians living in North East England, a.k.a. the home of meat), hung-out in the cafe where JK Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books, went to the cemetery and school where names of characters and Hogwarts was first inspired, Edinburgh castle, partied way too hard, and ended up getting in on the guest list for the Matt Corby gig. It was seriously such a great adventure, maybe one of the best I had in Europe.