So this is a little late in coming, but it has been a crazy week for me. So I'm going to recap a little bit of my journey around the UK with my housemate.
Derby: My housemate's sister was nice enough to invite us to stay with her for a couple of days, so we went there first and got to hang around this beautiful little town in the countryside. We went into town to explore and we saw the Derby Museum, the cathedral and a lot of really cute streets. We ate lunch at the oldest pub in Derby as well! Finally, we stopped by a little tea room!
London Day 1: We spent a quick 36 hours in London, but that was definitely enough to see everything we wanted to very quickly. The first day, we walked all the way up the Thames and back to our hostel (over the course of like 6 hours). Our hostel was on the North bank, close to Buckingham palace. We went there first and stumbled upon the changing of the guard, which was definitely really cool. Then we walked towards the Thames and saw Big Ben, the houses of parliament, The London Eye. We crossed the river and walked along the south bank. Eventually, we walked on the Millenium Bridge, past Shakespeare's Globe, to London Tower Bridge. Then we crossed back over the Thames, walked all the way back to our hostel where we both enjoyed the pub downstairs.
Day 2: After sleeping in for a bit, we went out back to Buckingham Palace and through the park towards Piccadilly Circus, through Trafalgar Square on our way to Leicester Square. There we met up with our Harry Potter Walking Tour of London! We got to see some of the film locations used throughout the movies, and yes I was probably one of the nerdier people there. We were also 1 of 2 groups on the tour that did not have any small children. It completely worth it though! We saw the entrances to the Leaky Cauldron (from movies 1 and 3), the entrance to the Ministry (movies 5 and 7.1), and we even went to King's Cross to see Platform 9 3/4! After the tour we headed down Charing Cross Road and back to Trafalgar Square on our way back to the hostel (where we grabbed a drink before getting on the bus back to Derby).
Back to Derby: Another day in Derby, and we headed out to Chatsworth, which is the estate of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. It was absolutely beautiful, both in the inside and the gardens. Coolest part? That this house is where they filmed Mr. Darcy's home at Pemberley in the new Pride and Prejudice movie (with Keira Knightley). Which we then watched after we got home.
Glasgow: On Wednesday we took the bus to up to Scotland where we were to stay with my housemate's half-sister! She has an adorable little flat in just outside of the city centre. We grabbed some dinner, some drinks (obviously), and went to bed that first night. The next day we did some exploring around the city centre and did some (window) shopping. On Friday we took a hop on-hop off bus tour of the city which was really really cool; we saw the People's Palace museum as well as a lot of the older parts of the city - like where public hangings used to take place.
Overall, it was really great trip. I can't believe that we hit up so much in just week. I also can't believe how much tea I drank in a week. Some pictures are up on flickr - I couldn't take my really nice camera with me because it would have put my bag over the weight limit, but I did my best with a little Canon Powershot.
A tout a l'heure!
