UK easter trip 2008

Nottingham-EMA-INV-Inverness-Loch Ness-Inverness- Perth- -Pitlochry-Perth-Glasgow-Stranraer-Belfast-
-Derry/Londonderry-LDY-BRS-Bristol-Bath-Bristol-
-Cardiff-London-Beeston-Nottingham

Bold ones are places where we/I stayed in a hostel.

This entry will be fcukn long.

All began on 31st of March the journy started, as the last one ended, with R5. We, that's Yehia and I, take the bus at 9.40 to EMA. ....Due to some ID/Passport issues and RyanAir, which insits to have a Passport even for domestic flights, I boarded the Plane alone shortly before 13h. Yehia had to take the train I picked him up later the day at the trainstation in Inverness at sth past eleven.
The flight was quite full, few turbulances.. I could see snow on the scottish mountains...and the city before the landing in INV. From there i took the bus to the city center. Inverness is a compact nice city. The hostel was direct in the center and prety nice. As the weather was really good i walked along the river Ness. Later the evening i met two German girls Anna and Kerstin with whom I later went to a pub with live musik while still waiting.
On the 1st of April, Yehia and I took the bus to Loch Ness, we walked there alot, saw castle, Loch Ness but couldnt find Nessie. Probably due to the amount of water that was falling down from the sky.
Later the day, after approx. an hour hairdrying my shoes we went to an other with the Anna and Kerstin.
2nd: We rushed through the small and nice Museum in Invernes ( I have seen many museums during the trip, the scottish ones have been the best). Later shortly to library... coz u get normally free internet access after filling a form and showing some id.
But we hadnt much time coz our MegaBus should departure soon. At the bus station a guy was painting the coloured stones again... but i didnt put a sing "wet paint"... ..
We arrived atg Perth P+R, as P+R let suggest it wasnt in the city center... ao we walked a bit, bay the way... weather was good.
Perth is quite nice, and we have been to a museum and an art gallery.
In the evening we took a bus to Pitlochry, the hostel was quite nice and the town was too.
We went then to a pub/hotel which had its own beer brewed. This evening should become really... funnny...
After a short while we got into a talk with two locals... one older women and a guy.....was quite interesting... and in the end the guy payed us a beer... he said he has been to Germany and the ppl have been nice to him there... I still dont belive that..
after the bar closed we drank beer with the stuff... all young ppl who were just working there... to save some money and fill in some time....
we arrived our hostel at 3h... the front door was closed till 1h... but there is always a way ;)
3rd: we visited the Pitlochry fish ladder and the Hydro Power Plant and took some pictures with locals. Later we went back to Perth spent one hour in the library and travelled than with megabus to Glasgow £1 is a very reasonable price.
On the evening we met some girls Yehia had contacted via couchsurfing. In the evening we went to a pub with traditional music.
4th: Glasgow church, museum,...walking in the city. Later the day I met Owen, a frind of Zan and SiSi. He is studying near Glasgow. Yehia had to do some work.
In the hostel i met a Japanese, Yuji... he was traveling alone since his friend got ill in Edinburgh... I was ought to get in a similar situation.... funny thing... he was going to Inverness to, and even to the same hostel.
5th: We left the hostel quite early... also in Apple stores is free internet available.
Then we had a train to Stranraer. Train started on time but stopped than... several appologies, but no reason.... by the way we had to catch a ferry... . Everyone who complains about trains in Germany should com to Britain, he ll stopp imidiatly. They call it train, I call it crap.
after 50min standind the crap started to move again... the ferry should be 14.50.... the guy in the train said we arrive " twenti twoootwowo" .... I was confused... 1440 or 1422.... he meant .40
ANyway as we arrived 1441 we couldnt go on the ferry, coz there used to be so boarding and I assume the stenaline-guy has understood .22
Anyway 14.50 became 19.50... check in was almost like plane.. show id...x-ray for the bag... and I was asked"where do u go"-Belfast "why"-[terorismm,,,,ääääääähhm ] holiday "have u ever been to.." No
Anyway... we had plenty of time to see sth... library was small nice, and I could print my online-ticket LDY-BRS. The museum was small but ok.
Walked around the coastline, very windy.
That was then the end of Scotland,,, and we sailed with the catamaran ferry to Belfast.
Arrived at 21.30 and started walking to the youth hostel. My map was a bit small and the area we started wasnt fully on it... but i was pretty sure the way was correct... anyway... thopped then a police car.. the guy a bit older ( buy the way, it was harbour police) looked on the map and tried to explain... then suddenly offer to drive us close to, as this would be easier...and so we jumped in the back of a police car!!! He mentioned it is harbour police and htey have less to do as the normal one... he must have been bored as we talked the whole way about what to see in Belfast and so on.... and finally he droped us off in front of the hostel... so it was really nice "special cab" trip, for free.
Later the day ended with fried chicken.
6th: We checked out..end went to the next hostel... also in Belfast but cheaper... £6.50 in 18 bed mixed, shared room. But was ok.
We always booked th cheapest ones, as we stayed mostly one night sometimes two. We had everything a full 16 ppl shared a full 4 male, a 6 room for us alone, i also stayed in a 12 share with 5 ppl..... it always depend on the other ppl in the room, the quality of the bed and the amount u have drunk how well u ll sleep.... so its basically luck......u just can controle the price and so we did.
But basically u get what u pay... the kitchen in the cheap one wasnt really good....
Anyway. Belfast is Irish with a British/English touch. The weather was cold and windy. The arcitecture was nice as well. Sadly all museums were close due to refurbishment...
At the afternoon there was the 125th anual parade of the boy brigate...
hmmmm I have seen such parade somewhere before.... but i think it was brown not blue.... and there might be still some similar ones, especially in East-Germany... but I might be wrong...
It was protestan, of course,... well I kind of understand why the Irish dont like that.
In the hostel we met again two girls, this time England and Australia ( Jess and Pascal), we went later to a pub with live music... the beer I tried wasnt really good. I guess the only good beer I have been drunken in Ireland is Guinness, thanks Arthur. And it will be, as I dont plan to go. back to Ireland.
7th: I slept good, we got early up had breakfast which we bought right before having it, made some sandwiches... and then took the 212 bus to Londonderry/Derry.
SOme now might wonder how the city is called... the answers is how ever u like and whom are u talking to. The City actually was named Derry but the British but then London- in front....
on the way to L/Derry ther have been many street signs where London was overpainted. And Derry really felt like Ireland. Our hostel was nice, and the room kept in Irish colours.
Ah, money... u sure know English banknotes, some might know the differen ones in scotland... guess what there are different ones in NI too. So every bank has its own notes, some looked really different. I got one almost blue with a space shuttle on it £5 note. I was a bit worried if I would ever be able to spent it as I still possesed it as I left NI.
L/Derry was quite nice too, actually nicer than Belfast but not that nice as Inverness.
There were still the ID/Passport issue and we should have a flight to Bristol with Ryan the other day...... Yehia after long decision booked than a fligth with Easy home... was the cheapest solution... and he had already spent much more money due to the expensive train trip.
8th: 11.02 Yehia took the bus to Belfast international airport....... so it was just me.
As we had seen the most stuff yesterday... I shortly visited the rest... and then decided to walk to the airport. So I could see the countryside, and I would have walked anyway the day. The bus conection to the airport wasnt really good, one arrived LDY at 1243 the next at 1543.... final time to be on the gate 1600 for me. Ok it should be fine, however if sth would happen I would have been fcuekd up. But I still had the lue £5 note which I had planned to use to pay for the bus.
On the way I visited the war museum....... and I was a bit worried as I saw the 8 miles sign (~13km) I thought I had read 7km somewhere while doing research.
I arrived the airport at 1430. It was a very, very, very smal one quite similar to the Göteborg city airport.... just Ryan was flying from here but there was also a Brtitish Airways flight listed.
Security contrall was almost empty, coz it was so early... therefore I got the full programm: fluid check, back controll as there was sth... one persont looked through all my stuff.... and finally a box I was carrying got a second ride through x-ray. But at least I could keep my shoes on :).
I think these "randomly" fluid checks are stupid, as it seems to me they just ckeck it there isnt much else to do... my fluids have been checked at EMA too, it was quite empty too. So if anyone whould bring some "bad" stuff on the plane, he probably would to this when everyone is busy.... or with cleaning personal. There we come to the good point with Ryan... as the cleaning personal on Ryanair flight consist of the passengers and the crew..... and the fly from so small far of airports.... there is nothing close too.
at about 16h our plane landed... came then to the gate but before it stopped it made a turn.... so it seemed to me they dont have a pull back vehicle here...and the plane has to turn itself driving a circle... I was a bit concerned coz the two fire engines came out before the plane parked itself.
The airport had just one ladder for the read, one luggage car... no APU so the 737 used its own.
Later the BA plane landed a smal turboprop.
Our flight was really empty 36/189.... so i got one row for myself :) If everyone had just paid 1p for the ticket they wouldnt have earned even 1/2 £.
On BRS we were stuck a few minutes behind a automatic door, as the bus driver just dumped us somewhere...
but I got on the express bus to Bristol, it was £5 so perfect to get rid of the blue note.... after I presented the driver the note he said " pound not Euro", I repplied " That is pound (stupid son of a bctih)" He: "hm I havent seen that one" Me: (you havent seen €5 either)
In Bristol I took the train to Bath........
Bath is a really ,r-e-a-l-l-y nice city. Loos a bit like Roma coz the Romans had buipd stuff here.
Meanwhile I realized that I totally lost my 'week-feelin' I still knew the number of a day but wasnt sure about which weekday it was....
9th: early breakfast, then I looked around Bath on daylight, after I looked around at dawn/night the day before Really nice what a shame that I have to leave soon. Luckily my rucksack was still in the hostle as it wasnt check-out time yet. After I grapped my bag I went to the station... I asked the guy at the reception about the best way to Bristol, he reccomend train and said about "£5, very good price" --- I dont think so.for 15 min train trip...
Anyway...I bought a ticket but not to the main station, coz the next ticket from cardiff was valib from a station behind the main one... and luckily u can break ur journey.
In the morning was beautiful weather in Bath, clear sky...Bristol was good too, but it started to get cloudy... later the day in Cardiff it was even worse... but still ok.
Bristol is nice too, yet not as nice as Bath. Its also bigger and u have to walk more.
Yeah... I know everything is nice... but I dont want to look up sophisticated words to describe it.... I mean I'll be an engineer not a philosoph.... so if u got any problems... fcuk off and read another blog.
Very nice buildings in Bristol, by the way still England... I had to rush a bit... and the terrain was hilly. But I have seen nice stuff and also the famous suspension bridge.
In the afternoon I tokk the train to Cardiff, Wales. Headed straight to the tourist information, coz I didnt had a map printet for that one.... friendly older guy told me where to got, hostel and gave me map.... finally in the hostel I got rid of my bag.
I realized that I have been in Bath in the morning, in the afternoon I was in Bristol and now I'm in Cardiff... one day ago I was at the Derry Airport in Nothern Ireland. (heute hier, morgen dort...) but that was the intention of the trip.
I decided now to turn to slow again... to commutate... get slower... as I would be back in Notts soon. So started walking around... and then decided to go to the Bay.... I like water and there should be a Lightship to as the map indicated.... very nice scenery...beautiful
10th: weather wasn that good... and there should be some rain scattered over the day. I went to the national museum... I mentioned before..scottish ones are better. Then I took a walking tour around the city, I got a leaflet for that in tourist information... it was ok, but actually I expected more.
In the afternoon I decided to spent a bit time in a Starbucks instead of going to the castle.... a real coffee was perfact after all the days just instant crap.... was nice to chill and to think
In Cardiff had been many ppl who try to tell u sth or asked them... mostly I said "No thanks" also tried to ignore them, but once I tried sth new. After one guy tried to get me into a conversation I replyed " Ya talle inte swenska" or a version of that ( its the only swedish I know and means 'I dont speak swedish', I thought should be good idea, as very few should know swedish..). The guy didnt get I and asked me to say again... I repeated.... and then he said " sorry i dont speak ur language" It was very funny... I said bye bye and leaft.... I saw that guy later in the starbucks, what a coincedence...
Last evening... I realized that I havent been for so longe time not in Germany... and havent seen my friends
11th: Cardiff, rain, got up at 6.30... left hostel on time at 7.15... megabus arrived castel at 7.40, boarding was quick...leaft at 7.47..... at 8.45 I heard a very funny joke in the radion about the olympic fire run..( I might tell u if u aske me). 10to 11h we arrived in London, sure London. Havent been there for over two years... and I saw plaes I have been to... so my memory musnt be that bad :)
Anyway I had to walk a bit to the train station...and let me say a bit on the map musnt be a bit in real... and I even got a proper map, just some lines ans streetnames on a piece of paper. And so many ppl so many traffic, u cannot even go fast even if u want... and yet another traffic light and so on... for a while I had these three business ppl in front of me... they were quite usefull to get ppl heading to the other direction out of the way... so I stayed behind them until the went into a building... I arrived St Pancras at 12.15...at 12.20 I had found my train. 12.30 departure.. it takes less than 2hours to Beeston... than a bit walking, again, and I boarded R5, which deliverd me and my stuff close to my residence.

Oh, that was quite exausting to write all the stuff... and I'm damn sure I missed sth.. and I hope It was nice to read... I know at least 3ppl will have done so by now, maybe even a few more....


I just looked through all the pictures, rotated them, deleted a couple, and put them in folders by cities.... I realized that I already forgot things that happen, but I also realized how amazing it was... I still dont know where to put the pictures, but by the time u read this I will have...

I found a place... just ask me where... I ll tell u then