3 Lovely L's... London, Liverpool, Lake District!

Day 24 – Saturday 18 April
We had to leave really early to catch our 7 am flight to London. So at 4 am, we went to get a taxi, but no one was at the office to check us out and call a taxi. So Laura finally found some parking guy to call the night watchman, who called a taxi for us. We got dropped off at the shuttle stop, and then took a shuttle to the airport, and within a few short hours, we were headed back to England. Soon, we were back in London, back “home.” Laura met up with her parents, and Hannah and I were on our own. We spent the afternoon on Oxford St. to do some more souvenir shopping and hanging out at our hostel.

Day 25 Sunday 19 April
Hannah and I wanted to go to Hillsong Church, but then we got lost on the way because we decided to walk there instead of take the tube. By the time we decided to just take the tube, the service had already started and we would have been an hour late, so we decided to just find Abbey Road. We rode the tube for a while, trying to find it, before we gave up and asked a worker how to get there. We then found out that it would be near impossible to get there that day because some of the metro lines weren’t running that day. So Hannah and I never made it there because we had to head back to get our stuff from the hostel in order to catch our coach to Liverpool on time. Then we took a five-hour coach to Liverpool. We got there, found our hostel, settled in, and went out for a drink and food at a local pub. Afterwards, we decided to do a load of laundry. Laundry, that shouldn’t take too long, right? Wrong! It took almost four hours to dry! So we didn’t get to bed until after 2 in the morning. At least it provided me with some time to skype with my sister, which is always nice.

Day 26 Monday 20 April
We did the Liverpool thing – found Penny Lane, went to the Beatles Story museum, wandered around the docks, went to the Cavern (not the original one) and Mathew St. Then we ate Chinese (insert sigh of contentment here) before leaving for our last phase of our holiday-of-a-lifetime. We grabbed our things from the hostel and took the five-hour train to the Windermere… Lake District, here we come!
Due to an hour delay for one of our trains, we didn’t get to Windermere until after 10 pm, and the buses had already stopped running. So Hannah and I ended up taking a rather expensive taxi to our hotel in Grasmere. The drive there was one of the most amazing drives of my life! The road was windy and went through some really quaint little towns and woods and lakes, and the starts were bright against the black night. It was beautiful! After about 20 minutes, Hannah and I let out a gasp because we saw this old, beautiful house all lit up on this hill. That’s when the taxi driver informs us that that house is our hotel. We are overcome with giddiness and the driver asks us if we are satisfied with our choice, and all we can do is nod, our eyes big and the most goony smiles on our faces. We go into the hotel, where the owners, a married couple who waited up for us, checked us in. They were really nice and apparently the man used to be a truck driver, which made the fact that this couple owned the hotel even better. We get to our room, which is really cute, put our stuff down, and go outside to sit under that stars before going back and collapsing in our beds. Not even three hours had passed, and we were already in love with the Lake District!

Day 27 Tuesday 21 April
We woke up at 8:45 only because breakfast was only served from 8:30 to 9:30. With difficulty, we forced ourselves to get up and dressed and go downstairs for breakfast. Our grumpiness over getting up so early did not last long as we took in the heavenly sight that was the dining room. The couple greeted us, asked us if we wanted tea or coffee, and showed us where our table was. It was so cute, this tiny little table set for two underneath this window with a gorgeous view of woods, gardens, and animals. The breakfast included tea, coffee, juice, toast, sausage and beans, English bacon, eggs, hash browns, fried mushrooms, and an assortment of fruit, yogurts, and cereals… a real full English breakfast! It was scrumpdilyicious and completely worth waking up early for!
After eating, we spent a little time in the parlour, working on some online stuff. Then we went out and explored Grasmere, which is a really quaint town where Wordsmith is from. We saw the tulip garden and his grave before we found a lake to hike around. The lake, surrounded by mountains and sheep, was simply gorgeous! That walk took us several hours, and by the time we walked around the lake, it was dinner time. We went to this little café and then went back to our hotel. We spent the rest of the evening in the parlour working on our computers. The owners liked to tease us about that.

Day 28 Wednesday 22 April
Woke up for our delicious breakfast, and then spent the day working on essays in the parlour. In the afternoon, I took a two hour break and went on a walk before going back to work on my essays. I spent the evening curled up by the fire in the main parlour and a cup of tea in my hands. Oh, did I forget to mention that I am now a fan of tea?

Day 29 Thursday 23 April
Thursday was a repeat of Wednesday. It rained, though, so I was not so depressed that I had to sit inside and work on essays. This was the perfect day to sit by the fire.

Day 30 Friday 24 April.
Again, Friday was a repeat of Wednesday and Thursday. I finished my essay and started another one. Hannah and I became really depressed that our time at the Lake District was almost over, and we attempted to think of ways to prolong our trip back to Winch and reality.

Day 31 Saturday 25 April
We had our last breakfast there – it was bittersweet. Then we packed our things, took a bus to the Windermere train station, and headed back to Winch. On the train, I had some good personal reflection and devo time. We got back into Winch at about 4 pm, and it felt so good to step onto familiar grounds. It is so good to be back in Winchester, I get this feeling of “home” whenever I come back to Winch after being gone. The walk back to Uni, despite being tired and sore from our rucksacks, was wonderfully splendid. Everything is in full bloom now, and Hannah and I were super psyched to be back, even though it meant no more Lake District! We “broke into” our dorm rooms since we technically weren’t supposed to be back until Sunday at 4. Then Hannah and I went to Sainsbury’s and on a walk before settling into our respective rooms. The rest of the day was low-key – I pretty much unpacked and watched a movie before going to bed.

Day 32 - Sunday 26 April
I woke up at around 6 am because I was freezing sine I didn’t have any of bedding stuff. So I got up and worked on some essay stuff before going on a walk. Then I worked on some essay stuff again. That evening, Hannah and I went to Charlotte’s house to pick up our luggage that Charlotte so kindly stored for us over break (we had to completely move out of our rooms for break) and went back to Alwyn Hall. Then I unpacked and talked to some people on skype. I was “officially” back in Winchester! Happy day!