Thursday, April 05, 2012

rakka and leff do europe 2012, day eight, cardiff, bath, back to london

look, right.


i hate cardiff central station half of the time. not because it is a bad station, nope! it's really quite attractive and it's in two languages.



it's just half of the time that i'm there it means that i have to leave cardiff and that rips me to shreds. because cardiff feels like home? ugh, sidebar with me here a minute.

sidebar:  i adore both cardiff and london. like, major city crushes. i could live in either place. but while i love london, it is hard. like, london could beat the shit out of you if you lived there too long. i mean, i'd consider it a fair trade for all of the benefits, but it would wear me out.

cardiff has a more laid back feel? i mean, it's ABSOLUTELY a city but it doesn't steal nearly as much of your soul as london. this is why i love it. i feel more at home there than anywhere i've ever lived in the states. heart you, 'diffy. for realsies.

but back to our story.

shed met us at the station to see us off. this, of course, led to much texting on the platform. well, i mean, he typed and held up the phone to the train window and i just laughed because i text like a slow loris. (srsly, i type 180 + wpm on a full sized keyboard. there is no excuse.)

ugh, it was still sad though. i hate leaving cardiff. i really, really do.

STILL! i'm not going to icepo all over this post (even though i could.). let's move on to bath and rudyard pipling? yeah, let's do that.

pippi met us at the station. yay!!  i'm glad because 1) it's always nice to see him 2) he knew the way to bath backpackers (leff and i were too tired to navigate on our own.)

um, PRO TIP time. if you are taking luggage to bath but are not staying overnight, drop your bags off at bath backpackers. (bath spa train station does not have storage lockers). it's only three pounds per bag per day and they are locked in a secure room. that way you won't be lugging 11 kg around the town.

if you take more than 11 kg worth of luggage with you for a two week stay, what is your problem?! seriously WHAT ARE YOU TAKING WITH YOU?!? (11 kg is actually too much. i will downsize even more next time.)

right, right. sooooo, leff and i made pips go with us to sally lunn's. HAHA! IT IS SO TOURSITY! but, you know, they have cream tea. AND I WOULD CUT A BITCH FOR SOME CLOTTED CREAM.

this is not clotted cream. it is milky tea.


this is also not clotted cream. it is pip's lunch.


ah! now THERE'S the stuff in a little ramekin. i had a cinnamony bath bun with my clotted cream. leff's (on the left) was more lemon curdy? i think? idk, i was too intent on trying to use utensils to really notice.


i am not kidding. i am all the thumbs in the uk when it comes to fork 'n' knives. *shoulder shrug*

so how touristy is sally lunn's?  SO touristy. this is the view out the window. HELLO, ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS! I CAN SEE YOU!


and here are more people taking photographs outside.


still, you should do this at least once, right? then you never have to do it again!

near sally lunn bunn is, of course, the avon river. (or the "river river" as gareth has pointed out. heh.) we somehow missed this on our first trip to bath?!? don't look at me like that. i was tired.


it was here that we informed philip pirrip of the existence of the piss dungeon. (ed note: sorry again, dad and chris. forget that you read that!) you can hear me encouraging leff to talk about it in this video. (also, you can hear the way that my accent is starting to skew slightly british. DEFENSE MECHANISM!!)


at the avon, we encountered an eavesdropper. embiggen for the full effect.


LESSON LEARNED, EAVESDROPPING LADY! DO NOT LISTEN TO OTHER PEOPLE'S CONVERSATIONS UNLESS YOU WANT TO LEARN ABOUT PISS DUNGEONS!! (ed note: sorry, dad and chris!)

the last time we saw pip he told me that there was no such thing as sidewalk chalk in the uk. clearly, this was a lie. heh.


but, you know, i can't hold it against him. for starters, it's called something other than sidewalk chalk. also, he got us to gay street before he had to run to his meeting.


THANK YOU, PIPLETTE!! some time we will visit you when you are not slammed with work responsibilities!

you know what's at the top of gay street? the CIRCUS!!! here are the trees that stopped bombs during wwii.


and here is a shot of the circus that you would not see if i wrote nice travel posts like a normal person. yes! it is a large construction tip! THE PEOPLE IN BATH HAVE TO DO CONSTRUCTION WORK TOO! OMG!!! IT IS NOT EURO DISNEYLAND AFTER ALL!! *eyeroll*


for serious though, it is such a beautiful place.


it even has all three kinds of columns


AND a sense of humor. this dog waste bin has "i'm full of shit!" written on top of it! ha!


aren't you glad you aren't reading one of those normal travel type posts now? yeah, thought so.


very near the circus is, of course, the royal crescent. *happy, happy sigh at the sweeping beauty of it all*




there is a ha ha located part of the way down the lawn to make it appear flat.  IT IS AN OPTICAL ILLUSION! here it is from the side.


leff and i were completely wiped out at this point so we walked to the city center where we stopped at a convenience store/off license for sandwiches and drinks


before we rested at bath abbey.  god, the light was tasty that day!



and the abbey was just as cool and relaxing as last time.


right, like YOU don't use places with impressive architecture as a place to cool your boots.

train to london. love the spacing!


love how london this announcer guy is.



DID NOT love having to wait around at paddington station for an additional hour eating yo sushi, drinking diet cokes and glaring at pigeons due to our next host's "work emergency". OMG!! THE HORRID FOURTH FLOOR WALK UP STUDENT FLAT!! i do not have the energy to tell you about it today. let's just look at the high point of the night, 'k?


CANNED PIMM'S LEMONADE! I DIE!!! UK, YOU ARE THE GREATEST!!!

tomorrow on rakka and leff unintentionally recreate scenes from "withnail and i" even though they had not gone on this holiday by mistake:  i will tell you about the horrid student flat. maybe. we revisit the hardy tree! camden locks! THE CANALS!! regent's park again! WE FINALLY CRUISE THE THAMES! and then there was another nando's...

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