Most of my body is incredibly sore!!

Just got back from my diving weekend with luusac. Pretty exhausted now, I had two early mornings to fit all the dives in! We packed the van up Friday night with all the kit, and then I met up with Sabine to go pick up her friend Sara's sister from the bus station, who came from France as a surprise visit to sara. So when we went to Saras and presented her, Sara freaked out, she was so happy. It was very cute. So then we went out to dinner at Bella Italia and we all stuffed ourselves into oblivion. Our waiter was real nice and he overheard me say something about Ny so he told me he got married in ny (I told him Congrats but I really was thinking oh that's a pity, he's quite cute!) So we had a chit chat about that. we were the last ones to leave, we actually stayed until about an hour after they shut. I'm still a bit surprised my dessert didn't taste like spit. Then I had to be up real early Saturday morning so we could leave to go diving at a lake in the north York moors. my dive buddy was tom, and Nathan was our instructor with coral shadowing. So we did the skills for the last sports diver lesson, which was what I needed to qualify. we had to plan a dive together and then take turns leading it. Our planning skills were a bit crap lol but both of us were rusty when it came to calculating rule of 3rds! So when we got in the water we tried mask clears, I messed up again so we moved onto me leading. I led us to a ship (underwater, it was like the underwater theme park at capernwray). I saw a small crayfish like animal crawling on it.  Then tom had some issues with his kit so while coral was helping him with that, Nathan practiced partial mask clears with me and I was fine. So then we did AS ascent, mine was a bit fast but passable. Then tom led, and then we finished. For the second dive, we split the group, so I was just with Nathan and we only practiced mask clears. I did fine with the partials, but once I had to fully remove the mask i panicked, so I did 3 rapid ascents to the surface (we were only like 3m deep) but Nathan said we shouldnt go back down again, so we were only in the water for 10 min. It definitely wasnt as cold as the times we went to capernwray! So we packed up the Vans with our kit and drove up to Scotland. We stayed at like a trailer park near st abbs. It was a bit odd, I never knew they got rented out to travelers! It was a pretty nice little shindig though, very warm and I had a queen sized bed all to myself!! it was a good night there, I got on better with this batch of luusacers than I did all year with last years group, so its a bit of a shame that I won't be in Leeds to hang out with them, especially when they are going to karaoke on thurs and Dave has elected all of us girls (all 4 of us) to be his back up singers and dancers! So this morning we got up early and drove to st abbs head, but the water was too rough to dive, so we went up the coast but still at st abbs nature reserve, to a cove called petty wilcock, or something along those lines. We drove to the top of the cliff, and then had to walk down to the water! Like seriously, I can carry a 12 liter cylinder on my back up an uneven hill but I can't unflood a mask?! And there weren't any filling stations so we each had 2 cylinders, to bring down and up, but jamie, one of the adorable freshies, carried my empty cylinder after my first dive, and I used jemmas one for my second dive since it had plenty of gas left. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. For the first dive, Nathan and I first practiced partial mask clears, I did them fine, didn't do an ascent. Then we swam around but his compass broke, so we got lost, but we were still in the cove area. We saw lots of crabs, small and medium sized fish, sea urchins, 2 sea anenomes and sea snails. There was lots of kelp and sea grass everywhere, something completely new to me since this was my first temperate coastal dive! The water wasn't too cold either. Then we went back to our mask clearing spot and I did pretty good, but not good enough to advance to doing it at 10m on the next dive. So we got out and soon got ready again for the 2nd dive. there was also no bathroom, so we designated a spot behind a stone wall at the top of the hill as our area. I peed there after dive #1, but left Nathans dive computer up there, and didn't realize until the buddy check phase for dive #2! So I had to dekit and run to get it. We eventually did get in the water, and started with mask clears (I nearly kneeled on top of 2 crabs!), but I kept screwing up so Nathan said let's just forget about it and go enjoy the dive. So this time around I saw the same as last time, and also 2 big fish and 2 sea stars. I had buoyancy issues and managed to float right to the surface so we ended the dive there, which was about 30 min in. So after that we had to bring everything back to the vans, and load up, then we drove the 4 hrs back to Leeds and listened to BBC radio 1 nearly the whole way until there was a public protest in the van to change the station. The music was so god damn awful it made me want to stick knives in my ears and cut out my ear drums. But then we changed it back and forth between some reggae station and Asian fever fm.when we arrived at the chapel, we unpacked the van of our personal kit to put it inside, while we then went to coopers to rinse the clubs gear. This took longer than expected cause no one knew the most sensible way of washing everything. But at some point later we left, picked our stuff up from the chapel, and I got dropped off by Sabines!! So in summary, overall it was a good weekend with fun people and new diving experiences, but I didn't finish my qualification. But they have an Easter trip to Malta so I will go on that and finish up. I don't think it'll be a problem, cause the water is warmer!! Ok time for bed, gotta catch a 4pm bus tomorrow!

Leeds always seems to amaze me

My legs aren't feeling as bad as I thought today, although they were a bit stiff when I first woke up. Yesterday was the first day I rode through 3 counties in one day! But no riding for a few days, and I Back to writing blogs on my phone again. I am at Sabines place in Leeds, its real nice, I'm jealous considering its basically on campus and her bedroom is a lot bigger than mine at leodis! So this morning I missed my 7:55am bus to leeds, so I had to wait till 10:05am for the next one. This one went to bradford so I just asked the driver if I can get off at bradford instead since I had to go there for my dry suit anyway. He said it was no problem, so instead of going to Sabines when I got in and dropping my stuff off first, I went straight to the dive shop with my backpack and gear. The national express driver made the wing flapping motion to me when he saw my fins, and I said, no they are for swimming! And he said, where? in the sea? And I said "well not in bradford!" When I was on the city bus to bradford we passed a church with a sign that said smile if you love god. Text and drive if you can't wait to meet him! I didn't think priests and nuns had a sense of humor! So when I got to divers warehouse they were real friendly and helpful, I was able to take all my rented gear then and there. Just before I walked in, Dave from luusac who is running this weekends trip called and asked if I could get 12 kg of weights. When I asked the guy at DW for it, he said, you will sink!! When I went to leave I said I was going to take the bus so he gave me a ride to the station. His car was very low on gas so he said "I hope I make it back, what will they think when I say I've run out of petrol with a young girl in the car!!" (He was like 65 BTW). At least that's what I think he said, the bradford accent is worse than the Leeds one! But we got to the station without an incident. I took the bus to Leeds town hall then wanted to hop on the city bus, but I couldn't find the stop so I'm walking up and down the headrow looking like a goon with my backpack, my dive bag full of fins, mask and 12 kg of weights, and the rented bag with my dry and undersuit!! It was not very balanced at all.  I had deja vu of Nathans microwave! I finally found the stop and when the bus came I took a seat close to the front and when I stood up to get off a lady with a cane asked if I was getting off and I said yes but you can go ahead of me, and she goes "no I'm not getting off, I'm taking your seat, its a handicap seat." So I felt like a complete douche! When I got off I got a bit lost trying to find Sabines block, and when I did, there weren't any addresses on the doors! So I asked a few people where 21 was and neither knew but I just had a stab at one and it ended up being hers cause she left a key for me. So when she got back we went food shopping, made veggie chilli, yummmmy!! Then went to swing soc lessons. The same immensely sexy teacher that was there last year when I went to a lesson (and would have been my sole reason for joining the club, had I joined), so that made the lessons fun to watch. I as usual was an awful dancer and I kept messing up the Charletown. And like when did Leeds become land of the giants!? Because every guy at the lesson was a monster!! So I thought, that it was something about swing that attracted tall men, but even at hifi which was where the social was, there were some men towering over us, until we bumped into abba. We hung out with a few swing soc people but then headed back. I can hardly keep my eyes open so it must be bed time

the only mishap throughout mini journey #1 was the tail light falling into the sewer! not bad for my first cycling trip!

I am back in Leicester now, using my computer again - wow it feels great to not have to type out a whole days worth of a blog entry on my phone!! Last night after my entry I continued to hang out in the TV lounge and we watched some really crap tv shows - Big Bang theory, futurerama, Shameless and Celebrity Juice (the last 2 are British). they literally got worse throughout the night. I wanted to rip my eyeballs out!! So then I decided I couldn't take it anymore, I needed to talk to the cute guy sitting behind me (dont know why I didn't work up the courage to do it 2 hours prior!!) so I invited him to sit next to me and he did, so we got chatting. He was in town because he was going to a convention about sustainable living at the NEC. I mentioned how I was going to the ICC (another convention center in Brum) to check out an art exhibit. He had locked his keys in his car earlier  in the day, so I told him I would give him a ride to the NEC on my bike if he sat on the rack and balanced my bag on his head - and he believed me!! but our night was cut short due to the lounge closing at midnight, so we went to bed (separately =(  ). In the morning, i went to the lounge to have breakfast. I saw yappy man (who still never introduced himself to me, but I think i heard him tell someone else in our room that his name was Mike) and we (well mostly him) got into a conversation about different accents.  This eventually led him to telling me about the different slang terms that people around the UK use. for instance: people from Derby call each other duck and cock, instead of mate!! Jeez some Brits are strange. Okay that was a bit unfair, so Ill take it back. All Brits are strange.  Then at breakfast who arrived but the cutie from last night so we started talking again, I finally found out his name is Ben, and we left at the same time to go to our building (separate to where the main lounge area is) to get our stuff and leave. I didnt wear any shoes because its only a short walk in between the buildings, but he thought that was weird, so he gave me a piggy back ride and i tried to insert the door code with my feet. that didnt work. One of the girls who worked at the backpackers (she is from Westminster, MA - who knew there was such a place!?) told me about this art exhibit that has rock n roll memorabilia so I decided to check it out before I left for my journey to Leicester. I got insanely lost trying to find the freaking place, and my GPS and the street janitor were no help either! Birmingham lives up to its rep as a terrible city to drive in!! so i finally got to the exhibit, it was cool, lots of david Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stones pictures, and autographed Pink Floyd and the Who album covers, etc etc. But since I spent so long trying to find the place, and I got distracted by talking to Ben, that I didn't have enough time to see the castle art exhibit in the ICC =( oh well, will see next time! So I went back to the hostel, ate lunch then made my way outta there! got a bit turned around when trying to find the B4128, but got on track quickly. it started to rain at this point, but it wasnt very heavy and only lasted 10 min. so it wasnt bad at all. it was sunny pretty much the rest of the day, and I didnt have any wind. Michael met me half way, in Nuneaton, and he had wind blowing at him the whole time. oh well, sucks to be him! So we then headed for Leicester, I followed him the rest of the way so obviously I didn't get lost =) Its definitely beginning to get darker earlier and its feeling a lot colder in the early evenings. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my ride today. Whenever I ride in the countryside, I always have cyclists on the opp side of the road say hello to me as we cross paths, just like hikers do. I think that is so nice! And when I was leaving Stratford, there were about 8 people who clearly were practicing for some type of competitive biking cause they were all geared out in their sexy lyra and top notch bicycles, and one of the guys in the first row of bikers said to me as they were approaching, "hey, how are you doing!" well you cant really have a convo with someone as you are passing at 10 mph and like 20 ft away, but it was a real kind gesture anyway. People in cars cant do that! anyway enough of the philosophizing. when we got back to Leicester, we went straight to Halfords so I could drop off Lance to get his gears/chain fixed. Turns out he didnt need to stay to see the mechanic, the technician just reset my gears and now he is all spic and span again! So then we just went to Michael's dad's house and they went off to play darts and I stayed here to pack my stuff for my diving weekend in St. Abb's Head! I tell ya, as much fun as it was to be traveling around and meeting people of all sorts in the hostels, I did miss the warm bed, home cooked meals, and just the comfort of (not) my own home! As for my details of todays ride: 41.85 total miles (not including about 4 miles of getting to and back from the art exhibit, and all the getting lost around the city I did!) max speed: 26.5 mph, avg 9.9 mph. I left Brum at 12:45pm and Michael and I arrived at Halfords at 6:15 pm, and it was only about another mile to his house, so lets say we got there just before 6:30. I still dont know all the ins and outs of my bike computer, but its possible its telling me my total riding time for today was 4 hours, 11 min, which makes sense cause Mike and I chilled out by the train station in Nuneaton for like 40 min.

Well, even though its only 11 pm (my bed time just keeps getting earlier by the day!), I must be jetting off to bed, for I have a 7:55 am bus to catch to Leeds! toodles!!

Section 1 of my journey is coming to a close!

So I'm back in the backpackers, sitting front and center at the cozy fire! Well today has definitely been the weirdest day since I started, but I want to mention a few things about last night first: so when I was in the bathroom I was talking to a guy originally from Iran but living in Melbourne and I told him I was biking around the country and he was like amazed, he kept asking all these questions about it. Then I mentioned I was going to the Olympics and he thought I meant I was participating! And that's not the first time that's happened, so from now on I'm going to specify I HAVE TICKETS to the Olympics! So last night we had pizza for our nightly buffet, the hostel was nice enough to order veggie pizza. But I was still hungry, so I ate the "new York" pizza, just took out the pork! Then we watched some shows. One of them was balls of steel, and one of the acts on it was this man that was completely naked and talking to people to see their reactions. But they showed everything!! US tv would never ever allow that! God I hate the FCC! Then i went with nick the hot Aussie to his room and we watched some Aussie tv show and the in betweeners. After that hour of torture I was feeling tired so I went  to my room and finally went to bed. So I was a bit tired today, but I went back to the museum and art gallery. There I was minding my own, looking at some Italian pottery, when some guy starts talking to me. At first I wasn't very friendly but then he told me he just came to Birmingham from - ok you guess. Yup! You got it! Pakistan! And he didn't have any friends and asked if I wanted to be his friend. So I fell into his trap, damn I'm such a sucker! So I said I would be his friend and I would see the museum with him even though I didnt want to. So we walked around the museum, then we walked around the city centre and walked along the canal, which was nice since I hadn't seen that side of bham yet. But the more time I spent with him the more annoying he got. He asked if I was engaged (memories of belize came rushing back) and I said no, but I had a bf, in bham! Thinking that would make him not interested anymore, but no that didn't work. And to make matters worst, he didn't know English very well, and we all know how little patience I have for those kind! Well at least he told me I was handsome. And I learnt that march 14 is a holiday in Pakistan, due to some battle that broke out in 1947. But I decided to just head back to the hostel to ditch him, but he was walking with me so I got annoyed and started to be kind of mean. One of those irritating people who come up to you on the street and ask you to sign your life away saw us walking side by side and said "hey happy couple! Can I talk to you?" And I said "you can just take him" and I think he got the point after that cause he stopped to look at wallets so I made my quick getaway! So I just went to the hostel and showered. It was pretty awful, the water kept fluctuating between cold and scorching hot! I nearly burnt my nipple off! After that ordeal, I decided to have one more walk around bham, but it was pretty windy so I headed back shortly after and ate dinner. Ok i think it is time for a Nap next to this fire!

I've run out of clean clothes :-(

So by the end of last night, it was me and 5 males in my room, quite a change from my accom this past week! Slept right thru the snoring though :-) This morning I went to the Birmingham museum and art gallery, there was an exhibit on the findings from staffordshire hoard, which I guess was a big deal nationally. I walked around the city centre for a bit after, got lost again, in the same area as yesterday! So bham isn't exactly a nice looking city, I like London more, and I don't care for there too much either! I noticed that England has like all chain companies, except most pubs. Like the nightclubs, restaurants, even the events that go on at the clubs, are not independent. There's a Leeds building society in leicester! So these cities are really lacking in originality and character. But that's my daily "I hate England mini rant" done! So autumn weather has finally hit, it was drizzley, cold and windy today. Glad I wasn't cycling :-) at the moment I am in the tv lounge at the hostel, free pizza in 1/2 hour! Going to bed early tonight, real drained of energy!

Can't wait to have a convo with the locals!

So I am in my central backpackers hostel in Birmingham, and wow what an average age difference! There are some old people but the majority are my age, Yayyy! So let's recap today shall we: I had a very long nights sleep, so by the time I left the yha it was 9:43am. I had to go back in the direction I accidentally went yesterday, but at least I knew my way out of the town centre! So the stratford armouries was on the way, and it was only 1/2 mile out from the main road so I decided to check it out. I had no idea what I was getting myself into! It was an 8% incline the whole way, and I very nearly rode all the way up (would have done if I didn't have that stupid heavy bag behind me!) So when I got there I saw there was a £5 entry fee but no one behind the desk. So I waited for a bit but then decided to go  just inside. But there weren't many visitors at that time so one of the workers saw me and thought, wait a tick, I never received her money! So he made me pay the fee. I was there for a bit, one of the rooms had a shakey section, as I expected, where there were items made from the mulberry tree in shakesters garden at new place. In another room, they were setting up for a toy soldiers exhibit (which British people are obsessed with by the way). They were all old men unloading the boxes, and all of a sudden one starts singing waterloo. Another goes "you're not going to start singing Abba now are you!?" And that guy goes," sorry, I saw waterloo written on this box!" I thought it was very funny, a true behind the scenes that goes into preparing these exhibits moment. It reminded me of this story I overheard last night from some man on my ghost tour. His friend was going to massage his wife, and he had a bottle of mead next to the massage oil (as you do when you give massages) and he instead drank the oil and poured mead on his wifes back. I'm sure she was not a happy camper! Don't worry buddy, it happens to the best of us! So I left at 12:45p and I was a bit concerned cause the sky was looking grey, but I soon rode away from that and it was sunshine all the way!! I sure was glad to be wearing my sunglasses, not only do they save me from being sun blinded, but they also act as a windshield against bugs! Although they don't protect against insects flying into my mouth..my chain fell off twice during the ride! But the first time I was going downhill anyway so at the bottom I pulled alongside a pub and fixed it, then the second I just pulled into someones drive way. But that was the only mishap ask far, so can't complain. I arrived at brum at a very good time (forgot when exactly but it was like 4p), did a total of 27.88 mi, my max was 28 mph when I went down that 8% hill. Avg 9.1 mph. Some hills along the way, but nothing major. And just when I thought I escaped all the shakey rhetoric, his name was alive and well in a pub in Henley and a street in solihull. As I got closer to the town center the traffic actually slowed down and I was going pretty swiftly, but I didn't think I went so fast as to make it all the way to Pakistan! But after riding on for a few more miles, I was still in Birmingham after all. So I made it to the backpackers and had to pay with cash so the hottttt Aussie receptionist (and I of course was smelly after riding all those miles with my hair all frizzle frazzled) had to look up where a Natwest atm was. Grrr I hate natwest!! I never ended up finding the one he told me about but I found a rbs so that was just as good. But other than that I didnt get lost at all today! The road signs were clear at telling me where the motorway to bham was and where the a road was. But of course signs for the b4100 never showed up, so I just guessed I was going on the right road, and then found the hostel. So when I got to my room, there were 2 guys there already. One didn't shut up! He kept telling me about the hostel and about the other guy in the room, but didn't tell me about himself and I kept thinking ok shut up guy, I just want to unpack and shower, but then he asks for my story and I said 3 words and then he goes oh ill leave you to your peace. So i thought that was a bit strange but was glad so I could finally shower! But then 2 min later he started yapping again!! But he eventually left thank god! So after I got clean I did some walking around the city centre, saw a bank protest outside the art gallery. and I did get a little lost, even with a map. But I definitely didn't lose or forget anything today, so that's a plus! (There was a false alarm when I left the yha cause my phone wasn't in my jacket pocket so I thought I left it in the room so I went back in but it wasn't there, but it ended up being in my hoody the whole time so all was well). But I didn't go without spilling something today :-( my hostel does nightly buffets and sexy Aussie gave me a veggie soup packet and I ended up spilling half of the bowl on the table when I went to sit down! So now I am in the hostel lounge, the other people are watching x factor so I will now join them before heading off to bed!!

Response to mikes comment since I don't know how to respond to the comment itself!

To comment to you mike, yes sorry I wrote that wrong. Mary arden was his mom but the farm house belonged to his grandparents!

Parting is such sweet sorrow

Ok, so finally back at the yha tv lounge. Same old ladies in the corner, and dilf with his wife and baby on the couch next to me. Actually, he's not as hot as I thought. I think initially I mistook him for a German cause there were so many here that night, so that glorified his looks a bit. And now that I take a better look at him, he's a bit chunky. Don't know how I missed it before, I think because his double chin blends into his neck, so he looked fit, rather than fat. But ok a few things I wanted to mention in the first post that I forgot: 1. The avg age of the hostel guests dropped about 60 years overnight. When I left at 8 am there were young children who were lining up to eat in the kitchen. And god were they loud! Even at that age, I never had that much energy at that time of morning. I felt bad for them though, getting up that early on a Saturday! I never went on any overnight trips with my elementary school, I was a bit jealous actually! 2. There were sooooooo many more people in stratford this afternoon, being a Saturday. God I can only imagine what summer weekends are like!! 3. It was nice and sunny all day, with blue skies in the afternoon, but colder this morning than yesterday, so its definitely time to start whipping out the gloves and other winter gear. 4. When I was walking around the shops I saw a pheasant that was adamant about wanting to get into a law firm. I heard a loud thud, so either it was already inside for whatever reason and was thrown out by the lady behind the glass door, or it ran into the glass and banged its head. But it looked real lost and kept slipping when it tried to run on the pavement. I felt terrible for it, but I didn't know what to do, this was rather peculiar! But it eventually flew away so me and the mass of Japanese tourists next to me were relieved. And 5. when I arrived at Mary ardens farm, there was an elderly couple on a tandem bicycle parked next to me. They had a pannier nearly as big as mine (although not as bulky!) And a gps unit mounted to the handlebars, the real deal! I thought they were so cool, I could never have envisioned my grandparents doing that, how would they be able to argue the whole way with the wind carrying their words far and beyond their ears? But ok so let me now finish where I left off: so yes, the towpath. I thought oh let me take the scenic route back instead of that annoying and busy A road. So I hop on the towpath, and it was quite serene. The countryside views were nice too. So I see a map that says stratford 1mi in the direction I was heading, or so I thought. I go one mile and I still don't see the town, so I go for a bit longer and then I see a sign that says stratford 7 miles, and pointed in the opp direction! I thought, what the nilly? So I ask a couple where I was and Yup, not in stratford! So I then realized that I just went onto the towpath assuming that it stopped at Mary ardens, so there was only one direction. But the canal continued so why wouldn't the towpath!? I thought my map reading skills and internal compass was improving as I went along on this trip. Clearly not . So I then got off the towpath and went onto the street, but I was in the middle of nowhere, but near a horse sanctuary, so I asked a lady walking a horse which way was stratford, so she pointed me to the direction of the  main road, and I found my way. So when I got back I went to a pub called the black swan aka dirty duck for dinner. I passed a store that was called "old guys rule" and I thought, only in stratford. So after dins I waited for my ghost tour to start. When the guide arrived he had a list of our names and I said michele, and he said what's your surname cause that's not on the list. So colomba was. And then I asked if they did a student price. No go. Oh and there was a celebrity in the audience! Yes folks you heard right, jabba the hut was there in the flesh! I guess he retired from his gangster days on tatooine and chose the tranquil town (except Saturday afternoons!) Of stratford upon avon to settle in. So on the tour, we walked around, the guide told us stories of the ghosts that haunt some pubs, restaurants, halls croft, hotels on top of pubs (I didn't even know they were hotels! There were no signs indicating they were! Maybe this is a norm in the UK? Pubs doing accommodation?), but none about shakeys and Anne, thank god. I am all shaked out! I was real cold the whole time. And now that he knew my first name he kept using me as like someone to talk to, and even used me as a stand in when he was talking about a torture device (Edinburgh deja vu kicking in). At some point early on a little girl on her daddys shoulders said "daddy I'm scared!" And then started crying, so they left the tour. I mean who thinks its a good idea to bring an infant on a ghost tour!? Although there was another little girl about her age with her pops and she didn't flinch at all throughout the whole tour, even when the guide was deliberately trying to scare her. I guess we all know who's going to grow up to be the punk and who is going to get their lunch money stolen and get swirlies in the school toilet! So the tour was real good, at the end the guide came up to me personally and shook my hand and said goodnight michele, enjoy your studies. And didn't do that to anyone else. I found that creepier than the stories themselves! So I rode back to the yha, realized I left my room key in the room the whole day, good thing I arrived back while reception was still open so they could give me a new key! So I went back to my room, spoke to a girl who was about my age, when what do you know!? two elderly women moved in, and they are traveling together. I have started a trend! So my total mileage over the last 2 days is 25.72 with an avg of 9.2 mph. Id say about 20 of those miles if not more were from today, and obviously low avg mph cause the towpath was unpaved. And now tomorrow I have a big day riding to Birmingham, so I best get some shut eye.

Part 1 of my last day in stratford

So for the first time since I started my trip, I have some time to kill before my ghost tour starts. I am real tired from today so its best I write my entry even before I go on the tour. So here goes: I think all these WWII exhibits I've been to recently are starting to mess with my brain. Last night I dreamt that the 2german girls in my room were Nazis and they sent a secret message in the form of a cake to Hitler telling him they needed to bomb poor old stratford! The symbol on top of the cake was a swatstika in disguise but I knew something was fishy so I went to grab Red (why the hell he was in my dream ill never know) who was the security guard of the 5star hotel I was staying at, and he signalled his authorities and they got rid of the cake. I woke up before I could help them dispose of it properly. But I actually got talking to one of the girls this morning and as suspected, they are on a school trip, although to a conference in London,  but their teacher wanted to go to stratford along the way! I thought that was peculiar that high schoolers were going to a conference, but also quite cool. She told me the name of the organization but I was busy saving a shield bug from doom because it was about to crawl into the other girls suitcase, and she probably would have freaked out. So I wasn't paying attention to the name, although I think it is "round"something. So I went to Anne hathaways cottage, it is 1mi out of the town centre so I rode there. Also went to a sculpture and tree garden (they were taken from shakeys plays) on the grounds, then did a nice little woodland walk. Then I went to the royal Shakespeare company theatre for the 11am performance of taming of the shrew, but judging by the amount of kids, I figured it wouldn't be for my age group (well, mental one not physical one). So I had a quick look around and then went to halls croft, the home of shakesters son in law, who was a holistic Dr. He used to give people the strangest concoctions of herbs for the simplest alements like fever, and sometimes his rxs included blood and bile! I never appreciated modern medicine as much as I did at that moment I heard that! So after that I walked around the shops, went to an Xmas one which got me real excited, an antique store and a chocolate store where I bought lunch. There were a few kid buskers including a young boy doing the robot. It was great! Then I headed for Mary ardens, shakeys gma, house and farm, which was 3 mi outside the centre. They had ancient rare breeds of livestock, and were a running tudor farm, so naturally free range and organic so that was quite cool. They still used all the old tools and equipment! Then they had a falconry show and they were demonstrating the silent flight of the barn owl, and as milly was on her way to the other person to land on, she flew right into my head! But it didn't disrupt her flight and I still didn't hear a thing. So I walked around for a bit, they also had a nature trail so I did that as well. Then I decided to take the towpath back that went along the canal and led into the town centre. Ok tour about to start, will finish later!

Is this the calm before the storm?

This morning I got up early to explore stratford. I biked into town and walked around the whole day. I forgot what it was like to ride without a heavy weight on the back! I felt like I was walking on air! ::sings theme to greatest American hero:: so I got there right on time and was the first one into Shakespeares birthplace! One of the staff asked where I came from so I said warwick. He was less than amused, I sense a town rivalry! Definitely not the "what are you doing here!?" Reaction I get when I say I'm from NY. So after that I went to the museum of wizardy. That was cute, had some witch and wizard stories. Then they had a potion puzzle where you decipher a riddle to choose which potion it was referring to. I guessed right so I received a certificate for the witch of Henley st!! Either I suddenly learnt to decode riddles or EVERYONE of those potions were the correct one. After that I went to the nash house and new place, shakeys last home. They are excavating the site so I was able to see a cellar from the victorian era deep in the ground. Then I went on a walking tour around stratford which was real nice. We of course went to shakeys grave and I didn't want to pay again since I already did when I went to stratford last year, so I told the lady that I just visited the grave "the other day" so she let me go by for free. Yeah, lying to old church ladies, I feel like a good samaritan! Breaking news: there is an incredibly sexy English dilf in the tv lounge of the YHA, but god is his crying baby annoying!! Ok focus..so where was I? Oh yes, cheating a church out of money. So when we left, our guide showed us 12 trees on each side of the walkway to the church entrance. They represented the apostles and deciples, but the last one of the deciple side was set back out of line from the others and that represented Judas!! Just goes to show the symbolism that we pass by everyday and have no idea that its even there cause obviously I wouldnt have done a double take to that tree if I hadn't known that fact. So all the while there was this guy traveling alone and was from LA (lots of Americans on the tour actually, including people from Boston) and I wanted to talk to him but the cat had my tongue, so we both walked next to each other for the 2hours in silence. I am really kicking myself because although he looked a bit older than me, he was by far the youngest tourist around stratford today, other than me. So it would have been refreshing to talk to someone of my generation and maybe eat dinner with. Not to mention make a friend from cali! But oh well, looks like ill be at the pub alone tomorrow! So after the tour I went to the falstaff experience which had displays on life during the tudor era. Then it was time to head back to the hostel and get ready for my ghost tour tonight. When I got back to my room, both grannies had gone. Maybe I was sending them brain waves in my sleep telling them to travel together and they heeded. I am such a matchmaker!!! At 6 I got a phone call from the company saying the tour was cancelled due to lack of interest, yet the other ghost tour by the wizardy museum people was all booked up until after Halloween. So riddle me that Batman. But hopefully the tour will go on tomorrow. Now I have 2 German girls in my room, much younger!! I'm so glad I'm not the only one under 70 who can appreciate Shakespeare history, although it looks like they belong to a school group. So Ive been in the lounge for a few hours, spoke to some old guy (surprise surprise) and he gave me travel tips for going around Europe and advised I check out the cotwolds tomorrow. I hope to go on Sunday before I head for Birmingham. Ok my neck is hurting from looking down at my phone for so long.

Preplanning is the key to a smooth trip!

Today mike and I explored the rest of warwick. We first filled our bellies to the brim with the breakfast provided at agincourt. Then we set off to the lord leycester hospital where there was a warwickshire regimement exhibit, then went to the warwickshire museum, which had archaeology, natural history and warwick history. Then we went to the st marys church and went down to the crypt and saw the tombs of all the royal people we heard about yesterday. Then Michael took the bus back to leicester and I went to one more museum called st johns house, where they had old toys (even saw some I used to own!) And more war exhibits. So a very educational day in a very small town. Then I set off for stratford upon Avon. Didn't think it was possible but I did get lost around warwick trying to find my way to the A road out of there. So once I found my bearings, leaving time was 5:25pm and I did a total of 13.14mi (plus maybe 1/2 a mile more because when I was lost in town I didn't have my compy on). My avg was 11.9 mph and that is because for the first time since I've been cycling around this damn country I did not encounter any significant hills! And there was hardly any wind! I wonder what my speed would have been if i didn't have my monstrous bag on my rack. I should have weighed it before I left, so then I could calculate drag resistance and test if I actually learned anything from that year of physics classes, at the same time. And of course I got lost along the way; I still haven't figured out the difference between a dual carriageway and a motorway, in terms of when its ok to ride a bike. I didn't see any no cycling signs as I approached the A46 but it definitely looked like more of a motorway so I went another way and once I did all signs for stratford disappeared so I feared that the A46 was my only way there, but I was able to take another route, which was slightly longer but safer in any case. So I arrived at the yha at 6:45ish. And it would have been like a half hour sooner if I was more prepared! I swear I am so disorganized, I amaze myself at how I accomplish anything. So as I was on my way I saw a sign that said yha alveston (which is technically in the stratford district) but I thought surely this isn't my yha, but not like I actually checked the location of it beforehand! So I ride on the other 2 miles to stratford, the town. And when I got close to the town centre my brainiac mind decided it was time to look up the address of the hostel. And what do you know, IT WAS THE SAME PLACE I PASSED! so now I'm annoyed cause it was getting real dark and I had to go 2miles back in the direction I came. But I rode as fast as my ginormous pannier would let me. So I was a bit annoyed to find out that the hostel is so far away from the attractions, but hey I have a bike.  But I was happy to know that there is a bike shed, so lance is in there now, hopefully making more friends than I am. I am sharing my room with two grannies. And they arent even traveling together, so this leads me to thinking they are traveling on their own, which I both pity and admire. It's good to be able to still want to go out and do something with your life at that age instead of wanting to play bingo and bridge all day long at the local old people hang out, and the fact that they are in a hostel and not a b&b shows that they haven't gotten uptight in all their years, but I feel bad that they don't have a partner to share these experiences with. But hey, maybe they can join forces, swap stories about the good old days when candy cost a nickel and children respected their elders, and then maybe they can be travel buddies. Don't know why I've given that so much thought, maybe because I've been kicked out of the room since 9 pm cause they wanted to sleep, so I'm sitting in the hallway writing this. But no matter, tomorrow will be another cultural day, so I must shimmy off to bed myself!

God merlin entertainment is such a money grubbing company

So I took a break from riding today, spent the whole day at warwick castle with Mike. When I woke up I had breakfast and literally ate everything that was on display, and stole some fruit! Tomorrow I plan on doing the same =) then I met up with Mike near the castle and we went in together. We saw all the sites, including the rose garden, steam engine, peacock garden, birds of prey (felt bad for them), trebuchet, where we were winders!, the great hall, and did ghost and shakespeare tours, as well as being invited to a royal tea party. towards the end we watched the trebuchet launch a fireball. It was really good weather too! We came back to agincourt via st Nicholas park, then went to dinner in a pub called the roebuck which is the oldest public house in warwick ( it was also at this time that I realized where the word pub comes from) where an artist was painting murals of warwick on the walls. They were pretty but I wasn't liking the fumes! After a quick walk around the town at night we came back. Tomorrow is my last day in warwick, its off to stratford!

I really hope b&bs don't charge for eating the supplied food in the rooms!

So my second day on the road was not without its problems, but I arrived in warwick safe and sound. I woke up at 8 and ate breakfast and got ready to visit coventrys cathedrals for 9. I explored the coventry cathedral ruins and climbed to the top of st Michaels tower - 180 steps! I thought, I just cycled 50 miles yesterday, I should be able to do this no problem! Let me tell you, I was huffin and puffin most of the way up there! A sign said not for young children or the very elderly, yet an old couple was up there and they seemed fine. I admired them =) then I went to the Herbert museum and art gallery, saw a prehistoric mammals exhibit and lots of history of the blitz bombing and lady godiva. I began to worry about my bag getting stolen since I left it on lance for so long so I left. It was still there luckily! Then I went to the transport museum for a bit and locked my stuff in a locker. When I went to retrieve it, I had lost the damn key!! I had to get security to dig up a spare key and open it for me. So then I left and headed for warwick. Official departing time: 4:56p, arrival time: 6:42p and doing 15.11 mi, with an average of 8.5mi (yesterdays was around 8.8). The wind wasn't as bad as yesterday, but the first 25 min of my departure entailed me circling around the coventry city centre trying to find the b5115! I took a different route and although my gps told me to eventually get on that route, I never saw signs for it. I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't exist anymore. So instead of going directly to warwick, I went a roundabout way and passed through kenilworth (saw the castle ruins which was cool) and leamington spa. When I arrived at the guesthouse I viewed online, it was full, and there were many on that block and they all were completely booked as well, except one that didn't have a no vacancies sign so I decided to try my luck there. I have only stayed at a b&b once before so I wasn't too familiar with how this worked, but I assumed I walk up, ring the doorbell and the owners open the door and I ask for a room. Well I rang the bell, and no one answered,  but the door was open so I walked in and shouted hello? A few times. No answer. So I called the #, no answer either. So I went up the stairs to look for someone but there was no one, so I knocked on one of the guestroom doors and an insanely attractive boy wearing only his skivvies opened the door and I felt like the biggest idiot asking him how do I book a room! He said just talk to the person downstairs and I said there was no one there so he said oh they must have gone out, they should be back soon. So although I was half tempted to ask if I could just stay with him, I reluctantly went downstairs and waited for a bit, but then I looked into a few other places and found one down the road ( was still kicking myself for not staying at the same place as sexy thing). They didn't have single rooms so I had to book a double and had to pay extra cause I'm only one person! So I was a bit annoyed but I was just happy to find somewhere to stay! Thats the risk you take when you don't book in advance anyway. I asked the owners of my b&b if warwick was always this busy and they said only on Tuesdays, just my luck. Well in any case, I have a much nicer room than last night and they even provided a teddy bear to snuggle with! I really don't understand these b&bs though. Half the places I called or turned up to had no reply. And I caught the owners of mine just as they were leaving to go to...Nepal!?! Must be a pub or something. But I don't get it, these places just seem to welcome new guests whenever they feel like it!? I will stick to places with a reception desk from now on. But anywho, its time for bed now to have another busy day of English heritage!

Lots to write to the national govt about

So day 1 was a success! Mike came with me as far as husbands bosworth, which is in between rugby and market harborough. We set off at 9:44 am and arrived at MH at 11:10am, doing 12.1 mi total (to the border sign). There was some fierce wind basically the whole way so that slowed us (mainly me) down a bit. The museum about the towns history was closed so we just walked around for a bit and then set off again, at 11:57am. We stopped for lunch along the way and then not long after, we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. I arrived in rugby at 2:38, spedometer was up to 29.89 mi. For a city that holds itself with great pride as the originator of ...you guessed it, rugby, they were a bit lacking on signs on how to get to the museums, so I got lost for a short while but eventually found the rugby football museum. When I left at 4:45pm, I didn't check my map to see how to get to coventry because I saw a directional sign that said to coventry, but it was a different route to the one I was planning on taking. The one I was going to take had a different destination on it so I assumed it was going in the opposite direction and just headed for the coventry route. But I felt I was going the wrong way so I checked the map and the route I was taking was so out of the way, by an extra 8miles! So I turned around and went the way I originally mapped, it turned out that destination, long lawford, was the next town, but en route to coventry. So what did we learn from this experience boys and girls!? Always check the map for other place names along your route so you know what signs to look out for, and plan the route and route the plan! (K that sounds a bit better when its for diving..). So I headed for coventry, again with winds blowing me all over the place and against me. I realized that the cycle system just SUCKS! Whenever I followed a sign that said "city center" or "rugby 7(mi)" I always ended up at some dead end path or just lost down some random side streets. So I am abandoning all cycle lanes that divert from the main roads. And what is with the random cycle lane on the A roads that just start and end when they please, with no segregation from the car traffic? Did the people who created these lanes decide to end them when they ran out of white paint? I just don't get it. But anyway, I was riding along, and had the urge to pee that became unbearable. So I stopped behind some trees by a construction quarry to relieve myself. I had left my bag with lance so once I was done I waddled over to grab some tissues out of it, and when I dropped my bag down, I carelessly let it fall RIGHT ON MY PEE PEE! When I picked it up there was a wet patch near the bottom and I'm not sure if it was from my you know what, or my back sweat. At that point I didn't care at all, so i put it back on and carried on! I made it to coventry almost without getting lost (not my fault this time, directory signs in this country are really not up to par), but once I arrived it took much longer than it should have to find my hotel cause unfortunately coventry is a typical english city and that means there are no st signs ANYWHERE so I had to keep consulting my gps to make sure I was on the correct st. So I finally arrived at formule 1 at 7:15pm and finished the day off with a grand total of 49.06 mi traveled. I was so happy to just relax for the rest of the night! The hotel is probably one of the worst I've ever stayed in though. I am on the first floor, facing a parking lot and the blinds don't work! The tv doesn't work either and there is no remote =( and the shower is annoying. Ah well, at least I have a room to myself! So tomorrow will be another day of traveling, although for not nearly as long. I will be looking forward to riding through the English countryside, with oversized trucks whizzing by me, nearly toppling me over, as I waft in the smell of cow shit! But for tonight I am going to sleep, I bid thee farewell!

the start of a new journey

So I have been in Leicester staying at Michael's dad's house since Saturday Oct 1 when they picked me up from Michael's house in Beeston and we moved all of my and Michael's stuff into the car (after much maneuvering) and drove home. The next day we took the National Express to London, where I met his broski Nick and his GF Elinor and stayed at their new apt in Wandsworth. They took us out for a Mediterranean dinner, and then Michael and I went to St. Paul's and hung out with Shiz who is in town on business. Then on the 3rd, Mike and I went to Thorpe Park, and I forced him to go on all the big boy rides, which he reluctantly agreed, but then became hooked! It was real good weather and we even went on some water rides and dried off pretty quickly. Then when we arrived back at Nick & Elinor's we went out to dins at a thai restaurant with stairs to the bathroom that were probably a 90% gradient. Then the next morning I went to the US Embassy and walked out 3 hours later with an emergency passport, then met Michael at Hyde Park and we had lunch in a cafe after walking around and checking out the waterfowl. So for the past week since returning to Leicester, Michael has been showing me what his hometown has to offer (which isn't a great deal!), but we did check out a few museums and parks. The New Walk Museum renovated their dinosaur exhibit so that was interesting to see the findings in the local excavations. We also went to the Abbey Pumping Station (a free museum across the road from the National Space Centre, which is P13 entry, so we just walked inside, took some photos and left) and there we read about the history of the toilet! Then yesterday we met up with his BFF Michael and we played pool and went to the New Walk Museum again to see the Animal Stories exhibit. Today we went to yet another museum called the Newarke (pronounced just like the friendly city in Jerzz!) and learnt more about the history and culture of Leicester, and then we ate lunch at the Castle gardens. Now, tomorrow morning, Lance and I will embark on our cycling journey to Coventry via Market Harborough and Rugby. So I am cutting this entry quite short so I can go to sleepies early to wake up early and begin my adventure! After what I've heard about Coventry, I'm sure it will be an interesting one!!