The Great Green North

Now this was a great week.  I mean, if you reset the scale to make other weeks normal, it was still great.

So.  It started on Monday as we ate breakfast, gathered lunch, and went outside to wait for the bus.
We eventually got on.  It was a nice bus; A/C, 2 seats a side, footrests, lots of storage, and overhead compartments.  Our bus driver was Tony, and he was great.  He was nice, he was funny, and he told us a lot about where we were and where we were going.  I found out he's been driving coaches (not buses, my bad) for about 23 years, the first 10 in mainland Europe, and is now rather bored of it because he feels like he has nothing keeping him in London and all he gets to do, mostly, is shuttle people to and from the airport.  "I'm looking at this as a holiday!"

The bus rides were pretty long, but I slept a lot on them and therefore didn't notice as much.  We also watched a few movies.  Like Enchanted.  Road to El Dorado.  And Pride and Prejudice.  Tony:  "Aww, no, we can't watch this!"  Groans and "Come on, put it in"s from the back.  "Do you know how many hours I've spent driving BYU students and listening to this?"
Somehow I'm not surprised.

We got to stay at hostels along the way--fun times, fun times.  They were actually pretty nice hostels.  The first one was set far back in the woods and was pretty small, so our group took up most of it.  We had one in Edinburgh for two nights that was also quite nice.  It was different, though; different atmosphere.  Very much more young-adult-oriented (ish) with games and a bar in the bottom.  Or at least the atmosphere was different.  We also stayed in one in Ambleside where their bedding theory was condense and conquer, so they had a sleeping bag system for the sheets and a quilt on top.  Don't touch the quilt or the pillow (which had a pocket in the sheet bag) and all that needs to be washed is the sheet!  We also had a hotel the last day, due to a booking error, and it was waaaay set back in a pasture, far out of sight from the road, but it was awesome because I got my own room and there was a very nice dinner and breakfast included.  Speaking of breakfast--I have now had several full English breakfasts, beans and all (minus blood sausage which I didn't see anywhere), and while I think they're generally very filling, I'm still not completely won over to the thought of beans, mushrooms, and tomato with my breakfast.  Tried some haggis, too--I didn't like the texture much and the taste wasn't too appealing, either, but I apparently tried it in the wrong place.  Eh, at least I tried it, but I probably won't again.

So, yep, that was our trip.  Bye now!