Back in the UK in England. I flew into Manchester, one of the nicer British cities and got my rental car with Hertz. It was a nice, shiny red car this time, only slightly damaged. However, you always look a bit stupid if you take a few attempts not to kill the engine with automatic gear. Like women, every car is different to get going.
The Hatter Hostel I stayed in was quite nice. Lots of friendly people, most of them were Germans though. It was Saturday and the only right thing was to get pissed like the night before. Well, maybe not like the night before.
The hostel organized a pub crawl with plenty of people — including a group of guys in Lederhosen having a bachelor party. It was great fun, especially the three different pubs and the nightclub in the end, but this time I made sure that I drank enough non-alcoholic drinks, too. It was no problem walking back and I had a good, but short sleep.
The reason I actually visited Manchester was to meet a some of the people from my G-Adventures gang in Peru — most of them lived in the UK and Holly B., Tom & Holly, Paul & Charlotte were from the area. We agreed to gather again in Chester, Wales in the afternoon, just about an hour away from Manchester. At the meeting point, the Clock and Arch there were even some tacky Peruvian musicians playing European pop songs with pan flute, just like way back when.
What can I say: It was such good and happy rejoicing with bringing up so many nice memories and stories from after I departed and they had continued further on to Rio. We talked for ages in a nearby pub having a good time before it was time for an all-you-can-eat thai food buffet. It was hard saying Bye to these awesome people, but I am sure it wasn’t the last time we met.
As the weather was going to be pretty miserable the next few days, I decided to not waste much time along the west coast of Wales but instead drive more or less directly to Cardiff, where I would spend at least two nights. It was really raining cats and dogs all day long and most of the rivers rose suspiciously high. Only in the evening news I heard about the worst floodings in the northern parts of England since 30 years or so. Must be me.
The hostel in Cardiff was one of the best on my trip so far. Very cosy and friendly, clean rooms, more than acceptable showers, nice people and the plentiful breakfast was just a dream — but a very good one. The weather being shit and me being lazy I watched a lot of DVD movies, went to the cinema (Killing Them Softly, so-so) and out to the pubs with a bunch of people from the hostel.
I had tried to contact Sarah from the G-Gang as I learned she lived in Bath, but she didn’t reply in time, so instead of going there (in the rain) I rather stayed another night in Cardiff.
Cardiff is, by the way, the birthplace of Roald Dahl and Dr. Who, with latter having a huge fan base who visit the city just to see some of the series artefacts and places. Unfortunately, I missed Roald Dahls birthday party by just a couple of days.
I didn’t want to see much anymore except for Stonehenge. So waiting that extra day before driving to London would actually give me sunshine and a good view upon that interesting place. The entrance fee also came with a quite lengthy audio guide that provided all sorts of useful information and background stories. It is impressive, but it is a pity that you actually cannot walk into it anymore. Maybe that’s the reason why I found the Stones of Callanish slighly nicer (also less tourists). Well, I didn’t have the two yellow crystal shards with me anyway (nor the necessary flag pole).
I needed to get going. Craig and Jana, also from the G-Gang waited for me in London with a BBQ. The traffic around London is really bad, but there’s not much you can do about it. I parked my car in a display and pay parking space, but as I didn’t have enough coins with me, I tried to register online. I entered my credit card details and it said “successfully added” but then it said the data was invalid (maybe because of the expiry date being the same month) — but still let me start the parking process. I didn’t get a ticket, so that must have been working. I’m not sure whether they will deduct the amount from my credit card or not. I’ll wait and see.
Craig and Jana gave me a heartly welcome and I felt like home. We had lots of nice food, including beef jerky and very tasty grilled sausages from South Africa. It was the first sunny day since a few weeks, so I was pretty lucky. After the meal, the three of us took a trip into the city center and shared two bottles of wine from Argentina at a nifty place called Gordon’s. Simon, their housemate joined in later. It would also have been nice, if Gemma had the time, but unfortunately, she was already busy going somewhere elese. We were sitting outside but luckily had a big umbrella with radiating heater, so we were well covered when the heavy rain started.
The night was complete only after we had gone to another pub close to their home. After all, it was Arthur’s day, so I had to drink an Guinness at least. We all enjoyed the gathering and again it was so good to see them. I really hope to see them again, maybe in Munich or maybe join them when they are going back to South Africa.
I had left the UK behind, but with the certainty that I had left something behind that was worth more than anything you could buy. I would be returning at some point.
