Christmas in Bristol

A delicious (or maybe not) food van kebab in a Bristol hotel room for Christmas dinner. Not exactly the three course meal I am used to but that's one of the downfalls of being on the opposite side of the world to the rest of your family.

What lead to me eating a kebab in Bristol on Christmas Day was the decision that Jess and I where to spend Christmas together. We had planned to get to Wales for Christmas but instead found ourselves in the more affordable Bristol just on the England side of the border. Bristol is a very nice city and we were able to amuse ourselves for a few days while there but on Christmas Day pretty much every restaurant, shop or any place which sold food was closed. The only places open where very expensive restaurants and of course the food van.

I enjoyed my time in Bristol and a few days is enough time to have a look around the city. The highlight though for the time there was a chance meeting in McDonald's on our second last morning there. I happened to spot a mate Hugh who I worked with at a summer camp in the USA and had not seen for over four years. It was crazy! I knew he lived in Bristol but when trying to contact him had no success. We spent the morning together before again saying goodbye without knowing when we would ever see each other again.

Leaving Bristol we decided it was now time to go to Wales.

To Bruges or not to Bruges

A few months ago I watched the film 'In Bruges.' The film stars Colin Farrell and it is a very weird advertisement for the city Bruges in Belgium. Anyway since watching the film I have wanted to visit Bruges and therefore when BUNAC where offering a trip to visit the Christmas markets in Bruges I decided to join the trip.

I woke up at 5.30pm on a very cold London morning and got to Great Portland Street and on the bus. As we were heading to Dover reports on the radio stated the ferry between Calais in Dover had stopped. Outside as we drove towards Dover the ground was covered in snow but the driver continued in case the ferry started running again. The channel tunnel was also closed and the trains had stopped running. Therefore we could not get to France which then meant we were not going to Bruges.

We instead went to Canterbury. It may be a nice city full of history but at 8.30am on a snowy, cold Saturday morning it wasn't offering a lot. I wandered the streets with a few others from the group. The cathedral in the centre of the city is the focal point of but I felt I had seen enough churches and cathedrals this year to pay to visit another one.

I was really excited to see snow all around as we toured south east England although it causes chaos to public transport as we discovered. We did though continue on to a small town called Rye which had some really old cobbled streets and one of the oldest pubs in England.

Jess returned from Germany a few days before Christmas and we had to decide where we where going to go over the Christmas and New Year. I did not wish to stay in London, especially after visiting Oxford Street on one of the busiest days of the year.

I will have to try and visit Bruges another time.

London and Oxford

Following my week traveling I spent a week in London with my girlfriend Jess. I met Jess in Grasmere and we decided to spend some time together after we each finished in Grasmere. As Jess had not spent a lot of time in London I got to be the tour guide and show her the sights. We visited Brick Lane, Abbey Road as well as Hyde Park among other sights. Hyde Park had been transferred into winter wonderland. A contrast from when I working there in the middle of summer. The pedal boats and deck chairs had been locked away and rides and Christmas stalls had been set up.

Jess then flew to Germany to visit a friend and I decided to get out of London. I spent a few days in Oxford, disappointingly though the students had all left for their Christmas break. I spent the week walking through the colleges I was allowed into and visiting the museums. I walked through the Ashmoleon museum, one of the oldest museums in the UK. Although the most interesting museum piece I thought was in a smaller museum which featured a chalkboard on which Albert Einstein had taught a class while teaching at the University. After spending a few days at the Uni I am pretty sure I couldn't study there. Not that I would ever have the opportunity.

After a few days in Oxford I headed back to London in time for another BUNAC trip this time to Bruges.

Going south

Manchester was my first stop on my journey back to London. I stopped in Manchester overnight and spent my time visiting the sights, checking out the Christmas markets and people watching. Manchester is obviously a lot busier than quiet Grasmere. The highlight of my stopover in Manchester was a visit to Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United Football Club. I am not a huge fan of English football but I was enthralled as I walked through the museum admiring all the large trophies. I visited the ground on a game day which meant I was not able to take a tour, they did though allow me to take a quick look inside to see where fans pay thousands to watch players who get payed millions.

Leaving Manchester I caught a bus to Liverpool. I had paid a bargain price of £2 for a national express bus. The trip was due to take less than one hour. I arrived in Liverpool three hours after leaving Manchester. The bus broke down then we got stuck in heavy traffic. When we made it to Liverpool it was dark, cold and very wet and I had to walk through half the city to find a hostel.

I was visiting Liverpool for the same reason millions of tourists visit the city every year, to visit the sights made famous by the Beatles. I took a tour through the Beatles story exhibition which relives the story of the famous four before walking down Matthew St to view the Cavern Club where the band played hundreds of gigs.

My next stop after Liverpool was Birmingham where I stayed with a guy I met on a rainy day in Ambleside, the town next to Grasmere. He invited me to stay with him so I thought why not. He showed me the large German themed Christmas markets and the Aston Villa football stadium. I also spent an afternoon in Stratford Upon Avon. The birthplace and death place of William Shakespeare. I visited his grave inside the church before visiting the house in which he was born in the middle of town.

Leaving Birmingham I caught a bus back to London in time for another BUNAC day trip. This time we visited Leeds Castle and Rochester. I enjoyed the Castle visit but Rochester was the highlight. I did not realise the town was celebrating Dickensian Christmas. Actually I had never heard of it before. But one weekend every year locals dress in Charles Dickens themed dress and act out parts of his novels in the streets. The town was packed and a lot of fun.

Goodbye to Grasmere

In my final week in Grasmere, my dad and his wife Marsha came to visit. Together we explored parts of the Lakes I had seen many times before as well as places I had not yet seen. As we drove around the Lakes it was obvious to see the destruction caused by the floods in the previous week. Many of the roads were still covered in water and many of the locals had started the clean up job.

The water in Windermere Lake had risen so much that shops beside the lake in Bowness were two to three foot deep in water. Many of the smaller waterfalls were also now raging waterfalls.
Friday morning dad and Marsha left so I said goodbye before starting my last day of work at the Glenthorne. Following a fairly straightforward shift we made our way to the pub to begin a very big night of drinking, partying and celebration. The Glenthorne shuts down over the winter month which is the reason for our party and the reason for my departure.

The party continued into the early hours of the morning and when I awoke the next morning I saw something I had not seen for some time in Grasmere, sunshine. I also got to see something I had not yet seen in the UK, snow. All the higher mountains around Grasmere were covered in snow and the view was rather spectacular.

A couple of lazy days and a few visits to the pub later and I was on a train leaving the place which I had called home for the last three months. I caught a train to Manchester and it felt good to be travelling again.