Day 8 - 10 Cardiff

25 - 27 July 2014

Day 8
On the train
The train ride was pleasant. I sat in one of the crappier carriages because it was less busy. We even went through a tunnel that goes underwater!

Hostel
Once in Cardiff, it was easy to find the hostel and get booked in. I hadn't planned to meet any travellers here but the Belgian guy I met in Oxford was in my room and the Israeli guy I met in Bristol found me in the common room.

The Belgian and I

Night out
The Israeli guy was going out with some locals he'd met earlier than day and he kindly invited the Belgian and I along with him. We went to a place called The Queens Vaults first then I headed over to the Prince Of Wales pub to meet some girls I'd met last year in Amsterdam. It was great to catch up with them and because it was a birthday, they were planning a big night out.

They went to a club called Reflex after and we tagged along. I met some (drunk) locals in there and they paid the bathroom attendant to spray me with aftershave but with special attention to my crutch; it was nice, I think. The music was a bit cheesy for the Belgian, the Israeli and myself so we took off and went to a rock bar called Fuel where we stayed for the rest of the night. I had a great night dancing and talking to lots of people.

Day 9
Exploring
The Israeli and I went for a look around the city today. We went into the entrance to the castle, where you can see some of the grounds inside, but admission was too expensive so we didn't go in.

Front of the castle

Castle walls with animal statues

We then grabbed some lunch and sat in the park and chatted about all sorts. I now know a lot more about Israel, the Gaza strip and the West Bank. The park was also really nice too:

The really nice park

After the park we headed over to the museum but we were only in there for 5 minutes and they kicked us out because they were closing. Lucky it was free. It was almost 5pm, where did the day go?

We did a lap of the city and got some dinner supplies before going back to the hostel.

Another night out
We went out again tonight and because it was a Saturday night, it was a lot busier. It felt a lot like Amsterdam with all the pubs overflowing onto the streets and every second person you see is part of a hen's or buck's party. So much so that there are people on the street selling hen and buck show merchandise:

Hen and buck show merchandise sellers

The most impressive group of people I saw were all dressed up a green plastic army men. They went all out and had all dark green clothes, helmets, guns and every bit of exposed skin was covered in dark green paint.

We looked at a lot of different places but ended up at Clwb Ifor Bach. It was kind of quiet when we went in there but it soon started to get busier. I went home for an early night while the other two stayed out for a big one.

Day 10
Killing time
I had some time before the bus to Manchester so I went for a walk around the town again. I saw their...um...big ring and stick thing:

The Alliance sculpture

I went Wok To Walk (from my Amsterdam trip last year) and apparently it was popular because I met some more people from my room and two other English girls from the hostel there.

On the walk back to the hostel I spotted a house named the same as the street I live on.

Samsies

Bus
I didn't book a ticket for the bus before hand because I hoped to buy one from the driver. This was a mistake because the bus was full plus I couldn't buy from the driver, it had to be on the internet. However, the awesome bus driver managed to get me on board and take me to Birmingham where I only had to wait an hour for another bus that would get me all the way to Manchester. Someone else said this to me and I have to agree, English bus drivers are just the nicest people.

The big bridge that takes you from Wales to England was very impressive. It's really hard to get good photos while you're on the bus so just use Google.

Thoughts on Cardiff

• The city centre is quite small and easy to walk around.
• It seems to be a big party destination for young people on the weekends.
• The weather was good (locals would say unusally amazing) while I was there.

Day 5 - 8 Bristol

22 - 25 July 2014

Day 5
On the train
The train ride from Oxford was easy. There was a transfer but everything was running on time. I saw my first nuclear power plant though:

It's pronounced noo-coo-lur

The ride went past Bath and I could see why quite a few people had recommended it; it looked interesting. More on Bath later.

Proof I was in Bristol

Invisible hostel
I'd marked my map with 3 hostels that were all close to each other so I jumped on another train from Bristol station to take me to them. The problem was, none of them were there. I checked on the net and, for one of the three, apparently there are two streets with the same name in Bristol and the hostel site marked the wrong one on the map. I gave up on the other 2 hostels because they didn't have great reviews, I couldn't find them either and the area seemed a fair walk from the centre of town. After a 2 mile walk I found the Rock n Bowl hostel and checked in.

Quorn

In the supermarket they had a section of this fake meat stuff and the pictures on the box make it look pretty nice. They lied. I had a cottage pie and it might've tasted exactly like one with real meat but it still wasn't any good.

Day 6
Exploring
Today I went for a walk and found some street art.

Street art

More street art

And more art

I also saw two interesting signs:

I imagine it like cow tipping but with flies

Such a British (polite and proper) way to phrase it

And a stereotypical Aussie bar:

Looks like a fair dinkum bar

Then I found my way to a park.

Brandon Hill Nature Park

Which had a nice tower that was free to climb and gave a great view out of the city.

The tower I climbed in Brandon Hill Nature Park

The stairwell in the tower had this take on the coins in the fountain thing, which seems to be popular:

People throw change in the vents in the tower stair well

The top of the tower is a decent height:

At the top of the tower

...and gives some excellent views out over Bristol.

View from the tower in the park

View in the other direction from the tower in the park

After the tower I followed the trail through the rest of the nature park and saw some art:

Art... I think

...and some little forest friends, who weren't shy:

Friendly squirrel

Cute squirrel

After the park I followed the river to go see the suspension bridge but on the way I found a D-shackle I liked.

Sucks when there's no-one to hold the camera, but I made do

I also saw a jetty that looked like a bit of an OH&S problem.

Possibly not the safest jetty

Then I got my first look at the bridge.

Still no-one to hold the camera

There was only one thing to do; climb up the hill to walk on the bridge. There was a good view point part way up the hill.

Panorama of the bridge from the view point

Gotta prove I was there. Thanks to the bench that took the photo for me.

You get a good view from the bridge although the river looks a bit dry.

View from the middle of the bridge. Not much water in the river

This picture obviously doesn't show it but from this vantage point, you can visibly see the bridge bouncing.

The bridge

And a silly one.

Where's my 200mm spanner?

After walking all over the bridge I was still in a climbing mood so I went to the park above it for some more photos. Probably looks like I wanna have this bridge's babies eh?

Panorama of the bridge from above

At the park above the bridge

Then it was back to the hostel where I met my new room mate, an American guy and had a bit of a chat.

Mr Wolf
In the evening my American friend and I were invited to go out to a local club with a group of people from the hostel. This club is called Mr Wolf's and we had an amazing night. There was a band up first followed by some DJs who played a mashup of rap, reggae, drum and bass and probably some other stuff. Everyone had a great dance even if it was a bit of a sweat box.

Day 7
Bath
Today my American mate and his Welsh friend, who joined us at the club last night, went to Bath for a day trip.

The reason Bath has it's name. Roman baths

It had a unique feel because all the buildings in the town are the same colour.

A street in Bath. Note all the sandstone

I had a giggle at some of the interesting street names.

Funny street name in Bath

And this dude.

The spongebob christmas tree (aka pizza) in Bath

We had a walk around and relaxed in one of the parks for a bit. Once we couldn't ignore our rumbling stomachs, we headed for a place called Grillstock for a drink and a burger.

At Grillstock in Bath with my Welsh and American friends.
I was happy, I just wasn't ready for the photo.

After Bath we caught the train back to Bristol where the Welshman, who was a Bristol local, took us to a bar on a boat that served local ciders.

The (first) cider I had on the boat bar. Intense colour.

We then went to a place called The Canteen, a student bar, then grabbed a kebab for dinner before going for one last drink at a bar called Start The Bus.

Day 8
Lazy
The hostel doesn't serve breakfast so I went to the supermarket to get some milk and cereal. I only needed a small milk and I literally ended up a pint sized milk *giggles*. I spent the morning working out which train to catch to Cardiff and talking to some of the long term-ers in the hostel.

Day 4 - 5 Oxford

21 - 22 July 2014

Day 4
Check in
I stayed at Oxford Backpackers and the hostel seemed ok. The room smelled a bit like shoes but my shoes stink too so I can't really complain.

Exploring
Oxford is quite small so it was easy to see a lot of it in a few hours. I walked past the castle that still has the old keep (looks like a mound) out the front.

The keep

I also saw Christ Church.

Just inside the gates of Christ Church

Selfie out the front of the church

Looking back at the front of the church

I kept going with my lap around the town and saw the gardens of Christ Church and spied some other church towers above the tree line and came back through the main street, that was packed.

Packed main street

I then walked through part of the university and saw some interesting and no doubt old buildings while eavesdropping on some of the tours.

Then I headed back to the hostel and met some of the people in my room and had a bit of a snooze because I clearly hadn't beaten jetlag in one day. When I woke up, the sun was still up but it was definitely dinner time because the sun sets so late. A bit of a change from the 5:30 winter sunsets at home.

Pub
In the evening I went to the local pub with a few people from the hostel for a few quiet beers and a chat.

Day 5
Next stop
The next place to visit was an easy choice because I just kept heading west on the train to Bristol, which looked like a big city in the area.

Thoughts on Oxford

• It's quite small.
• There are schools of the university scattered everywhere.
• There are a lot of tours run through the city including open top buses and it feels fairly touristy.
• I probably won't go back because it doesn't seem to have anything to make it different the second time.

Day 3-4 London

19 - 20 July 2014

Day 4
The flight
The incident where MH17 was shot down only happened a few days before and although I was flying with KLM, the flight codeshared with Malaysia Airlines under MH5632 so I was a tiny bit worried. The pilot did come on the PA system and tell us that we were going around the Ukraine but that would also make our flight longer. The flight turned out fine (obviously, I'm writing this) and the person next to me never showed up so I had an extra seat to myself. I watched Wolf of Wall Street, American Hustle and Gravity, which were all good and then part of Divergent, which wasn't so good. I even managed to get 3 hours sleep in, which is huge for me on a plane.

Transfer
My flight landed in Amsterdam and I had to transfer to one to London. Schiphol airport is huge and for a bit I was worried I wasn't going to make it but the gates opened late so there was tonnes of time.

Peak hour?
It was still quite early in the morning so I thought I'd stay in the airport until after peak hour but it was only just as I was leaving that I remembered it was Sunday, doh! I caught the tube for what felt like forever, found a hostel and checked in. It was pretty crap with 4 triple bunk beds in a small room and not really enough room for any bags but I was only there for one night.

Dinner
I was having dinner with family tonight and I thought I gave myself lots of time but because the train line out to their house was shut, I had to catch the substitute bus. Then the bus had to crawl through a traffic jam because of a festival that was on. I ended up borrowing a phone from a very nice Russian guy on the bus to call my family and let them know why I was so late. I eventually made it and we went for dinner at Chom Chom, an all you can eat place and we ate too much but it was totally worth it.

Day 5
Where to?
I didn't have anything planned but Oxford looked ok so I jumped on a train headed there. I know Oxford university has prestige but hopefully a visit will teach me something.

No pictures for this blog :( I didn't do anything new in London to deserve one.

Day 1-3 Kuala Lumpur

17 - 19 July 2014

Day 1
Leaving home
So it begins again! I'm off for 7 weeks to attend two family weddings in Europe and try to see places I missed last time. I picked Kuala Lumpur as a stop over because it made for cheap flights, it's somewhere warm and I've been there before so it'll be a bit easier to get back into traveller mode.

My flight left at 10am so it was an early morning, for me anyway, and although AirAsia had been given a bad review by people I'd spoken to, they left on time and it's the first flight I've been on that wasn't full so people could move around and space out.

The flight was easy going, the food was good and I had a decent chat with the Malaysian lady who sat next to me. Once in KL, I managed to catch the trains and walk to the hostel all by memory although I was only there 8 months ago so I guess that's no huge feat.

Almost everyone in my room had only arrived that day so we all clicked and were keen to form a group and do stuff. A few of us went for a walk to Chinatown for dinner and grabbed a slushie (frozen fruit juice) drink on the way back although I wasn't game to get pearls/bubble tea ball things in mine.

In the evening we hit the rooftop bar, something that was mentioned quite a bit in my last post about KL. I had a bucket of rum and coke, which was possibly overkill but certainly let me sleep through the loud music easily.

Day 2
Batu caves
It took ages to get everyone organised and we kept adding more and more people to the group but we eventually left around 12 and as a group of 8, made our way to Batu caves. There were lots of monkeys out and about but none of us fell victim to their thievery. The monkeys did try to steal some water from two Japanese girls that were near us but two guys from our group bravely chased them away. The monkeys that is, not the girls.

The group at the bottom of Batu Caves

Last time I was here I missed The Dark Cave but it was open this time so we had a look inside but didn't feel like paying for the tour so we took off.

The group went to McDonalds for lunch but I stayed strong and got Subway instead... :( we're the worst westerners. I wanted Malaysian food but there wasn't much in the train station.

Bars that aren't on the ground
In the evening the group got as dressed up as backpackers could and we went to the Petronas Towers for the mandatory selfies.

Being an idiot with the fountain at the Petronas Towers

We had dinner in the food court, caught the fountain show and then made our way over to the SkyBar, where we ordered a beer tower and some cocktails.

The group in the SkyBar

The next stop was the HeliBar, which is a bar on a helicopter pad and we made it there ok but this place had a dress code that most of us failed. It wasn't all bad though because we could just make the last train home. We almost didn't make it because we tried to buy 11 train tickets at once and the machine kept rejecting us. After some help for the attendant, we did catch the very last train back to the hostel.

Then, you guessed it, roof top bar!

Day 3
Working
I had to check out today and because lots of "the group" were either hungover or had left, I thought it'd be a good chance to try and do some work. Oh yeah, I'm trying to work remotely during this trip to help pay for it and give me something to do in the quiet times.

I'd met another guy doing the same and he told me about Co-work Spaces, which I'd never heard of before. Basically you rent a desk in an office for the day so you can get some work done. I found one that was open in KL and made my way there. The bad news was some company had booked the whole thing out but the good news was they let me sit in one of the empty conference rooms and use their power for free.

In the evening I grabbed my bags, said goodbye to everyone and went to the airport for my flight to London.