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Hello!
Well it has been a very long time since I last wrote a blog entry, and I wonder if there is anyone still checking (please leave a message on the message board if you are!). If not then it is a wonderful memory bank for me!
So I may not have racked up many air miles on this trip - or any at all as I didn't even go in a plane - but I certainly took part in a large amount of travelling in a small amount of time.
This has been my first summer I have not 'travelled' in 9 years! So the prospect of a full six weeks without exploring was a little daunting for me to say the least. But as I was getting itchy feet in need of a wander a friend from the States contacted me asking if I had an ideas as to what he could do on his visit to the UK. It was at this time that I jumped at the opportunity to tick something off my bucket list - a UK road trip!
Soon enough we got to planning the different stops we could go on to see both the beauty of my homeland and visit mutal friends (all from my summer camp work).
And so...once my friend had arrived in the UK the trip began. Barely had his bags been dropped off that we headed to the Seven Sisters in Seaford to see some "awesome coastline". That short adventure was exhausting and, knowig that we had a 6 plus hour drive the next day the excitement stopped there!
On the Monday I drove to a farm in a little village in Stanhope in the North Pennines which was to be my accomodation for the night. Although the drive had been a long one, the final hour had been the most beautiful. As we drove through the rolling hills covered for miles in moorland we were blessed by some gorgeous sunshine. Unforuntately I have very few photos of this areas as I was driving and you know...saftey first!
Waking up on the farm was an experienced we were met with a quizzical goat, the crow of a cockerel and the singing of soe Yorkshire builders working on the sight.
We left the farm and drove to the city of Durham, a short 45 minutes away, to return to my roots. Durham was the home of my mother until she moved to the south and I have only had the opportunity once, when I was only four-years-old, to visit the city. My only recollection of this visit was getting lost in the catherdral, so I was keen to 'retrace my footsteps' so to speak and try and unearth some memories.
Nothing came flooding back but I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Despite the rain, I found the city stunning and I truely could seem myself living there (maybe oop north is the place for me!).
Revisiting the cathedral was the real treat for me. Not only was the Magna Carta on display (which was amazing to see after having taught its history the last few years) but I got to walk on a Harry Potter set. Now I hope anyone reading this, seeing as it is likely you were in one of my classes, has seen the first Harry Potter movie. There were a number of scenes filmed in Durham cathedral and I was right there were Daniel Radcliff and the late Alan Rickman had stood! (These are the photos with the largest grins!)
Once I was dragged away, it was time to drive on to Edinburgh. Now I can drive for hours and hours and miles and miles, on motorways and twisting country lanes but put my in a city and oh my word the stress levels rise! But I survived and it was another challenge passed.
After checking in to our funky hostel we met up with another couple of friends from the summer camp. We spent the next couple of days enjoying the wonderful fringe festival which was full of comdey and shows. Aparently the poplation of Edinburgh triples in the month it is on due to its popularity!
After a serious amount of reminiscing we travelled on (at which time there were now three of us in the car) to Luss, a cute little village on the edge of Loch Lommond (basically a lake but in Scotland they are called Lochs). Here we went for a walk with a few other camp alumni and a few of the group were even brave enough to swim in a river (only for two minutes though as it was pretty cold - despite it being summer!)
We then drove for another hour! On to a castle just on the outskirts of Glasgow. It was another evening of reminiscing and a movie quiz (which we were shamefully bad at! However I did managed to correctly guess a Legally Blonde quote!)
The next day two of us drove to the Lake District a stunningly beautiful part of the country - if you can see it!
What we could see as we entered Cumbria was amazing and the landscape reminded me of my time in New Zealand. But as the road twisted and turned and the gradient of our route increased our vision didn't! We drove up into the clouds and the fog decsended. I could barely see 5 meters in front of the car and the headlights of on coming traffic on the narrow road made me feel like a dragon was approaching us from the depths of some cave.
Having said all that it was rather exhilirating and far more exciting than a city drive. We made it through and the road turned down hill and as we left the clouds behind we arrived at our hostel and final over night stop before heading home.
The next day, another long trip lay ahead again 6+ hours but this time we had a little stop planned. Another place I had visited as a child was Gretna Green. Orginally many hundreds of years ago it had been a blacksmiths just over the boarder into Scotland where English couples, trying to escape the marriage restrictions set by the English government, would elope to become legally married.
When I last visited this spot it was still just a small one-room uilding with a shop adjacent to it. That was many yers ago and oh how things had changed. I didn't even think it was the same place! It had evolved into a huge tourist attraction with three restaurants 4 shops, a maze, a playground, a hotel and spa and a museum. All for that little blacksmiths barn!
I can't deny that it was interesting to learn about the history of Gretna Green in the museum and it was a unique expereinces to see an actual wedding was taking place whilst we were there complete with bagpipes, but it was a little sad to see a place I remember as cute a quaint with a rich history turned into a money making amusement.
Anyway it was time to finish the trip with the remainder of the drive home. It was unusual (being a Southerner) to see signs for Birmingham and Leeds accompanied with signs to THE SOUTH but eventually we reached THE SOUTH and the road trip came to an end.
It was wonderful to finally see more of my own country, which was something I had wanted to do ever since I learnt the Kiwis (the people) never travel outside New Zealand until they have explored their own country. I now feel that I have done that myself.
I hope you are all well and those who have read this have enjoyed the random little snippet. I will continue to update as I travel but this maybe less than it once was.
Cheerio!
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