fishpatrol

I got back from my trip to the UK with

lilie_charlotte on Friday and spent most of the weekend in a haze (ignoring my school email account, catching up on fic and LJ, sleeping and eating). It was a fun but hectic two weeks, and my vacation time is pretty much over, sadly.

This trip was my first time in Europe, my first time planning a trip without the input (or monetary assistance XD) of my parents, and my first time travelling with a friend. Our days were pretty much jam-packed and between the two of us, we took probably around 3000 photos. We somehow managed to get lost in every city we went to, even with the aid of an iPad (though, to be fair, Google Maps didn't work without wifi and the maps we'd downloaded weren't terribly detailed. ...and also, we're kind of directionally challenged ;;;), so there was a lot of: "We have to turn left here" and "No, dude, we totally need to turn right" and "WTF HOW ARE WE LOST AGAIN".

More details and photos (thumbnails; click to enlarge) under the cut!

Day 1: We started off our trip in Hastings, which was a quaint little town by the sea.

Day 2:

Hastings castle:

Battle Abbey:

Day 3: We took a day tour over to Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge, and Bath. We spent more time on the bus (3 hours there and 4 hours back D:) than we did in each of the sites (less than 6 hours, altogether X3;;).

Salisbury Cathedral:

Stonehenge: unsurprisingly, there were busloads of people there. The stones are circled off, so all of the tourists just walked around the circle, taking photos of the stones from every possible angle.

The Roman baths:

Day 4: We headed off to Glasgow by train and arrived in the evening, just enough time to rest up for the tour the next day.

Day 5-7: Scottish Highlands and Isle of Skye
(omg, I was bitten all over by midges while almost everyone else on the tour remained unaffected. D: D: DO I HAVE TASTY BLOOD OR SOMETHING)

Apparently the Sidhe built these little rock piles. ;)

We stayed in a lovely (but expensive X3) B&B in Portree -- the view from our window was spectacular:

We climbed a mountain! The view was amazing! But! There were sheep droppings everywhere! (also, earlier that day, I stepped in a pile of cow dung while trying to take photos of a castle X3 SO MUCH FAIL. I decided to off the hem of my jeans with a pair of scissors and wore tattered jeans for the rest of the trip XD;;;)

Loch Ness (but no Nessie sightings, sadly):

Day 8: We took another tour around the highlands. This time it was only a one-day tour -- but given that it followed on the heels of a three-day tour, it probably wasn't the best idea ever. (It was also the day that we both ended up catching a cold that ended up following us right up until we flew back home. X3;;). The tour guide kind of looked like Chris Kane from the back. Only, the tour guide had a Scottish accent and was wearing a kilt. I amused myself on the long bus ride by imagining Chris Kane in a kilt. X3

lilie_charlotte insisted that we try haggis while we were in Scotland, so we considered ordering it for lunch. The waitress kindly brought out a sample for us to try, and...well, the whole sheep innards thing didn't bother me, but the texture of the meat mashed together with oatmeal and turnips was most unpleasant. We ordered steak and ale pie and a prawn salad instead. XD;

Day 9: Sick day. :( After lying around for most of the day, I ventured out to explore Glasgow in the afternoon.

World War Z was being filmed near by, and while I didn't catch sight of Brad Pitt, I did snap a few shots from the set. :>

Day 10: We felt (and looked) like zombies, but it was our last day in Scotland, so we dragged ourselves to Edinburgh. (beautiful city, but the muted colours of the buildings made it difficult to take good pictures)

Day 11: We took a train down to Birmingham, and while we had originally considered going to Stratford-upon-Avon in the afternoon, we were still sick and too tired to do much more than wander around the Bullring Shopping Centre (and take touristy photos next to the Bullring Bull).

Day 12-14: And finally, London! The hotel suite was teeny and cost twice as much as the place we stayed in Birmingham, but given that it was high tourist season, it was hard to find a decent place to stay at. We visited (or, at the very least, lurked outside of) most of the touristy places. The lovely

lemniciate led us on a long walk by the South Bank, which was gorgeous (and we nattered on and on about fandom and psychology over cake and dim sum :>:>).

Tower Bridge:

Tower of London:

A guard, outside of Buckingham Palace (he looks like a doll inside a cardboard box!):

Big Ben and Houses of Parliament:

Day 15: And then we went home. The end.

Bonus-the-first: Random animal photos! \o/

A highland cow, I think? (I had to really zoom in for this photo. I totally wanted a photo next to one of these, but those horns might hurt if it attacked me XD;;)