Just before I start this post I feel I should warn you since this computer doesn't have a spell check option. Continue reading at your own risk.
I spent 3 nights with Kiran in Elephant and Castle. It's an interesting place! The whole area looks quite run down and shady except for the round about which is a literally a small tropical paradise island surrounded by traffic and polution. Every night I have been in the UK I have forced myself to get at least tispy and ofcourse Kirans was no different. We went to a series of pubs, clubs and bars every night I was there where we met some very intersting and nice people. I'm glad to say that we've generated a few exciting stories that I think parallels Tom's crazy adventures throughout London. Sorry for not elaborating, this is a PG blog afterall. At the end of it all, I left Kirans place to go to Leeds leaving behind only a couple of beers, some cerial and about £40 of debt.
Four hours and £26 later I found myself getting off the bustop in Leeds station meeting Dave - a family friend from way back. I had heard rumours that Leeds was a party town, but my experience there vastly exceeded expectations. The place looks like a shithole. There is trash everywhere, criminal looking people on every street public drinking, the ATM's and ticket boothes are smashed in, and liquor stors are booming with business. However, once I started talking to Dave and his friends, I realized just how friendly and nice the place really is. He lives in an small, run down place housing 8 of the most social and talkative people you can imagine. I think I'll always remember going up to Dave's house for the first time and attempt to shake his hand and being greeted with a 0.5L cider instead. That says it all doesn't it? Oh and minor side note, Cider here is amazing! It's nothing like the crappy strongbow shit we have in Australia. Back to Leeds! Ok, so, we went to a house party on the 1st night (oh yeah, did I mention I was there for 2 nights? I'll get to that) and it was insane! the paint on the walls had been stripped down and replaced with wild graffiti and the bottom level of the house didn't have floorboards, just concrete. There was also a permanantly set up giant speaker system in two adjacent rooms which just blasted out tunes all night. This didn't seem like a house party at all, it was a filthy (but awesome) club! I saw people doing a huge amount of drugs there too. I walked into a room accidently just in time to find two people snorting a line. Balloons filled with laughing gas were everywhere too. There was even an ambulance (but no cops) waiting outside the house party in pure anticipation that someone was going to get serioulsy injured or overdose. If I can describe Leeds in 2 words it would be 'fun anarchy'.
The next day I headed up to York as planned to meet Katie - another family friend. This was a polar opposite experience to Leeds. IT was clean, lively, filled with toursity things, and boring (in the sence that there were no parties). We toured the place taking serveral photos and entering a few different galleries and museums. I also met up with Katies friends and roommates in a pub too. They're nice people, very friendly, but not to talkative. Most of us ordered food. I had a steak while one of Katies friends, a vegetarian, ordered a vege burger. Upon seeing my dish, the vegetarian started having a sarcastic (but secretly not sarcastic) go at me about eating meat. I silenced her half way through her rant by claiming that the most innocent looking animals were always the most delicious. Overall though, it was a good lunch and I'm glad I experienced it. Before I knew it, I was on a train heading back to Leeds to meet up with Dave again. This was unplanned, but I had made a commitment to go to Dave's end of Uni party the night before, so I had to head back. There were carnival rides, alcohol, gambling and even live bands performing to entertain the 2000 people (I'd guess it was 2000, although I didn't count them all) that were there. For all those who know me, I'm not the biggest club fan. I find that it's much nicer to talk to someone rather than awkwardly communicate with someone you don't know by shouting in their ear or use some strange form of body language. I found out that people in this huge party werne't as social as Dave or Dave's roommates which made it tough to socialise with new people. Regardless, I had great fun jumping up and down to the live bands that were performing.
The next day I grabbed a £47 bus from Leeds to Edinburgh (God, I hope I spelled that right). I didn't sleep the night before, so I was thankful that the trip was 7 hours long. It also gave me a good opportunity to read the new book I bought - the moral landscape by Sam Haris. I greeted Kelly at the bus station with open arms. She's a great friend of mine from Australia. She was pretty new to Edinburgh (I'm going to call this city Ed, to avoid the embarissment of mispelling it over and over) dispite being there for 3 months for work. Consequently, we both acted like lost tourists wandering around the place aimlessly. We went to a few pubs, took a few photos, and watched a lot of really great street performances. Ed is such a beautiful city, it's not a run down, alcohol infected city which is what I was expecting. The views are amazing. By the end of the day, we ended up staying in Kellys sisters flat which had a really nice cozy feel to it. The next day, we made food and headed up to Arthur Seat (a giant fucking mountain) for a picnic. That was perfect. The wind was blowing, the sun was shining, and small birds were chirping soothingly in the distance. To end the perfect expereince, we ended walking to a Whisky shop where we feigned interest to get 6 free tasters of different Whisky.
The next day we headed to Glasgow (yay, a city i'm confident I can spell!) to stay in Kellys new flat. Her roommates are awesome! But they're also very tough to understand. If someone is speaking in a Scotish accent, I really don't think it should be concidered English. They use so many strange colloqualisms and no emphasis on the letter "t". Despite the agony of barely clinging onto any conversation I have with people here, Glasgow is still amazing. The rain is plentiful and the alcohol is expesnive (not as much as Ed, though), but the ambiance about the city is the perfect blend of social and friendly.
And now I've got nothing left to write about. Except for the fact that I'm sitting here right now typing. I could describe to you the words I'm typing on my blog, but that would oepn up some strange paradox which I'm not too keen to do. So I think I'll just end up saying my trip to the UK is great! My wallet is empty. And I'm really looking forward trecking to Spain in a few days.
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