BootsnAll Travel Network



Articles Tagged ‘blogsherpa’

More articles about ‘blogsherpa’
« Home

York, just lovely!

Friday, July 17th, 2009

Last year in Egypt I had travelled for about a week with the wonderful Hugh and Brian from the UK and American respectively. Hugh was now studying in York so thought it would be a good chance to stop by for a brief visit and say hello while I was up that end of the country. I was off buses after the long ride to Scotland and more willing to to pay a bit extra for an uber comfy train. I do love trains. So only 3 hours later I pulled into the York station where I wandered into town to meet Hugh. Even the short walk into town I could tell York was a beautiful city.

Full of old cobblestoned streets, remains of old city wall and a huge cathedral dominating the city. After around a year since our Egypt trip it was great to see Hugh again who came to meet me, we bused out to the university to his halls to get rid of my ever growing pack. Hugh is ever the gentleman and had arranged for me to stay in one of his friends room while she was away for the night-perfect! He cooked me some lunch in their communal kitchen and told me a bit more about the student life of York university, it seems like a pretty sweet deal staying in the halls everyone having nice rooms with bathrooms and big shared kitchens.

We spent the afternoon wandering around the town, down some back streets, into some cute little shops and eventually made it into the big cathedral, or Minister I think its called. We finished off the tour with coffee and cake from a cafe before walking home via the supermarket and heading back to uni where Hugh cooked me dinner! It really makes a difference wandering round with someone who knows the place and where to look, and York is really just very nice, small and quaint but busy and vibrant. The uni is a bit more modern and not exactly Cambridge but the whole place seems like a good location for a few years to study. After dinner we headed down to the pub with a few other people to meet up with Hugh’s girlfriend and sit around being students, drinking too much on a weekday night. Somehow I ended up booking  7.30am train to Cambridge the next day so it was a difficult early morning start off down to the train station for the 2 hour ride south to my next university experience with another travelling buddy

Scotland: the far north

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

With my packed lunch from Tesco’s I jumped on a bus to take me to Glasgow, the furtherest north of London I’d been. My previous trips to the UK had been somewhat limited to a bit of the south then getting stuck in London which takes forever to explore, however this trip I was determined to see some more of the country I am actually a citizen of, and a good chance to cash in on the fact I know a lot of people all over the place. So first stop Glasgow to stay with my friend Jess who I had worked at the London pub with a few years earlier. Originally from London she studied and now lives in Glasgow.

The 8 hour bus ride was suitably horrific with very little interesting scenery and the occasional downpour as we ventured further north. Luckily though the sun was shining at 5pm when we finally rolled into Glasgow. In fact the sun just continues to shine right through to 10pm with the summer daylight making it hard for me to adjust to the time difference. Jess was ready waiting for me at the station and we wandered back to the house, a short 20min walk from town. She lives with 2 other girls in a beautiful and massive flat, I now see why people don’t want to like in London where for half the price you can live in a room that’s larger than a cupboard!

I had the whole weekend in Glasgow which was great to see the city, catch up with Jess and even make it over to Edinburgh for the day. We spent the evening cooking dinner then wandered over to a street with fairy lights for dessert and somewhere for a drink. Glasgow is a nice city, not bursting with tourist sites and amazing architecture but seems like a nice place to live. We walked around most of the city the next day, hiding from the sudden and torrential rain in a cafe, then sweating in the sun over lunch before walking up to the necropolis, a big hill with a cemetery around it and the big cathedral down the bottom. After walking for most of the afternoon we headed back to the flat to relax and Jess headed out to work. Jess works as a part time photographer/part time bar staff at local stand-up comedy venue. Saturday night was comedy night. So about 9pm I wandered down with her flatmate Sarah where we were hooked up with free tickets and a few free drinks in the underground, cozy and very full comedy venue called “the Stand.” We saw about 4 comedians and the lineup was mostly good but with a lot of the jokes about Scotland going over my head, ironically there was a couple from Christchurch NZ who came up in the ‘anyone from out of town here’ bit, they coped a bit of flack while I stayed quiet…can just never get away from home!!

After the place was cleared out and cleaned up we headed out with 5 or so of Jess’ workmates to a club with a sticky floor and people actually hooking up on the dance floor- I didn’t know people actually still did that!? But mostly good music and a bit of fun dancing heading back home about 3am so we would be up and going for our following day trip to Edinburgh.

Edinburgh is only an hour away by train but a very different city, not that I want to be negative about Glasgow but Edinburgh is just amazing! The buildings are incredible and the whole place is just gorgeous! We had fish and chips in a pub for lunch before wandering up to see the castle then down the Royal Mile before heading all the way up ‘Arthurs Seat’ a big rocky hill that overlooks the city with beautiful views. Wandering back into town through vintage shops and food markets I could definitely see myself living here for a bit. We finished the day off with smoothies from a cute wee cafe where we picked up goats cheese for dinner that night. Back home on the train by 7pm! Lovely day and awesome city!

It was my last night with Jess and we made an amazing pizza for dinner and polished off a couple of bottles of Rose wine before watching a DVD which I feel asleep several times before calling it a night after too much wine and walking! My train the next day was nice and early at 9am so loading up my bag I headed down the road to the train to my next destination: York! Only a short trip to Scotland but enough to make me want to come back and get further into the countryside…another time though!

CHC-ACK-BRS-BRU-DUB-LHR

Saturday, June 6th, 2009
A month of unemployment preceding my departure would surely result in me being extreamely organised by the time I left on my long journey to London. But of course it seems impossible for me to do anything till the last ... [Continue reading this entry]

finding my Shangri-la

Friday, December 5th, 2008
Shangri-La was first a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. It was a mythical Himalayan paradise where everyone was happy and things were sweet. Since then Shangri-la ha been used as ... [Continue reading this entry]

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Monday, December 1st, 2008
This 2 day trek through a gorge close to Lijang has become one of China's top things to do. And its not for Chinese tourists either, there is no paved road and music, just a gorge and a path. I ... [Continue reading this entry]

Holy mountains with fist fights

Saturday, November 29th, 2008
Our final days in Chengdu we decided to get active and headed off bright an early to climb Mt Qingchensan, a nearby holy Taoist mountain. Now when I say climb, I don't really mean climb, more like walk. As with ... [Continue reading this entry]

compleating the trans-siberian

Friday, November 14th, 2008
So came the end of our Mongolia trip. 2 weeks, mostly spent out in the country side...which really is most of the country. Pretty much UB is the only city in the country with the rest being mostly the odd ... [Continue reading this entry]

mega trip part 2

Thursday, November 13th, 2008
(for a more complete and probably better written account of our trip check out Rdoc's blog here) We survived our 13 hour drive through the mountains to arrive in a small town. Petty exhausted from the drive we ... [Continue reading this entry]

13 day mega trip part 1

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
Space is likely to be the thing I most remember about our 13 day Gobi trip. Lots of flat, open space. While beautiful not altogether helpful if your a female trying to find a toilet spot. Through our guest house we ... [Continue reading this entry]

Into Mongolia

Friday, November 7th, 2008
Leaving Russia was a 2 night train ride into the heart of Mongolia, our next destination. As I mentioned before the train was really just one carriage that was attached to different trains across the two countries and well over ... [Continue reading this entry]