Travels > The UK > So it has begun...

Wed 2.9.2009 by Liz

So it has begun...! It's our fifth day in the land of England and much has happened. For one, my internal monologue has taken on an English accent. (But I do have a tendency to imitate English accents involuntarily).

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On Saturday we landed in Heathrow, around 6am after a flight that was a lot more comfortable than was expected which we were to witness a very extended sunset and a stunning sunrise over Europe. Especially for Jack - having never been out of Australia before, it still hadn't sunk in that we had really left. Also for the fact Bronwyn has also joined us on our flight over to the UK which was kinda cool. Yes, the trio was at is again. :)

With Bron off to meet her Canadians for a bbq later that day, Jack and I headed in the opposite direction towards Isla's pleasant and respectable boat trip up the canals and Alastair's whiskey fueled bachelor binge chaos that is the trashbats drinking London dry. Coming up the steps of King's Cross Stn to Euston Rd we were greeted with string quartet of street performers playing that "Lord British" tune from the computer game, Ultima (can't remember the name of the song) - how appropriate! We met up with Isla's friend, Steph, who generously allowed us the use of her shower... quite a relief after 27 hours of traveling. After throwing Jack back to craziness of Kings Cross on a beautiful Friday morning - bit of a worry, Jack was on his third consecutive day without sleep (having not slept the night before we left Sydney and not at all on the flight either) and was running purely on adrenalen and excitedness of being here in the UK. Steph and I went to meet another hen's weekend attendee, Hester. The three of us then made our way out of London heading north to meet the rest of the 9 hens, leaving the fellas to party it up in London town.

We got to Tridgebie (or something similar) to board our barge, or narrow boat as some say, which we would use to voyage through the canals to Birmingham. The fellow giving the "How to's" stayed aboard a bit longer than usual, obviously marvelling at our skippering skills. No one bumps canal walls quite like a boat full of girls. :)

So, after getting our steering relatively under control and preparing the many apologies as we slowly watched the inevitable collision of our boat with others', we made the 4 mile/hr trip up to Birmingham.

Many cups of SLOW boiling tea later, made on an apparently "boat safety" stove, we moored for the evening and hauled ourselves into a local pub for a spot of dinner and hen's weekend activities. After donning Isla in typical embarrassing attire, the matching hen's games followed. At this stage, my jet lag got the better of me and my eyes lost the battle with gravity. I thought I did pretty well making it to 10:30pm after landing at 6am with not much sleep. I heard later that Jack on the other hand outdid the buck's party with his intake of Bourbon and Coke and didn't sleep the Friday night at all and made it to his fourth day without sleep.

The next day saw more slow cruising down the canals, each of us girls having a go at steering the long and stubborn boat. Eventually we all realised that Eva was doing the better job and most of the steering was left in her talented hands. The day played out to plan: moor at Birmingham and catch a train back to Bournville for Cadbury World! (Obviously, I had images in my head of "No Augustus! Save some room for later")

Cadbury World had its moments; unfortunately none of them involved a fat kid falling into a river of chocolate. It all felt a bit "preachy" at times, with its commercial like propaganda towards the humble chocolate empire. That said, it was not without enjoyment or an abundance of free chocolate samples - that any child would think were too few samples, but overly adequate for our adult palates.

The evening saw us at an Italian style restaurant at "The Mailbox", a type of eatery complex in Birmingham. More wine was poured and in true Julietta style, the manager was "massaged" into serving her alcohol wishes.

Again, gravity was battling with my eyelids, so I retired early again, as the others moved on from the restaurant to the ever cheesy "Walkabout" bar. Apparently dancing and drink ensued to a later apparently noisy return that I slept right through - in true Liz style.

We woke the next day and after yet another deliciously prepared breakfast (on our ever SLLOOWW stove) we "set sail" back to the boat yard. The trip back went swiftly as we got more confident with the higher speed and better at avoiding obstacles such as overhanging trees and other boats.

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On the other side of tracks back in London, Jack and another sleepless Aussie backpacker, Matt took it upon themselves to take a walking tour of London while the other guys slept off their hangovers. Picking any particular direction (as Matt also had no knowledge of London), they found themselves enjoying the surrounds of the Camden markets and the Regent's Park on what was shaping up to be a delightfully warm Saturday morning. According to Jack, if he would have had any introduction to the world outside Australia, London put on her best and delivered. Apparently Matt had needed to clear his head having lost his wallet, credit cards and passport the day before and also arriving in London without a night of sleep - found the walk to be therapeudic and re-energising and allowed him to consider his plan of action to solve his dilemma.

Taking pity on the now homeless, aimlessly wandering Aussie already out of his depths, Alastair and "Nasty" Nick - the forthcoming Best Man, took Jack out of London and to the tiny but very pretty hamlet of Twyford to stay at Al's parents, Lyn and Alan's house and finally he could actually get some sleep and enjoy a very nice home cooked meal (Jack says thanks very much - the hospitality was very much appreciated!). Seeing the other side of Al's life in the UK was fascinating and running the countryside surrounding Twyford felt like it was running through some Enyd Blighton storybook. The pub at Twyford which was of course, frequented for more whiskey once a couple of hours of sleep had needlessly restored reality offered Jack a new perspective of how the world outside of Australia treats drinking... not that Aussie pubs aren't fun or anything but instead of the noise, crowds, stench of beer soaked everything and some guy that always thinks you've stolen his smokes, the pub at Twyford was a clean, quiet, comfortable and relaxing tavern where the patrons talked almost at a whisper and mostly read the newspaper with an occasional chuckle out loud. Nice place for a drink.

Anyway, back to the girl-story after the safe and "in one piece" return of the boat, Steph and Hester dropped me off at the local train station to catch a train back to Birmingham and meet up with Jack. From Birmingham, Jack and I went by a series of different trains to Mossley Hill, Liverpool where we were greeted by rain... a strangely soothing sight after recently leaving drought stricken Australia.

On went our rain gear and onward we walked to Jack's relatives, David and Rosemary's house where somewhat co-incidently, we also met up with Jack's parents who had been also traveling in Europe over the last few weeks before. Everyone was a bit shocked that we'd walked through the rain but we'd not seen so much rain for a long time and it was almost a pleasure. We gratefully dined on Liz's first home cooked English dinner which was gratefully received and thanked David and Rosemary for our accommodating us for the next few nights. Again, as Rosemary said, it's English hospitality but even so, we were very appreciative of them taking us in and helping us get started on what was to become our UK road trip.

We did some supply shopping in Liverpool One - the newly developed shopping district built over the condemned shipping areas that once were. From going into many shops to get random camping / road trip supplies we've seen how Australia is a bit behind the times in terms of shopping efficiency and also how England's commercial side deals with the sheer number of people to sell to.

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We picked up our hire van today. It's a bit older than we thought it would be, but I'll give it a chance before I judge it too harshly.

As a thanks for the many wonderful meals and kindness, Jack and I took David and Rosemary out to dinner. We got to try Indian food in England! I heard so much about the Indian food in England and this meal delivered. A very pleasant evening indeed.

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Well, that's the end of this first entry. It's been long, and I couldn't include everything, but I have enough. Let's see where the road takes us tomorrow. :)

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