England and Scotland

My time in the UK was the perfect end to my European travels. I had 10 days with two of my dear friends from California, Alexis and Buster. They are currently living in the lovely town of Bedford for four months while Buster is there for work. Well, they definitely wouldn’t describe Bedford as lovely but I had a pleasant time there due to the great company. My first few days in England were in Bedford, a very small English town. I met some of their friends, got to see and American movie, and enjoyed some quality time with Alexis and Buster. Their hotel was like a palace for me so I was also able to catch up on some rest and relaxation which was much appreciated! 

While in England Alexis and I took a small road trip to a small town called Malvern. It is the hometown of my good friend Ed, who was part of my South East Asia travel family. I was so excited to be reunited with Ed and he took us all around his cute hometown. Malvern is so pretty and surrounded by the Malvern Hills. We took a hike to the top of the hills and were able to see a view of seven counties. It was really beautiful and my pictures were not quite able to capture how lovely it was. While most people spend all of their time in London while visiting England, I was so happy to be in the country side seeing the small towns of England. Ed and I remised about our time in Asia, telling Alexis all of our funny stories and we had an absolutely wonderful day. Unfortunately, we had to say bye to Ed by early evening but we returned to Bedford and had an amazing Thai dinner with Buster and his friend. I was super happy to have my first Thai meal since my time spent in Thailand. We had a night out in Bedford which included an Elvis kareokee performance by Buster! I learned that my friend could not only sing but do once class act Elvis impersonation!

The next day Lex and I went to London to meet two of my hometown friends for a lunch abroad. My friends from Crystal Lake, Jacqui Zuniga and Jamie Wagner, were travling Europe for one month together. We happened to be in England at the same time so we took the chance to reunite. Two reunions in one week! I was so lucky. We had a great lunch and exchanged funny travel stories. That afternoon was the only time I spent in London. I had spent a week in London in 2006 so I had already done all the tourist must sees in London a few years back. That night we made our way to Buster’s home town in Northern England. It was another picturesque town covered with hills and green landscape. I had my first traditional cup of English tea and yes, it was quite crappy! … which I was warned it would be as it was handed to me by Buster himself. We had an afternoon of an exhilarating game of cricket- not so exhilarating- and beer. It was a traditional English Saturday. I was so happy to meet Buster’s lovely family and spend more time in the country side of England.

From there Alexis and I made our way to Edinburgh, Scotland. Scotland was amazing! I loved the accents and the people were so nice. For some of you who may not know, I have a slightly excessive love for all things Scottish. I was super excited to be in Scotland and while I would have loved to spend more time here, and I know I must go back, I am so happy I got to spend a couple of days there. We did a lot of touristy things while in Edinburgh and saw so much in a small amount of time. We took a tour through the Edinburgh Castle and the Hollyrood Castle (this is the castle Queen Elizabeth stays in when she visits Scotland). I loved touring the castles since they explained so much of Scottish History which I found so interesting. On our last night we did a haunted tour of Old Edinburgh and the underground vaults that lie below part of the city. It was pretty interesting. We learned where certain sayings like dead ringer, saved by the bell and shit faced come from!....

·         Dead Ringer and Saved By the Bell- back in the day, when autopsies, causes of death, and hospitals were not of the best quality, people were occasionally buried alive by accident. To try and prevent a death when someone was buried alive they would tie a string to the finger of the buried body which lead to a bell above ground. If you woke up buried alive, you could ring the bell and hope that some simpatheic soul would hear your call and save you! So... if you got out... you were "Saved by the Bell!"

·         Shit faced- back when homes did not have toilets and they had to use a simple bin or bowl to “do their business” at 10pm every night the people in town took their bin and disposed of their business with a good toss of the continents from the bowls straight into the streets. 10pm also happened to be the time the bars closed; so more than once a wandering drunk would leave the bar, stumble along the street, and get a good face full of unpleasant “business” if he was not paying attention. He would wake up in the morning “shit faced”…. Hence the saying we all use today!

So as you can see, not only did we get a scary underground tour, but we learned something too! The Ghost tour was fun and to give you an idea if it was any good Alexis and I did end up curled in a ball sitting on a wet and dirty floor, hugging each other and screaming in fear at one point! Yikes... and yes... kind of embarrassing but mostly hilarious! Scotland was awesome. The people were kind, the accents were great, and Edinburgh was a fun town filled with tons of history. I definitely must go back for more time someday. After Scotland we made our way back to England for my last day in the UK. I had a traditional English tea time with Alexis and a goodbye dinner and drinks with Alexis and Buster. I was so nervous to leave and head back to the states but I was excited to be meeting my dear old friend Stephanie in Florida. After England I have one pit stop in the US before I head back to California and officially make it around the world. I must give a big thank you to Alexis and Buster who treated me so well and made my time in the UK absolutely lovely! I cannot believe the Bombino World Tour is almost complete. Please stay tuned for the final “return to the states” post coming soon!

First night out in Bedford, England with Alexis

Dancing English men outside the hotel! Random!

Day trip to Malvern to meet up with Ed- pretty town

Lunch in Malvern with Alexis and Ed

Yummy English lunch- English food usually isn't the best you have ever eaten so this was exciting!

So happy to be reunited! I love my SE Asia travel family!

Hike to the top of the Malvern Hills- amazing!

Malvern Hills

Day trip to London to meet Jamie and Jacqui

Road trip to Northern England

Morning with and English Tea and English Bobby (Police Man)

My lovely UK Hosts- Buster and Alexis

Traditional English Saturday- beer and Criket

Hollyrood Castel in Scotland

Hollyrood Castle

Loving Scotland

Beers at the Scottish Pub

Edinburgh Castle

View of Edinburgh

Edinburgh Castle

View of Edinburgh from the "Arthur's Seat" hike

Hike of Arthur's Seat- incredible views of all of Edinburgh

Top of the hike- wonderful afternoon

Ghost Tour Underground Vaults

Traditional English Tea

afternoon of scones and coffee

Picture with the random pig at the hotel- thanks for everything Lex and Buster!