London, Bath and York - England

Hey cool people,

We are back in England, traveling back to London for a night, then off to Bath and York. Here is what has happened over the past couple of days:

Day 21 Monday, June 8th - After a night ferry and bus ride, Lydia, our friend Kym and I arrived in London at about 7:30ish in the morning. When we got to London we grabbed a quick bite to eat at London's Victoria Station, while we waited for our friend Alex to meet us. When Alex met up with us, we all took the London Underground across town to drop Kym off at her hostel. Kym was meeting up with her friend Brett, so Lydia, Alex and I hung out with her until Brett showed up.

Once Brett showed up, Lydia, Alex and I went to the opposite end of town where Lydia and I were staying. Lydia and I checked into our hostel and met up with our friend Erin and her friend Tim. We walked around for a little bit before stopping at a pub to grab a few drinks. A little later, we met back up with Kym and Brett, grabbed a few bottles of wine and hung out in our hostel room.

While hanging out, we all decided to take a day trip to Bath the next day, except Lydia and I would spend the night and move on to our next UK stop from their. Since we were drinking wine while we were planning this, we were a little buzzed. Alex, was feeling the juice a little more than the rest of us, and we all kept reminding her that she had to be at the bus station in the morning. A little later, when the wine was all gone, we all said goodnight as our friends left for bed.

Lydia and I stayed up a little longer to Skype our families and gossip a little bit. Lydia and I were excited to be starting our UK adventure. We were going to be exploring the UK on our own, with a BritRail pass. This was a little different from the past week-and-a-half in Ireland where we were with a tour group. Nevertheless, after some quality "girl" talk, Lydia and I finally went to sleep.

Bath Abbey

Day 22 Tuesday, June 9th - Today Lydia and I went to Bath. Lydia and I had a BritRail train pass, so in the morning we grabbed our things and made our way to the train station to get to Bath. Our friends were taking the bus from London to Bath, so we were going to meet them in Bath after we checked into our hostel. When our friends, Erin, Kym, Alex and Brett, arrived in Bath, we decided to go explore the famous Roman Baths. The Roman Baths is a well-preserved Roman site for public bathing.

Statue of Roman Governor at the Roman Baths

After exploring the Roman Baths and the history behind the site, we stopped for some lunch together, before walking around the city for a little bit. We saw the Roman Crescent, The Circus, Pulteney Bridge, Bath Abbey and a few other sites. Our friends had to make their way back to London later that afternoon, so we grabbed some ho-cho (hot chocolate) and hung around near the bus station before saying goodbye. It was a bit sad because it was the last time Lydia and I would be seeing Erin until we decide to visit Australia. When they all boarded the bus, Lydia and I stood on the street corner, waving them goodbye until the bus was out of site.

That night, Lydia and I hung out in the hostel. We went to the supermarket for some food for dinner and hung out in the lounge of the hostel watching TV until we turned in for bed.

Clifford's tower

Day 23 Wednesday, June 10th - In the morning, Lydia and I walked around Bath, talking a walk along the river, before taking the train the train to York that afternoon. We arrived in York around 3:00 p.m. and made our way to our hostel. The hostel had originally messed up our reservation, so they had to do a little bit of quick rearranging, but got us into our room. I felt bad for the guy at reception because the key card machine was also down, so anytime anyone needed to get into their room, including us, he had to run and manually let them in. Our room was really nice. Lydia and I were staying in a six bed dorm and, to our surprise, we had the entire room to ourselves for the night.

After we got checked-in to our room, we walked around a bit. We saw Clifford's Tower, the park and got some really good dinner before taking a haunted walking tour of the city. The our was actually really fascinating, our guide gave us a history of the city through interesting ghost stories. By the end of the tour, it was dark outside, so we made our way back to the hostel to relax before going to bed.  

View from our hike around York Thursday, June 11th before hopping on the train to Edinburgh 

The last few days have been pretty relax but absolutely amazing