7 June 2006

Well, I think it's about time I posted a brief rundown of my adventures overseas.

Spending one week in Edinburgh was barely enough time to see the more popular sights around the city. Although we all had fun doing what we managed to fit in anyway. We managed to fit in a couple of ghost walks, where various members of our group got tortured and/or killed. No ghostly sightings, although there were some fake orbs seen in one of my photos. They convinced the tour guide, anyway. We experienced a Victorian electro-shock therapy machine, both individually and as a group. And of course we went Nessie hunting (without much success), although we did collect some genuine Loch Ness water. I was really quite disappointed when it was time for me to say farewell to the group and fly down to Birmingham to meet my rellies.

For such a big city, there doesn't appear to be much to do around Birmingham. Nothing much in the way of interesting sights, although they do have their own version of the London Eye outside the theatre. I stayed with my Dad's youngest sister and her husband, and they seemed to think that I would be interested in seeing the various places of where my parents grew up, worked and got married. Even to the point of driving down one road, and asking if I'd like to hop out of the car to get my photo taken infront of some random (to me) house that my Dad grew up in. And when I refused, they asked me if I'd like to do it for my Dad. To which I replied, 'He wouldn't be interested'. I did have my photo taken outside of the Aston Villa Football grounds, though. Interesting side note: Did anyone else know that Prince William was an Aston Villa fan???

So, after seeing the wonderful sights of Warwick Castle (huzzah! Flaming Trebuchet!!), Aston (Aston Hall and the Villa grounds) and Tamworth (Tamworth Castle and it's tiny town centre), I got to meet the rest of the family...which wasn't too bad. I pretty much sat in a corner of the room for most of the night, and chatted with my youngest cousin, who is about 19 and currently doing an arts degree at university.

And then it was off to London for a couple of days. We got there by train, and had to take the underground over to our hotel. Not much fun in the middle of a work day, when carrying around a 19kg suitcase. After we got to the hotel and stowed our luggage, I got to meet up with my favourite cousin (and his wife) who I haven't spoken to since not long after he got married. He hasn't changed, much...apart from no longer being a vegetarian. We ended up catching a ferry from Tower Bridge to Westminster, then walked back along the river. As we were crossing Tower Bridge, we had the excitement of the Bridge being raised to let some party-esque-type boat through. Quite an interesting experience, and totally unplanned. The second day involved wandering around Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, before heading over to the palace, just in time to see the guards marching into the grounds for the changing of the guards ceremony. Then in the afternoon we wandered around London Tower, including getting whizzed by the Crown Jewels while standing on a travellator.

Then the final day was the joy of getting to Heathrow airport. We travelled through three underground stations to get to the one we needed. Again with a 19kg suitcase in tow. Up and down stairs and escalators. Never again. I'd prefer to travel overground for that. It doesn't smell as bad for starters. However, once we reached the right station, the train journeys were pretty uneventful. Then tackling Heathrow airport. I got to Heathrow with 1 1/2 hours before my flight left. I got into the queue, which didn't move. Staff eventually came round calling my flight, and pulled anyone queuing for that flight out to a nearly empty queue. Which still didn't move. Staff again came round calling our flight, and pulled us out of the queue again, and stuck us in front (there was me, a family of three adults, and another guy by himself). I finally got to the counter, where I had to wait for the staff to phone through to get a seat for me because they had overbooked the flight. Eventually, a boarding pass got printed off, and handed to customer services at the end of the row. Which then got passed to customer services at the end of the other row. Where I waited. Again. Finally, I approached the customer services desk, only to be told that they couldn't help me since their printer wasn't working. I nearly burst into tears and told them quite firmly that they had my boarding pass and was told that they'd get me a seat. Which they finally did. They also fast tracked me through customs, although my boots (no, not The Boots) set off the metal detectors. I finally got to the gate my plane was leaving from just in time to join the end of the queue for boarding.

I'm so glad to be home, although I miss the group in Edinburgh, and Edinburgh itself. I'm not missing family, Birmingham or London.