Spring Break 2003 - UK
Friday, Feb 28: Departed Atlanta around 6pm on a Delta flight.
Saturday, Mar 1: Arrived at London Gatwick airport about 7am. By the time I got my luggage, through customs and immigration, etc, it was 7:30 or so. My connecting flight to Newcastle was not until 8pm. I waited a little bit, called Kat around 8am, I knew it was still early, but at least she sounded happy to hear from me! I dumped my luggage in the 'left luggage' facility and bought a rail pass into London (London Victoria station, to be exact). It was about 15pounds, probably $24 or so. But it was for round-trip ('return') rail to London Victoria, plus unlimited Underground / bus in London. The bus system looked too confusing, so I just stuck to the Tube. I wanted to see a lot of stuff, but unfortunately the Central Line was closed due to a derailment a few weeks before, and they were only servicing that area via bus. My first stop was Leicester Square, where I visited the National Portrait Gallery and saw a photography exhibit. Then I went to the actual square, spent some time looking around, and headed back to the Tube. Next stop was London Bridge. The weather was bad, the area looked bad, so I walked about 50 feet and headed right back on the Tube. Next stop was Canary Wharf. Not a whole lot to see, but it was the transfer point for another line to go to Greenwich. My final 'sightseeing' stop was Greenwich. I walked around the town, checked out the university and museum from the outside, and sat by the water for a bit. Then I took the Tube back to London Victoria, had a snack / dinner, and hopped a train back to Gatwick. I got back to the airport about 5pm, got my luggage, checked in for my British Airways flight to Newcastle, and caught up on my reading, then took a nap. Something cool about Gatwick: When I went through the security line, they took a digital photo. When I went to the gate, they scanned my boarding pass and checked the photo on the computer. Something neat for the geek in me! Finally they called us to board the plane. We had to take a bus out to the plane, it was a little turboprop. I could not sleep with the noise of the whirring propeller. They did serve a snack, a deli sandwich, which was surprising for such a short flight. Anyway, since I couldn't sleep, I just sat there and sort of zoned out. I mean, I was tired, I slept a little on the flight from Atlanta, but with the time change and everything, I had been up for a while. I dozed off just before we landed and woke up when we hit the runway. I was so excited at this point, and I couldn't wait to get off the plane. I got my luggage and headed out to the meeting area. Kat came about 5 minutes later and we took the subway back to her place (University of Northumbria). I was really happy to see her, but I was also really tired! We got to her stop, walked to her dorm, dropped off my stuff. Then we headed out for a bit to meet her friends, then headed back to bed.
Sunday, Mar 2: Well Kat woke me up about 9:45, telling me I better get to the cafeteria by 10 if I wanted breakfast! So I rolled out of bed and had a quick bite. On her advice, I stuck with the cereal and stayed away from the 'stewed tomatoes' or whatever they were. Interesting anyway... We took the subway to Tynemouth. As we got off the subway there was a fair / flea market. We explored the castle, and Kat got a picture of the gnome. I think my favorite picture of the castle was this one. We also walked out to the lighthouse. It was windy, but a very nice day...green, blue, and just nice being by the water. We had lunch at a local pub, and then headed back to the University. We had dinner at an authentic English establishment (Subway) with her friends, and then went out that night to a local pub, it was 'pound a pint night'. I met a local guy there named Ben, 19 years old, a freshman at a nearby university. Nice guy, but not ashamed to tell me his views on America. Of course, he said he liked Americans, just not Bush! There was a cute barmaid, but Kat refused to let me take her back to the dorm! I had a few beers and hung out with the group. The funniest part of the night was when the pub closed, at 11pm. Drunk English folk are hilarious, to say the least. One of the guys picks up a wooden pallet and is absolutely fascinated by it. They are running down the street, yelling, screaming and cutting up. I couldn't stop laughing. It was a fun night, but I was still a little tired from the previous day, so we headed back to the University and went to bed.
Monday, Mar 3: Kat wakes me up with a breakfast warning, but I managed to sneak a shower before heading down to eat. I tried a hot potato thing, which was ok, but the meat looked rather suspect, so I just left it alone. After breakfast, we hopped the subway to the train station. We took a train from Newcastle to Edinburgh. Not a bad ride, about 2 hours or so. The train was almost an hour late, but we weren't in any big rush. We got to Edinburgh, found our hostel, and dropped off our stuff. This was my first hostel experience. An experience, to say the least! We were in a room with probably 8 other people. I had a bunk named "Gangreen". Mine was the bottom, and Kat had the top. Good thing too, because I really do not think the top one would have supported me! Every time Kat moved, I thought the whole thing was going to fall down, and the squeaky springs added unique ambiance, I suppose! Oh yes...I should have gotten a picture of the condom machine in the bathroom. Someone wrote on it, where the product comes out, "Insert baby here for refund."! Anyway, after dropping off our stuff, we headed out to see Edinburgh. We hit up "The Palace of Holyroodhouse". Apparently the Queen still comes there a few times a year. After the tour, we climbed up a nearby hill of some sort. It gave a nice view of most of Edinburgh, as well as the water. We headed back into town and had dinner at a local pub. The humor of the evening was punctuated by Kat thinking she lost her wallet, when it was in her jacket the entire time. We went back the hostel and settled down for the night. We had a flight to catch to Belfast the next morning. We spent a good amount of time looking over the Ireland guidebook, planning out where to go and what to see. Anyway, the room was full, so it was not the best sleep, with people coming in and out, and the creaking springs. But it was a bed and a shelter!
Tuesday, Mar 4: We got up early and checked out, then caught a bus to the Edinburgh airport. We had to go shopping for another book for Kat, since she had already finished her required Animal Farm reading! We checked in for our flight and headed to the gate. It was an EasyJet flight...similar to the old ValuJet style. You get a boarding pass with a number, you board by number, no assigned / reserved seats. The flight was smooth and fairly empty, which was nice. It was only a short time until we landed at Belfast International Airport, which, ironically, does not serve any international flights! We had decided to rent a car, so we headed down to the rental car counters. Kat didn't have a preference, so I picked the one with the shortest line, National, which, coincidentally, was the only company who would rent to drivers under 25! We took care of the paperwork. The lady at the counter asked if I had ever driven on the left side, and I said no. I thought she was going to offer hints or something, but instead just smiles. Great. She did give us some maps though, which I promptly handed to Kat the navigator. We head outside and check the baby out. It was a "Vauxhall Corsa" (click for picture). We checked the car for damage and got in. Getting in on the 'wrong' side was weird, as was driving on the 'wrong' side. It was a manual transmission, and the gear configuration was different from American cars. I could not figure out how to get it in reverse, but luckily, it was backed into the space, so I just drove out and figured that I'd figure it out later! I started out slow, it wasn't really that bad. My first traffic circle, now that was interesting! I was not comfortable with where the gears were, and didn't want to accidentally start out in reverse. I put it in what I thought was 1st, let of the clutch, moved 3 feet, and stalled. Great. By this point I was almost in the traffic circle (these drivers go through them at like 60mph!). So I re-started the car and made an effort to put it into what, again, I thought was first gear. Nope! By this time half the car is in the traffic circle, and Kat's like, uh Dave, do you know how to drive stick?! I re-started the car, said the hell with it, got it up to about 6000rpms, let off the clutch, and it went...slowly! Apparently I was trying to start the car in 3rd! We made it into the city and found a car park (parking lot) just a block away from our hostel. I pulled into the spot and started playing around with the shifter, trying to figure out how to get into reverse. I fooled around for about 5 minutes, said the hell with it, and we went to check into the hostel. Turns out there was a cheaper car park at the hostel, so we went out to move the car. Kat jokingly offers to push the car out of the space...ha...I was parked on a decline! We get in the car and I just can't get it into reverse. Kat gets a shot, I throw in the clutch and even she can't get it in reverse. Finally, I decide to ask the attendant at the car park. I didn't want to ask a guy (it's a guy thing!) so I asked the attendant at the car park, and she says, oh we don't drive, and before I could say something, goes across the street to ask a handyman. I start walking back to the car with my head down, he gets in and shows me how to put it in reverse. You have to pick up a latch under the shifter THEN shift to reverse. Good design, I suppose, to prevent accidentally putting it in reverse, but why not just America style?! As I'm pulling out, I watch the guys across the street, they are buckled over laughing. Oh well...! We move the car a block to the car park beside the hostel. This hostel was somewhat nicer than the one in Belfast. For one, the bedframes were wooden and 'semi-modern'. Don't let that fool you though. The mattresses were lumpy, and when I lay down, I could feel every single spring! But there was a bathroom / shower in the room, plus it was only us plus another guy in the room. Once we got the car parked, we headed out for lunch at a place the hostel folks suggested. Uh yeah, it was EXPENSIVE! So we went across the street to a nice cafe. We walked around Belfast, and saw a cathedral and some other sights. That afternoon, we went to check out a nearby castle and monastery. Well, the castle had been converted into a wedding / event reception place, so we took a brief look then left, and tried to find the monastery. It just wasn't where it was supposed to be! We found a Safeway and stopped, got food for dinner that night, plus breakfast and lunch the next day (our 'big day'.). We headed back to the hostel and cooked our dinner (soup!). In the middle of cooking I got a call on my cell from one of the guys at AEPi National telling me that they secured the Consul General of Israel as a keynote speaker at the southeast regional convention we are hosting at the end of March! The really cool part was that before leaving, I borrowed Gene's cell phone (an Ericson T28 World) and let him use my Nokia 3390. We just switched SIM cards, and I could make / receive calls in Europe! Anyway, we had dinner and then started planning our next day. We decided to stay in County Antrim, we'd drive up to the northern coast then drive back to Belfast along the eastern coast. I was tired and ended up going to bed 'relatively' early.
Wednesday, Mar 5: Apparently, the last night, I was 'sleep-talking'. That's the report I got from Kat. She said she couldn't understand what I was saying, but that it sounded like something with electronics. I probably figured out something for my damn circuit analysis class, and Kat didn't even take notes! Oh well. The funny part was we were sharing a room with this Chinese guy, and Kat said he started talking too, but in Chinese! We got up early, grabbed our food and bags, and started up north! First stop was Dunluce Castle, we got there just after it opened. It was a pretty nice day, a little windy, but very nice. We explored the castle and then headed towards Giant's Causeway. We took a short path to the Causeway and hung out, took some pictures. I hid behind some of the pillars and held the gnome while Kat got her pictures, that thing was ready to blow away. I thought Kat was gonna blow away too, the wind was strong :-p. Anyway, we headed back up the path to the obligatory gift shop, and then had sandwiches in the car. We headed down the road, stopping at a few places, and then got to Carrick-a-Rede. It's the location of a seasonal rope bridge which was being built the following weekend! Missed it by a few days! We walked out and saw the water and a nearby island. Meanwhile, the weather was getting bad, and we headed back to the car. Kat said she felt a raindrop, and before we knew it, hail was coming down, strongly! We fought our way back until we came upon a CAR. Some 'dumb Americans' decided to drive along this path instead of walking! They got to a bridge, tried to turn around, but couldn't figure out what to do. People like that give us a bad name! Meanwhile, the hail had given way to rain, and we ran back to our car. I had to sit a few minutes to regain my breath (and my face was nice and red from hail damage!!). We continued on our journey, and soon the rain subsided, and in the course of 15 minutes we saw at least 4 rainbows! We also came upon a "vanishing lake". We drove back along the eastern coast, aiming to stop at a few landmarks, but one in particular just wasn't there! The roads along the coast were very narrow, and after one close encounter with a large truck, Kat praised my driving by saying, "My life just flashed before my eyes.". Isn't it nice to have supportive friends?! :-p. We continued on and got back to the hostel. By this time, we were exhausted, plus hungry for dinner. We walked a few blocks to a pub, but they had stopped serving dinner. So, after looking around at our options, Kat introduced me to some authentic Irish food, Burger King. Basically, everything was closed except this Burger King, a McDonalds, and probably that Safeway. We had a charming dinner at Burger King and headed back to the hostel. Since we had basically seen everything we wanted to in Belfast, we decided to 'sleep in' the next morning. Kat and I had a profound discussion on life, and then we fell asleep.
Thursday, Mar 6: Travel day! We got up around 9am or so (Kat repeatedly snoozing her alarm!), checked out, and headed for the airport. We stopped on the way to the airport to get a picture of the gnome in the rental car! We dropped off the car and waited in the airport until we could check in for the flight. There was some tour group of 'senior citizens', and I was thinking about joining their group! It seemed like they were about to embark on a long vacation of sorts. Once our flight came up, we checked in, grabbed some lunch, and headed for the gate. We had a little time before the flight, so I read and stared out the window, and Kathryn seized the opportunity for a nap! It was about 30 minutes before boarding, and they decided to move our gate! We finally boarded and I fell asleep. We got back to Edinburgh, took a bus to the train station (we sat on top of a double-decker bus!), and walked around Edinburgh for a bit. We headed back to the train station for a few hour wait until our train. We goofed off, wrote funny postcards to Herb, and waited for our train! We took the train back to Newcastle and took the subway back to the University. We settled up on money, I took a shower, packed most of my stuff, and we sat down to watch an interesting DVD...Donnie Darko? or something like that. The nice thing about putting the car rental on my credit card was that Kat owed me money, and basically paid for everything after we rented the car! It was nice getting 'treated' everywhere we went!! Kat set her alarm to get me up at 5 to catch the 5:30am train to the airport for my 6:30am flight, and we dozed off.
Friday, Mar 7: We woke up at 5, I finished packing, Kat walked me out to the main street and we said our goodbyes. I hopped on the 6am! subway train to the airport and checked in for my flight. It was basically empty. We were on a jet, so the flight barely took 1 hour. But they did serve a hot breakfast! I got to Gatwick at 7:30am, and since my flight to Atlanta wasn't until 1pm or so, I tried to get on standby for an earlier flight. Since I was flying on my award ticket, I was able to get a confirmed seat on the 9:30am flight! Although, it wasn't a 777 like my 1pm reservation! I checked my luggage, bought a nice scotch (single malt!) for Mom and Ken (by special request!), and headed to the gate. I said goodbye to England, and hopped on the plane.
The moment I got on the plan in Newcastle, I felt all the pressures of life in Atlanta settling back down! I had a great time, actually stopped thinking about school and work and stuff like that, and just enjoyed traveling and hanging out with Kathryn. Everything worked out well...I had an award ticket to Europe, Kat was studying abroad, our breaks coincided, and Kathryn agreed to spend a week with me!
So there you have it, my travel diary from Spring Break 2003. Of course, all of this is left up to interpretation and argument, I'm sure! (right Kat?!). Enjoy the photos!
-David Ziskind
web [at] davidziskind [dot] com