HELLO FRIENDS AND FAMILY
the time has come, the walrus said, for you to all finally know how on earth i survived a month without iona in the big (ok, small) bad country that is england.
to tell you the truth, i didn't quite know how i was going to do it myself, and it wasn't really looking good just after iona left when i had to buy a lot of lollies to calm myself down, but it did all turn out in the end. at the very least, i'm still alive, and mostly in one piece!
BASICALLY, i stayed in edinburgh for a couple of days on my own, pretending to be a local (though i never quite mastered the accent..), and having the very exciting experience of being id-ed for the first time ever. unfortunately, because iona was in paris, i was out with people from the hostel, and they didn't understand the momentous occasion that this entailed. i got excited nonetheless.
after edinburgh, i headed to newcastle, where WT09 (the vivienne october edition) really began. i discovered that newcastle doesn't offer a great deal in the way of daytime activities, so highlights probably include seeing the bridge that is exactly like the harbour bridge, and a quite cool museum that i went to, as well as the nightlife, which is hilarious. essentially, newcastle is the bucks/hens night capital of england, and so everywhere you looked there were people wearing ridiculous costumes, rampaging around and shrieking.
after newcastle, i bussed it down to york, where i met up with claire! we had a really really good time squirrel spotting, directing people to things i had never heard of (sucked in annoying boys - i dont think they ever found the cinema...) and generally charging around the minster (absolutely incredible) and the student nights out. we met some friendly canadians at our hostel as well, and educated (or possibly bothered) them with our taste in music...
...until it was time for both of us to hit up manchester, which was really fun. once again, it sort of lacked daytime activities (somewhat of a trend in england, i've found) but we had a really really nice time first, just us 2, and then with some people claire had met earlier in the year at glastonbury (dan and tom) and their friends, who very kindly let us stay at their house and entertained us for a couple of days! needless to say we had a lot of fun, living in a student house for 2 nights, pretending to go to manchester uni and eating 2 pound pizzas. we also had the exciting experience of going to a comedy club, which i was quite sceptical about, but it was actually really funny. the only lowlight (unfortunately) was the australian comedian, which was a little bit embarassing...
because claire had plans already to go to scotland, i had to go thorough another sad goodbye as she headed for glasgow (land of the indecipherable accent) and i marched on towards liverpool, which was only a 2 pound bus ride away. yessssssss.
liverpool is, for those who dont know, the home of the beatles, and i had a lot of fun there with some cool people from the hostel, getting swept up (sort of) in 'beatle mania' and the like.
after liverpool, i braved the 6 hour bus ride (which i almost missed, thanks to me being at the wrong bus stop - i was saved by the friendly bus driver who ran down the road to make sure i wasnt meant to be on his bus - i was.) to london, which i really enjoyed! london's such a massive city which is a tiny bit overwhelming but theres so much cool stuff to do and see, and so many travellers to meet, that i had an awesome time. i rampaged around there for a little while, doing some of the touristy stuff and FINALLY sorting out my visa for brazil (the london embassy actually existed, which is always helpful), before i woke up one morning with absolutely no voice whatsoever - no idea how that happened - and decided to get away from the cities for a little bit.
so next stop was the beautiful bath, which was really really nice, though perhaps not quite as relaxing as i was expecting, being a university town and everything! i spent a realy nice few days wandering around the town (seeing the roman baths - incredible - among other things), and one day i went down to stonehenge! it wasn't as big as i was expecting but it was still really cool. i somehaow managed to resist the temptation to buy the tacky souveneirs (they were really really awful, that's how), so i felt pretty proud of myself after that.
after a few days in bath i wasn't really getting any better voice-wise (one person kindly informed me that i "sounded like darth vader") so i figured it was time to go somewhere that was actually quiet. that is how i chose reading. there is, as far as i was, and still am (having now been) aware, absolutely nothing to do there. which was perfect.
after that i headed back to london for a few more days, where i had a really good time with some awesome girls from england (and another vivian from australia!!) who i met at the hostel before the day finally came and i got up at 5 am (whoo) to head back to paris and BACK TO IONA!
but that is another story, this one is definitely already long enough...
much much love to one and all, and i'm sory this was such a long time coming,
vivienne
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
