Jason's Daily Notes

Nike had work/studying to do in the library, so I went with her. She graciously lent me her bike rental (Velo) card to get around with. She set me up with her login at the computer lab, and I got to it. I checked my emails, sent lots of messages to my friends all over this part of Europe, and did some job searching. I also ordered a SIM card from Mobile Vikings; I didn't want to pay egregious amoungs for roaming.

I took a break in the afternoon and walked around the city center. I explored many streets and took plenty of pictures. I walked through several nice plazas. I ended up buying food from a chip shop (fritur) on the corner. I got fries with stooflees sauce (which is an amazing beef gravy sauce - yum!).

I returned to the computer lab, messed up the login (but Nike texted it back to me), and then continued online for another hour or so. At 17:30 I met Nike and her boyfriend Guido and we got a drink (actually several drinks) at their local hangout, Kassa. Jan joined us. They taught me some new words. I learned that Guido is not only a musician in a band, but that he's starting his own music studio. Cool! Vet!

They had plans to meet another friend who was not keen on a stranger (me) joining, so I went home on my own. I walked back toward the central station, and there I bought some more fries and a bickyburger. It was a lot of food, so I took most of the burger home with me.

I was in a food coma, so I laid down and fell asleep really early, like 9:30pm. I got a text from Nike after midnight saying they were back at Kassa (inviting me to join them) but I was already knocked out and didn't want to get up. The floor and pad that I'm sleeping on is much more comfortable than my London bed was. I'm sleeping a lot better (or maybe I just have less of a reason to get up in the mornings now?).

It was the day. My train to Belgium was at 12:58.

But first - I had to ship the box of graduation photographs back to California. So I went to the Stockwell Post Office and took care of it - the girl helping me was very friendly and interested (because she also had family in California). It ended up costing 56 pounds. Ouch.

I rushed back to the apartment. Mike was awake. He had plans to visit his office in the morning, and then he said he would meet me at the train station. He accompanied me to the bus stop, helping me carry my bags (which were pretty heavy), but it looked like he wouldn't have enough time, so he just accompanied me all the way to St. Pancras.

I picked up my tickets, and there was still about an hour before the departure, so Mike and I got some coffee (when do we ever get coffee? I guess we just didn't know what else to do). We just hung out a little bit more. Before I knew it, it was time to go. We said our byes and I entered security. Mike was standing there waving bye to me the whole way as I passed through security. Aww.

My passport was stamped, and the train was boarding. I got a seat in a 4-seat group. Luckily, no one else sat down with me, so I had plenty of space for the entire train ride. The train zoomed away quickly. It darted all the way out of London mostly underground. Within 10 minutes I was in countryside. I was whatsapping most of the way until we went into the tunnel. I put on some music and just reflected. What interesting turns my life has taken to this point. And I really had no idea where I would go next.

Before I knew it, the train arrived in Brussels (after a stop in Calais and in Lille). I got off, carrying my bags down to the connecting trains. The train to Antwerp was to leave in 4 minutes - perfect! I took the lift there and got on that train. It did not have a luggage cart, and the train got pretty crowded. It was interesting to look at the people - they were simply different than those in London. A group of kids were horsing around loudly in the hallway between the compartments.

I arrived in Antwerp just past 17:30 (I had scheduled to meet Nike at 17:30). It took some time for me to find the Starbucks, so I withdrew some cash along the way. And we met! It was great to see her.

Interestingly, she made two observations quickly: (1) I seemed much less American than I did last year; and (2) I seemed sad. Both of which were obvious to me on the inside, but I didn't know that they were so externally visible too.

Anyway, we walked to her flat. I settled in. I joined her flatmates, Katrin and Jan, for dinner (roasted bell peppers).

In the evening, I met up with Laura at the Mechelese plein (Zeppos). No one else joined me because they were all brak (hungover). She was busy preparing to go to Guatemala, so I occupied myself talking with her friends. It was good to see her, making her now a 3-country friend!

I walked home, returning around midnight.

It was my last day in London.

I didn't feel like doing anything. I just stayed in the flat with Mike. We spent the day exchanging photos, music, etc. Demi showed the flat to two more people.

Mike made pancakes. We stayed in. Tossed out all the food. I finished most of my packing. I felt a deep sadness. I did not want tomorrow to come.

We returned the car in the morning with Bernadet. Along the way, a female cyclist appeared to have been hit by a car. We then went to Tesco to buy some breakfast/snacks. Mike and I then went to London Bridge, where he had a haircut and I returned the library books. He accompanied me back to Brixton, where I deposited my check (from TfL) into my bank account and we stopped by Tesco (bought milk, snacks, cheap ketchup, ice cream).

Most of the snow had gone.

Kayleen was still around in the afternoon. She left to meet up with Mel (to celebrate Australia Day).

In the evening was our goodbye party, but first, we had dinner - Angus beef burgers and potatoes, with steamed veggies on the side. We only had time/stomach space to eat one burger each before heading to The Miller.

Several people were already there - Kayleen, Mel, Tessa, and Philip; Bernadet and her friend (Sophie?). We moved to the back, where a space had been reserved for us. Bernadet's friends arrived, including Amondine from France. Cece and Abhi were there. Chieh soon came, and so did Asia, Kristi, Ken, and Kristine. Sandy also came. I made sure to take plenty of pictures. We played some pool.

Around 11 we all left; Chieh was really drunk and needed to be escorted to get the right train home - Bernadet helped. Those of us left - Ken, Kristine, Mike, Amandine, Cece, Asia, Abhi and I - went to Stockwell and to the Swan! Along the way, we changed at Waterloo because the Northern line's bank branch was closed. There, Mike, leaped over onto the moving sidewalk and fell SPLAT right on his face. He then got a big bruise, scratches all over his right cheek!

The Swan was 10 pounds to get in, and 2 pounds per item at coat check (I naturally checked my camera as well). The music was corny, pop/hard rock. We danced, downstairs, then upstairs, then back downstairs after the upstairs closed (around 4:30am). Abhi bought shots. Me and Amandine. Me and Asia. Mike and Kristi.

I left Mike, Kristi, and Ken around 5:30am.

Last day of the road trip. We made sure to get up earlier, around 8:30, to be out the door around 9. It was starting to snow. Bern drove us to Ambleside, where we had breakfast at the Apple Pie cafe. We then drove to Rydal lake, where we parked the car and hiked through the snow to Rydal Cave. It was cool. We almost missed the aves if not for Bern spotting it. We hopped over the water into the cave.

Back to the car, we drove past Langdale, headed toward the other side of the Lake District to see the other side of the region. However, the road conditions were not good. The roads were icy and not properly salted (or not salted at all). Bernadet was (rightfully) uncomfortable driving on such roads. So we turned around, and instead headed south to Coniston and instead explored there.

We stopped at the tourist information office and asked the woman for an easy and nearby hike. She directed us to tarn haws (?), which was like a 10 minute drive away. We parked the car on the road because it was also snowed in and started walking. The path was difficult to keep track of. We walked past nice views and we even spotted a deer.

We walked to the lake and took in the view. We found some inflatable tubes and slid down a hillside (and a bit more on the walk back to the car). It was already 3pm, and we wanted to get out of the lake district before dark, so we headed out. The road was small, though, so it was over an hour before we got to the motorway.

Bern drove us to Lancaster, where we stopped for food since we were hungry. We went to the first restaurant we saw - Pizza Hut. Mike and Bern shared a bottle of wine, which they didn't even charge us for. There were several birthday celebrations going on, and they kept asking Asia for a lighter.

Then came the treacherous drive back. Asia took over since Bern had been drinking. The weather was switching between rain and heavy snow. It was really difficult to see the road ahead of you. We just wanted to get home as quickly as possible but safely - we were driving 30-40 mph the whole way. Around Manchester, just after shopping at a service station, the whole motorway came to a stop. There was a big pileup right in front of us - at least 8 cars had collided. Five off to the left and another three to the right. A traffic officer closed the road right in front of us. Asia panicked as we sat there for over half an hour. She was too stressed to drive, so I took over.

When the traffic opened up, I took over with Mike as my copilot. I took it easy - it really was almost impossible driving conditions! We just needed to get past Birmingham, where the weather looked like it was clearing up. The snow changed to rain and I was able to drive faster. We reached the outskirts of London around 12:30 and soon dropped off Asia. Then I drove us home; Bernadet stayed over, so that we could come with her to return the car in the morning.

We left the hostel promptly around 9:30am, driving north to Keswick. Stopped along the way to take pictures of the lake. The day was nice, and the sun even came out for a bit! In Keswick, we ate at a cafe and walked around for a bit. We then drove down to the lakeside and took more pictures on the piers and jettys. Suddenly, a jet fighter boomed above us, flying really low! It came around a second time as we were getting back to the car.

Driving out of Keswick, we doubled back a bit, because Mike saw an awesome tree that we simply had to take a picture of. It was a cool tree.

We then picked up a hitchhiker! He was Paddy Rogan, a traveling musician going around northern England singing in pubs. We took him as far as Penrith, dropping him off by the motorway. We continued north on the M6 toward Carlisle (right before Scotland), turning off to see Hadrian's Wall.

It was another 30 minutes from the motorway to the part of the wall that I decided to take us to, Birdoswald. Another snowball fight as we walked around. It was hard to tell which wall was the wall.

We spontaneously decided to have lunch in Scotland, since we were so close to the Scottish border. We went to a pub - closed. Everything in the town was also closed. So we drove back onto the motorway and ate at a services stop. KFC for me and Mike; Papa Johns pizza for the girls.

Bern drove us back to the Lake District. We stopped for some quick pictures at Ullswater. Then, we spontaneously pulled into a parking lot because we saw that there was a trail leading to a waterfall. Night was falling as we made the half-mile hike. It was completely dark when I returned to the car (I had lost the others, so I just returned to the car directly, thinking they were already back, but no, I was first). We drove over through the hills and mountains in the darkness. Sheep blocked the road.

Stopped in Ambleside to buy some supplies to make dinner (pancakes). I got some Cumberland Ale. Back at the hostel, we (basically just Mike) got straight to making pancakes. We had to switch our key cards to get access to the other building of the hostel. We stayed in the hostel after dinner. Mike, Asia and I played pool and some foosball in the games room. Then, of course, with the pancakes we had a smoke.

Day 2 of the road trip. We got up around 8:30; Asia practiced driving in the car park before we set off. She took us to Sheffield, where we stopped for breakfast/coffee at the shopping centre (M&S). Then, we drove to the other side of the shopping centre where Bernadet bought some hiking shoes.

Finally, we were off, through Sheffield and into the Peak District. The landscape was beautiful, snow-covered. But, as we began our drive around, suddenly a racketing noise came from the back of the car. We pulled over, and discovered that the tire was flat. Ouch. So time to put in the spare, which was slightly more difficult because we were on a slope in a driveway in the snow. Mike got right on changing the tire right away. I called the rental company to coordinate what we could do - they said that we could bring the car in to a tyre centre in the nearby town of Chesterfield.

So Bernadet drove (on the spare tyre) to Chesterfield. We waited for while for them to approve the tyre work, so we walked to Burger King and had some food. I challenged them to pronounce a challenging poem about the English language pronunciation by B Shaw. We walked back to the tyre centre (dead pigeons!) and the car was done and ready to go.

The day was almost over; so much for seeing most of the peak district! Instead, we headed straight for the snake pass and drove over to Manchester, taking in the view along the way.

Around 5:30pm we arrived in Manchester. We drove in circles before finding a parking garage near the city center/cathedral and walked around. I took a box of cereal with me to munch on. We saw the cathedral. Walked down toward the town hall, and back to Piccadilly gardens.

We left Manchester. Got stuck in traffic. Took a detour. More traffic. Played 2 truths and a lie. Finally got on the motorway. Went to Preston. Had dinner at a chain-looking pub serving American/pub food. I had a bbq chicken sizzler plate. Mike and I also ordered lots of starters to share.

Drove on into the lake district, (along the way I learned to open a bottle from another bottle and with a lighter), got to our hostel and checked in. We arrived about 14 minutes after the reception closed, but luckily the guy stayed open for us. We chilled in the lounge for a little bit, and I played connect four with Bern as Mike watched Family Guy/American Dad on TV.

The road trip to northern England begins!

Mike had his final meeting for work in the morning (which, as usual, he pulled off very well), and then he biked to Oxford Street to buy some wellies and swimming trunks.

I left around 10 to meet Bernadet at the car rental place in Battersea. The road was closed near Vauxhall, so my bus took a diversion which made me a little late. The rental place did not have a car available in the size we reserved; they wanted to give us a Golf (too small) or a 7-seat van (too big). Eventually we learned that they had a Focus available - just right! We added Asia as an additional driver (but not me). Bernadet picked up some stuff from her place then we went to our place. Mike was there; we hung out for a few minutes, having breakfast and snacks, since Asia wouldn't be ready until 1:30pm.

We drove across London to Asia's place and picked her up. The road trip was on! We kept my iphone plugged in and played songs on shuffle, which worked out really well.

It took us about 3-4 hours to get to Nottingham. It was already dark. We parked and walked around near Nottingham castle. Asia and Mike then began the first of many snowball fights.

We had some drinks and snacks at Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, "the oldest Inn in England." There was a game that involved tossing a ring onto a small horn. Mike got it quickly, getting a sticker as a prize, then I was all like, "aww, I want a sticker." So I did. Booyah.

We then walked to the city center, bought some drinks at Tesco and headed onward to our hotel in Rotherham. We got there around 7:30pm, and learned that the fitness center/pool/sauna had last entry at 9. So we quickly went to the nearby pub for food, but they were sold out for the day! (Wtf?!) Whatever, we snacked a little bit (peanuts for me) and then went to the aquatic center. It was great - I swam a few laps (discovered that I am really out of shape), sat in the hot tub and the saunas. I felt so relaxed in the jacuzzi. Awww yeah. We stayed until they closed (10pm), then ordered lots of Chinese food and ate in the hotel room.