Leeds, Yorkshire

The train journey to Leeds was a long, boring and tiring one. When we arrived at the station, we decided to take a taxi to our hotel, as we really didn't feel like walking with those suitcases any more!

We checked in the hotel and got our room. It was a nice room, given the price we paid! The shower was a bit smelly and not 100% clean and the bed was not the most comfortable bed ever, but apart from that, the room was nice!

So the next day, we visited Leeds! I have to say I was a bit disappointed. Leeds is not pretty. I found it a bit "dirty" and not really interesting. But after three nights there, it grew on me after all. It's a shopping paradise and there's a nice atmosphere.

I'm just going to show you some pictures, as I think they're better than words =)

And in the evening, we had dinner at Jamie's Italian, of of Jamie Oliver's restaurants! Mmmh the food was very, very good indeed! Tatjana had gluten-free tomato pasta. I had pan-fried mackerel with fregola (a sort of pasta from Sicily), crunchy vegetables and basil sauce, accompanied by salad and polenta cakes. As the portions were quite small, I ordered a dessert: a lemon tart with sour whipped cream, raspberries and pistachios. That was AMAZING!!!!!

Lincoln, Lincolnshire

On Monday, we took off to the City of Lincoln in Lincolnshire.

Lincoln is really cute and really hilly. Which was a bit of a nightmare given that we couldn't leave our suitcases at the station. They aren't any lockers any more. So we had to carry our bags around and as Tatjana didn't have a suitcase on wheels, it was not an easy task. We managed though, but were tired and sore by the end of the day.

We still had a lovely day! We visited the castle, which was ok but not fantastic. We got a pretty good view though!





You might have noticed two things: first of all, the weather wasn't great at all. It was quite cold and it rained a bit too. Second thing is the cathedral. It's a really nice cathedral, which looked amazing inside. We didn't visit it though, as we thought it was a bit expensive (why do we always need to pay to enter churches anyway??).



There weren't many things left to do in Lincoln, so we wandered around and had a latte in a really cute café. I ordered a gingerbread latte, as I love them, and I got a de-li-cious one =P Yum!

Here are some random pictures of some random streets in the town!



That's the café where we had our latte!




I enjoyed Lincoln. I think it's a charming and cute place! It's small though so one afternoon is more than enough to visit the town! That means we had time to go buy some food at Morrisons. They sell a fair amount of gluten-free food, which is good, since Tatjana is allergic to gluten!

We then went back to the tiny train station and waited for our train to..... Leeds!

A Trip to the North

Good evening readers!

To those of you who've just had a week off: I hope you had a nice week! To the others, well, I hope you had a nice week too mwa ha ha.

I was lucky enough to have a week off myself! So with the German assistant, we decided to make a trip to the north of England! Our destinations: Lincoln, Leeds, York and Newcastle. We found a really cheap and quite nice hotel in Leeds, where we spent three nights. In Newcastle, we stayed in the YHA hostel which, to my surprise, was really nice as well. We had also booked all our train tickets in advance. We were, in fact, very well organised (a German girl and a Swiss girl.... we had to be XD).

Instead of writing a loOoooOoOoong article about the whole trip, I'll write one article per town, as I think it will not only be easier for me, but also for you!

Enjoy! =)

Me in the Paper!

Hi!

A quick article to tell you that I was in the paper today! In the February edition of the Soham Bulletin to be precise. Why? Because last month, a lady came to take some pictures of our Zumba class to write an article about it. Here is the article:

And here is the picture!


I'm the one in light green by the way ;)

My Friends Visit Me!

Good evening people!

Last Friday, two of my friends came here in England. I met them on Saturday though, in Cambridge. We spent a really nice couple of days! It was their first time ever in England, so I think they were very excited! =D I was too of course. It's nice to share things and places you like with your friends! So here is an article about a crazy visit!!

On Saturday morning, I took the bus to Cambridge and oh miracle! it was on time. I even had to wait for my friends, who themselves were late. Well at least that gave me time to have a quick wee mwa ha ha. We went all crazy and hysterical for a while and then started what was planned: visiting the lovely town of Cambridge!

We had a look at a couple of Colleges and churches. We went inside the St. John's College, which is my personal favourite and visited the King's College Chapel which is rather impressive. We even went punting! That's always fun. The weather was not so good though, and the guide was er... peculiar. He lisped and had a strange accent, which made him really hard to understand.

For lunch, we had a Cornish pasty. Yum. I love those. Gwendoline and I had a traditional pasty and Aline ordered a salmon pasty (yum as well). And at tea time, we went to Auntie's Tea Room to savour a luscious cream tea. I hadn't had one in a while (crocodile) and I really enjoyed it!

We also did a little shopping, as Cambridge has many nice shops! I believe my friends liked Cambridge! I at least enjoyed showing them around!


Gwendoline and me messing around in telephone boxes


Aline and Gwendoline, posing before the Bridge of Sighs


In front of the famous King's College Chapel


It was, as you can maybe see, *quite* windy this weekend!!


Delicious Cornish pasty!


Mmmmh cream tea =P

On Saturday night, we went to this night club, called De Niro's. It's in Newmarket and it's the biggest night club in Norfolk. Well, it was not bad but I have to say I was a bit disappointed... First of all, it was big all right, but I expected much, much bigger. The website is misleading.

When we got there, it was about 22:00-22:30 and it was almost empty. People had only started arriving. We had a drink and enjoyed the show: girls dressed (or not) like prostitutes. Killer heels, super short dresses and shorts and plunging necklines. Some of them were quite disgusting. Some of them were ridiculous, as they could barely walk. We had a good laugh! And we also felt like nuns, with our jeans and trainers! We must have been the only girls wearing trousers and flat shoes....

We danced for a while, then had another drink. The same songs were played over and over so it was a bit boring. At around 1-1:30am, they changed the DJ and the music got so loud that we sheltered in the toilets for a while and then decided it was time to leave! It was horrible. I had ringing in my ears and that was not pleasant!

But we still had a good time. We were together, so that was what mattered!!



On Sunday, we brunched at Chatterbox, a nice and new café in Soham. We had a full English Breakfast, consisting of: two slices of bacon, a sausage (which none of us liked, yuk), one scrambled egg, beans with tomato sauce, two slices of fresh tomato, some mushrooms, some crunchy hash browns and toasts. I got orange juice with mine but Gwendoline and Aline had some English breakfast tea with theirs. It was really nice. I enjoyed every bite of it. Apart from the sausage which was really.... weird.


After that filling breakfast, we took a cab to Ely! Yeah, no buses on Sundays! How inconvenient, to say the least... We first walked along the river. The weather was ok! Then we went to town and had a quick look around, before going inside the cathedral. It's free on Sunday. Aline took some pictures too, which is good, because I didn't have any!!






In the evening, we went to the Indian restaurant in Soham. It's a buffet on Sundays and you can eat how much you want for only £6.95. I really liked it and ate faaaar too much. The nan bread was not so nice though and the food was not hot enough. But totally worth the price in my opinion!! Yummm =P


On Monday, Aline and Gwendoline went to Norwich. I couldn't go with them cause I had to go to school! So I won't talk about Monday. I think they enjoyed Norwich and they bought some mustard there!

Tuesday was a crazy day. We headed off to London. We took the train at about 9am and arrived in Piccadilly Circus at about 11am. That's where our bus tour started. We had booked tickets for London's Original Bus Tour two days before, as we thought it would be the best way to make the most of our only day in London.

And it was indeed! We saw almost everything: Trafalgar Square, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament (which my friends loved hehehe how could they not have?), Westminster Abbey, London Eye, Tate Gallery, Shakespeare's Globe, St. Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge and Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Downing Street, Covent Garden, Harrods, Soho... And on Wednesday, before going to the airport, my friends visited the British Museum, the Natural History museum and they walked around Camden Town. So in only two days, they pretty much did what normal and sane people do in one WEEK. The weather was the icing on the cake. Glorious, glorious weather. The sky was blue and it was not too cold. Besides, seeing Big Ben glittering in the sun is some sight! <3 I think they loved London. I was hoping they would. London is dear to my heart and I was eager to share my love for the city with my friends =D





Before dinner, we had a pint in a pub in Covent Garden. Gwendoline and Aline had half a pint of beer and I had half a pint of cider, as I utterly hate beer. I wish I didn't, but the fact is, I do.


And for dinner, my friends invited me to a Japanese restaurant in Soho, called Satsuma. We wanted sushi. And we had sushi and other things as well. It was truly delicious! I had two maki, two California rolls and two other kinds of sushi (can't remember their name), fried veg and prawns, breaded sweet potatoes (that was lovely), tasty noodles, some salad and a nice and salted soup. I hope to eat there again. I really enjoyed it, and my friends did too!


We were shattered when we came back. We went to bed at around midnight. It was a wonderful yet exhausting day!! But totally worth it!

And that was the last day! My friends left on Wednesday morning. I had a lovely time with them, and did my best in order to make their stay a pleasant one. I hope I succeeded!

=D