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Teen Travel UK Tour Blog

27 July 2018

Saturday -Tuesday

We are eleven  people from all around Europe:

Lukas – 15, from Sweden.

Emily – 16, from Holland.

Paul – 16, from Germany.

Serafina – 15, from Germany.

Beatrice – 16, from Germany.

Maria – 16, from Spain.

Marianne – 15, from France.

Gaia – 16, from Italy.

Sam – 15, from England.

Connie – Travel Mentor, England

Julie – Travel Mentor, Scotland

Apart from Sam we all arrived in Manchester airport at various times on Saturday. From there we drove to L&E North camp to plan our trip and get to know each other better. We decided to depart the next day but before we left we all watched the final match for the World Cup and ate at he barbecue with the rest of the camp. After the barbecue big Sam drove us to our first stop in Grassmere where we stayed for one night in a hostel and we all went to the park in the town and we unanimously agreed that we all slept better there than at the camp.

The next day we had breakfast in the self serve kitchen of the hostel and Sam and Lukas made dough balls in the oven. We then took a bus to Brokehole where we went on a treetop trek which ended in a triple zip wire that was 200 meters long! “It was exciting!” – Gaia. Connie had to have her shoe taped onto her foot because it kept almost falling off.

We then took the same bus with a different bus driver who wasn’t as nice to Windermere where we had lunch which was pleasurable. After that we booked the accommodation for Glasgow the night after, furthermore we found a train connection from Kendal to Glasgow that was also affordable for the next day. We then took the bus to Kendal where it then started to rain on our walk to the hostel we were next staying in. After a break we went to Booths to buy food for tonight and the next morning. Sam and Gaia cooked a delicious meal for dinner – pasta with cheese sauce.  Lukas told some ghost stories (not that scary) and we all sat and chatted until bed time. 

Tuesday – Thursday

After a lovely breakfast in Kendal we took the train to Glasgow. It was a long journey and we had to stop and change the train – at the intermediate station Julie had to pretend to be a dog because of a dare!

Since this morning a fun game had started ,where everyone has to “kill” someone else in a specific place and way, two people were already killed.

We arrived at the hostel around 5 o’clock and we ate at Wetherspoon. The evening was full of talks and bonding and we also started to see Shrek

Deaths of the day:

  1. Connie – singing the national anthem on a train, in the morning.
  2. Marianne – smelling something in a shop, in the morning.

Wednesday 18th

The next day started slowly. We woke up at around 10 am and after a good breakfast we took the bus to Glasgow centre. After a short trip to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and the park everybody was allowed to go of in groups of at least and discover Glasgow on their own. Most of us went to a burger and than make a short shopping trip.

Back (in at) the hostel Marianne started making crêpes – Sam as chef in training. We than went to bed “in time” because the next day would start very early.

Deaths of the day:

1)  Paul – reading a book on a playground, at midday

2)  Beatrice – singing the national anthem (german) in the bathroom, at lunchtime

Thursday 19th

To day we had to get up at 6.30 am to get the bus to Loch Ness at 7 am. Because of the early time we didn’t eat breakfast, so we had packed (a lot of) (many) snacks for the bus. The bus trip to loch ness took us about four hours but we had a few stops at beautiful places to make pictures and get a pass from the sitting.

When we arrived at Loch Ness we had two options. We could either go and see the castle and than make a cruise on the Loch or only do the cruise. 

  • Spent the day in Glasgow (shopping, eating, a pigeon poop on Lukas…)
  • Tastes good
  • Take bus (discover scottland)
  • loch ness
  • Take the bus back (strange songs)

Friday…

In the morning we arrived in Edinburgh. Making our way through the streets in the rain, we found a bus to take us to the hostel, not far from the city centre. Sam was in charge of directions and we followed him (cautiously) down several side streets off the main road. Despite a slightly scary looking front door,

we walked through into a travellers paradise; a ping-pong table, PlayStation, comfy sofas and relaxed, friendly staff awaited. The hostel was made up of converted shipping containers, neatly arranged with every amenity. We felt at home right away. 

No time to relax though; we dropped our bags and went straight into town to explore. We picked up some lunch on-the-go, and made a beeline for the Royal Mile. It was hard to miss the incredible architecture as we wound through the streets; the National Gallery of Scotland and the Castle were particularly impressive. Reaching ‘Camera Obscura’ – a museum of oddities, illusions and mind games – we were were happy to get out of the drizzle. It full of bizarre, interactive activities and we emerged later on, giggling on to the streets. Straight on to a restaurant for food, we then just had time for a quick walk up to Calton Hill for the sunset. It did not take much persuading to get everyone to sleep back at the hostel after such a jam-packed day.

We awoke to a sunny day ~ yes, the sun does shine in Scotland! We all headed to the motorbike and music festival we had booked a few days ago, it was on the same side of the city as us which was good. It was very cool – lots of different styles of motorbikes, we even got to sit on some of them!!  We also had a shot on a theme park ride – Sam has been on so many his facial expression didn’t change at all but all of the girls hair was going round and round and round!  

After we got back to the hostel we collected our bags and headed back into town to try and get some onesies for the bus journey. Unfortunately we couldn’t find any we liked so we bought some blankets and some neck pillows which turned out to be invaluable. We went to a restaurant to get some food and to also make a plan for the next part of our trip. Our big map came in handy – it’s good to have a visual of the UK to see how far away each place is from the other. We all worked very hard to plan the next part of our trip – we were getting very tired which was good as we knew we were about to spend the next 9hours on the overnight bus to London. 

The bus station wasn’t far from the restaurant which was great as we were all quite tired and ready to try and sleep. Although the bus was a little cold we did manage to get some sleep. Next stop – LONDON!!!!!!!