England
It's crazy to think that this time two weeks ago I was frantically packing (again) and getting ready for departure from the States. Colby and I left RDU for Manchester two Tuesdays ago now, after a nearly sleepless night for me of making last minute travel plans and then finally starting to pack. (Really, I'm surprised that I still haven't noticed any gaping holes in what I brought with me.) We made our way to Boston - flight delayed, to Manchester and then via train to Skipton, arriving earlier than expected. We were too antsy to sit around and wait at the train station and I thought I remembered how to get to the Tuck household, so Leslie and Jem were pleasantly surprised to open their door to us and all of our luggage that Wednesday morning.
This time around in England, what with Leslie on maternity leave, Jem off of work because of a bit of knee surgery and most importantly, the new member of the family - Mr Bramwell Tuck! - we didn't do the touristy thing at all. Instead we hung out with Bramwell, took Meggie the dog on long walks around Embsay Reservoir, watched World Cup games and visited a few people I met last summer. Highlights include the Saturday walk to Bolton Abbey (ruins of a 900+-year-old cathedral and monastery that sit along the beautiful River Wharfe) and that evening especially: Leslie got her friend's college-aged son, Nick, and his friend, Richard, to take me and Colby out for a night on the town. Who knew that such a little place had such a happening night life... A good six or seven hours into the night, I found myself with five British blokes (we had just taken Colby home) at Skipton's notorious night club, Bliss. Haha, classy I know.
We also got to go to the Broughton Game Show (Anneka and Gary joined us) to ride the carousel, watch falcons in flight and witness the hilarious terrier races. My last day we went to the upper Dales, climbed the Malham cliffs, picnicked and saw the house by the river that I visited on my favorite day in England last July. Even though the UK weather didn't really cooperate this time around it was still a beautiful sight. (No joke, I wore a wool sweater - over top of multiple other layers - all week and was still cold.)
That night I raced to the train station, took the train to Newcastle and spent a rather uncomfortable night in the airport since my flight was leaving at 7:30 the next morning. Or so they claimed... As it turned out, the flight was delayed by three and a half hours, so I ended up trapped and twiddling my thumbs in that miserable place for a good twelve hours. It's never any fun when you're trying to waste (an indeterminable amount of) time and have to stay completely vigilant about your bags simultaneously. At LAST we took off, I landed in Rome, took a bus to the city center where the main train station is located, rushed to buy a ticket and got on the next train headed to Florence. The station and train was an experience in and of itself: after I used my Italian to make the ticket purchase I headed to my platform. There was a bit of a learning curve for me while I figured out that my ticket actually had an assigned coach and seat. I finally arrived -much later than expected - in Florence, exhausted, sweaty and flustered, but come on. I was in Florence!
That night consisted of meeting my apartment-mates, unpacking a bit and walking down the street with my roommate, Courtney, to buy some fruit. Since it's Florence, and there's beauty and stunning architecture tucked in every corner of the city, how could we have been surprised to stumble upon a cathedral just a block or two from our apartment? The next morning we both woke up around the same time and her first words to me were, 'Look out the window. We live in Florence.' WOW. :)
Stay tuned: more Florentine adventures to come...
This time around in England, what with Leslie on maternity leave, Jem off of work because of a bit of knee surgery and most importantly, the new member of the family - Mr Bramwell Tuck! - we didn't do the touristy thing at all. Instead we hung out with Bramwell, took Meggie the dog on long walks around Embsay Reservoir, watched World Cup games and visited a few people I met last summer. Highlights include the Saturday walk to Bolton Abbey (ruins of a 900+-year-old cathedral and monastery that sit along the beautiful River Wharfe) and that evening especially: Leslie got her friend's college-aged son, Nick, and his friend, Richard, to take me and Colby out for a night on the town. Who knew that such a little place had such a happening night life... A good six or seven hours into the night, I found myself with five British blokes (we had just taken Colby home) at Skipton's notorious night club, Bliss. Haha, classy I know.
We also got to go to the Broughton Game Show (Anneka and Gary joined us) to ride the carousel, watch falcons in flight and witness the hilarious terrier races. My last day we went to the upper Dales, climbed the Malham cliffs, picnicked and saw the house by the river that I visited on my favorite day in England last July. Even though the UK weather didn't really cooperate this time around it was still a beautiful sight. (No joke, I wore a wool sweater - over top of multiple other layers - all week and was still cold.)
That night I raced to the train station, took the train to Newcastle and spent a rather uncomfortable night in the airport since my flight was leaving at 7:30 the next morning. Or so they claimed... As it turned out, the flight was delayed by three and a half hours, so I ended up trapped and twiddling my thumbs in that miserable place for a good twelve hours. It's never any fun when you're trying to waste (an indeterminable amount of) time and have to stay completely vigilant about your bags simultaneously. At LAST we took off, I landed in Rome, took a bus to the city center where the main train station is located, rushed to buy a ticket and got on the next train headed to Florence. The station and train was an experience in and of itself: after I used my Italian to make the ticket purchase I headed to my platform. There was a bit of a learning curve for me while I figured out that my ticket actually had an assigned coach and seat. I finally arrived -much later than expected - in Florence, exhausted, sweaty and flustered, but come on. I was in Florence!
That night consisted of meeting my apartment-mates, unpacking a bit and walking down the street with my roommate, Courtney, to buy some fruit. Since it's Florence, and there's beauty and stunning architecture tucked in every corner of the city, how could we have been surprised to stumble upon a cathedral just a block or two from our apartment? The next morning we both woke up around the same time and her first words to me were, 'Look out the window. We live in Florence.' WOW. :)
Stay tuned: more Florentine adventures to come...
posted by Kendall Singleton | 12:13 PM
1 Comments:
I look out for your next posting. Within a month I visite Florence!
Greets from Belgium.
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