Carolyn and I woke up in the morning and witnessed a totally random hailstorm and didn't really know what to think of it, except that it was probably something very typical for England. Sunny now, rainy 30 minutes later. Declan picked us up and took us to the centre of Ringwood, and then to Burley and a cider shop. There were so many different sorts of cider I couldn't believe my eyes. We bought some gifts and then hurried to London, the last city I'd visit before going home.
The journey was long but eventually we'd made it to the capital. After some problems with the room we were supposed to get, we left for the city centre where we did some touristy things (we mostly walked and walked and walked but managed to see Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery (from the outside). After the short sightseeing we had dinner in an Italian restaurant, and I must say I had the best tortellini with goat cheese EVER. Words cannot describe them, they were so good.
After that we went to a pub where we met a few lads from Cumbria, Manchester United fans. Thanks god Declan was with us, or Carolyn and I wouldn't understand them at all. The whole situation made you question yourself whether you really spoke English or not. I swear that all these years of learning English were not really helpful when I was "forced" to talk to them and understand what they were saying. It was such an embarrassing situation.
We returned back to the hotel after a few pints and then decided to say hello to various boardies but unfortunately, only one actually answered the phone or better said, called back.
Next morning Declan took me to the airport. The ride was not ideal as we missed an exit or something so we had to drive much longer than expected. Fortunately, we made it in time - but I almost missed my flight. I realised 10 minutes wasn't enough time to go through the security check and take the bus to the terminal. Eventually, I arrived to the terminal just in time but then had to wait for one more hour because one of the stewardesses didn't show up and somebody else had to replace her.
Fun times.
P. S.: This godawful post was brought to you by Nina.
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Friday, 16 April 2010
Day 2: From Cambridge to Bristol and from Bristol to Ringwood
We woke up late after a night full of Romanian brandy, cuddling and spooning, and while we should feel rested, we were all still relatively tired. However, we had no choice but to leave the hotel and head to Bristol where we would say goodbye to Biddle.
We spent 6 or 8 hours on the motorway which was way longer than I imagined it would take us to get from one city to the other. We stopped a few times to get the usual stuff you need on long-distance travel and eventually we arrived to Ringwood and dropped our stuff at the B&B and went to Declan's to meet Smee the Queen and eat some pizza.
The highlights, at least for me, were:
- the Innocent Superfruit Smoothie. Positive AND witty propaganda always works and the combination of that and the tastiness of the Innocent Superfruit Smoothie is something every smoothie should aspire to.
- one-eyed penguin from Ice Age (I think). It was so disturbingly/unconventionally cute that I spent 10 minutes just staring and laughing at it. I would've bought it had the price been any lower. I want me some one-eyed penguins but I want them cheap.
- listening to Amnesiac all the way through multiple times. It felt like being on a weird trip; a mix of happiness, tiredness and something I haven't been able to define yet.
- Bristol! We've actually seen only a bit of it because we got there rather late and had neither time nor energy to go sightseeing. But we did go up THE hill so I can say I was where the TV show Skins was filmed. :D
- Cherry Coke. To be honest, I didn't really like it.
- Smee. I shall say nothing more.
We spent 6 or 8 hours on the motorway which was way longer than I imagined it would take us to get from one city to the other. We stopped a few times to get the usual stuff you need on long-distance travel and eventually we arrived to Ringwood and dropped our stuff at the B&B and went to Declan's to meet Smee the Queen and eat some pizza.
The highlights, at least for me, were:
- the Innocent Superfruit Smoothie. Positive AND witty propaganda always works and the combination of that and the tastiness of the Innocent Superfruit Smoothie is something every smoothie should aspire to.
- one-eyed penguin from Ice Age (I think). It was so disturbingly/unconventionally cute that I spent 10 minutes just staring and laughing at it. I would've bought it had the price been any lower. I want me some one-eyed penguins but I want them cheap.
- listening to Amnesiac all the way through multiple times. It felt like being on a weird trip; a mix of happiness, tiredness and something I haven't been able to define yet.
- Bristol! We've actually seen only a bit of it because we got there rather late and had neither time nor energy to go sightseeing. But we did go up THE hill so I can say I was where the TV show Skins was filmed. :D
- Cherry Coke. To be honest, I didn't really like it.
- Smee. I shall say nothing more.
Monday, 29 March 2010
Day 1: Cambridge
It all started when Thom Yorke announced a special show to support Tony Juniper, Green Party's parliamentary candidate, in the Cambridge Corn Exchange on 25th February...
No, wait. It started with a call from Declan, talking me into going to the show with him and Carolyn, and possibly Fabienne. I really wanted to go but I wasn't sure what my parents' reaction will be like because they're still not used to me being independent and having friends I have not necessarily met in real life first. But they gave me permission to go so I bought plane tickets, and then had to wait for a long long time before I could walk on the British land and see a show that would turn out to be super amazing.
Multitasker as I am, I managed to do all of my homework, pack up, take a shower and do other girly things and managed a 4-hour sleep in one evening. I couldn't wait to go but I was afraid at the same time that I would miss my coach or that Easyjet cancelled the flight and so on and so on. Fortunately, none of that had happened but I did forget my camera at home. How stupid of me!
I arrive at the airport and even though I didn't have a speedy boarding ticket, I managed to be the first one at the gate. The trip was promising and the first amazing thing happened right there in front of the gate: I met a girl with whom I travelled to Poland 3 years ago. She, her friend and me started a conversation and naturally, sat next to each other on the plane. The flight itself wasn't anything special but another surprise was waiting for us right after landing. We saw Brane Kastelic, a Slovene journalist and reporter from England. It was amazing that he flew with Easyjet when he could go to England with Adria Airways, for example, and live it large.
However, I met Declan and Carolyn shortly after going through border checkpoint and was even happier than before. We headed to Dec's car immediately and started our journey to Cambridge. Needless to say, sitting in the passenger seat on the LEFT hand side was rather challenging. It felt like there should be a brake pedal and a steering wheel and all that but eventually I got used to it as I was distracted by watching the landscape and talking with Dec (Carolyn was sleeping in the back).
After getting lost in Cambridge, we finally found our rather luxurious hotel where I got a golden bunny award. Soon after that we went queuing to the Cambridge Corn Exchange where we met the boardies from RD2. After a couple of hours of waiting the souncheck finally started and everyone entered the spazzing mode. We heard These Are My Twisted Words acoustic and a lot of other songs that made us go crazy and want the show to finally start.
At 7 we finally entered the venue and made our way to the rail. Surrounded by both (cute) British (guys) and (ordinary :P) foreigners, we were eagerly waiting for the supporting act to appear on stage. Pete Um got the honour to warm us up before Thom Yorke's "solo thing". Pete is a weird musician with lots of short glitchy noisy weird songs with funny lyrics (although I didn't understand everything he sang).
Thom finally came on the stage and started his show. I don't think I can describe how it went because the experience was beyond words. The atmosphere in the venue was simply amazing - the audience was amazing, responsive and quiet when appropriate, and Thom was in a really good mood throughout his set. He even replied to Carolyn's comments during breaks! The whole show moved me more than I thought it was possible. Pyramid Song was so powerful; it made a complete sense for me in that particular moment and in my life in general and I couldn't stop myself from crying (cheesy as it probably sounds). The show continued with a good pace and Thom's voice went from great to greater. At one point - special mention of Videotape and Reckoner - I couldn't take any more of its beauty. It was too much, too powerful.
After the concert we decided to wait for Thom to leave the afterparty and try to get his autograph. In the mean time I was chatting with RD2ers and made a short visit to ateasers (I was a bit nervous and shy so I didn't say much and left soon) while Dec was hiding in the shadows. After a while, when RD2ers and ateasers left, Dec, Biddle, Carolyn and me started talking about leaving the venue etc. But somehow Biddle and me persuaded the other half of the quartet to stay. And this is how it happened: first I saw him walking towards us (and other fans) and I said "Oh, Thom's coming." (I spotted him FIVE MINUTES after we decided not to leave.) First he talked to some other fans but soon he turned to us. Well, I asked him if I could please get an autograph and he said "Sure yeah, I like the way you said it. Here you go!" (or something like that). :D He was very friendly and talked to just about anyone that asked him stuff. Dec asked him what the first line of Go Slowly was but Thom just said he couldn't answer that. He also didn't want to say anything about Glasto and said the new album is not ready just yet. Somebody asked him about releasing it IR style and Thom replied they should just sell it to Sony for a huge amout of pounds, or something like that. In the end, we all got something: Biddle, Carolyn and me got autographs and Dec an answer to his question (although not what we'd hoped) and a "Hey, you're that guy..." We wonder to this day WHICH guy he is.
We returned to the hotel happy as can be and started drinking cider and Romanian brandy, which ended in cuddling on one of the beds. Eventually we went to sleep and woke up late in the morning when we had to leave for Bristol.
No, wait. It started with a call from Declan, talking me into going to the show with him and Carolyn, and possibly Fabienne. I really wanted to go but I wasn't sure what my parents' reaction will be like because they're still not used to me being independent and having friends I have not necessarily met in real life first. But they gave me permission to go so I bought plane tickets, and then had to wait for a long long time before I could walk on the British land and see a show that would turn out to be super amazing.
Multitasker as I am, I managed to do all of my homework, pack up, take a shower and do other girly things and managed a 4-hour sleep in one evening. I couldn't wait to go but I was afraid at the same time that I would miss my coach or that Easyjet cancelled the flight and so on and so on. Fortunately, none of that had happened but I did forget my camera at home. How stupid of me!
I arrive at the airport and even though I didn't have a speedy boarding ticket, I managed to be the first one at the gate. The trip was promising and the first amazing thing happened right there in front of the gate: I met a girl with whom I travelled to Poland 3 years ago. She, her friend and me started a conversation and naturally, sat next to each other on the plane. The flight itself wasn't anything special but another surprise was waiting for us right after landing. We saw Brane Kastelic, a Slovene journalist and reporter from England. It was amazing that he flew with Easyjet when he could go to England with Adria Airways, for example, and live it large.
However, I met Declan and Carolyn shortly after going through border checkpoint and was even happier than before. We headed to Dec's car immediately and started our journey to Cambridge. Needless to say, sitting in the passenger seat on the LEFT hand side was rather challenging. It felt like there should be a brake pedal and a steering wheel and all that but eventually I got used to it as I was distracted by watching the landscape and talking with Dec (Carolyn was sleeping in the back).
After getting lost in Cambridge, we finally found our rather luxurious hotel where I got a golden bunny award. Soon after that we went queuing to the Cambridge Corn Exchange where we met the boardies from RD2. After a couple of hours of waiting the souncheck finally started and everyone entered the spazzing mode. We heard These Are My Twisted Words acoustic and a lot of other songs that made us go crazy and want the show to finally start.
At 7 we finally entered the venue and made our way to the rail. Surrounded by both (cute) British (guys) and (ordinary :P) foreigners, we were eagerly waiting for the supporting act to appear on stage. Pete Um got the honour to warm us up before Thom Yorke's "solo thing". Pete is a weird musician with lots of short glitchy noisy weird songs with funny lyrics (although I didn't understand everything he sang).
Thom finally came on the stage and started his show. I don't think I can describe how it went because the experience was beyond words. The atmosphere in the venue was simply amazing - the audience was amazing, responsive and quiet when appropriate, and Thom was in a really good mood throughout his set. He even replied to Carolyn's comments during breaks! The whole show moved me more than I thought it was possible. Pyramid Song was so powerful; it made a complete sense for me in that particular moment and in my life in general and I couldn't stop myself from crying (cheesy as it probably sounds). The show continued with a good pace and Thom's voice went from great to greater. At one point - special mention of Videotape and Reckoner - I couldn't take any more of its beauty. It was too much, too powerful.
After the concert we decided to wait for Thom to leave the afterparty and try to get his autograph. In the mean time I was chatting with RD2ers and made a short visit to ateasers (I was a bit nervous and shy so I didn't say much and left soon) while Dec was hiding in the shadows. After a while, when RD2ers and ateasers left, Dec, Biddle, Carolyn and me started talking about leaving the venue etc. But somehow Biddle and me persuaded the other half of the quartet to stay. And this is how it happened: first I saw him walking towards us (and other fans) and I said "Oh, Thom's coming." (I spotted him FIVE MINUTES after we decided not to leave.) First he talked to some other fans but soon he turned to us. Well, I asked him if I could please get an autograph and he said "Sure yeah, I like the way you said it. Here you go!" (or something like that). :D He was very friendly and talked to just about anyone that asked him stuff. Dec asked him what the first line of Go Slowly was but Thom just said he couldn't answer that. He also didn't want to say anything about Glasto and said the new album is not ready just yet. Somebody asked him about releasing it IR style and Thom replied they should just sell it to Sony for a huge amout of pounds, or something like that. In the end, we all got something: Biddle, Carolyn and me got autographs and Dec an answer to his question (although not what we'd hoped) and a "Hey, you're that guy..." We wonder to this day WHICH guy he is.
We returned to the hotel happy as can be and started drinking cider and Romanian brandy, which ended in cuddling on one of the beds. Eventually we went to sleep and woke up late in the morning when we had to leave for Bristol.
Sunday, 7 March 2010
Dusting off the blog
A few trips are scheduled for this year so I thought it would be a good idea to write about travelling again. I hope you'll find my entries interesting enough to follow the blog and perhaps choose the same or a similar path. :)
The inevitable list of destinations:
1.) England (Cambridge, New Forest, London) in February 2010
2.) tentative trip to Belgrade, Serbia in April 2010
3.) England (Birmingham, New Forest, London, Tunbridge Wells) in July 2010
4.) Nottingham, England in September 2010
I will start with my recent trip to England which was, honestly speaking, fantastic.
The inevitable list of destinations:
1.) England (Cambridge, New Forest, London) in February 2010
2.) tentative trip to Belgrade, Serbia in April 2010
3.) England (Birmingham, New Forest, London, Tunbridge Wells) in July 2010
4.) Nottingham, England in September 2010
I will start with my recent trip to England which was, honestly speaking, fantastic.
Monday, 21 July 2008
BACK HOME.... REFLECTING ON LIVERPOOL AND THE WHOLE TRIP
Hey.... We came home today and excited as we was to travel around England, we couldn't wait to return to Slovenia.... What a luxury it is not to share your room with 6 people and using the same bathroom as 10 very immature Irish boys (they left their stuff in and the whole place smelled like them :S). Liverpool was very nice, we saw Tate Liverpool, Walker's museum and art gallery, Slavery museum, Albert's docks, Imperial war museum and both cathedrals. I found Liverpool much safer and tidier place as Manchester.
Hey did I mention that despite my dispair for football we went to Old Trafford (stadium of Manchester united football club)? It is actually in the next town so it is not even in Manchester, it's in Trafford... But we did enjoy the building and their shop. Building is massive and quite modern, but Alberto said that the stadiums in Liverpool and is Spain are better taken care of and a lot bigger (I am not an expert on a subject so I had to go with that.)
Liverpool was more of a city to live in, Manchester was more like a shopping/transit city. The last night in England we met Nina's friend Sally. She was very nice and in contrary of Nina's fears of acward silences we chatted for hours drinking coctails. We found out she is from Swizerland, studying English literature in Liverpool and she knows very good and cheap bookshops, hostels and party places down town.
We were allowed to crash in the lounge of our hostel, so we tried to get in few hours of sleep before leaving for the airport. The guy from the night shift was very rude and annoying, he did not want to call us a cab saying that we would bail on him and left with a different cab company and he wold get in trouble for it (that sure makes sense since we did not have a place to sleep that night and did not know a number to call a cab!!!!!). But somehow I convinced him to call it and we were overly nice to him from that point on (1:0 for us :D).
So we had to say goodbye to our trip and a super-lamb-bananas chase to come home to very similar weather conditions (be brought the wind with us :D). Back to studying and talking in Slovene, not meeting any more (cute) Australians :(.... ;). In conclusion I would say that traveling with Nina was great (she is a very good traveling partner) and I would do it again. We saw a lot of things and most of all we met so many new people. IT WAS AWSOME!!!!! :D.... bye wifey.... :D
XOXO Piki
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