TIME IS FLYING... Another month has passed, can you believe it’s nearly November?! I’ve done a lot of tourist things the past month, so I guess you could say I’m exploring the UK a bit. I’ve visited the Jurassic Coast, Durdle Door, Bath and the New Forest and I must say some are more visit-worthy than others. I think Durdle Door is probably my favourite place in England, as it just looks astonishing. Photos won’t do it justice, so if you ever find yourself in the south of the UK take some time out of your day to visit. It’ll be worth it! The Jurassic Coast and Durdle Door were part of a field trip that we did, including a guide!! We got loads of (sometimes unnecessary) facts about the places we visited, but it was a fun day nonetheless. LITERAL MILE STONE On October 2nd I participated in the Bournemouth Half Marathon and I’m proud to say I completed the full 21,1km (or 13 miles as they’d say here) in 2 hours and 27 minutes. After the first two I remember saying NEVER AGAIN but considering the fact that I’ve completed yet another one, I think I’ll stick with… WHEN’S THE NEXT ONE? I also may or may not have started debating whether or not I’ll start training for a full one in the future… BUT I’m not making any promises just yet. Getting my race number before the race was another story by the way, as they send my original number back home (to the Netherlands)… So on the Saturday before the race, mind you the same Saturday as our field trip to the Jurassic Coast and Durdle Door, I needed to be at the Marathon Park at 8AM to retrieve a replacement number, and be back to board the bus at 9AM. It just so happened to be raining rather intensely on this particular Saturday morning, so I can easily say this wasn’t the most pleasant start of the day. When I got to the information stand at 8AM (the time it should open, if I was to believe the website) they were just arriving to put everything in its place. Needless to say it didn’t go as quick as I’d liked it too and at some point (this being about 8.45AM) I started to panic a bit. Luckily they finally got through to figuring out how to transfer race numbers and I can now say I made it in time for the bus (with a race number)! Like I said earlier, the field trip took us to the Jurassic Coast and Durdle Door, we had lunch in Swanage where we visited the ruins of Corfe Castle. The story the guide told us about this particular ruin was that it hadn’t been destroyed in battle, but rather had been destroyed just so nobody could use the castle ever again. We hiked along the Jurassic Coast and to Durdle Door an back, whilst I was constantly worrying about how much my legs would hurt during the half marathon the next day. Luckily everything turned out fine (even with sore legs)! VISITORS Halfway through October my lovely parents came to visit both me and the UK. I drove up to Southampton Airport to pick them up, my first car journey alone! All exciting stuff and I was very happy to see them (can you believe it’s been a full month since I saw them)! We made our way back to Bournemouth and after I went to a seminar, I showed them around the city. We also made dinner plans with Kristie and Patrick at Turtle Bay, a Caribbean themed restaurant here in town that we’ve grown very fond of. Friday was a lovely day and we had very exciting things planned for the weekend following. Saturday morning we hopped into the car and drove 2 hours up to Bath. Dad was cramped in the backseat, which is tiny in the car that we brought to the UK, so I’m very proud that he survived. Finding a parking spot in Bath was an adventure in itself, as our navigation made us drive through the middle of the centre… but we managed to find one! We then adventured into Bath and explored the city for a little while, after which we decided to do the single most tourist-y activity: the Hop-on Hop-off buses! Thanks to this we did see loads of Bath, so I suppose doing tourist activities does actually show you the essential things to see. We booked an Airbnb in Bristol for the night, my first Airbnb experience by the way, which was interesting to say the least. The house was filled with stuff and its owner was not even home. There was a couple from New Zealand staying over too, with whom we shared the house. The bathroom had only a bathtub, there was no shower to be found and the second toilet could be found in the garage… We checked out that second toilet, but it was almost impossible to find as there was too much stuff in the garage that blocked the way to it. Interesting, like I said. On our second day in Bath we re-did the Hop-on Hop-off tours, this time with a guide who actually told us about the things we drove by. He was a very kind man and he continuously made jokes that we sometimes didn’t understand, but we agreed that it made the tours a lot more interesting than just listening to an audio file. NEW FOREST? OR MORE LIKE DUNES? On Sunday morning, roughly 9AM (thanks Patrick) we (Kristie, Patrick and myself) adventured out of Bournemouth to a nearby town called Lyndhurst, situated in the New Forest. Now we were expecting a proper forest with trees and loads of autumn leaves and what not… Turns out the concept of a “forest” can be quite different, as it was merely a wide piece of nature that resembled more something like dunes. Although disappointed by the nature we found, it was still nice to be out of town for a little while and we had fun wading through muddy swamps and over grass covered hills. OXFORD We went on a day trip to Oxford on the last Saturday of October, which turned out to be more time spend on the bus trip than we actually had in Oxford itself. The bus trip was quite uneventful and when we finally arrived in Oxford we were glad to be able to stretch our legs! Our first event of the day was a walk along the many sights in Oxford, which turned out to be quite a challenge with the big group we had and some of us got bored early into the walk. After the walk everyone went off to do their own things and we went off to one of the many colleges to visit the dining hall that inspired the Great Hall in the Harry Potter series. Personally I thought the dining hall didn’t resemble it as much as I thought it had, but the fact that we walked on the actual stairs that were used in the first film kind of made up for it all… (For a little moment I truly felt like a Hogwarts student)! Oxford is a beautiful city and the time we had to explore was not nearly enough to do it justice. After visiting Christ Church College we went into the city to find the little market and I decided I wanted to go and find the UK’s largest bookshop, unfortunately it turned out that my navigation skills aren’t as good as I always think them to be… I got lost and went around in circles until I finally gave in and texted Kristie to find my way back to the group. After rejoining them we wandered around the city for a little more, deciding to go to the “most beautiful room of Europe”. This is more commonly known as the hospital wing at Hogwarts… Now another thing one should know about this room, is that it’s located in a library that was another part of the Harry Potter castle. Unfortunately the library tours were already fully booked and we were unable to visit this part of the building. All of us agreed that the most beautiful room in Europe wasn’t as beautiful as we imagined it to be, so that was quite the disappointment honestly. But all in all it was a really fun day with friends from all over the world (literally)! I think for some of us the highlight of the day might have been the long anticipated pizza at the end of the day. As far as university, things are going alright. It’s still hard to get used to the way they work here, as group dynamics are very different from what I’m used to at home. I guess I’ll just have to go with it and try to make the best out of it. That’s what I’m doing anyway! This has been my second bit of documentation, and I fear that they will grow continuously longer with each month. Thanks for sticking with me, and hopefully you’ve enjoyed this little ramble! See you at the end of November! Hope you enjoyed yet another ramble about my time abroad. xx Jildau
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AuthorJust silly me being, well, me! Hope you enjoy! ArchivesCategories |