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Avoiding the heat EU tour
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  • Avoiding the heat EU tour
    111

    Ups and downs

    11 декабря 2023 г., Англия ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C

    This morning started with a bad coffee and a walk around the Jewelry Quarter of Birmingham, while there were quite a few jewelry stores, the name is a lot fancier than the area actually is, at least the parts that we saw.

    After this, we walked into the centre of the city, where there was the largest authentic German Christmas market outside of Germany itself. It was pretty impressive though we didn't stop to buy anything. After a better coffee, we spent the afternoon walking around the shopping district.

    On the way back we stopped for a snack and to pick up another meal deal from the supermarket and headed back to the accommodation to ruin our evening by watching the saddest Pixar movie: Up!

    It was a great movie.

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    2

    Day 100!

    12 декабря 2023 г., Англия ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C

    We said good morning to Mr. Horton and his coffees before heading out of Birmingham and driving to my favorite town in the UK so far; Ludlow.

    Ludlow has been described by many as one of the prettiest towns at Christmas due to its tudor age buildings, markets and varying range of stores. And we both agreed it was our favourite small town so far! (in the UK)

    After checking out at least 8 op-shops we decided to leave Ludlow and we headed to Bridgnorth.

    Here we checked out 5 more op-shops and enjoyed a wander through the town before picking up some food supplies at the supermarket and made our way down a flooded single lane road to our castle gatehouse!

    Our accommodation for the next 2 nights is an Elizabethan gatehouse. Which is very cool! We have a video showing off our latest digs, but it's too long for Penguins, so we'll have to share it separately...

    We made ourselves some spaghetti and meatballs and enjoyed it in our dining room before winding down with some TV.

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  • Avoiding the heat EU tour
    1

    When sickness strikes

    13 декабря 2023 г., Англия ⋅ ⛅ 2 °C

    This morning Bec awoke with a head cold, while we didn't plan to do much today other than lounge about in our gatehouse, but we were going to explore the grounds, which we did a little.

    Along with all of the other buildings there is St Michael's Church, which is a 12th century Norman church. While we weren't able to go in, it still looked really cool!

    Once the wind picked up, we got Bec back inside and lit a fire. Eventually we made another (smaller) charcuterie board and just relaxed in the warmth.

    Step count: 5.4k
    (Though I didn't have my watch on for a while, so it was probably a bit higher)    Читать далее

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  • Avoiding the heat EU tour
    22

    A murder!

    14 декабря 2023 г., Англия ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C

    This morning we said farewell to our beautiful gatehouse, and headed towards Derby.

    We wandered around Derby shopping mall for a while, stopping for a Popeyes lunch (which we loved in Hawaii, Phill believes it to be as good here too).

    We then checked into our accommodation at Risley Hall which is a Manor house. Apparently this Manor has a big secret, it was the site of a murder!

    Atleast that was the premise of our dinner, thanks to Tony and Michelle we are staying the night here solving a murder mystery over a 3 course meal!

    The food was good, and although 2 murders were committed the evening was high in spirits. We helped the local detective, we decided it was infact not Jack the Ripper, it was Lady Alexandra! And out of 40 people Phill and I received the Super Sleuth award! So thanks Michelle for slipping them a 20 and making us win!

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    High and mighty

    15 декабря 2023 г., Англия ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    After the success of last night, we awoke and made our way over to our included breakfast (thanks again for the cmas present!) And enjoyed a full English, with plenty of coffee and toast.

    After that, we packed our room, checked out, and punched Gloucester into the GPS. After a few hours we arrived in the centre of the city. We were a few hours early to check into our next accommodation so we explored the city centre for a while. We also made our way over to the gigantic Gloucester Cathedral. We already planned to go over in the evening as they have an event on, but some of it was going to be blocked off, and it was going to be a lot more busy. So while we had the time we went in and explored. The cathedral is huge and absolutely beautiful. We walked around there for over an hour, exploring the cloister, where multiple Harry Potter films have had scenes shot, and upstairs where we got a very good look at the large stained glass windows which was completed in 1350 and at the time was the largest in the world!

    Eventually we decided to go check in (and our parking ticket was going to expire...) So we went and drove the short distance to our accommodation.

    Once we moved everything in we went and explored the bar and food truck that this roadside hotel has. Lo and behold we ended up with a pint each and some nachos! After eating, we went back to the room and rested for a while before going out into the city again to view the cathedral at night! It was still impressive, and better yet when we got inside there was a choir singing with an organ. We walked around and looked at the Christmas themed stuff and enjoyed the music. Fortunately, since we already did the exploration in the day, we didn't have to fight the crowds. So we left, got a bite to eat, and came back to the hotel!

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    14

    Model villages

    16 декабря 2023 г., Англия ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    Today we decided to explore the Cotswolds, we began our journey in Broadway, where we admired Broadway Tower but didn't explore inside as the entry was £20 per person?!

    We then headed to the pretty village of Stow-on-the-Wold (yes that's a real name) where we saw St Edward's Church, where old yew trees flank the north door of this scenic church with a tall tower built in medieval times. It is said that these doors inspired Tolkien's vision for the door to the Mine of Moria.

    The next stop was another village with a fake name Bourton-on-the-Water. This village was stunning, we grabbed a creamed tea in a cafe near the lake that goes through the town before exploring through all the laneways and checking out all the shops. This town is what Nyora and Daylesford aspire to be!

    The next and final stop was Bilbury where we checked out Arlington Row, a row of heritage listed houses that look exactly as you'd imagine a little English cottage to look like.

    After stopping of at Lidl for dinner snacks we headed to our hotel where we enjoyed some pints in the bar below before hitting the hay.

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    141

    Day of birth

    17 декабря 2023 г., Англия ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    We started off the morning in the usual way, with a coffee and some biscuits. We then called and spoke to our respective families because it's Phill's birthday today! As well as my dad's, so we had rounds of 'happy birthdays' before setting off towards our next destination.

    We made our way to Winchester where we had an explore and enjoyed the local Christmas market before hitting the road again and making our way to Bishopstoke where we enjoyed Phills big birthday meal at none other then Toby's Carvery!

    We had plates bigger than our stomachs loaded up with 4 different kinds of meats and lots of sides.

    We rolled ourselves out of the beautiful establishment and checked into our accommodation in Southampton where a bottle of bubbles and a room upgrade awaited us.

    We lazed about and utilised the washing machine in the room while watching an off-brand Australian Gordon Ramsay.

    In the evening we went on a drive to a horror movie themed bar Ripper & Co which served fancy cocktails. After that we went home and jumped into bed!

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    2121

    Southcoast sippas

    18 декабря 2023 г., Англия ⋅ 🌬 10 °C

    So we said goodbye to our comfortable birthday accommodation and headed to the coastal community of Brighton, where we picked up our fellow Australian and headed on a hike! The devil's Dyke. After we finished the hike through the the valley we stopped off for a pint in the pub near the start of the trail.

    From here we headed into the city of Brighton, fought to find a park and did a bit of a walk around the main shopping district before we made our way back to our accommodation to find a permanent park for the next few days before heading out on an adventure.

    We headed to Andrew's first place of work where we enjoyed a cocktail, we then headed to a bar where we played some videogames before going on a nighttime adventure. After a few more random pubs we found a kebab place and then walked home.

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    32

    Winning big

    19 декабря 2023 г., Англия ⋅ 🌙 5 °C

    We took this morning slowly with a sleep in and coffee (with bickies, of course!) We used some leftover milk sachets we had since we didn't have any fresh milk...

    Having no more milk was what kicked off the decision for us to go and get some for another hot drink.

    On the way to the shops we decided to take a detour to the beach. While Brighton beach is filled with pebbles, it does look very nice, especially in the sad rain drizzle.

    We then explored the Brighton Palace Pier, which is a small amusement park. We wanted to know the general pricing to check it out tomorrow when the weather is supposed to be better. Turns out that there isn't an entry fee so you can walk around the area freely and pay for the rides as you want.

    Another section of the park was a game arcade, which we walked through and decided to spend some quid and play some games. Bec almost immediately hits the jackpot on a game and the machine starts printing tickets for about a minute straight!!

    After that excitement we continue to spend the rest of our money on games. (Without earning too many more tickets.) Before we knew it, 2 hours had gone by... So much for the coffee.

    We ended up cashing in our tickets and it turned out Bec's win was 500 tickets! And in total we had only won ~650 tickets.

    The saddest part was that out of the dozens of options we had for prizes, we excitedly exchanged the tickets for a tea towel and a shot glass. Safe to say our childhood selves were probably quite upset with that choice.

    After we had our fun, we headed to the shops finally and grabbed ourselves some milk and lunch. We then rested for a while before heading back out!

    We walked to Andy's work for a quick drink and to say bye to him, before heading back to the accommodation.

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    2

    Powered by Canadian coffee

    20 декабря 2023 г. ⋅ 🌬 10 °C

    We had a relaxing morning, we lazily got up and packed our belongings while enjoying some coffee and planning a little of our week next week.

    We left the sunny coastal town and headed towards Salisbury where we are staying for the night. After a midway stop for some Timmy's we reached our accommodation. As it was 15:30 by the time we got to our accommodation we decided to dump our bags and go explore the town before the sun completely sets at 16-16:30.

    Sailsbury is a medieval town with the most notable attraction being it's cathedral with Britain’s tallest spire, largest cloisters, and biggest Cathedral Close, as well as an original 1215 Magna Carta. We unfortunately arrived just as it was closing to the public so hopefully we'll go check it out tomorrow morning before we leave for bath.

    Other than the very impressive cathedral the town was very picturesque and lovely too. We enjoyed a walk around the area before stopping at M&S for dinner.

    We enjoyed dinner with some trash TV, had a quick walk around the block to push our step count up for the day and then planned our activities for next week some more.

    Step count: 10.5k

    PS. Don't try the Salisbury perfume.    Читать далее

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    22

    Bath time

    21 декабря 2023 г., Англия ⋅ 🌬 10 °C

    After getting up and having a lovely included breakfast that was better than it had any right to be from an inexpensive hotel, we hit the road in Bartholomew II for the last time in the direction of Bath. Only stopping briefly for fuel and to give the car a quick clean.

    We handed the car over and walked along the riverside into the town centre. The town is chock full of beautiful Georgian architecture with a characteristic yellow stone. It looks fantastic, one of the most pleasing cities to date.

    After a long walk with our familiar heavy bags weighing us down once more, we arrived at our hotel, hoping to drop the bags off. We got lucky again and were able to check in a few hours before the official time!

    Once in we booked some tickets to the Roman bathhouses which we assume provide the city with its name. After a brief rest we headed over and were immediately taken aback by how impressive these restored ruins were!

    The baths are smack bang in the middle of the city across the road from their huge Abbey. And you could walk past the museum site without even knowing they were there (like we did!)

    While you can't swim in the baths anymore, some of the pools are still filled with hot water, with satisfying bubbles coming up to the surface.

    The museum was surprisingly packed, but we were still able to have a thorough look at all of their exhibits, most importantly being the pools of course, but also large parts of the temple that they had adjacent to the pools, and even a fancy bronze head of their goddess Minerva!

    Once we eventually finished with the museum (and Phill convinced himself not to buy a mini Roman soldier's helmet) we left and got some afternoon tea which included one of the best cookies that we've ever had! Nice!

    Afterwards we walked around the town a little more, exploring the general area before it got dark. We made it to a few other nice places like The Circus (not the clown kind) as well as the Royal Crescent, areas which look amazing and contain a lot of impressive Georgian style homes... Where the kind of people live that probably fell into the favourable side of generational wealth...

    Eventually we made it back home and used our fun little app to find food that was close to being thrown out. We found another Gregg's and excitedly booked it. While it was still a good haul, it wasn't quite as impressive as the previous ones we've had... But it's okay, Gregg. We still love ya.

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    223

    Rock Tetris

    22 декабря 2023 г., Англия ⋅ 🌬 9 °C

    This morning we rolled out of bed at an ungodly time and boarded a bus to head to Stonehenge for the winter equinox. This was one of the earliest events that we booked for our holiday so it's a bit weird that we've reached that point...

    We imagined that this would be a relatively small event, so we were surprised when the bus was at a standstill from traffic kilometres before the visitor centre!

    We sat there inching forward while the guide was telling us facts about the area. After a while, it became evident that there was no way that the bus was getting to the centre in time to walk to Stonehenge itself before dawn.

    So we and a few other people got off and speed walked down the roadside and it's lucky we did as we reached the monument with about 1 minute to spare!

    There were hundreds and hundreds of people there, all who came to see the sun rise for the shortest day of the year. The centre of Stonehenge was chock full of people, as this is one of the few times per year that they let people onto the monument itself.

    As soon as we got there, the local druids started their celebrations which were quite fun to watch. The two of us just walked around taking in everything that was happening (which was a lot!)

    It's worth mentioning we got ridiculously lucky with the weather, it was warm, still, and not a drop of rain in the sky!

    After a while we met up with the tour group and listened to some fun facts, before heading back to the bus.

    We took a different track back to the bus which walked us past the Stonehenge Cursus, which is another even older monument which is composed of straight mile-long ditches which were initially thought to be related to Roman circuses until they realised it was much too old. Now all they know is that it was for more ceremonial things.

    Eventually we were back at the bus and on our way back to Salisbury where the bus stopped for an hour for breakfast. We grabbed some delicious food from a bakery and walked around a while before getting on the bus again and heading back to Bath.

    Once we got back we returned to our room and rested for a while before going out and grabbing dinner using our favourite cheap meal app (not from Gregg's this time!)

    Cya in Scotland!

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    23

    All aboard!

    23 декабря 2023 г., Шотландия ⋅ 🌬 11 °C

    We said goodbye to Bath, jumped in our uber and headed to Bristol before the sun rose this morning. In Bristol we jumped on a train and spent the next 7 hours on it.

    The train ride was nice and smooth, very full of people in parts but we luckily had seats reserved and the attendants were lovely and kept giving us tea and snacks.

    We finally arrived in Edinburgh, got to our hostel and dropped our bags off before heading out to explore. The buildings and area of the Old Town are stunning, it was lightly raining which really added to the mystical dreary ambiance. After a little explore we headed back to the hostel to relax a bit before going out later. I haven't missed shared dorms, this one smells like a sweaty musty locker room.

    We then headed out after the sun set to explore the city after dark and also as we had booked to go see Edinburgh Castle 'Castle of light', which is exactly as it sounds, the castle has a light show. This was pretty impressive, as was the views of the city and the Christmas market we had visited.

    We concluded the night with some Scottish favourites, haggis (the filling in the style of a chiko roll), deep fried pizza and a deep fried mars bar.

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    2

    Twas the night before Christmas

    24 декабря 2023 г., Шотландия ⋅ 🌬 6 °C

    This morning we woke up to a much better than average sleep considering that we were in a shared room again!

    The two of us rolled out of bed and had some breakfast before checking out of our hostel and into a different one. They were about 200 metres away from each other, which was great. But they were also about 200 stairs away from each other... Less great!

    We eventually got there and checked in our bags and explored the place before chilling a little bit before going out to tour the Edinburgh vaults, which are a series of chambers built under the arches of the city's South Bridge. These vaults were originally intended to be used for storage for businesses in the late 1700s. Though it wasn't long before it was taken over by less desirable people.

    The tour was great, after we were done with it we walked to the Greyfriars Kirkyard, which is a graveyard that surrounds a nice church. One of the notable things about it is that J K Rowling apparently got inspiration for some of the names in Harry Potter here. (Such as Tom Riddle)

    The graveyard is also known for the grave of a good boi (dog) called Greyfriars Bobby, a renowned puppy that lived in the 1850s. It was heartwarming seeing a pile of sticks in front of his (impressively large) grave even over 150 years later!

    After this we got ourselves a delicious hot chocolate and walked around a little longer, before going back to the hostel to properly check in.

    Things were quiet for the rest of the afternoon, until we excitedly ordered ourselves our dinner: an Asian munchie box. This is basically a box full of Asian/UK fusion food. There's spring rolls, lemon chicken, chips, fried rice, and probably even more. All of it coated in a really nice seasoning. Is it Asian cooking? No. Is it UK cooking? No. Is it healthy? God no. Was it delicious? Yes. Are we overfull and had to throw a bunch out? Also yes...

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    11

    Merry Christmas!

    25 декабря 2023 г., Шотландия ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C

    Merry Christmas all! It may be a day late when everyone is reading this, but it's still relevant to us!

    We awoke this morning and found mini sock stockings out our front door with some fruits and chocolates from the workers here. So in traditional fashion we were able to enjoy chocolates for breakfast!

    We lounged around for a bit but eventually headed out for a stroll as we wanted to get somewhat over 1k steps! We ended up just continuing walking and getting lost before grabbing a butterbeer and a shop that claims it overlooks the inspiration for Diagon alley.

    We made our way to the hostel, relaxed before making our way down for a 4pm lunch/dinner.

    We were seated between some American siblings and some French ladies and engaged in some very interesting conversations - including trying to teach the Americans what a Christmas cracker was, and how to partake in the cracking.

    After a 3 course meal, and Phill being a terrible influence on our new found friends we sat around for a bit meeting new people before heading out to a pub nearby to enjoy a late night beverage.

    Merry Christmas all!

    Step count: 12.5k
    (Probably the most steps we've ever had for Christmas...)    Читать далее

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    211

    No Christmas leftovers 😕

    26 декабря 2023 г., Шотландия ⋅ ☁️ 1 °C

    Today started with us checking out of our private hostel room and leaving our bags in the (very full) bag holding area. We're not changing location, but we are moving to shared accommodation now that Christmas is over.

    While we waited for the new room to be ready, we decided to find ourselves a cafe to have a hot drink. We eventually did and then decided that while we have some time, it would be a good day to do the washing.

    We collected our laundry and went on the 20 minute walk to the nearest laundromat which also turned out to be a coffee shop/laundry hybrid. Instead of doing it ourselves, there was a nice man who we paid and he put the washing on for us and transferred it to the dryer when done. This gave us some free time to walk around a new part of the city, which was nice.

    Eventually we collected our laundry and walked back to the city centre. By then it was lunch and we had pizza on the brain, so we went and scratched that itch!

    Once we were back we checked back into a different room and relaxed the rest of the day!

    Step count: 14k    Читать далее

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    It comes in 3s...

    27 декабря 2023 г., Шотландия ⋅ 🌬 5 °C

    This morning we awoke early, packed our bags and headed down to eat some breakfast before boarding a small bus with 25 other eager travelers for the beginning of our 3 day tour of the Isle of Skye!

    We drove for around 2 hours before reaching Pitlochry where we enjoyed a leg stretch and some coffee and we loaded up on some snacks as where we were heading didn't have a nearby supermarket apparently.

    We drove for about 10 more minutes and we started to see snowfall! The first snow we've seen in a few weeks, which we were very excited about as it's close enough to Christmas for us to pretend we had a white Christmas!

    This beautiful white powder has apparently wrecked havoc on one of the major highways as we soon became stuck in some pretty heavy traffic, we found out that 2 trucks and a car had (apparently) decided to collide and the road was closed. No big deal right? Wrong, a bus cannot do a 3 point turn on a thin road covered in icy slush. We sat on that carpark (highway) for 2.5 hours before we could turn around and head back towards the lovely town of Pitlochry.

    We finally arrived at the small town again, got service after 3 hours of not having it so the driver was able to let the company know we were alive and start to figure out the plan moving forward.

    We got to know some fellow Australians on the bus so we all headed to the nearest pub while Neil our hilarious bus driver figured out the logistics.

    After a pint we got back to the bus and his somber face greeted us, they had to cancel the tour as all 3 main roads heading to the North had been closed. So he loaded us up to take us back to Edinburgh, Which should have been about 2 hours back, was it? Spoiler - No.

    We left the town and not even 20 minutes on the road we had to find a new route as the highway we took to get there had been flooded.

    That's fine, the driver knew a different way - he said it will probably add an extra hour, no big deal? We got a refund for the tour and this counts as a free scenic drive.

    BUT once we get on the new road, we come across some people doing U-turns - not a good sign. Turns out the road had collapsed due to a landslide. The issue this time is that this was a back road, so we had to reverse almost 2 miles up the road before there was room for the bus to turn.

    We found another route back to Edinburgh, which added an extra 2 hours.

    And on top of all this none of us have accommodation for the next 2 nights because we were expecting to be beachside in Iverness. Luckily the hostel (who runs the tours) was able to break the group up into 3 random hostels for the night (free of charge).

    Once we got back to Edinburgh we checked into our new hostel, grabbed a 'celebration' beer with the fellow Australians. Went for a walk to get some steps in and enjoyed discounted Greggs for dinner.

    So yes, 11 hours on a bus - 1 town which we stopped at twice. Full refund and a discount on a future tour, put up for a night in a hostel for free (it is a 20 person room, so we'll see if sleep happens).

    What a day, thanks Scottish weather!

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    G-g-g-ghost!!

    28 декабря 2023 г., Шотландия ⋅ 🌬 5 °C

    After surviving a night in a 20+ person dormitory (which wasn't too bad, fortunately!) We checked out of our hostel and went on a walking tour of the city.

    Since we've been in the city for a few days now, there were quite a few locations the group went to that we had walked past before, so it was great to be given the extra context from our guide!

    Eventually we finished the tour and an ice cream, which was delicious. As we walked back to the hostel to collect our bags, we walked past a reasonably priced hairdresser so Phill got a quick haircut and then we walked to our new accommodation. Which happens to be a cheap hotel instead of a hostel for tonight, yay!

    We relaxed for the afternoon and finally got to watch the Pixar movie: Brave! Which we hadn't seen before. But since it's a movie based in Scotland, the two of us decided it'd be the best time to watch it.

    Of course, with a movie you need a snack (and lunch/dinner in our case) so we ended up with another delicious munchie box again! Filled with unhealthy "Asian" delights!

    After finishing the movie we headed out to the main event for the evening: A haunted bus tour. This was basically a fun double decker bus that drove around the city and told gruesome tales of different areas! It was good fun, as well as a little odd.

    Once it was complete, we walked back to the accommodation and chilled for the rest of the night.

    Step count: 11.8k    Читать далее

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    Setting Edinburgh alight

    29 декабря 2023 г., Шотландия ⋅ 🌙 1 °C

    Today we awoke quite late in our last minute booked hotel, thankful for a 12pm checkout. We took our time getting our stuff together before leaving and dropping it off at our hostel for safe keeping until we could check in.

    We decided to explore Edinburgh on foot and strolled around the length of the Royal mile/ High street and checked out some beautiful old parliament buildings as well as some 'modern artistic' parliament buildings (ugly as all heck).

    We found a cafe on the very busy street and enjoyed some caffeine before making the hike to pick up our torches in preparation for the night.

    By the time we got our torches and made our way back to the main drag it was time for us to check into the same hostel for the third time!

    We ate some tinned soup and relaxed until it was time to don our cold gear and head to The Meadows where we met up with almost 20,000 other people who were going to join us in our Torchlight procession.

    The Torchlight procession is the opening act for Edinburgh's Hogmanay festivities - 4 days of events celebrating the new year.

    After waiting in queue in 1° toastie temperatures for an hour we had our torches lit and somehow managed to snag a spot right up the front behind the Vikings.

    The procession was led by bagpipers and drummers and we created a river of fire through the old town looking up at Edinburgh Castle!

    As a completely random note; being part of a mob storming towards a castle was fun, I get why folks used to do that all the time.

    After our adventure we grabbed some snacks and wound down in our hostel for the night. We were enjoying the ambiance and the people as it's our last hostel stay of this trip!

    Step count: 19k    Читать далее

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    11

    Snow time like the present

    30 декабря 2023 г., Шотландия ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    This morning we woke up for the final time in a shared dorm, packed up our gear and then went and made a coffee.

    We relaxed for a while as we had no real plans for today and had plenty of time to wait until we checked in for our next accommodation. While we were sat there we checked the weather and lo and behold the report said there was a 50% chance of snow fall! Shortly after we looked out the window and surely enough, there were the lovely little flakes falling from the sky!! So we donned our jackets and went outside. While there was minimal ground coverage, we were able to walk around the streets for a while and enjoy the view. It was great!

    Eventually we decided to visit a small magic and witchcraft museum that we had walked past a few times, and then topped it off with a jacket potato for lunch.

    After we were nice and full of warm potato, we went back to the hostel, collected our belongings, then walked to the north side of the city where our new room was. Once we checked in we used the remaining light to explore the area. It was a little strange seeing new buildings after spending so much time in the "old town"... The latter definitely has more character!

    On the way home we grabbed dinner and watched a movie in bed.

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    1

    Happy new year!!

    31 декабря 2023 г., Шотландия ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C

    This morning we took some time getting up, after lazing about for most of the morning we realised we agreed to meet our Aussie friends at a 'Oz bar' to celebrate Melbourne new year.

    After the Melbourne NYE countdown, we then stayed for QLD countdown, and finally Perth. We had one too many beers and no food for the day so we wandered over to the Beehive Inn where we enjoyed some chips and toasted sandwiches. We then parted ways from our friends as the new year celebrations for Edinburgh was still many hours away.

    We can back to our Airbnb and relaxed and snacked for a few hours until about 21:30 when we met up with the same people and squeezed into the street party where we listened to some questionable music and talked until midnight.

    The firework display was amazing, another thing they did was from 9pm the had a small firework show on every hour which was nice.

    After the fireworks everyone joined hands and sang Auld Lang Syne, which is tradition to bid farewell to the old year.

    Happy new year to everyone, here's to a great 2024!

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    2

    New year, new walk

    1 января 2024 г., Шотландия ⋅ ☁️ 3 °C

    Once we woke up, had a coffee, and laid about for a while, we decided to go for a walk and visit Dean Village. A suburb not too far from us which is described as a "bucolic village." I had to look the meaning for that one up. Apparently it means "relating to the pleasant aspects of the countryside and country life." Fair enough!

    It was a lovely area with a stream that cut through it. We walked alongside it for a while before cutting back in towards the city again.

    On the way back to the accommodation, we grabbed one of our favourite takeouts and watched the new Chicken Run movie! Let's just say they should have probably stuck to one. (To be fair, the movie was alright, just didn't live up to the original)

    We relaxed for the rest of the evening with a quick lap around the block before bed.

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    More stolen treasures

    2 января 2024 г., Шотландия ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C

    This morning we got up and checked out of our accommodation and marched back up to the old town where our final beds are for Edinburgh. It was much too early to check in so we put our bags in storage and sat in the common area to plan the day.

    The decision was made to head to the national museum of Scotland. Fortunately for us, like the national Museum in London, it is also free to enter!

    We made the short walk, sat down for a coffee, then explored the building. It had many impressive exhibits, but the ones we spent the most time in were the natural history, as well as the science and engineering section, the latter of which had a lot of really fun interactive exhibits!

    Once we were done we walked around exploring some more random shops that were in the area. Then we went and checked in our room.

    Our plan for late lunch / dinner was to use our favourite app again and get a meal pack from our favourite store (Greggs!) But the saddest thing happened: when we were about to walk out the door they cancelled the order... Very sad.

    Instead we went to the supermarket and got ourselves a meal deal, came back to the hostel and then did some planning before relaxing the rest of the night.

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    Curse of the illness

    3 января 2024 г., Шотландия ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C

    We started fairly slowly this morning, attempting to sleep in as much as possible since we both feel a little under the weather.

    Eventually our stomachs got the better of us and we went out in search of breakfast! As it's our last full day in Scotland we decided to go get a proper cafe brunch. This turned out to be a full Scottish breakfast and cheesy beans on toast, with tea to wash it down! It was excellent and was very efficient at putting us into a food coma.

    To get some steps in today, we then walked around a while and did some window shopping.

    Eventually we got back and did a load of washing since we had accumulated enough coins to make it happen (side note: it's so annoying that card payments are the norm now, yet most washing machines operate with coins... Where are they supposed to come from?!)

    While the washing was drying we went for another walk to stretch the legs. Then when we got back we had our dinner and then watched Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit. A great movie that still holds up!

    We ended the night with another quick lap around the block.

    Cya back in London!

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    Platform 9 3/4

    4 января 2024 г., Англия ⋅ 🌧 8 °C

    We awoke early this morning and said goodbye to Edinburgh which had been our faithful home for the past 2 weeks. We boarded a fancy train which gave us breakfast and some hot drinks on our 5 hour journey to London.

    After arriving at Kings Cross we headed across town to drop our bags at our current accommodation as we couldn't check in yet and went on a journey for lunch.

    We stumbled across a Amazon Fresh which was a grocery store linked to your Amazon account and has no checkouts, it just tracks where you are in store and what you pick-up, it was a surreal and scary experience after we left getting an email pointing out that we had been in the store for 3:41 minutes and charged for the one thing we bought.

    We stopped off at a ramen/soup shop where the server thought Bec was deaf and Phill was signing at her, whereas he was just being a bully.

    We went for a walk to get our steps up before finally checking in to our accommodation, where we rested as we're both still sporting lovely crackly coughs.

    A trip to Lidl was made for the next few nights dinners before relaxing and planning our day out tomorrow!

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