Hello! I am happy to say my journey has begun- and here I am in the rainy rainy UK. I shouldve known better after a rainy start and taxiing in JFK for 2 hours on my Air India flight- but it was well worth it for the best airplane food Ive ever had. Have you ever heard of pistachio saffron pudding on an airplane?!?
After traveling for 24 hours I made it safely and without too much hassle to Manchester to see my friends Sophie and Yoni. Since then I have been on a whirlwhind tour of this city, visited Leeds where Sophie goes to school, and made a trip all the way to Edinburgh!
It was around a 4 hours drive from here and is a Really cool city, with a great mix of old architecture with more modern vibes to contast it. Divine churches and little alleyways strewn all about cobblstone streets. Theres a huge castle up on a big hill and then across the water is the new city with all its modern aspects. However, there was a DELUGE of hail amidst gail force winds and pouring rain that sligtly inhibited our movement and explorations. We spent lots of time going from one cafe to pub to another for lack of better options.
We did do a 3 hour walking tour of the city, but the australian guide was mostly interested in explaining the backgrounds behind all the pubs. however, i guess its warranted beyond just drinking, since pubs are such a huge part of the cultre, like how paris has its cafes. hell, when whisky was cleaner to drink than water, what else is one to do?
I bet none of you knew that Scotland is home of the fried mars bar? its actually home to fried everything, from what i quickly learned. i did manage to get a shot of wheatgrass in a glass of fresh OJ, which i have a pic of for you. There was even surprisingly tons of veg options, even Veg Haggis (which is like their national meat, I wont go into what I hear is in) which were made of lentils and quite good.
Theres an awesome scene in edinburgh. theres tons of things going on. our first night we went to a club called cabaret voltaire for a... drum and bass party! thats right- i danced like crazy for 2 hours that when I left the room I couldnt stand straight because the music was so loud my eardrums were confused. the next night we went to this place like the Baggot Inn and there was folk music- all these people just sitting around and playing- bagpipes, mandonlins, guiars, flutes, banjos- it was so great.
to get back to manchester we took a scenic route though Lakeshore and by Lake Wyndemer which was absolutely beautiful. There were sheep grazing absolutely everywhere and we even stopped at an Alpaca farm. The sky was clear (at one point) and we could see snow capped mountains in the distance as we drove along the rather high lake through winding roads. It was stunning. Then it started pouring very hard, which wasnt as stunning, and one of the wipers stopped working for the rest of the ride, which was even less great.
One of the things going through my mind is how awful the coffee here is... another,however, is that theres a huge push for fairtrade and free range goods here- they are way ahead of us. its really incredible. there is a supermarket called the Co-Op that has tons of fairtrade stuff and pictures of farmers they work with, and this is a chain throughout the country. i bought FT wine there, and also saw bananas, chocolte, quinoa, everything pretty much. also all cafes advertise fairtrade coffee and McDonalds even has freerange eggs (Which kinda sucks because it means they will attract more buisiness, like when they started doing coffee, but at least its a step in the right direction). most cafes also have FT sugar! it really is so cool and prominent eveywhere.
I am being spoiled rotten in Yoni's house with his family's hospitality and his mothers cooking and feeling quite comfortable. I am planning on going to London within a few days and then its off to Nepal, for quite a different feel.
Ill be in touch...
